Siege of Godesberg

On top of the mountain sat a formidable fortress, similarly named Godesburg, built in the early 13th century during a contest over the election of two competing archbishops.

By the mid-16th century, the Godesburg was considered nearly impregnable and had become a symbol of the dual power of the Prince-electors and Archbishops of Cologne, one of the wealthiest ecclesiastical territories in the Holy Roman Empire.

The 1555 agreement settled religious problems in the Empire with the principle Cuius regio, eius religio: the subjects of a secular prince followed the religion of their sovereign.

Ecclesiastical reservation excluded the territories of the imperial prelates (bishops, archbishops, abbots or abbesses) from cuius regio, eius religio.

[5] Agnes of Mansfeld-Eisleben was a Protestant canoness (meaning that she was a woman living in a religious community, but not bound by a perpetual vow) at a convent in Gerresheim, today a district of Düsseldorf.

[8] With the support of Adolf von Neuenahr and the Count Solms, Gebhard secured some of the northern and eastern portions of the Electorate, where he held a geographical advantage in his proximity to the rebellious Dutch provinces.

Other supporters were frustrated by Gebhard's chronic inability to pay his troops, or intimidated by threats of Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor.

[8] The Godesburg foundation stone was laid on 15 October 1210 upon the order of Dietrich of Hengebach, the Archbishop of Cologne, who was himself in disputed possession of the Electorate and fighting to keep his position.

[9] Although his competitors deposed Dietrich in 1212, his successors finished and enlarged the fortress;[10] it featured in chronicles of the subsequent centuries as both a symbolic and physical embodiment of the power of the archbishop of Cologne in his many struggles for regional authority in secular and ecclesiastical matters.

[12] Successive archbishops continued to improve the defenses with stronger walls, adding levels to the central Bergfried, which was cylindrical, not square like many medieval donjons.

The physical location on the mountain did not permit the star-shaped trace italienne; nevertheless, the Godesburg's cordons of thick, rounded walls and massive iron-studded gates made its defenders formidable adversaries.

[13] Fortifications such as this, and the star-shaped fortresses more commonly found in the flatter lands of the Dutch Provinces, increasingly made 16th-century warfare both difficult and expensive; victory was not simply a matter of winning a battle over the enemy's army.

[16] The Godesburg was defended by Lieutenant Colonel Felix Buchner, Captain of the Guard Eduard Sudermann, a garrison of soldiers from the Netherlands, and a few cannons.

[18] According to contemporary sources, around 180 people lived in the facility, including peasants, the Dutch soldiers defending it, and an unknown number of women and children.

[20] Other prisoners held in the Godesburg included Gebhard von Bothmer, the suffragan (auxiliary bishop) of Hildesheim, and Captain Ranucino from Florence, the captured commander of Deutz, across the Rhine from Cologne.

[23] On 18 November, the first day of the siege, Ferdinand sent a trumpeter and formally asked the fortress to surrender; the defending garrison replied that they had sworn their allegiance to Gebhard and would fight to the death for him.

[34] Ferdinand reported on the siege's progress in a letter to his older brother, Duke Wilhelm, dated 15 December 1583: "The fortress stands on solid rock.

[40] Amidst the flames and rubble, Arenberg's and Ferdinand's troops tried to storm the castle, but found their way blocked by masses of debris created by their own explosives.

[38] Furthermore, although close to half of the garrison had perished in the explosion and subsequent collapse of the fortifications, those who remained offered staunch resistance by throwing rocks on the approaching attackers, causing a large number of casualties.

[38] In frustration, 40 or 50 of the attackers tied together two ladders and crawled through the sluice-ways of the garderobe (latrines) that emptied on the hillside, thus gaining access to the interior of the castle.

[48] Ernest's troops, under his brother's command, saturated the region, and the 7.3 kilometers (4.5 mi) between Godesberg and Bonn bore a greater resemblance to a military camp than to a road.

In addition to damage to the towns and cities, Ernest's supporters managed to restrict imports and exports to and from the Electorate, not only crippling Gebhard's financial resources but resulting in economic hardship for the inhabitants.

[49] Advances in military architecture over the previous century had led to the construction or enhancement of fortresses that could withstand the pounding of cannonballs and mortar shells.

