If Alexander Dumas knew how to play the literary game he could give to an old prison legend, that of the man in the iron mask, Goethe had done the same before with a man who used a metal arm instead of a mask, only in that case it was not a myth but a real character:Götz von Berlichingen, a Catholic mercenary whose war adventures in the 16th century led him to lose a limb and replace it with a striking prosthesis that earned him the nickname of Mit der Eisernen Hand (The one with the Iron Hand), in addition to originating an eschatological expression that is euphemistically known as the "Götz phrase".
His name was Gottfried von Berlichingen de Hornberg and he was born, year up, year down, around 1480, at that time when the Middle Ages were giving their last throes in the transition to the Renaissance. The reader will have already deduced that with that surname he came to the world in what is now Germany, then an amalgamation of stately territories; probably, by his surname, in Berlichingen, a town in the current state of Baden-Württemberg, although most of his childhood was spent in Jagsthausen Castle.
He was one of the ten children of Kilian von Berlichingen of Jagsthausen and Margaretha von Thüngen, entering as a page in the service of his uncle Konrad, a veteran knight who was head of the Court of the Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach and whom he accompanied on several military campaigns, learning the trade of arms.
At Lindau in 1497, Konrad died and Götz went into the direct service of Margrave Frederick V of Brandenburg. Margrave is the Castilianization of the German word markgraf , equivalent to marquess, that is to say, the nobleman who exercised the functions of governor in a margraviate or marquisate, which in Carolingian times was a mark (a border territory).
As the young Götz was not used to the exquisite court life, he became a squire to the knight Veit von Lentersheim, thus directing his future towards the military world. Accompanying his lord, he took part in the campaigns carried out by Maximilian I of Habsburg, head of the Holy Roman Empire, against the French, who were trying to conquer imperial regions such as Burgundia, Lorraine and Brabant; two years later they took part in the Swabian War against the Helvetic Confederation.
In 1500, already an adult and experienced, he began to act on his behalf as a free knight, forming, together with his brother Felipe, a company of mercenaries that offered their services to the lords. For this they counted on the alliance of Talaker von Messenbach, another gentleman whose behavior bordered on banditry, living practically from looting.
At least it was like that until the end of 1501, when they abandoned their uneasy collaboration. But they continued with their work, now supporting one, now supporting others in the internal wars that pitted the nobles against each other.
One of them was the one that broke out in 1504 between Bavaria and Rhineland-Palatinate for keeping the city of Lanshut. Götz and Felipe sided with the Bavarians while, paradoxically, on the opposite side were two of their brothers. It was in that contest when a cannon shot tore off Götz's right forearm, who, after a painful and long convalescence, replaced it with the prosthesis that we mentioned before and that gave him the aforementioned nickname.
To be exact, he commissioned two:one for everyday life and one for war. They were two separate gauntlets, similar to those used to be made since the Middle Ages for cases like that, whose main characteristic - material apart - was that the fingers were articulated by a dozen little wheels and could move thanks to a ratchet mechanism like the one in flintlock pistols, pressing a spring.
The prostheses differed in that the one in common use had greater precision, to the point that it was capable of holding a pen; the one intended for combat, less subtle, made it easier to hold a shield or the reins of a horse. Another thing was the sword, of course, but Götz managed to keep going; after all, being the boss did not have to personally participate in the fights.
And these were not lacking in the following years, some at the service of the highest bidder, others on their own account to loot when the tribute for protection was not satisfied and some in aid of friends. They were, in a certain way, the last and dying manifestation of a feudalism that was beginning to be left behind in the face of the growing power of kings and the formation of great modern states.
Götz himself recounted up to fifteen conflicts in that period, which ended in 1512, after assaulting a group of Nuremberg merchants who were returning from the great Leipzig fair. Maximilian I outlawed him and confiscated his property. He returned them in exchange for fourteen thousand ducats, but Götz relapsed into his activities and the emperor banned him again in 1518. By then the Swabian League (an association of princes from southern Germany founded in 1488 to defend their cities with an army of thirteen thousand men), so when it went to war with Duke Ulrich von Württemberg, Götz came to help him.
He did not fare well and, defending Möckmühl, he was imprisoned in 1519, being besieged and without supplies. Violating the terms of the surrender, which were to let him go, they locked him up in the Bollwerksturm from Heilbronn; but, being a knight, he was allowed to stay in Gasthaus (Krone) without being locked in a dungeon, under an oath not to escape.
The payment of the corresponding ransom, two thousand ducats, allowed him to go free and retire to Hornberg Castle, which he had ironically bought in 1517 from Konrad Schott von Schottenstein, the one who had captured him. That break lasted six years.
It ended in 1525 with the outbreak of the famous Peasants' War, a series of popular revolts against the Holy Roman Empire that included a complex mix of economic, social, political and religious causes. Götz, like so many others, was swept up in events against his will, forced to fight for the rebels. He would later explain that he was trying to contain his excesses, given that they lacked a military leader, which he did not achieve by the way, and the German camps were stained with blood.
As proof of his sincerity, she stated that he had only been engaged for a month, after which he returned to his castle. However, this did not exempt him from responsibility before the Diet of Speyer (the diet was an assembly of princes of the imperial states and the Church), before which he had to appear at the end of that war, which ended with the crushing of the farmers. The diet declared him innocent in 1526 but he could not return to his castle until a year and a half later, having sworn to appear when called again.
Indeed, in 1528 the Swabian League, eager to settle accounts, demanded his presence in Augsburg. He kept his word... and was taken prisoner. He was released in 1530 paying twenty-five thousand ducats and with the commitment not to carry out looting campaigns again, to remain on his land and always spend the night in his castle. He obeyed for a decade, at the end of which Emperor Charles V claimed him by his side, in urgent need of good soldiers.
And it is that in 1540 a threatening shadow hung over Central Europe:that of the Ottoman Empire, which after its failed attempts to conquer Vienna was reorganizing itself and, taking advantage of the disputes between Catholics and Protestants, Suleiman the Magnificent He was advancing towards Buda, the capital of Hungary.
The sultan felt betrayed by a secret pact between Ferdinand I of Habsburg (the brother of Charles V) and the Transylvanian voivode Juan Szapolyai, who had divided up the Hungarian country behind his back, violating a previous agreement between the three, which came to light. light when Szapolyai had a son whom he immediately proclaimed king.
In fact, the Turks would conquer the city in 1541 in such an unappealable way that Götz did not even have time to intervene and, given the unfavorable situation on the battlefield, it was decided to opt for diplomacy, renegotiating a new three-way treaty. Thus, the military veteran, who was already in his sixties, was able to return home, although he still took part in two more campaigns:one in England in 1544, and another against France. During the latter he fell ill and had to retire, first temporarily and later, with the signing of the Peace of Crépy, permanently.
He then returned to Hornberg, where he spent the rest of his life with his second wife, Dorothea Gailing von Illesheim, whom he had married in 1517 and had seven daughters and three sons. He left an autobiography, titled Lebens-Beschreibung des Herrn Gözens von Berlichingen, which was published in 1731 and served as the basis for Goethe's Götz von Berlichingen , a tragedy released almost half a century later.
In it, the writer puts in the mouth of his character a response -before an exhortation to surrender- that has gone down in history by being adopted as a popular expression and that Mozart himself immortalized in two musical canons:
Fonts
Götz of Berlichingen, the one with the iron hand (Goethe) / Dictionary of historical and fictional characters in German literature (Eva Parra, coordinator) / Introduction to the history of the Modern Age (Ernst Hinrichs) / The German Peasant War of 1525 (Janos Bak, ed) / Wikipedia