The Century of Peasants’ Wars in Austria from 1513 until 1626 Part I
Horst Pleiner
Between 1500 and 1630 a series of uprisings and rebellions of the harassed population against the authorities took place in the Habsburgers’ heartlands. Causes of them were increasing taxes and soccage, disadvantage by the newly introduced Roman law, inflation, and refused freedom of worship. In the beginning of the sixties of the 15th Century already the first uprisings had occurred in the archdiocese Salzburg, which - together with the disturbances in the Styrian Enns valley, in Upper and Lower Carinthia, Lower Styria, Krajn, and the Attergau - belonged to the forerunners of the Peasants’ Wars.
The big uprisings of 1513 - 1532 began with the Windic revolt in Lower Styria and Krajn, when the peasants revolted against the ever-increasing taxes taken because of the persistent wars against Venice. In 1515 the rebellion was crushed. 1524/1525 a peasant war arose in southern Germany, which finally spilled over into Salzburg, the Tyrol, Upper Styria, Upper Austria, and Carinthia-Kranj.
First, the peasants lead by Michael Gruber captured the city Salzburg and besieged the archbishop Matthäus Lang in his fortress Hohensalzburg for weeks, before they were defeated by the lansquenet leader Georg of Frundsberg, who had been called for help. Uprisings in Upper Austria and Styria followed; in the Tyrol, the rebellious peasants were lead by the militarily gifted commander Michael Gaismair. In May 1525 in Meran a peasant’s parliament demanded a new regional law, and the secular power of the Church to be abolished.
In the course of the rebellions in Styria 1526 peasants and workers (miners) formed an alliance for the first time, but they were destroyed by Count Niklas Salm. Schladming, the centre of the rebellion, was razed to the ground. During the second half of the 16th Century a series of further peasants’ uprisings occurred, such as in the Pongau and in Upper Austria, followed by a tax strike by peasants in Passau, and further rebellions, which lasted until September 1597, before the disturbances finally lead to the second phase of the Peasants’ wars.
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