The Peasants’ War
Entlebuch, Emmental, Huttwil, Bern, Lucerne, Wohlenschwil
Key figures: Niklaus Leuenberger
HLS (German): Peasants’ War (1653), Niklaus Leuenberger
Crisis and devaluation (1652). At the end of the Thirty Years’ War (1648) Swiss agriculture, which had been exporting at high prices, falls into a deep crisis, and many rural areas are in debt. In December 1652 Bern, Solothurn and Fribourg devalue their coins, the Batzen. The peasants of the Entlebuch suffer most: subjects of Lucerne but tied to the Bernese economy, they are left with large amounts of devalued money and no compensation. This is why the uprising is also called the “Batzen war”.
From the Entlebuch to the Emmental (February–March 1653). Lucerne rejects their demands. On 10 February 1653 the people of the valley walk in procession to the shrine of Heiligkreuz and, in an unauthorised Landsgemeinde, swear to stop paying rents and tithes. On 26 February at Wolhusen the whole Lucerne countryside joins in; in March the revolt spreads to the Bernese subjects in the Emmental, then to those of Solothurn and Basel. Mediators from the other cantons obtain economic concessions but reject the political demands, such as the right to hold assemblies.
The League of Huttwil (14 May 1653). On 14 May at Huttwil the representatives of the subjects of Lucerne, Bern, Solothurn and Basel form a Peasants’ League and demand the right to intervene, on an equal footing with the cantons, in conflicts between authorities and subjects: an overturning of the political order. The Bernese Niklaus Leuenberger, a well-off farmer from the Emmental, becomes its leader. Between 21 and 23 May thousands of rebels besiege Bern and Lucerne and cut off their supplies.
Defeat and repression (June–September 1653). On 29 May Leuenberger signs the Peace of Murifeld with Bern: the peasants give up their political demands. But the army of the Diet advances from Zurich: the rebels are defeated at Wohlenschwil, near Mellingen, on 3 June, and at Herzogenbuchsee on 8 June. Bern declares the Peace of Murifeld void and launches a harsh repression; many leaders are executed, banished or sent to the galleys. Leuenberger, betrayed, is executed in Bern on 6 September 1653.
A defeat that leaves its mark. At the time it is a rout. According to the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland, however, the long resistance of the peasants against an increasingly centralised state helped to prevent the towns of the old Confederation from becoming absolutist governments. In the nineteenth century the radical painter Martin Disteli tells the story of the Peasants’ War from the rebels’ side.
Niklaus Leuenberger, leader of the rebel peasants, in a 17th-century portrait dated 1653
Historisches Museum Thun, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain
Martin Disteli, Gefecht bei Mellingen 1653, 1838: the clash between the rebels and the army of the Diet
Zentralbibliothek Solothurn, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain
Martin Disteli, Leuenberger in Bern verspottet, 1839: Leuenberger as a prisoner, mocked by the crowd in Bern
Zentralbibliothek Solothurn, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain