Florian Geyer - German Peasants' War

German Peasants' War

Geyer, like many knights, originally sided with Luther against the Roman Catholic hierarchy during Protestant Reformation in Germany in the 16th century.

When the German Peasants' War broke out in 1524, spurred on by Martin Luther's teachings, German Protestants were divided along class lines. Protestant peasants and silver miners, led by Thomas Müntzer, began taking over farms and mines. Müntzer also called for the abolition of all political posts except for that of the Emperor (who in the Holy Roman Empire was elected by landholders—who Müntzer asserted would now include peasants and miners). Martin Luther thought this had gone too far, and sided with Protestant aristocrats who only wanted clerical reforms, calling upon peasants to put down their arms and surrender their farms. Müntzer's radical faction concluded that Luther was a traitor and continued to fight against both Catholic and Lutheran nobles.

Florian Geyer, together with a handful of dissident low-ranking knights and several hundred hastily-trained peasant militiamen, established the Black Company (often called the Black Host or Black Band), which was possibly the only heavy cavalry division in European history to fight on the side of a peasant revolution. By checking Imperial and Protestant knights on the battlefield, the Black Company allowed Müntzer's motivated infantry to score a string of victories and liberate huge swaths of the German countryside. Geyer became a notable folk hero in Franconia and the whole of Germany. All sides credited him with the wanton destruction of cathedrals and castles, and summary executions of the lords and priests contained therein; the cruelty and extent of these activities is, however, disputed.

As the Peasants' War dragged on, many of the rebel peasants returned home, and most of the knights who, alongside Geyer, had joined Müntzer deserted or defected. Müntzer himself was defeated at the Battle of Frankenhausen and executed shortly afterwards.