War of the Bavarian Succession (Merveilles des Morte)

War of the Bavarian Succession Merveilles des Morte
Part of the Reformation
The final stand of Albert V, Catholic claimant to the Bavarian throne
Date 1510-1512 Location Bavaria Result Jungist Victory Bavaria confirmed Jungist state Creation of Bayreuth
Belligerents
Catholic Bavaria Palatinate Bohemia Austria File:Flag of Salzburg (The Kalmar Union).png Salzburg Mainz League of Dessau Supported by: File:1920px-Royal Standard of England (1406-1603).png England Papal States	Jungist Bavaria Thuringia Hesse Brandenburg Saxony Nuremberg Bamberg Taborites File:Bayreuthflag.png Bayreuth
Commanders and leaders
Albert V † Kaspar von Schmid Ottokar I Marek Ironside Pavel the Samaritian Jan the Swimmer Jan Zizka † Jaromir Přemyslid † John Hawkwood Bartolomeo d'Alviano Hermann von Getz	George I Ludwig of Landshut William of Straubing Thin White Duke Hugh the Heir Agnes the Excommunicated Charles I Edmund Alwin File:Bayreuthflag.png John Hawkwood

The War of the Bavarian Succession was a war during the early years of the Protestant Reformation, sparked by the death of Albert IV, Duke of Bavaria. The war arose over a disputed succession between Albert IV's sons, chiefly the Jungist claimant George I and the Catholic claimant Albert V. George I's victory in the conflict led to Bavaria adopting the Jungist faith during his reign.

In 1477 Albert IV became the duke of a unified Bavaria, having inherited all the lands of the various appanage duchies ruled by the House of Wittelsbach. During his reign he gradually reformed the succession laws of Bavaria, hoping to prevent the duchy from being divided between his sons, as had been tradition throughout much of the last few centuries. In 1504 the Protestant Reformation was sparked by Konrad Jung and spread handedly into Bavaria. Although Albert IV did not convert to the religion, he seemingly sympathized with the Jungists, and allowed his son George to openly convert. Believing that his eldest son Albert was unfit to rule, Albert IV bequeathed Bavaria to George instead.

The prospect of Jungist being adopted in Bavaria sparked several of Bavaria's noblemen, with support from the newly formed League of Dessau and other Catholic nations, to contest George's succession. George in turn gained the support of the Jungist League of Wolfen, which included Thuringia, Saxony, and Brandenburg, as well as nations such as Hesse. The Catholic Holy Roman Emperor Ottokar I of Bohemia lent support to the Catholic side, although he was also contending with rebellions and wars across the Holy Roman Empire which limited his abilities.

Overview

The death of Albert IV (1447-1510) served as the catalyst to the conflict.

As Jungists spread into Bavaria, Duke Albert IV was notably apathetic to halting the reformation. While he was skeptical of Jung's philosophy, he decried those who advocated to prosecute or otherwise punish him, calling Jung a faithful and God-fearing scholar who deserved the benefit of the doubt. He also announced that any Bavarian Jungists would not fear persecution from their fellow Bavarians, or indeed from anyone anywhere within the borders of his realm, and invited them to worship besides their fellow Christians. Although he declined to make this public, Albert's decision was influenced by his youngest son, George, who had in recent years taken a liking to Jungist philosophy. As a result, Jungism would quickly permeate into Bavaria, particularly the north of the nation and cities such as Ulm and Augsburg.

Prince George would offer covert financial support to the Jungists, however, this was later discovered by Chancellor Kaspar von Schmid and other Catholic members of the government. They urged the Duke to fight back against the heresy, but noticing Duke Albert's inaction, Schmid secretly conspired with several nobles to oppose the Duke, whether for religious reasons, or out of a desire to curtail the growing power of the monarch that would arise. Notably he allied with the Archbishop of Salzburg, the Margrave of Burgau, Albert's own son, Albert V, and the family’s relatives who ruled the County Palatine of the Rhine. As Albert IV fell ill in 1508, this soon began to grow into a serious feud, with conflict expected between George and Albert after their father’s death.

Prior to the Nuremberg Crisis, as one of the leaders of the Catholic League of Dessau, Archbishop Hermann von Getz of Mainz began funneling support to Albert the V, and publicly supported his claim as Duke of Bavaria. He also ordered the Archbishops of Munich, Banburg, and Augsburg to throw their support behind Albert, and advised the Emperor to take military action against the Bavarians.. However, as Archbishop, he felt compelled to respect the wishes of the Pope, and waited until the Council of Trent was finished before renewing the inquisition. He would also write to the Pope to delay any construction work, since the church was presently working hard to show their austerity. The Archbishop would also oversee the printing of rebuttals to the radical Jungis texts, such as the Anhalt Centuries, which quickly began a literary war between the University of Darmstadt and the University of Erfurt and other Jungist centers.

