Thread by @MikeStuchbery_

This is a story that goes to show that history can offer far more extraordinary tales than something like Game of Thrones can provide. It is also a story about the end of an era, a dying world. It is the story of Hans Thomas Von Absberg. THREAD 1/

At the dawn of the 16th century, the old world of feudal dominion and martial force was beginning to slip away across Europe.

The world of knights ruling their own small fiefdoms in the service of greater lirds, of warlords, essentially, was ebbing. /2

Instead, Free Imperial Cities, Electors & Prince Bishops vied for imperial influence, both militarily and at the court of the Holy Roman Emperor.

Between the cities, banking families like the Fuggers made the connections that would build a world we recognize. /2

That's not to say that there weren't still many minor nobles that still existed, squeezed by the great free imperial cities and electors rubbing up against one another.

Such a noble was Hans Thomas Von Absberg, a knight of a venerable Franconian family, born in 1477. /3

Von Absberg was born at the end of an age of knights feuding with one another over territory - situated in the lands between Swabia & Bavaria, he was raised pursuing any number of squabbles with other knights in the Franconian hills.

His was a warrior lifestyle. /3

Not for Von Absberg going into the church, or starting a bank. No making himself obsequious in front of the nouveau riché.

For Von Absberg, this meant life as a 'robber baron' to maintain his lifestyle - kidnapping & abducting nobles & important figures, ransoming them. /4

From around 1511, Von Absberg began preying on travellers between cities like Nuremberg, Augsburg and Würzburg.

Once he captured a victim of importance, he would sever a hand with a kind of blade called a dussack to send to their family as proof that he held them. /5

I never said Von Absberg was a good guy. /6

In 1520, Von Absberg managed to score a particularly valuable set of hostages - a banker and an advisor to the Emperor.

Knowing the huge ransom he could get for them, he conspired with a number of local knights to move them between castles, like Burg Hohenstein here. /7

At this point, the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V asked the Swabian League - a collection of southern German cities - to begin to pursue Von Absberg and any knight who collaborated with him. /8

Prior to launching their expedition, the Swabian League drew up a list of 23 castles to be targeted by their troops.

Each was given the chance to surrender and swear an oath of loyalty.

They would otherwise be destroyed. /9

A woodcutter named Hans Wandereisen accompanied the expedition to catch Von Absberg.

He was there to create images to send a message.

He was there when they burned Von Absberg's ancestral home to the ground on July 21, 1523. /10

A number of other castles, owned by friends and family members of Von Absberg, was destroyed.

Some were tortured for information about where Von Absberg & his prisoners were. None relented. /11

They never captured Von Absberg. They never even got close. Whenever they did, he'd dip across into the forests of Bohemia, where he had friends.

Oh, sure, the hostages managed to escape, but he took plenty more. The region was a dangerous place to travel for another decade. /12

It wasn't the Swabian League, or an imperial ally that did Von Absberg in. If you believe the stories, it was an ally, possibly disgruntled by the harsh punishment his family had received by the Swabian League.

The stories say he was found dead in a field on 3rd July, 1531. /13

After Von Absberg, there weren't many more robber barons. Their time had now come to an end.

If there was any danger, it came from the common folk. Their anger would lead to the Peasant's War in 1525. /14

Over the centuries, Von Absberg became more a legend than the very real danger that he was in life.

In the 19th century he was the subject of plays and short stories - a symbol of rugged Franconian individuality. /15

Today Von Absberg is almost forgotten, but the stories about him and the expedition to capture him are still told in the small towns below the castles he & his henchmen used to meet in. /16

I think the old rogue deserves more, as the last of his kind. One day I may write a fictionalised account of his war against the new world rolling unceasingly towards him. /17

There's precious little about Von Absberg in English, but if you have any questions, just ask and I'll see if I can give you a hand. See what I did there? Heh. /FIN.