Eyewitness accounts: Thirty Years War, 1618 - 1648

[Chris Moritz]

I'm finding useful writings from survivors of The Thirty Years War (1618-1648) Germany, but with predominant mercenary armies of men levied from as far away as Scotland, Sweden, Finland, Spain, Croatia, Italy.

Important points: some Imperial and national armies involved, but in a few years, the situation deteriorated to the point where rich or powerful patrons organized or had organized mercenary regiments as independent power units, and these units were quite cautious to commit to major battle, but instead marched and counter-marched and extorted all succor from cities and civilians alike, for decades of death and de-population.

I'll put the author's clarifying bits in double quotes ( " ),
And the witness accounts in single quotes ( ' ), witness in brackets [ ].

Geoff Mortimer, Eyewitness Accounts of the Thirty Years War 1618-48.

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1. 'Where a War is of any long continuance, that Armies mouldring away, either Regiments must be levied, or the old recruited. . . . invited by Trumpet and Drum all to take imployment, whom either the desire of honour, riches, booty, pay or wages may encourage'. [Turner]
2. 'my necessitie forced mee, my Money beeing growne short, to take the meanes of a private souldier'. [Poyntz]
3. 'I had noe greate fancie to this kynde of life, but seeing no other way to make out a fortune, being a younger brother . . . I buckled my selfe to the profession'. [Raymond]
4. 'knowing well how hungry men could be contented with little, in time of neede'. [Monro]
5. 'Suppose he hath a couple of Shirts, a pair of Stockins, and a pair of Shoos in his Knapsack, (and how many Souldiers have all these?) [Turner]
6. 'The ordinary allowance for a Soldier in the field, is daily two pounds of Bread, one pound of Flesh, or in lieu of it, one pound of Cheese, one pottle of Wine, or in lieu of it, two pottle of Beer. It is enough, crys the Soldiers, we desire no more, and it is enough in conscience. But this allowance will not last very long, they must be contented to march sometimes one whole week, and scarce get two pound of Bread all the while, and their officers as little as they. [Turner]
7. 'Wee had at this leagure a full plenty of all provisions . . . and soe longe as money lasted wee had a merry life. As for my selfe I only wanted a good bed and sheetes. Parts of an old tent, which I had provided my selfe of one for my bed, being stuffed with straw, and ther, my pillow layd upon boughs supported with 4 crutches 2 foote from the ground, lying in my wascoate and drawers and stocking, covered with my cloathes, my cloake being the coverlett, sleeping excellently well, and in this leagur pretty free from lice'. [Raymond]
8. 'These 3 days was a very hard march, for we were end of day very wet, and came soe and late to our quarters, lying 2 night sub dis, haveing only the panopie of heaven to cover us. . . . I had nothing to keepe me from the cold wett ground but a little bundle of wett dryed flax, which by chance I litt on. And soe with my bootes full of waterr and wrapt up in my wett cloake, I lay as round as a hedgehogg, and at peep of day looked like a drowned ratt.' [Raymond]

[Chris Moritz]

"Material ambitions spread all the way through the ranks. The colonels were the key men, entering into contracts with one side or the other to raise regiments which were then their personal property, and from whose pay, provisioning, equipping and employment they expected to make a personal profit. The prospect of booty was an attraction at all levels, but at its most basic the war became the only means of livelihood for many, officers and men alike, who had few possessions and few other skills to offer. As an issue in the war this should not be under-estimated. For a man like Mansfield, his army was his principality, and it could only exist as long as he could find employment for it, so that his need provided the opportunity for others to pursue their war aims. Such generals and the colonels below them were careful with their key possessions, and were reluctant to expose their forces to the chance of battle unless absolutely necessary, and preferably then only when they had achieved significant numerical superiority. This is one reason or the endless marching, counter marching and manoeuvring for position which dominated the Thirty Years War, while major battles were relatively few and far between over this long period. Moreover the very existence of armies created the need for constant campaigning, to keep them on the move so that they could live off the land, while the need to garrison and control territory in order to extract 'contributions' from the populace, the ultimate means be which the war was financed, created a vicious circle in which ever more troops were needed. Campaigning was determined as much by supplies as by strategy, particularly in winter, when the aim was to quarter the armies on enemy rather then friendly territory in view of the economic damage they would cause." Geoff Mortimer

