Painting of the First Battle of Villmergen by Franz Ludwig Raufft, c. 1700
Date
5 January – 7 March 1656
(2 months and 2 days)
Location
Old Swiss Confederacy
Result
Catholic victory
Third Landfrieden
Status quo ante bellum
Belligerents
Zürich Bern Schaffhausen
Lucerne Uri Schwyz Unterwalden Zug
Commanders and leaders
Hans Rudolf Werdmüller Sigmund von Erlach
Christoph Pfyffer von Altishofen
The First War of Villmergen[1] was a Swiss religious war which lasted from 5 January until 7 March 1656, at the time of the Old Swiss Confederacy. On one side were the Protestant cantons of Zürich and Bern, on the other the Catholic cantons of Central Switzerland. The Protestants tried to break the political hegemony of the Catholics, that had been in existence ever since the Second Kappel Landfrieden of 1531. The casus belli was the expulsion and execution of Protestants from the Schwyz commune of Arth. The Zürcher unsuccessfully besieged the Central Swiss-allied city of Rapperswil and thereby drove their forces together. The Bernese were defeated and repelled in the First Battle of Villmergen. The Third Landfrieden ended the conflict and restored the pre-war balance of power.
First War of Villmergen (1656) Toggenburg War or Second WarofVillmergen (1712) Sonderbund War (1847) Johannes Salat Helmut Meyer: Warsof Kappel in German...
Second Warof Kappel, two years later. Second Warof Kappel (1531) FirstWarofVillmergen (1656) Toggenburg War or Second WarofVillmergen (1712) Sonderbund...
canton of Aargau: a battle of the FirstWarofVillmergen, fought on 24 January 1656 a battle of the Toggenburg War (or Second WarofVillmergen), fought...
Villmergen is a municipality in the district of Bremgarten in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland. Two famous battles took place at Villmergen. In 2010...
War of Villmergen (1656) Toggenburg War or Second WarofVillmergen (1712) Restoration (Switzerland) Switzerland as a federal state List ofwars between...
piemontesi) of April 1655, in the Duchy of Savoy The FirstWarofVillmergen (1656) in the Old Swiss Confederacy The Second Anglo-Dutch War (1665–1667)...
erupting in further violence at the FirstWarofVillmergen, in 1656, and the Toggenburg War (or Second WarofVillmergen), in 1712. In 1798, the revolutionary...
ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923. January 5 – The FirstWarofVillmergen, a civil war in the Confederation of Switzerland...
religious refugees from Schwyz who had fled to Zürich erupted in the FirstWarofVillmergen. The Catholics were victorious and able to maintain their political...
courts of Europe. The confessional tensions remained, however, and erupted again in the FirstWarofVillmergen, in 1656, and the Toggenburg War (or Second...
the FirstWarofVillmergen (1656), during which Zurich briefly occupied the Thurgau. In 1798 the land became a canton for the first time as part of the...
1656 with the outbreak of the FirstWarofVillmergen. Following the expulsion, handing over to the Inquisition, or execution of numerous reformed individuals...
reconverted them to Catholicism. In the FirstWarofVillmergen, in 1656, and the Toggenburg War (or Second WarofVillmergen), in 1712, the Freie Ämter became...
formation of the Swiss cantons by Napoleon in 1799. In 1656 and 1712 (the FirstWarofVillmergen and the Toggenburg War, or Second WarofVillmergen, respectively)...
in the canton of Lucerne. Three years later, he again commanded Catholic troops in the FirstwarofVillmergen, when he led the defence of Rapperswil against...
with force. He also commanded the troops of Bern in the FirstWarofVillmergen, a religiously motivated civil war in the Old Swiss Confederacy that the...
background to the FirstWarofVillmergen (1656), during which Zurich briefly occupied the Thurgau. Thurgau became an administrative unit of the Helvetic Republic...
Protestant cantons gained power after their victory in the second warofVillmergen). The Catholic cantons were excluded from administering the condominiums...
notable among these are the Battle of Sempach (1386), the Burgundian Wars (1470s) and the Swabian War (1499). The string of Swiss victories is broken in the...
the Bernese at the First Battle ofVillmergen on 24 January 1656. Hostilities ceased on 20 February and the treaty ofVillmergenof 7 March reinstalled...
upheaval. Battles of the Kappelerkriegs (1528–1531), the FirstWarofVillmergen, in 1656, and the Toggenburg War (or Second WarofVillmergen), in 1712 (collectively...
1655–1660 Second Northern War 1656 WarofVillmergen 1666 Second Bremian War 1666–1671 Polish–Cossack–Tatar War 1667–1668 Warof Devolution – 4,000 killed...
Global Information
Zürich 
Bern 
Schaffhausen
Lucerne 
Uri 
Schwyz 
Unterwalden 
Zug