Battle of Frankenhausen

Part of the German Peasants' War

Date	15 May 1525
Location	near Bad Frankenhausen in the present-day German state of Thuringia
Result	Decisive Princely victory

Belligerents

Landgraviate of Hesse

Duchy of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel

Duchy of Saxony

Peasants' army

Commanders and leaders

Philip I of Hesse
George of Wettin

Thomas Müntzer

Strength

c. 6,000 mercenaries

c. 8,000

Casualties and losses

00 (?)

Coordinates: 51°21′21″N 11°6′4″E / 51.35583°N 11.10111°E / 51.35583; 11.10111

The Battle of Frankenhausen was fought on 15 May 1525. It was the final act of the German Peasants' War: joint troops of Landgrave Philip I of Hesse and Duke George of Saxony defeated the peasants under their leader Thomas Müntzer near Frankenhausen in the County of Schwarzburg.

On April 29, 1525, the struggles in and around Frankenhausen had culminated into an open revolt. Large parts of the citizenry joined the uprising, occupied the town hall and stormed the castle of the Counts of Schwarzburg. In the following days, a rising number of insurgents gathered around the town, and when Müntzer arrived with 300 fighters from Mühlhausen on May 11 several thousand peasants of the surrounding Thuringian and Saxon estates camped in the fields and pastures. However Philip of Hesse and his father-in-law George of Saxony were on Müntzer's trail and directed their Landsknecht troops toward Frankenhausen.

The Princes' troops were mostly mercenaries. As such they were well equipped, were well trained, and had good morale. The peasants, in contrast, were badly equipped with scythes and flails, had no training whatsoever, and furthermore were in disagreement whether to fight against or to negotiate with the enemy. Nevertheless, on May 14 they had been able to ward off some smaller attacks of the Hesse and Brunswick troopers, though they failed to reap the benefits of their victory. Instead the insurgents arranged a ceasefire and withdrew into a wagon fort to co-ordinate their further course of action, while the Saxon forces approached.

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Wikipedia