THE EVENTS of 1533 Having Prepared Everything for the Raid, The
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THE EVENTS OF 1533 Having prepared everything for the raid, the men of Münster left in silence around 3 a.m., with starlight illuminating the path. They carried planks in the wagons, and after repairing the damage to the bridge with them, they left a few men stationed on it as a guard. Persisting in their undertaking to carry out a raid, they hastened straight for Telgte and pursued the mounted scouts, though they never caught up with them since they had a long head start. The scouts came to a broad plain in which a gibbet was erected to instill terror in criminals, and since there was a broad and distant vista from this plain, they looked back. They saw the matches that were kept ready for igniting the guns glittering in the dark1 but took them for will-o’-the-wisps2 dancing around and moving randomly. They expected nothing less than the arrival of the enemy and heard no sound from the wheels or the infantrymen or the neighing of the horses because they were so far off and the commotion of their own horses was closer. Thus, they returned to Telgte and went to sleep. But the men from Münster followed as hurriedly as their arms and burdens allowed. At dawn, they weakened the city gates by applying crowbars and then they burst them open without disturbing the towns- men. They rushed in with the full onslaught of war, seizing control of all the lanes as they had been instructed. At this point, the leading men were snatched off the lanes, being taken completely unawares, and with unbelievable savagery they were captured along with all their servants. The captives were barely given time to put on their clothes and shoes. Soon, the men from Münster set about plundering and pillaging. | 342342 They took purses with money, gold chains, both jeweled signet rings and regular ones which they snatched from the fi ngers of noblemen, 1 At this time, the method of igniting gunpowder was to keep a permanently lit match attached (locked) to a movable wheel; hence the term “matchlock” to describe such weapons. To fi re the weapon, the wheel was turned so that the match was brought into contact with gunpowder in a pan, and the explosion was transmitted down a small hole into the barrel, where the main charge would propel the shot. 2 Called “foolish fi re” (ignis fatuus) in the Latin, this refers to the nocturnal appear- ance of fl ittering lights, and is now ascribed to the spontaneous combustion of gases emitted from marshy ground. The phrase “jack-o’-lantern” can also signify the same phenomenon. MacKAY_f9_379-466.indd 379 6/6/2007 9:15:03 PM 380 the events of 1533 and sixty-one horses. Unfamiliar riders saddled, bridled and mounted these horses, and poking them at will with spurs to their heart’s content, they wore them out with aimless galloping in order to humiliate the captives. However, some of the leading men (Lord Alexander Morien the provost, Roger Smising the schoolmaster and Henry of Plettenberg the canon) escaped from the hands of the captors across the frozen river Ems wearing only shoes and leaving everything else. The following men were captured: from the main clergy, Philip of Hoerde (the suffragan), Melchior of Büren (the cathedral steward)3 and Adolf of Bodelswing; from the knighthood and the chief councilors of the bishop, the noble Baron John of Büren, Gerard of Recke (a golden knight), Gerard Morrien (the marshal), Herman of Mengersen, and Lord John Merckel (the dean of St. John’s in Osnabrück and the main secretary); and ten patricians from the city, Herman Schencking (a civil judge), Bernard, John and Henry Warendorf from Evinghof, Eberwin and Alard Droste (brothers who were the sons of Eberwin the burgher master), Francis Grael, John Peck, William Clevorn, and Eberhard Buck. 343343 They put these captives in carts brought for this purpose | and carried them into the city at about 11 a.m. on the feast of St. Stephen the First Martyr, which was December 26, as if in a magnifi cent triumph, with a fl ute-player called Knop sitting on the front of one cart and banging away at a drum. When they reached the market place, Knipperdolling shouted out from the middle of the throng of the factious that the cattle were now mooing and lowing remarkably, alluding to the sequestration by which the cattle of the burghers had been seized. Lord Philip of Hoerde, who was protected by popular favor, and the other members of the knighthood were placed, once they had given their word of honor, in the houses of guest friends after the fashion of noblemen. All the patricians, on the other hand, were led off by attendants and public servants to the cells for criminals. The cathedral steward and Bodelswing were believed by the commoners to be principally responsible for the closing of travel and so were completely bereft of favor from the com- moners, who bellowed that they too should be thrown in jail. They were thronged by a swarm of armed men when they climbed down from the cart, and they barely got away with their lives. For this reason the council ordered them to be held under guard in the registry until the madness among the commoners gradually died down. 3 See 47D. MacKAY_f9_379-466.indd 380 6/6/2007 9:15:04 PM.