Salzburg Peasant Revolt, 1462



Princebishop Sigismund von Volkersdorf (1452-1461) attempted to address his debt by raising revenue through having under-value coins minted. The introduction of coins of very poor quality caused prices to rise sharply. In 1458, peasants in the princebishopric of Salzburg protested, and prevailed.
The next Princebishop, Burkhard von Weissbruch (1461-1466) introduced a new tax, the tax on blessings (Weihsteuer). The Pongau had been owned by the Barons von Goldegg (-1400) and only recently been acquired by the Princebishops; the Pongau peasants insisted that it was not customary for them to pay taxation in coin at all, and they were in the position to prove this, as the rules by which they lived had been codified in a Weistum. Princebishop von Weissbruch insisted on the taxation; the peasants took up arms. A stalemate ensued. Duke Ludwig of Bavaria was appointed arbiter; the judgment was to the dissatisfaction of the Goldegg peasants who took up arms again in 1463, but without success; the taxation was inforced.



EXTERNAL
FILES 		Chronik von Zell am See, by Rainer Hochhold, in German
Article Bundesland Salzburg, from Wikipedia, in German
DOCUMENTS List of Prince-Archbishops of Salzburg, from Regnal Chronologies, scroll down
REFERENCE Andrea van Dülmen, Deutsche Geschichte in Daten, Vol.1 : Von den Anfängen bis 1770, <ünchen : dtv 1979; in German
Friederike Zaisberger, Geschichte Salzburgs (History of Salzburg), Wien : Oldenbourg 1998, p.141



This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted on February 25th 2004, last revised on November 16th 2004

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