Page 21 - All About History - Issue 53-17

GET MARRIED
When Jan van Leiden became the leader of
Münster shortly after the Anabaptists took control,
he legalised polygamy, allowing male citizens to
have more than one wife. This was likely because
the women outnumbered the men by more than
three to one, since many of their fathers and
husbands had either fled, been expelled or were
killed in the siege.

SHARE GOODS
The Münster citizens tried
to defend their city with
street combat
Jan van Leiden also established Münster as a
community of goods, an institution practiced
by the Jerusalem church. All deeds and debt
documents were destroyed as a result, and all
property and wealth was evenly distributed among
everyone in the community. This also helped to
ensure that the poor received their fair share of
food during the bishop’s siege.

DEFEND THE CITY

Although Franz von Waldeck’s troops mainly tried
to starve the citizens of Münster out, they did
launch a few attacks on the city. One such battle
saw 8,000 German Landsknechts storm the walls,
but the Anabaptists managed to defeat them,
leaving 3,000 dead. The Anabaptists also launched
a few attacks of their own, taking out some of the
surrounding enemy’s cannon.

SURRENDER
More than a year into the siege, a citizen of Münster
betrayed the city by leading the bishop’s troops
through a weak spot in its defence. The starving
population fought for hours, attempting to gain
back control of the streets, until Franz von Waldeck
eventually promised them safe conduct if they
agreed to surrender.

BE KILLED

Unfortunately the bishop’s promise was merely
a trick, and most of the citizens of Münster were
massacred while his troops continued their
rampage through the city. Those who did survive
had to witness their Anabaptist leaders be tortured
with red-hot tongs, stabbed through the heart and
put on display in large metal cages that hung from
the church steeple.

The bishop of Münster sentencing the
The Anabaptist leaders of Münster were Anabaptist leaders to death © Alamy
eventually executed and put on display
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