User:Cbye/Siege of Rapperswil (1656)

{Military conflict}

The siege of Rapperswil was a military conflict between the Reformed city of Zürich and the Catholic towns of the Swiss Confederation during the First Villmerger War.

Initial Situation
After an attempt at federal reform by the Reformed towns failed due to the resistance of the Catholic towns in 1654/55, Zurich urged its allies to go to war against the Catholics. Zurich used a dispute with Catholic Schwyz about the property and rights of some of the new believers (Reformed) who had fled Arth to force a federal decision.

Siege of Rapperswil
General Hans Rudolf Werdmüller moved with his troops via Hombrechtikon to Rapperswil, with the strategically important bridge connection over the Seedamm to Hurden in the March in Schwyz. The mayor of Zurich, Johann Heinrich Waser, was at his side as an assistant councilor in the field. Werdmüller commanded a force of 7018 infantry, supplemented by 326  dragoons and 19 artillery pieces. The general, trained in France and fighting for Sweden towards the end of the Thirty Years' War, closed the land-based siege ring from Busskirch to Kempraten. The houses in the surrounding villages were looted and the chapels devastated before Rapperswil was attacked. Rapperswil was occupied in time by Catholic troops who were subordinate to Hieronymus Riget from Schwyz. Guns secured the western, lake-side town fortifications at the Schützenhaus (Schlosshügel) and Endingerhorn, guarded by citizens of Unterwalden and Rapperswil.

On January 7th, the Rapperswilers hit the palisades in front of the Endingerhorn in order to secure the inner harbor against the Zurich warships, while more troops moved into the city over the bridge from Hurden. On January 8, the Zurich artillery opened fire on the city from Kreuzli (Kreuzwiese) east of the city fortifications. From Kapuzinergarten from the Zurich ships should have been fired, which, however, in the incipient, partial Seegfrörni on the Zurich firmly ate and stayed out of firing range.

In his 260-page diary, Johann Peter Dietrich, town clerk and mayor of Rapperswil, describes how the town of Rapperswil “was besieged very hard by Zurich between the 7th January 1656 to the 11th March 1656 by sea and on land, but in vain " has been. The first bombardment of the city began at 9 a.m. - the first shot is said to have hit the throat tower, but the bullet fell on the forecourt and was brought to the Capuchin monastery, where the brothers blessed it. Nine hours later, over 60 shots were counted; they weighed between three and 26 pounds, "but in lieu of that, no harm was done to them but an honest man from the March, for whom a Schenckhel was shot wake up on the Schantz and immediately brought in to death".

Schwyzer groups defended the wooden bridge from their headquarters in Pfäffikon. Nocturnal operations kept the passage from the lower to the upper Lake Zurich to Altendorf free of icing. An intensive bombardment of the city began on January 24, and the message of the victory at Villmergen over the Bernese troops arrived. On January 26th, a doggedly led attack by the people of Zurich on the city walls failed. Days followed under heavy artillery fire with a total of 700 shells, which completely or partially destroyed 34 houses, until Werdmüller launched the decisive storm on February 3 and failed again. During the next few days the besiegers raged in the area and withdrew on February 10, 1656.

Victims
The unsuccessful siege of Rapperswil resulted in 573 dead and 396 wounded on the Reformed side; material losses were eight flags, ten guns and nine wagons. Rapperswil and the Catholic troops mourned 189 dead and around 300 wounded; how many of them among the civilian population needs clarification.

The city of Rapperswil was partially destroyed, the area around Rapperswil was devastated, plundered and the churches desecrated. The farms in Kempraten, Busskirch and Wagen also suffered severe devastation and looting.

Subsequent Actions
In the meantime, the Catholic towns and their troops cut off the connection between Zurich and Bern. As the Zurich troops remained bound by the siege of Rapperswil and the Catholics were able to defeat the Bernese, led by General Sigmund von Erlach, on January 24, 1656 in the First Battle of Villmergen , Rapperswil played an important role in the First Villmerger War. The fighting was not finally stopped until March 3rd. The "Third Land Peace" of March 7, 1656 secured the agreements reached by the Second Kappel Land Peace of 1531 and the Catholic hegemony in the Confederation.