[Chris Moritz]

1. 'I, Anna Wolff, was born anno 1602, on St. Catherine's day. My father was Ulrich Wolff, under-miller here at the Segmill, my mother's name was Barbara, and I was brought up by my parents, at school and at church, until the year of 23.' [Wolff]
2. 'I and my sister-in-law Kratzerbettery are living yet, up to this year of 63.' [Wolff]
3. 'We had indeed heard tell of the war, but we had not thought that it would reach us in Schwabach in the year of 1632. On holy St John's day people were still living it up and leading the high life, just like Sodom and Gomorrah.' [Wolff]
4. 'Hear, dear Christian; early on the Sunday after holy St Peter's day, in the middle of the sermon the horns began to blow furiously, so that everyone in the church ran out. When we looked outside we could see nothing but soldiers all round Schwabach.' [Wolff]
5. 'As in the 25th Psalm, "the troubles of my heart are enlarged: O bring thou me out of my distress." ' [Wolff]
6. 'The citizens put up a fight, shooting out and hitting many officers and colonels without suffering much injury themselves. This went on for seven hours.' [Wolff]
7. [Later] 'People were running hither and thither, not knowing where they should take refuge, so that again the cry was "look upon mine affliction and my pain and forgive all my sins". Hear, good soul; crowds of people fell on their knees in the streets and in the houses, raised up their hands and prayed.' [Wolff]
8. 'They were going to massacre us one and all, and they wouldn't spare even a child still in its mother's womb, because so many colonels and officers had lost their lives.' [Wolff]
9. 'Hear, good soul; when the gate was to be opened the people were so afraid that they didn't know where to go. The majority fled into the two churches and locked themselves in; few stayed in the houses. I hid myself in a concealed dovecote in my mill, where the five of us could not stand up for five days, and while the bullets whistled back and forth truly God protected us.' [Wolff]

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1. 'They persecuted the people. They tourmented, whipped and beat the men, dragging them out into the camp and calling them rebels. . . . They dishonoured, tormented, pulled about and vilely mishandled the women they found.' [Wolff]
2. 'Not a grain of wheat, not a speck of flour. They cleaned out all the hoppers and silos, and took everything away.' [Wolff]
3. 'A chest full of flour was still left, right by the door. Many hundreds had gone past it, but not one had opened it. Thus one can see what God wished to save.'
4. 'Then I also came down from my dovecote with my companions, after great hardship, but the Good Lord had preserved our honour.' [Wolff]
5. 'Hear, good Christian soul; what misery and distress there was, what hunger and grief, what fear and need. Many, many hundreds died of starvation, emaciated and not getting another bite of bread before their end.' [Wolff]
6. [Oddly] 'We had enough meat, a pound for a kreuzer, but no salt, no fat, no bread.' [Wolff]
7. [Troops threatening] 'when they broke camp and marched off, they then would scorch and burn everything.' [Wolff]
8. 'We still had four pastors, but one of those also deserted his flock. He dressed himself in a mill-hand's clothes and got out with the soldiers.' [Wolff]
9. 'We divided the chest of flour that was left to us among the poor people, who hadn't had a bite of bread in eight days. I went into the mill myself to beg flour to make gruel for the small children, just boiled in water.' [Wolff]
10. [Beer] 'I dared to go there every day and draw a jugful, which I distributed among the sick and those in childbed, so that they thanked me profusely and prayed God would preserve me.' [Wolff]
11. [Rescuing the mayor] 'Afterwards they threatened that if they caught him they would cut him in four and hang him over the walls because so many officers had been shot. . . . So we kept him, Herr Triller, with his wife, in a closet in the mill for 11 weeks. No-one knew about it except me, my brother and my maid, and no-one visited him except me, which I did twice every day. . . . Later they beat it around the town, making announcements with three rolls on the drums that they were going to search from house to house, and wherever they found him and whoever was protecting him, they would be hanged one with the other. Then he (Mayor Triller) advised me to say to people that the farmers bringing supplies for the army had taken him to Regensburg in a barrel and that he had been seen there. Word of this went round the whole town so that nobody enquired further about him. [Wolff]

