Götz von Berlichingen

Götz von Berlichingen, 'of the Iron Hand,' a German knight of the 16th century, was born at Jaxthausen, in Württemberg, in 1480. (Götz is an abbreviation of Gottfried.) His education was conducted by his uncle Conrad, with whom he attended the diet of Worms in 1495. From 1497 onwards to 1525 his restless spirit, and the general turbulence of the time, involved him in continual feuds, in which he displayed a mixture of lawless daring and chivalrous magnanimity. At the siege of Landshut (1505) he lost his right hand, which was replaced by an artificial one of steel, cunningly invented by himself; it is still shown at Jagstfeld. Twice he was declared under the ban of the empire for acts which were little better than acts of brigandage or highway robbery—in 1512 for plundering a band of Nuremberg merchants, and in 1516 for carrying off Count Philip of Waldeck and extorting a large ransom for his liberation. Having joined Duke Ulrich of Württemberg when this prince was attacked (1519) by the Swabian league, Götz, after making an heroic defence of Möckmühl, was, contrary to the articles of his capitulation, taken prisoner, and only released at the intercession of his friends, George von Frundsberg and Franz von Sickingen, on payment of 2000 florins ransom. In the Peasants' War of 1525 he took part with the insurgents and was chosen leader of a part of their forces. This step he ascribes to compulsion; more likely it was the result of his own restless and turbulent spirit, and of a desire for revenge on his old enemies of the Swabian league. Although acquitted of blame for his participation in this affair by the supreme court of the empire, he was nevertheless captured by his enemies of the Swabian league, kept a prisoner at Augsburg for a couple of years, and at last sentenced to perpetual imprisonment in his own castle, and, in case of his breaking this condition, to a fine of 20,000 florins. He was only freed from this irksome bondage on the dissolution of the league in 1540. Two years later he was again in action, fighting with the emperor in Hungary against the Turks, and two years later still in France. He died July 23, 1562, in his castle at Hornberg on the Neckar. He wrote an account of his own life, published by Pistorius (Nürnberg 1731; Breslau 1813), which furnishes an excellent picture of the social life and manners of the period, and on which Goethe grounded his drama of Goetz von Berlichingen, translated by Sir Walter Scott.