The Starkenberg feud and the siege inventory of Greifenstein Castle from 1426

To this day, castle sieges still spark the collective imagination about the Middle Ages. In reality, however, it is only possible to record and reconstruct the details of a few individual siege cases using surviving yet oftentimes fragmentary records. The manuscript “Hs. 198” from the Tyrolean State Archive (Tiroler Landesarchiv) provides a rare insight into the details of a late medieval castle siege in the Alpine region by providing information on the so-called Starkenberg feud, including the people involved, the chronological sequence of events, and the equipment used by the troops. The manuscript, which was created only a short while after the conquest of Greifenstein Castle on November 26, 1426, lists the food, equipment, weapons, and armor found in the conquered castle, as well as the objects and materials present in the ducal troops' encampment. The record itself is more than a simple inventory providing a list of items owned; it is instead a collection of various texts assembled when the Starkenberg family castles were acquired during the feud between the Starkenberg family and Duke Friedrich IV of Austria from 1422 to 1426.

The structure of the manuscript

The manuscript opens with a letter to the ducal gunsmith (Büchsenmeister), Christoph, followed by a list of utensils, tools, military equipment, food, and armor. Following this, it provides a brief recounting of the Starkenberg family castles conquered by ducal troops, including the date of capture and the costs of provisioning the troops stationed there. A third section of the manuscript contains several lists of names, most of which were recorded in a peculiar mixture of Latin and German. Several names are accompanied by a documentation of monies paid to the individuals, or occasionally, by mentions of equipment (that is, armor or weapons) provided to them, as is often the case in account books.

However, the collection of names and invoices found in Hs. 198 leaves the reader with the impression that the manuscript was never fully completed. In several sections, large spaces have been left blank, sentences break off seemingly at random in the middle of the manuscript, and some sections are either marked with marginalia or have deletions or subsequent additions. All of these features suggest that the manuscript was a “work-in-progress,” not a fair copy, even if the script, a type of a Gothic chancery cursive, was written neatly and carefully throughout in the manner of early 15th-century chanceries. Moreover, it seems that several bound slips of paper, which do not conform in length to the narrow folio-page format in the rest of the manuscript, may have first been copied as loose documents and then added in at a later date.

An outline of the historical context

This inventory is not only a list of people and things, it is also a record of human conflict in the late Middle Ages. From 1422–1426, a feud raged between two members of a powerful noble family from the County of Tyrol, the brothers Ulrich I and Wilhelm of Starkenberg, and Duke Friedrich IV of Austria. The dispute began on November 30, 1422, when the citizens of the town of Hall in Tyrol handed over a letter of feud to the Starkenberg family on behalf of the Duke. On the same day, the troops from Hall began the siege of Altstarkenberg, the Starkenberg's ancestral castle, located near the village of Tarrenz.

Over the following three years, the conflict waged on both sides with all the military and political means at their disposal. To wage battle, Duke Friedrich IV relied primarily on forces from the towns and markets, several noble houses loyal to him, and the peasant population of the county. By the summer of 1424, the sovereign had conquered all of the family's castles except Greifenstein, thereby forcing the Starkenbergs on the defensive.

Siege and inventory of Greifenstein Castle

From the winter of 1422/1423, Greifenstein was besieged by a provincial army under the leadership of Vogt Wilhelm von Matsch, the brother-in-law of the two Starkenbergs. Alongside Schenna Castle near Meran and Altstarkenberg near Tarrenz, the nearly impregnable Greifenstein Castle was one of the three centers of Starkenberg rule and the residence of Wilhelm von Starkenberg, who was able to successfully defend the fortress with his men-at-arms for an extended time. Moreover, the castle garrison made several raids and attacked the duke's possessions in the surrounding area.

It was not until the turn of the year 1425-1426, when an arsenal of cannons and heavy siege machines was positioned in front of the castle that the deadlock came to an end. The prince's gunsmith, Christoph, was commissioned to cast two cannons in the field in front of Greifenstein. Evidence of this can still be found in the inventory records of Hs. 198, including references to the cannons, smelting furnaces, and the copper ore needed to manufacture them.

After Greifenstein finally surrendered on 26 November 1426, the inventory recorded not only the materials and objects in the field in front of the castle, but also the weapons, tools, armor, furniture and supplies from the captured fortress, revealing the wide range of belongings found in and around the castle and providing insight into the material culture and composition of siege equipment.

The lists of names

In addition to the introductory letter and the inventory, the lists of names found in the manuscript (fol. 11r–19v) provide information about the composition of Duke Friedrich’s fighting units, and in particular, those assembled in front of Altstarkenberg Castle, not Greifenstein. Several surnames on the list reveal the primary occupations of the combatants, such as Taschner ("purser"), Kaufman ("merchant"), Schneider ("tailor"), Schüster ("shoemaker"), and Goltsmid ("goldsmith"), suggesting that the contingent was comprised largely of town citizens. On one occasion, there is a clear reference to the bourgeois status of a combatant: Pertl Hönigler qui erat civis ("...who is a citizen") (fol. 14br). This reference, in combination with a note in one of the introductory headings indicating Qui concedunt pecunia in Starchenberg ("They who granted money in Starkenberg") (fol. 13r), suggest that the men listed were part of the civic regiment of the town of Hall (a town known principally for its salt production), who attacked Altstarkenberg Castle in the name of Duke Friedrich. In fact, several of the people listed in the manuscript can be clearly identified as members of Hall town’s council or as other high-ranking citizens. In total, 48 of the 95 people have been identified as members of Hall's citizenry, including council family members—such as the Kripp, Hönigler, Fuchsmagen and Ahen (see table below)—who were also usually designated as field captains. That Duke Friedrich relied on the troops from the city of Hall, and that these forces were notably effective, had already been demonstrated in the conflicts of the 14th and early 15th centuries, such as during the Bavarian invasions of 1363 and 1368 or the uprising of Heinrich von Rottenburg in 1410. Contemporary sources also reveal that the late medieval forces in Hall were structured according to respective city districts. Hall's account book for the year 1424, for example, contains the following entry: Item als man fuessvolk und rossvolk aus den vier fiertailen ausgezogen hat und als man hawbtläwt gesetzt hat der fiertail ("the infantry and cavalry were mobilized from the four districts, and siege engines were deployed by the respective district") which confirms the involvement of military forces in the course of the ducal feud. The citizens of Hall effectively transported the city's siege engines across the Inn River to Altstarkenberg, thereby increasing the pressure on the besieged with these weapons.

Conclusion

The manuscript “Hs. 198” from the Tyrolean State Archive offers a rare glimpse into the intricacies of a late medieval castle siege and sheds light on the logistics, equipment, and personnel involved in the Starkenberg feud. While the document's incomplete nature and occasional gaps suggest it was still a work in progress, it provides significant insights into the composition of Duke Friedrich IV’s military forces, particularly the involvement of civic militias (avant la lettre) from Hall. The detailed inventory of Greifenstein Castle after its capture not only chronicles the material culture of the period but also highlights the complex military organization and strategies employed in the siege, including the use of siege engines and gunpowder artillery. This manuscript, through its lists of fighters, weaponry, and provisions, enriches our understanding of late medieval warfare in the Alpine region and the role of towns and their citizenry in larger conflicts during the 15th century.

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