-- -- --

1. 'Afterwards our Good Lord granted us a cheap year, as we could reap even though we hadn't sown. There was so much grass and grain growing in the streets that one could scarcely see the cobbles.' [Wolff]
2. 'When troops marched by they brought their booty here, and one could buy a cow for a taler or even for a gulden, a sheep for a kopfstueck, and a bushel of corn for three guilden. Then people thought that everything was all right again and they took to marrying, men, women and young folk -- every week there were three or four weddings.'
3. 'I myself married that same summer, on St Sebald's day, but we lived together for only four weeks before a great army of soldiers arrived. Then it was soon a case of "The wedded state is a woeful state".' [Wolff]
4. 'And so it continued from this time on, from 1632 until the year 48. The cry was always "give us peace in our time, O Lord, for great affliction is upon us".' [Wolff]

[Chris Moritz]

Peter Thiele, 1636-1638;

1. '. . . all the things that have happened in this robber-war can scarcely be described. . . . Throughout the country their greatest feats have been no more than robbing, stealing and plundering. . . . This is how they waged war in Brandenberg, and this is how they ruined the country.' [Thiele]
2. 'In summa: the devil in hell could not have done worse.' [Thiele]
3. 'The poor people ate outlandish things, which they were forced to do in order to satisfy their hunger. They ground up beechnuts, linseed residues, cabbage stalks and especially nettles, anno 1636, 1637 and 1638. The people were starving and many died because of these unnatural foods. In Beelitz there were often more than a hundred poor souls on the streets.' [Thiele]
4. 'Because of the numerous enforced collections [of contributions] houses became empty and the town went to rack and ruin. . . . The best farms lay desolate and around a thousand acres, without counting other outlying fields, were left unplanted.' [Thiele]
5. 'The soldiers were so famished that in the Altmark some of them ate human flesh. As they reached Beelitz and marched on around the town they ate dogs, cats and rotting dead horses. Everything that they found in the barns outside they either consumed or destroyed, but the town itself was preserved, thank God.' [Thiele]
6. '[1637] The shocking things that went on -- rape and the like -- are indescribable. . . . They behaved barbarically in Beelitz, despoiling old women, not a few of them 60 years old, to say nothing of the young ones.' [Thiele]
7. 'Jurgen Weber, a baker, reliably testified (and had to have medical treatment in Berlin) that these thieves, robbers and murderers stuck a piece of wood half a finger's length into his fistula, bona venia to make him confess where his money was . . . Adam Rink, a butcher, worse than a hangman, by twisting a rope around his head.' [Thiele]
8. 'Nor did they forget the Swedish draught, which our army itself devised, only attributing it to the Swedes to defame them. For this the robbers and murderers took a piece of wood and stuck it down a poor soul's throat, stirring and pouring in water, to which they added sand or even human excrement, thus pitifully torturing the victims for their money. This befell a citizen of Beelitz, David Oerttel by name, who died soon afterwards as a result.' [Thiele]
9. 'They caught a citizen by the name of Kuegen Moeller (who perhaps was ill), bound him hand and foot and put him over the fire, where they roasted him for a long time until he was forced to disclose his remaining money. After these robbers and muderers had taken it and gone another raiding party from the Third Army arrived, and hearing that the first had boasted of grilling 100 taler out of this Moeller they took the same man and held him with his face to the fire, hoping to extract more from him. Instead they roasted him for so long that his skin came off him like a butchered goose, and he died.' [Thiele]
10. 'We were up to our necks with the collection enforcers they set upon us, as numerous as locusts -- at times over 40. And we had to give them their rations or subsistence money too, more than 60 taler a day, . . . not to mention what they pinched and pilfered from the people -- cattle, sheep, bead, grain, everything from their farms. . . . the field chaplain and the regimental hangman haven't come to extort from us yet, but apart from them practically everyone has been here to enforce contributions from Beelitz.' [Thiele]
11. 'As regards the enemy one could quite well travel the country, but on account of our supposed friends, our very own robbers, one often dared not venture outside the gates. . . . blessed peace may follow for our offspring and that this misery of war never happens again or falls upon them. May the Eternal God protect us all.' [Thiele]

[Chris Moritz]

Plundering and scavenging, Renner, 1634:

1. 'The . . . soldiers played havoc in Vach on account of the scarcity of firewood. They tore down all the fences, barns, gates, and buildings, and such beds, chests, tables and trunks as I had left after 61 visitations had this time to be chopped up and burned.' [Renner]