For both Gebhard and Ernest, winning the war required mobilizing enough men to encircle a seemingly endless array of enemy artillery fortresses.

The stone is a block of black marble with a Latin inscription commemorating the construction of the fortress by Dietrich I von Hengebach in 1210: Anno · D(omi)ni · M·C·C·X · Gudensburg · Fundatum · E(st) · A · Teoderico · Ep(iscop)o · I(n) · Die · Mauror(um) · M(a)r(tyrum).

Wittelsbach authority in northwestern German territories endured until the mid-18th century, with the election of a succession of Bavarian princes to the archbishop's throne and to the prince-elector's seat.

[57] The shift of the emperor's orb from the House of Habsburg to the Wittelsbach family, albeit a brief event, was only resolved by the ascension of Maximilian III Joseph who, with the Treaty of Füssen, eschewed any imperial pretensions.

[60] Finally, the German tradition of local and regional autonomy created structural and cultural differences in the Holy Roman Empire, compared to the increasingly centralized authority of such other European states as France, England, and Spain.

The unabashed intervention of Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, English and Scots mercenaries in the war, as well as the influence of papal gold, changed the dynamic of internal German confessional and dynastic disputes.

The great "players" of the early modern European political stage realized that they could enhance their own positions vis-a-vis one another by assisting, promoting or undermining local and regional competition among the German princes, as they did in the feud between Gebhard and Ernest.

Outline map shows a long narrow territory on a blue line (river). Several dots represent key cities and towns of the territory; additional dots show a few important cities outside of the outlined area.
The secular possessions of the Elector of Cologne stretched for about 60 kilometers (37 mi) along the Rhine River. The gray lines show the modern boundaries of Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands; the rivers are also shown on their modern course. Cologne, the imperial city, was not a part of the Electorate's secular domains, although it was part of the episcopal diocese. Venlo , Duisburg , Dortmund and Nijmegen were also not in the Electorate, but were important locations in the Cologne War
Drawing of the castle and its walls, showing the chapel between the inner and outer wall.
The Godesburg before its destruction, as depicted on a church stained-glass window circa 1500. This drawing is believed to be the only surviving detailed picture of the castle as it looked before its destruction. The image shows the structure as seen from the north; St. Michael's Chapel is visible on the right, in the foreground
A fortified country home, surrounded by gardens and moats. Armed men have swarmed over the bridges and through the gates, and cannons fire on the walls; one of the buildings is on fire and other portions are damaged.
Poppelsdorf, Gebhard's country home where he first brought his bride in February, was taken by Ernest's supporters in mid-November, 1583. After they finished at Poppelsdorf, they moved to Godesberg
An oval castle layout, with a large outer ward attached on the left, and the direction of incoming cannon fire indicated—first from the bottom right of the picture, then from the bottom left. The location of an explosion is also indicated, to the right of the oval. A stylized compass needle indicating north points at the top left corner.
The first cannonade took place from the south-east; the cannons were located in Godesberg village at the foot of the mountain. The second cannonade was from a vineyard to the west; it temporarily breached the walls of the outer ward. [ 24 ]
A medieval fortress stands on the peak of a hill, dominating the valley below it, and the river passing it in the distance; the fortress has a central keep (tower), and an elaborate ring of crenelated walls and narrow windows. A road twists around the mountain to the gate.
This engraving by the Swiss artist Matthäus Merian the Elder (1593–1650) depicts a view of the fortress prior to its destruction
The 18th-century depiction of the Godesburg ruins, as a tourist site, shows crumbled shells of walls, with elegantly dressed men and women walking among them.
This 18th-century depiction shows the effects the explosion had on the thick stone walls
A shield with a red background, an orange castle in ruins, has a second shield of silver with a black cross.
The contemporary Wappen (or Arms) of Bad Godesberg depicts the 21st-century ruins of the keep of a medieval castle, and shows also the simple white shield with the black crusaders' cross of the Electorate of Cologne
A very large, massive seven-storey keep on a wooded hilltop, surrounded by ruins. Several visitors are on the keep's roof platform, their heads visible above the parapet.
The Godesburg today