Second war of Kappel

The second war of Kappel (Zweiter Kappelerkrieg) was an armed conflict in 1531 between the protestant and the catholic cantons of the Old Swiss Confederacy during the reformation in Switzerland. The tensions between the two parties had not been resolved by the peace concluded after the first war of Kappel two years earlier, and provocations from both sides continued unabatedly.

Related Topics:
1531 - Protestant - Catholic - Cantons - Old Swiss Confederacy - Reformation in Switzerland - First war of Kappel

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The direct cause of this war was the refusal of the catholic cantons to help the Three Leagues (Drei Bünde) in the Grisons in the Musso war against the Duchy of Milan. Zürich promptly considered this a breach of contracts between the confederacy and the Three Leagues and declared an embargo against the five alpine catholic cantons, in which Berne also participated. While the other cantons had successfully mediated in 1529, this failed this time, and on October 11, 1531, the catholic cantons decisively defeated the forces of Zürich in the battle of Kappel am Albis. Huldrych Zwingli, who led the troops of Zürich, was killed on the battlefield. After a further defeat near Menzingen, the protestant cantons had to agree to a peace treaty, the so-called Zweiter Landfrieden, which forced the dissolution of the protestant alliance. It gave catholicism the priority in the common territories, but allowed communes that had already converted to remain protestant. Only strategically important places such as the Freiamt or those along the route from Schwyz to the Rhine valley at Sargans (and thus to the alpine passes in the Grisons) were forcibly recatholicised. Politically, this gave the catholic cantons a majority in the Tagsatzung, the federal diet of the confederacy.

Related Topics:
Grisons - Musso war - Duchy of Milan - Zürich - Embargo - Berne - 1529 - October 11 - 1531 - Kappel am Albis - Huldrych Zwingli - Menzingen - Freiamt - Sargans - Tagsatzung

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