"Plebanus describes such a raid in July 1637, noting that he had just enough warning to get away to a hiding place overlooking the town, where he could witness what followed." [Geoff Mortimer]

1. 'Throughout the afternoon cavalrymen and foot-soldiers rode on or stode in and out of Wehen; there must have been three or four hundred of them in the town. they plundered and took away all the grain, seed corn and other provisions which the unfortunate people had with great trouble and effort gathered together and hidden. Furthermore they left not a single featherbed, pillow or cushion that seemed worth anything, and they tore the remainder open, shaking the feathers out into the street or wherever. . . . They ransacked the castle, finding all that hed been left secretly hidden away, and in my room in the new building they ripped everything up and destroyed it. They took away the bedclothes which others had left us, together with the pillows and cushions, as well as various of my best books, two of my wife's chemises, one made of London cloth which cost two Reichstaler an ell, all the food which we had recently bought in Mainz and the bread which had been baked on the previous Saturday. . . . This plundering went on from one o'clock into the dark of night.' [Plebanus]

Vincent, interrogations after money:

1. 'Whom they thought to have hidden gold or other wealth, they have assaid, by exquisite tourments to make them confesse. . . . They have wound and tied about the heads of such, strong matches or cords, and twisted the same till the blood came out of their eyes, eares, and noses, yea, till their eyes started out of their heads. They have put and tied burning matches betwixt their fingers, to their noses, tongues, jawes, cheeks, breasts, legs, and secret parts. . . . The mouthes of some they have opened with gags, and then poured downe their throats water, stinking puddle, filithy liquids, and pisse it selfe, saying; This is a Swedish draught.' [Vincent]

[Chris Moritz]

1. 'As regards our village of Allensbach, we were driven out and chased right away. Each one sought a way of providing for himself, most going across the lake to Reichenau. The people there took us in and did the best they could for us but anyone who had taken nothing with him found little enough there.' [Zembroth]
2. 'People had acorns ground and baked, and also had to eat bran bread. It was a grim period of great hunger which lasted for five months, although the high prices continued for much longer.' [Zembroth]
3. 'They stayed here eight long weeks and created havoc. They tore down some 20 houses and wine-press buildings, and smashed up many others so that they were no longer habitable. . . . They used all the hay, of which there was a good quantity, for fodder, and took what there was in the neighbourhood away to Bodman, where a big cargo ship was recently sent from Bregenz. Nevertheless more than 200 horses collapsed from hunger and died. Many tens of acres of vines, together with all the stakes and fences, were burned. Some of the cattle were taken away at the beginning by the soldiers and the rest were slaughtered. There was such a devastation that it can scarcely be described, as apart from burning the village nothing else was spared us.' [Zembroth]
4. 'On 22 August [1633] the Imperialist Croats made another raid, . . . ill treating the people mercilessly, beating, torturing and inflicting the so-called Swedish draught upon them. The like befell me when I fell into their hands, although unrecognised, and I was thus forced to search out my few trinkets and little bit of hidden money and to give them to those barbarians as a ransom in order to preserve my life.' [Freund]
5. '. . . tied to a horse's tail and dragged as far as a village near Pegau, where he was badly beaten and tortured in order to extort money from him and eventually left for dead. Charitable people took him from there to the town of Pegau, where he met a pious death.' [Freund]
6. 'First they gave Bartholl a Swedish draught in Ruecksfeld, two pails of filth, and then they took him with them to Steina, where they cut off his beard and threatened him further until he paid them 190 Reichstaler.' [Lutz]
7. '. . . took me for what I had, but the Good Lord granted me the good fortune that he left it at that, and none of the others caught me afterwards.' [Pries]
8. '. . . how many wives and young girls were dishonoured.' [Pries]
9. '. . . our Good God protected the womenfolk, so that they did not get a single one.' [Pries]
10. 'None of use suffered any bodily injury, remarkably not even my wife, who hid for several hours under the hay while they searched for people there by sticking their swords into it.' [Lang]
11. 'Hannes Trosten's wife was raped by two cavalrymen near the castle wood on her way back from holy almsgiving. . . . The sheep farmer Hannes Schopf, who was a witness, says she could surely have avoided them.' [Gerlach]
12. [Spiegel switches to Latin for modesty] '. . . hac septimana stupratae sunt foeminae dure a militibus' (on the seventh of the month the women were pitilessly violated by the soldiers). [Spiegel]
13. '[new born of a servant girl] 'The father is said to have been one of the Zuckerbacker cavalry, who according to here account brought about her ruin in Hansen Welcker's cellar, where she had taken refuge and was trying to hide.' [Spiegel]
14. 'On 28 June they drove off all my cattle, the whole herd, and my maid, along with other girls, had to drive them to Rottenacker, with the unfortunate result that one of them was dishonoured by a soldier in Martin Mueller's house at Emmerkingen.' [Sautter]
15. 'Here godless soldiers laid waste to the whole land with stealing, burning and rapine, despoiling it so abominably that the like of it has never been heard before.' [Walther]
16. '. . . plundered . . . almost totally, abusing the people appallingly and without discrimination or respect of persons, treating the women inhumanly and conducting themselves worse than Turks or Tartars.' [Schleyss]
17. 'From that time on the Allgaeu . . . through and through. Whole herds of the poor people's livestock were driven off, cows, sheep, pigs, and likewise their horses; in summa all the animals were taken. Household effects, linen, bedding, clothes and everything that was worth anything were seized from the people everywhere and sold or carried off. . . . In summa, from the Danube virtually to Lake Constance the wretched populace has had everything looted and destroyed, so that a Christian heart can only be moved to pity.' [Schleyss]
18. 'At this time the enemy did enormous damage in the countryside, everywhere butchering, stealing and burning. They took away large numbers of people and animals, repeatedly and distressingly plundering the luckless inhabitants, violating women and girls, doing great evil in cloisters, churches, towns and markets and bringing destruction and misery to the whole country.' [Hellgemayr]
19. 'God grant that they never ever return, neither there nor to us! Amen. For truly we were also in great danger and dread. May God mercifully help and protect us now and henceforth!' [Schleyss]
20. 'We were so afraid and panicky that even a rustling leaf drove us out. . . . There were times when for long periods we didn't dare to sleep in our homes a night.' [Pries]
21. 'We dipped our shoes in the manure of our yard so that if some band of soldiers caught us they wouldn't strip us of them.' [Pries]

