page_title: Knights' Revolt
section_title: Brotherly Convention of Knights
hierarchical_section_title: Knights' Revolt / Brotherly Convention of Knights
caption_attribution_description: de:Franz von Sickingen
context_page_description: The Knights' Revolt was a revolt by a number of Protestant and religious humanist German knights led by Franz von Sickingen, against the Roman Catholic Church and the Holy Roman Emperor. It has also been called the "Poor Barons' Rebellion." The revolt was short-lived but would inspire the bloody German Peasants' War of 1524–1526.
context_section_description: Franz von Sickingen, often called the "Last Knight", lived most of his life along the Rhine. After spending some time in the service of the Emperor Maximillian against Venice, he spent many years terrorizing cities and princes up and down the Rhine, which made him a very rich man. When the election of 1519 took place, he accepted heavy bribes from Francis I of France, but eventually led his troops to Frankfurt where their presence helped to ensure the victory of Charles V. After this, Von Sickingen mounted an invasion of French Picardy for Charles.
  Sickingen became acquainted with Ulrich von Hutten, a religious humanist knight.  Together, Hutten and Sickingen formulated a series of suggested reforms calling for the abolition of all independent principalities, for the unification of all German-speaking lands under one national government, the secularization of all church principalities and estates, and establishment of a "noblemen's democracy headed by a monarch."  Hutten and Sickingen hoped that this program would be sufficient to encourage the peasantry to enthusiastically join the knights in bringing about reform.
  Under Hutten's influence, Sickingen's castle of Ebernburg became a centre of Renaissance humanist and later Lutheran thinking, with many pamphlets emanating from the castle. Sickingen helped Johann Reuchlin escape from the Dominicans of Cologne, and sheltered other reformers such as Martin Bucer and Johannes Oecolampadius. He even offered shelter to Martin Luther after the Diet of Worms, but Luther chose to stay with Frederick of Saxony instead.
  In 1522, while the Emperor was in Spain, Sickingen convened a "Brotherly Convention’ of Knights". The Convention elected him as their leader, and resolved to take by force that which the knights had been unable to obtain through their poor representation in the Reichstag. The target chosen by the knights to start their revolt was Richard Greiffenklau, Archbishop of Trier, a staunch opponent of Luther and his supporters. The excuse used for the attack was an unpaid ransom by two city councillors to another knight who had captured them some years ago. Sickingen’s declaration of war was full of religious rhetoric designed to encourage the people of the city to surrender and overthrow their archbishop, and so save the knights the trouble of a siege.
caption: The ringleader of the knights: Franz von Sickingen
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