Hans Kohlhase

Hans Kohlhase (c. 1500 – 1540), according to early modern German accounts, was a merchant whose grievance against a Saxon nobleman developed into a full-blown feud against the state of Saxony, thus infringing the Eternal Peace of 1495.

In October 1532, according to the story, Kohlhase was proceeding from his hometown of Cölln to the fair at Leipzig, when he was attacked and his horses were taken from him by the servants of a Saxon nobleman, one Günter von Zaschwitz.

In return Kohlhase asked for a substantial amount of money as compensation for his loss, and failing to secure this he invoked the aid of his sovereign, the Elector of Brandenburg Joachim I Nestor.

Acts of lawlessness were attributed to him, and after an attempt to settle the feud had failed, the elector of Saxony, John Frederick I, set a price upon the head of the angry merchant.

Gathering around him a band of criminals and desperados, he spread terror throughout the whole of Saxony; travellers were robbed, villages were burned, and towns were plundered.