Battle of Hemmingstedt

Battle of Hemmingstedt

Combat between Danish and Dithmarschen troops at the Battle of Hemmingstedt by Rasmus Christiansen
Date17 February 1500
Location
Result Dithmarschen peasant victory
Belligerents
Peasantry of Dithmarschen

Kalmar Union Kalmar Union

Commanders and leaders
Wulf Isebrand
Strength
approx. 6,000 peasants
  • 4,000 mercenaries (Great Guard)
  • 2,000 armoured cavaliers
  • 1,000 artillery-men
  • 5,000 commoners
Casualties and losses
60 [1] 7,000, thereof 360 nobles
Memorial in Epenwöhrden reciting the battlecry: "Wahr di, Garr, de Buer de kumt" (Beware guard, the farmer is coming)

The Battle of Hemmingstedt took place on 17 February 1500 south of the village of Hemmingstedt, near the present village of Epenwöhrden, in the western part of present-day Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It was an attempt by King John of Denmark and his brother Duke Frederick, who were co-dukes of Schleswig and Holstein, to subdue the peasantry of Dithmarschen, who had established a peasants' republic on the coast of the North Sea. John was at the time also king of the Kalmar Union.

  1. ^ Dithmarschen: A Medieval Peasant Republic, page 116

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