[Jon Pellett]

Thanks! This is interesting stuff.

[Chris Moritz]

Thank you.

Pics,


"Mother Courage," by Bertolt Brecht, is set in the Thirty Years War, a period of bloodshed on the European continent . . . Meaghen Quinn plays Kattrin. Photo Credit: Greg Grieco

30 Years' War contemporary etching:

edit pics
-- -- --

Colonel Robert Monro (Scottish officer of Danish soldiers):

1. 'Nothing is more necessary on a march, then to keepe good discipline, without which there is no order, nor feare of God amongst Officers, that will suffer their Souldiers to grinde the faces of the poore by oppression; . . . for where the feare of God is taken away, there the common-weale must needes decay, and then the ruine of the people doth follow.' [Monro]
2. '. . . man is but meerely the ball of time, being tost too and fro . . . here below we have no assured estate, from the King to the Clowne, whereof we have frequent examples in Histories.'
3. '. . . covetousnesse, the roote of all evil and dishonesty . . . But for me, let me have health, and glad povertie with credit, for riches I desire not.' [Monro]
4. 'And for mine owne part, a few books left by my friends, which mine enemy might have burnt, was all the bootie that ever I made: nether doe I repent me of my neglect in this point.' [Monro]
5. 'Here our enemies were our pedagogues teaching us vertue, every moment minding us of our duety to God and man: yea minding us both of Death, and of Judgement: here we needed no dead mans pawe before us, to minde us of Death, when Death itselfe never went night or day with his horror from our eyes, sparing none, making no difference of persons, or quality, but equo pede, treading alike on all came in his way, whose houre was come.' [Monro]
6. For my own part, I refused not to shew compassion on those, who did beg it of me, and what others did in their fury, I did tolerate, not being powerfull to hinder them: yet truly my compassion was so much, that when I saw the house ordained for Gods service defiled with their bloud and ours, and the pavement of the Church covered over with the dead bodies of men, truely my heart was moved unto the milde streames of pittie, and wept. [Monroe]
7. [Alleged rape of peasants' daughters in Denmark] 'To satisfie justice, we called a Councell of warres (having our Auditor with us) of the Regiment Officers; the businesse exactly examined, according to his Majesties Articles, the souldier was condemned to die, and to be shot at post, to terrifie others by his example from the like hainous sinne.' [Monroe]

[John Farthing]

Interesting posts! Thanks alot!

