The Middle Ages were probably not quite as dark as is often portrayed. Nevertheless, a long-distance journey, for example, was accompanied by enormous hardships and dangers. The entourage of the Polish king’s daughter Hedwig, who reached the city of Landshut on November 14, 1475, was marked by plague and exhaustion. The arduous journey took a good two months with a group of noblewomen, treasurers, servants and trumpeters, and 620 horses traveled with them. Not all participants survived the ride. In the early morning, the Landshut court sent the bride “several princes who received her in the field,” as one writer recorded. As the noble woman approached, she bowed, and the princes bent down very low, the chronicler reports.
It is amazing how many detailed descriptions of the legendary Landshut wedding of 1475 still exist. It is the best-documented festival of the Middle Ages. Not only that all invoices have been handed down. Chroniclers meticulously recorded many events during the week-long feast – including thefts and prostitution. In addition, there is a plethora of numbers and dates, along with the list of guests, the order of the tournament and the menu. Parts of the diplomatic correspondence also survived the times and allow fascinating insights into the events.
This is a stroke of luck, especially for the city of Landshut. Every four years since 1903, it has organized a festival that attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors to commemorate this event. A good 2500 participants present a cross-section of society at the time. Beginning with the emperor, the spectrum ranges from the high nobility, the clergy and the bourgeoisie to lansquenets, jugglers and flag-wavers. The spectacle is organized by an association (“Die Förderer”), which has existed for 120 years and has 7000 members.
It’s been six years since the last LaHo, as the festival in Landshut is often called, took place. Corona has also mixed up the rhythm here, but this really fuels the anticipation of the 42nd performance. The famous LaHo fever is already raging and is gripping almost the entire city. Those who don’t know what to do with it will soon traditionally say goodbye on vacation. The Middle Ages rage not only on the festival grounds for three weeks from the end of June, but also in the old town, where tens of thousands of people enjoy mild summer nights on the stands erected there. “It is like in eternal life”, as they say here.
A knight’s tournament is one of the highlights of the Landshut wedding.
(Photo: Sebastian Beck)
There is already a lot of activity on the tournament ground. All processes for the festival and the knight’s tournament are now being given the finishing touches. The horses must be accustomed to the crowds of spectators as well as to drums and “trumeters”. The knights in particular draw attention to themselves. They show how their predecessors once rode towards each other with their lances and tried to push their opponents off their horses. A spectacular spectacle when you consider that such armor weighs up to 40 kilos and that a knight can only be completely prepared when he is sitting on his horse. “With the full equipment we could not mount the horse,” says “Ritter” Sebastian Ehn. Anyone who slips into this role must be versatile and resilient. The move alone takes more than two hours, and when the sun also burns down on the armor, “you can fry an egg on it,” say experts on the matter.
Historical detail is the top priority. At hardly any other medieval festival do the spectators come as close to historical reality as they do here. Watches, wedding rings, glasses and smartphones are taboo for the participants, as is smoking and cooking with tomatoes and potatoes, because these treasures did not exist in 1475. In order to make the costumes, props, music and jousting as authentic as possible, scientists and experts are constantly researching in archives and museums throughout Europe.
Architecturally, the year 1475 is also very close in Landshut. The old town essentially looks the same as it did in 1500. The bombs of World War II fell far outside the town and left the historic ensemble largely intact. Even the structural sins of the post-war period could not blur the contours of the Gothic city.
You can now delve even deeper into this fascination. The app designed there was released in the Landshut state archive on Tuesday “HiddenLandshut” presented, which offers a virtual tour of the city in 1475. This journey through time relives a day in the life of the young maid Anna during her wedding week. The protagonist tells of the marriage of Duke George the Rich to Hedwig of Poland in real settings. The numbers are still impressive today, as 323 oxen, 1,537 lambs and 40,000 chickens were consumed, along with several tons of river and sea fish and 5,616 buckets of wine.
Numerous historical documents from the State Archives of Bavaria are incorporated into the tour. “The rich fund of original cultural assets should be made visible and tangible to a wide audience,” says Thomas Paringer, head of the Landshut State Archives.
After the lavish party, Hedwig eked out a living at Burghausen Castle, where she gave birth to five children. Two girls survived. Overall we don’t know much about her, she died on February 18, 1502 at the age of 44 and was buried in the church of the Cistercian monastery Raitenhaslach near Burghausen. A commemorative inscription on the floor commemorates them to this day.
The “Landshut Wedding 1475” takes place from June 30th to July 23rd (www.landshuter-hochzeit.de).