540
years ago on this date, May 9, 1474, a German Military and Civil Commander,
Peter Von Hagenbach, was beheaded for war crimes. Despite the fact there was no
explicit use of a doctrine of command responsibility it is seen as the first
trial based on that principle. I will post the information about him from
Wikipedia and other links.
 |
| Hagenbach on trial, from Berner Chronik des Diebold Schilling dem Älteren. |
Peter von Hagenbach (or Pierre de Hagenbach or Pietro di Hagenbach or Pierre
d’Archambaud or Pierre d'Aquenbacq, circa 1420 – May 9, 1474) was a
Bourguignon knight from Alsace and Germanic military and civil commander.
He
was born into an Alsatian-Burgundian family, originally from Hagenbach and
owned a castle there.
He
was instated as bailiff of Upper Alsace by Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy,
to administer the territories and rights in Upper Alsace which had been
mortgaged by Duke Sigmund of Further Austria for 50,000 florins in the Treaty
of St. Omer in 1469. There he coined the term Landsknecht—from German, Land
("land, country") + Knecht ("servant"). It was
originally intended to indicate soldiers of the lowlands of the Holy Roman
Empire as opposed to the Swiss mercenaries. As early as 1500 the misleading
spelling of Lanzknecht became common because of the association with Lanze
("lance").
Following
a rebellion by towns of the Upper Rhine against his tyranny, Hagenbach was put
on trial for the atrocities committed during the occupation of Breisach, found
guilty of war crimes, and beheaded at Breisach am Rhein. His trial by an ad hoc
tribunal of the Holy Roman Empire in 1474, was the first “international”
recognition of commanders’ obligations to act lawfully. He was convicted of
crimes "he as a knight was deemed to have a duty to prevent." He
defended himself by arguing that he was only following orders, from the Duke of
Burgundy to whom the Holy Roman Empire had given Breisach. Despite the fact
there was no explicit use of a doctrine of command responsibility it is seen as
the first trial based on that principle.
OTHER LINKS:
No comments:
Post a Comment