In 1510 Albert IV of Bavaria died, and it was discovered on his deathbed that he chose his youngest son George to succeed him. This caused controversy, with the devout Catholics of the country rejecting George's rule in favor of Albert V, who was crowned separately. Kaspar von Schmid, who had been planning to arrest George for heretical involvement in the Battle of Nuremberg, a charge he fabricated very effectively, became the leader of the Catholic revolt. Additionally, although the late Duke had determined future succession to only one heir, his other sons managed to secure loose regencies over various parts of the country, due in part to the ongoing religious dispute: Ludwig and William become administrators of Landshut and Straubing respectively, the latter being the emergingly Jungist part of the country and supportive of George. While in control of Munich and supported by the western edge of the nation, George lost the control of the interior, south, and east of the nation.

After establishing peace in the empire only six months ago, Emperor Ottokar I raised an army and invaded Straubing on the side of the Catholics. After writing to King Henry VII of England, the Bohemians would also be joined by 4,000 English mercenaries, although this force was later augmented even further. As fighting continued into the end of the year, the Emperor would also call for another diet, this time at Munich, hoping to negotiate the end of the civil war, but also to further address religious concerns. To this end Johann Freud and numerous Jungists would also be invited to these proceedings as guests of the Jungist-leaning princes. However, Ottokar privately did not believe there to be much hope of reconciliation, and prepared for Jungism to be formally banned, with the inquisition expanded, including in Bohemia. On the opposite side, the Thin White Duke of Thuringia, having recently returned to politics after several years writing in Berlin, converted to Jungism himself and held a diet in Erfurt to begin the formal adoption of the faith as the state religion, which succeeded by the following year.

In response to the civil war in Bavaria, the Thin White Duke would point out that George was the legal and rightfully appointed Duke of Bavaria, calling George’s brothers greedy usurpers. Thuringia would join the war on the side of Duke George soon after, with Hugh the Heir, famed commander of the Nuremberg War, leading an army in the north, largely from Thuringian Nuremberg, in defending against the Palatine and the rebels of Landshut. The state continues to mass produce writings of Jung and other reformers, and spreads these works across Germany. With pressure from George’s army and the Thuringians, William of Straubing would be pressured into siding with the Jungists. By 1511 Duke George managed to gain the upper hand, with most of the Catholic leadership having been killed or captured in battle. He would be crowned Duke formally at the end of the year, while his brother William converted to Jungism and was granted the title Count of Landshut.

While Duke George managed to secure much of the country, a Catholic army from Swabia managed to capture the city of Ulm, and an army from Salzburg and Austria remained in the south. Kaspar von Schmid would lead this force in a major invasion toward Munich. Kaspar von Schmid soon proved to be less competent as a strategist than an administrator, and a slightly smaller Bavarian army managed to repulse him. Elsewhere, an Imperial army (of Bohemians and English mercenaries) under the Duke of Livonia managed to achieve victory at the Battle of Bayreuth against Hugh the Heir's army. The elderly, deposed marshall Jan Zizka would lead a cavalry charge for the Imperialists that helped to win the day, but he would be killed in action. Despite the victory, the battle led many in Bavaria to unite behind the Duke against what was perceived against a foreign invasion.

In early 1511 Duke George changed his strategy and went on the offensive, having secured the core territory of Bavaria as loyal to him. He would lead one army through Straubing to continue repulsing the Bohemian invasion. With the region containing a large Jungist population, the local populace would be employed in harassing the invading force as they proceeded. As the invasion proved less successful throughout the year, Ottokar began to be distracted by other matters in Bohemia itself. Although the inquisition was well underway across Bohemia, the large Hussite population aided in resisting the inquisition, leading to outbreaks of violence across the nation. Along the western border, Bohemia faced a large degree of Jungist uprisings in protest of the government, aided by those across the border to the west. With roughly half the army being Catholic and the other half being Taborite, the Emperor tried to unite these two factions in a mutual disdain of the Jungists, to moderate success. Although some Jungists and Taborites would find common ground between the two faiths, and some even converting from one to the other, overall the Taborites responded by formalizing the Unitas Fratrum (or Moravian Church), to unite in opposing either Catholicism or Jungism.

The Emperor Ottokar I personally leading soldiers into battle near Brüx.

Ottokar would personally lead a Bohemian army into the western edge of the nation, achieving a decisive victory at the Battle of Brüx. He crossed the border into Meissen, not for the purpose of invading, but in the hopes of deterring Jungist rebels active along the border region. Having made a show of force after Brüx, the Emperor secured a truce with Meissen and a good portion of the Wolfenbund, hoping to focus on Bavaria. Elsewhere, the Duke of Livonia managed to stay relatively undefeated in pitched battle, but he was quickly losing the war to attrition, guerilla warfare, and skirmishes. Although he managed to lay siege to Regensburg and take the city, the victory was short lived, as he would spend the rest of the war largely withdrawing. After his victory in the north, Ottokar personally led the main Imperial Army in Bohemia south in the hopes of defeating Hugh the Heir completely. He managed to invade west in the Burgraviate of Nuremberg and send Hugh on the run, linking up with the remaining army of Bamberg. As a result the Imperial City of Nuremberg would surrender, fearing another difficult siege.

