The Upper Austrian Peasants’ War of 1626

A massacre in the name of the Counter-Reformation

That his gruesome ‘Frankenburg Dice Game’ in May of 1625 will frighten the insurgent peasants is a gross miscalculation on the part of Count Adam Herberstorff, Bavarian Governor of Upper Austria. Lead by Stefan Fadinger and Christoph Zeller, a massive, carefully planned revolt erupts a year later.

On May 21st, 1626 the governor’s army suffers a crippling defeat at the hands of the peasants, who go on to take Steyr, Wels and Freistadt. The image shows the dramatic battle of Ort Castle on May 28th, 1626. Eventually the peasants even lay siege to Linz. With this however, the revolt reaches its climax, its leaders perishing soon after.

Stefan Fadinger is shot in the course of the siege on Linz, Christoph Zeller dies at a confrontation between his troops and the army of the Bavarian General Gottfried, Count of Pappenheim. When at last the imperial Hapsburg troops step in, it is all downhill for the peasants. The Bavarian-Hapsburg alliance wins back Freistadt, Steyr and, at the end of September, Wels. The defeat the peasants suffer in Pinsdorf near Gmunden on November 15th is decisive – the Upper Austrian Peasant Wars are at an end.

The sad fact is that life thereafter is worse than ever for the peasants. Not only do they have to provide food for 12,000 occupying Bavarian soldiers, but they must also pay for the damages incurred during the war.