Peter von Hagenbach was a Bourguignon knight from Alsace and Germanic military and civil commander.
He was born into an
AlsatianAlsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...
-
BurgundianBurgundy is one of the 27 regions of France.The name comes from the Burgundians, an ancient Germanic people who settled in the area in early Middle-age. The region of Burgundy is both larger than the old Duchy of Burgundy and smaller than the area ruled by the Dukes of Burgundy, from the modern...
family, originally from
HagenbachHagenbach is a commune in the Haut-Rhin department in Alsace in north-eastern France.-References:*...
and owned a castle there.
He was instated as
Landvogt by Archduke Sigmund of Habsburg to rule the land he had leased from Duke Charles the Bold of Burgundy. There he coined the term
LandsknechtLandsknechte were European, predominantly German mercenary pikemen and supporting foot soldiers from the late 15th to the late 16th century, and achieved the reputation for being the universal mercenary of Early modern Europe.-Etymology:The term is from German, Land "land, country" + Knecht...
—from
GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
,
Land ("land, country") +
Knecht ("servant"). It was originally intended to indicate soldiers of the
lowlandsSwabia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany.-Geography:Like many cultural regions of Europe, Swabia's borders are not clearly defined...
of the
Holy Roman EmpireThe Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...
as opposed to the
Swiss mercenariesSwiss mercenaries were notable for their service in foreign armies, especially the armies of the Kings of France, throughout the Early Modern period of European history, from the Later Middle Ages into the Age of the European Enlightenment...
. As early as 1500 the misleading spelling of
Lanzknecht became common because of the association with
Lanze ("
lanceA Lance is a pole weapon or spear designed to be used by a mounted warrior. The lance is longer, stout and heavier than an infantry spear, and unsuited for throwing, or for rapid thrusting. Lances did not have tips designed to intentionally break off or bend, unlike many throwing weapons of the...
").
Following a
rebellionThe Burgundian Wars were a conflict between the Dukes of Burgundy and the Kings of France, later involving the Old Swiss Confederacy, which would play a decisive role. Open war broke out in 1474, and in the following years the Duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold, was defeated three times on the...
by towns of the
Upper RhineThe Upper Rhine is the section of the Rhine in the Upper Rhine Plain between Basel, Switzerland and Bingen, Germany. The river is marked by Rhine-kilometers 170 to 529 ....
against his tyranny, Hagenbach was put on trial for the atrocities committed during the occupation of
BreisachBreisach is a town with approximately 16,500 inhabitants, situated along the Rhine in the Rhine Valley, in the district Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, about halfway between Freiburg and Colmar — 20 kilometres away from each — and about 60 kilometres north of Basel near the...
, found guilty of war crimes and beheaded at Breisach am Rhein. His trial by an
ad hocAd hoc is a Latin phrase meaning "for this". It generally signifies a solution designed for a specific problem or task, non-generalizable, and not intended to be able to be adapted to other purposes. Compare A priori....
tribunal of the
Holy Roman EmpireThe Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...
in 1474, was the first “international” recognition of commanders’ obligations to act lawfully. He was convicted of crimes "he as a knight was deemed to have a duty to prevent." He defended himself by arguing that he was
only following ordersSuperior orders is a plea in a court of law that a soldier not be held guilty for actions which were ordered by a superior office...
, from the
Duke of BurgundyDuke of Burgundy was a title borne by the rulers of the Duchy of Burgundy, a small portion of traditional lands of Burgundians west of river Saône which in 843 was allotted to Charles the Bald's kingdom of West Franks...
to whom the Holy Roman Empire had given Breisach. Despite the fact there was no explicit use of a doctrine of
command responsibilityCommand responsibility, sometimes referred to as the Yamashita standard or the Medina standard, and also known as superior responsibility, is the doctrine of hierarchical accountability in cases of war crimes....
it is seen as the first trial based on that principle.
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