In Hugh’s defeat the Thuringian enclaves in Wurzburg would also be captured, leading to the St. Zoe Massacre in May against the local population, perpetrated by the leaders of Bamberg. After the surrender of Weissenburg, the Emperor entered the city in triumph, but he would soon realize he had been lured into a trap, as an enemy army had been hidden within the city by Hugh to catch the Bohemian leaders off guard upon entry. That night the Emperor was attacked and his Imperial Guards attempted to fight off the attackers. Jaromir Přemyslid, the Premier Captain and the Emperor’s brother, was killed while defending the Emperor. As a result the soldiers managed to capture the Emperor alive and take him to Hugh, where they delivered humiliating terms to the Imperialists. The Bohemian army was effectively made to withdraw, although the Duke of Livonia refused to stand down, and continued fighting near the border. An enormous ransom was demanded, with the Emperor paying a large amount immediately to spare his life. Due to the lack of funds, the Emperor’s mercenaries under the Englishman John Hawkwood deserted and turned on the Bohemians, managing to secure the area west of Bohemia proper. Hawkwood declared himself the Count of Bayreuth and launched an invasion of Bohemia. Amused at this method of weakening his enemy, Hugh recognized the state in exchange for a conversion to Jungism from Hawkwood.

Soon after, Duke George would march on southern Bavaria hoping to decisively defeat the rebellion of Kaspar von Schmid. In the south the Bavarians managed to largely secure their country, but were stopped from taking Passau or Salzburg by the Austrians who dealt them a decisive defeat. The battle turned to the Austrians' favor after the arrival of Bartolomeo d'Alviano and the White Company, the same company of mercenaries that the Emperor's late brother once commanded, establishing the company as the premier mercenaries of Europe. Now in exile and unpopular to the point of possessing hardly any Bavarian allies, Kaspar von Schmid would send a peace offer to Bavaria.

The Imperial situation seems to be dire, with the capture of the Emperor by the Jungists. This leads to the situation within Bohemia itself deteriorating at first, as a minor rebellion breaks out. With support from the Jungists abroad, the non-Catholic population of Bohemia rallies behind a rival king: Charles I of Brandenburg. Charles would never actually act upon this claim personally, but throughout Bohemia a movement persisted in 1512 to have him declared King, which the Duke of Livonia and Ottokar’s children fought to combat. His second son Jan becomes known as Jan “the Swimmer”, after he was thrown off his horse into a river while in battle, but managed to swim for a mile downstream and regroup with retreating soldiers, returning to win the day. As regent, Pavel "the Samaritan" helped to negotiate a peace. First he ordered a withdrawal from Bavaria and tried to arrange for peace in which George would be recognized as Duke, as long as he withdrew from Salzburg, Passau, and any lands that were still in the hands of the Catholic allies. The Duke of Livonia managed to achieve a crucial victory over the Taborites at the Battle of Aussig, in which several thousand rebels were killed, while Livonia’s army only lost a few hundred men. As such, Pavel was able to negotiate a peace in which Charles disavows claim to the Kingdom of Bohemia, effectively ending the revolt. Under the Duke’s guidance, the inquisition began again in full earnest, targeting both Jungists and Taborites.

While the Emperor was in captivity, Duke Edmund Alwin of Saxony would write to him and advise that he be treated well by his captors. Meanwhile another Saxon, Bishop Gustav Jung, would travel to the Emperor personally to attempt to bargain a deal—the Emperor’s release in exchange for a concession of land to Saxony and religious freedom for Jungists. Soon after, while the Emperor was being brought north, a daring rescue attempt would be launched by Jantis "the Jackal" Jett and several other imperial guard. Jantis managed to sneak into the Jungist camp and impersonate an officer, allowing him to free the Emperor. In the escape, Ernest Frederick would be killed in battle, but the rest of the men managed to escape with the Emperor. Jantis would be awarded the Iron Cross and become the Premier Captain for his bravery.

When the Emperor returned to Bohemia he would be furious, and ordered retaliation. Imperial forces sacked Weissenburg in a controversial move, with the leadership of the city being captured and tortured. Hawkwood converted back to Catholicism and tried to switch sides, defeating several smaller states to show his dedication, but the Emperor invaded his domain anyway and managed to kill Hawkwood in battle. Following the Emperor's escape, Gustav Jung went into hiding to avoid the Emperor’s wrath, and steveltrender Theoderic Rood became acting Bishop of Saxony. A request from the Kingdom of Lotharingia, in which the Emperor would condone Lotharingian invasions of nearby states, would be vehemently rejected by Emperor Ottokar, and also cause a complete falling out between the German states and Lotharingia, with John VI of Lotharingia later known as “The Terrible”.

After the death of Hawkwood, the English state of Bayreuth seemed in a tentative position, but Hugh the Heir decided to prop the state up and moved his forces in to prevent its complete collapse. He first proposed that Hawkwood’s lieutenant and brother-in-law named Robert Gerard be crowned Count, and moved forces from Nuremberg to aid him. The Englishmen of the group continued to maurade and conquer various lands, often to the dismay of both sides. Hugh also secured himself to the family, marrying several of his relatives to the Bayreuthers. In the summer of 1512 he invaded the Palatine hoping to dislodge their territory there before peace could be made. Within the year the Diet of Hall would be held, which formally ended the war in Bavaria, confirming George as duke.

Footnotes