If you haven't already seen it, you may want to check out the 1971 film 'The Last Valley'. It stars Micheal Caine and Omar Sharif and is set during the Thirty-years war.

Enjoy! and thanks again!

[Alan Forbes]

John, Long time no hear. What's up pal?

[Jaron Bernstein]

Thanks for sharing this.

[Chris Moritz]

Three nun's accounts, Bamberg:

"[Maria Anna] Julius was the daughter of a leading citizen of Bamberg, a member of the council for 20 years and from time to time mayor before he was accused of witchcraft and executed in 1628. She opens her account with a short summary of the period from 1622 to 1633, in which she refers guardedly to witchcraft, linking it to the inflation and coinage debsement of the early 1620s." [Geoff Mortimer]

1. '. . . for I think none other than that the Evil One scattered the money abroad at that time so that many people would get caught up in this accursed witchcraft as one later saw. . . . several hundred people were tried and burned, among them many attractive and well-to-do young men and women. . . . whether it was all rightly done is known to God alone. . . . these burnings continued until the year 1631.' [Julius]

Swedes advance on Bamberg,

1. 'With a small number of Sisters and women we ventured to stay on as long as we could, with the help of God; I, Maria Magdalena Haidenbucher, in my 71st year and the 41st of my rule. . . . We did indeed stay, but never other than in the greatest fear.' [Haidenbucher]
2. 'Just as we were in the greatest fear and terror a Jesuit came to us, saying: "Good virgins, it is true, the enemy is here; stay in your convent; no harm will come to you but we [Jesuits] will be shown no mercy. . . . I must make my escape quickly. Many hundred thousand good nights, dear virgins, I must be away, they are chasing after me. My name is Dominicus. Stay in your convent; stay in your convent; no harm will come to you but I must be off." ' [Junius]
3. [Advance of Protestant Swedes] 'When we heard of this, we felt indescribable anxiety and apprehension. We were ready to take flight at any minute and we had worldly clothes which had been brought from the city, but we didn't know where we should go. . . . At this time we scarcely slept at night because of our great fear. . . . People had told us . . . that they would not spare a single person, but would kill everyone and set fire to the city. Ach, what terror and fear of death we experienced at that time. . . . We were expecting death at any hour or moment, which we did not fear as much as something else. . . . We surrendered ourselves to the will of God, relying completely on the help and compassion of our beloved bridegroom Jesus, and we stayed strong, courageous and constant in our cloister.' [Julius]
4. 'Ach, God, what anguish misery and need we felt; it was very hard to leave the convent. . . . We prayed almost the whole day and night, and once at night, when it was said that the enemy was about to make an assault, we made our confessions in great terror. . . . We had to endure the well-deserved punishment of God in great fear of death.' [Staiger]
5. [An accord is reached] '. . . that nothing was to happen to the clergy, and that the garrison were to withdraw with all their equipment. . . . It is impossible to describe what anxiety and need this accord aroused in us, for every one was afraid for her life and honour.' [Staiger]
6. 'It was already gone seven o'clock. Several Sisters were in the chancel, and when they looked out they saw a number of soldiers coming towards our convent. They thought it was the enemy, so they ran down as fast as they could, crying "Ach, ach, dear Sisters, the enemy is coming and approaching our convent. Ach, let us go into the parlour together and beg for mercy when they arrive, or else die together, just as God wishes." We were in such great misery, but then another Sister came saying: "Take comfort, dear Sisters, the farm-hand who took our letter there is coming with the soldiers; they must be our military guard" . . . Ach, who was happier than us, for it was as thought we had been dead and were alive again.' [Julius]
7. '. . . the Swedes themselves were amazed that we, all women, stayed living here in such danger.' [Julius]
8. 'Although people spoke much evil of us I can bear witness before God that not the slightest thing happened to a single Sister from our convent contrary to the preservation of her virgin status. Although the Swedes came and went daily here they behaved at all times in a modest and respectful manner towards us. For if from time to time they approached like furious lions or bears, as soon as they had seen and talked to us they all became as meek and gentle as lambs.' [Julius]

