Simplicius Simplicissimus
From September 1635 to June 1636, Hanau was unsuccessfully besieged by imperial troops under General Guillaume de Lamboy. This siege proved the value of the modern defensive system, which had been constructed only a few years before. Thousands of refugees fled from the surrounding villages into the town. Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen used the occupation of Hanau by the Swedish and the siege as background in his picaresque novel "Simplicius Simplicissimus". After a nine-month siege, the city was relieved by an army under Landgrave Wilhelm V of Hesse-Kassel. He was Philipp Moritz's brother-in-law, as he had married Philipp Moritz's sister, Amalie Elisabeth. A church service was held annually to commemorate the relief. After 1800, this developed into an annual "Lamboy festival".