Previous causes of dispute between Hesse and Mainz included control over the villages within the Reinhardswald, the Lippoldsberg and Helmarshausen monasteries, and the rights to the city of Wetter.
From 1425 onward, mutual interference in the affairs of the Fulda Abbey and controversial deals with Count Henry VII and Wolrad I of Waldeck brought tensions to a breaking point.
In the early summer of 1427, Count Gottfried von Leiningen, a nephew of Archbishop Konrad, assembled a large company of knights in Fritzlar before advancing into Lower Hesse, where the Mainzian troops would loot the countryside.
On July 21, after Ludwig had rejected Archbishop Konrad's offer to pay the Waldecks deposit, Gottfried reinforced his army with 600 horsemen and additional foot soldiers before launching a campaign of devastation against the Hessian towns of Gudensburg, Felsburg, and Melsungen.
However, when Hessian troops approached Fulda, both the city and the abbey refused to grant the Mainzers protection within their walls due to the Archbishop's repeated interference in their internal affairs.
On August 3, Landgrave Ludwig marched on Fulda, capturing the city and chasing out both the coadjutor and senior bailiff and reinstating Johann von Merlau as Abbot.
Mainz paid 44,000 guilders in compensation for war damages and lost almost all of its territory in Lower and Central Hesse to the Landgrave, with the exception of Fritzlar, Naumburg, Amöneburg, and Neustadt.