[Chris Moritz]

Maria Anna Julius and Clara Steiger:

"[Julius] She reports that the hierarchy were quick to leave when danger threatened:" [Geoff Mortimer]

1. 'The prince [bishop] was sitting at dinner when this cry arose, so he quickly had everything taken from the table, hurriedly got into his coach, and was driven off to Forchheim. The provost and other cathedral officers as well as the mayor and many other leading citizens, also made off hastily to Forchheim. . . . When he drove out the wicked people shouted: "He's getting out again now and leaving us in the lurch; may this and that [the devil, the hangman] take you; may you fall and beeak every bone in your body", and they wished many other terrible things on him.' [Julius]
2. At twelve o'clock at night Swedish soldiers broke into the farmyard through the upper gate, and with fierce threats and weapons in their hands they immediately demanded horses and cattle. Our seven dear Sisters who had ventured into the convent on account of worldly duties and much work -- washing, baking, mowing and cutting in the garden -- ran to the bells in great fear and rang the alarm, then up into the courtyard, where they hid themselves. They caught Sister Dorothea Lemm in the cloisters, and with their weapons drawn they demanded cattle, food and drink, but in response to her terrified answer, trembling and pleas they let her go without harming her. They went straight into the stables and took away four horses and nine cows. 30 cavalrymen from the court chased after them, but in vain, as they coud not find or recover a single animal.' [Steiger]
3. 'Five Swedish sentries were sent from the court to make sure that this time nothing else happened to the convent. They immediately drove the other soldiers out of the kitchen garden and protected our men, escorting them back and forth. We straight away brought them meat and beer -- of which they drank 40 quarts by Sunday morning.' [Steiger]
4. 'Colonels often visited us too . . . and then they made conversation with us for long periods. They behaved so amicably, politely, modestly and innocently towards us that we couldn't wonder at it enough. . . . he asked us if we would sing Compline, as he would like to hear our singing. . . . for we thought all the time, ach, God, who knows whether your hearts really are as your mouths say. [One colonel] who had done much good to us, [two others] who have done so much good to us and the whole city.' [Julius]
5. 'At one o'clock in the morning there was a great crowd in the city as the Imperialist army arrived from Ingolstat.' [Staiger]
6. 'When we arrived in the courtyard of the convent we saw nothing but mess, with hay, straw, feathers and broken things strewn everywhere. . . . In the priory, domestic quarters and infirmary the feathers came up over our knees. The cells and other rooms were turned completely upside down, with chests and cupboards chopped up, while the two dormitories were full of broken pictures, undressed Christ-child figures and other stuff. . . . The refectory was smeared with filth and they had used the little chest of drawers as a chamber pot. All the copper vessels had been broken out from the kitchen, the bakehouse, the wash-house and the brewhouse. The new graves had been dug up, leaving one deceased Sister with her right hand raised. . . . We found altars in the church and the cloisters broken open and the holy relics scattered about. Not a single alarm clock or table clock was left and they had removed all the ropes from the bells and the clock. It is impossible to describe what a miserable state and mess every part of the convent was in.' [Staiger]

[Chris Moritz]

Outside the convent,

1. 'Everything that the people buried or bricked up was found and the soldiers put it up for sale in the city, so that the poor folk had to buy their own possessions back again. . . . Moreover when people who had bought things had only gone a little way other soldiers took them from them again, so that many items were sold three or four times. . . . The unfortunate people even had to drive their own cattle in for the soldiers, who then sold them, a fine ox for three taler and a cow for two taler or a talerr and a half. One one occasion they wanted to se us 12 sheep for a taler, but we were not willing to buy them.' [Staiger]
2. 'He and his children had no other food to eat but bran bread, which they poured hot water over now and again so that they would at least have something warm. They had neigher fat nor salt, for in many villages there was not a single cow, and as soon as they bought anything again the soldiers took it from them once more. He told us how his little daughter had said to him "Really, Daddy, when I've eaten the brand bread I'm going to die so that I can go to heaven, where I won't have to eat any more of it." At the time this child was bright and healthy but on the next day she suddenly died, as this good man told us, crying bitterly. Ach, God, what suffering, misery and lamentation we hear about from these poor people.' [Julius]

[Tyrone Artur Budzin]

Wow, thanks for sharing this.