Rich array 1475

In its heyday in the 14th and early 15 Century, Soest had developed, not least by promoting their overlord, the archbishop of Cologne, a rich city. With increasing self-awareness is increasingly trying to reduce the influence of the bishop, this in turn tried to consolidate his power and expand.
The tension culminated in the Feud of Soest (1445-1449), in which the city's unprecedented transition from one ruler to another - from the archbishop of Cologne, the Duke of Cleves - took place.
Behind these two rivals were allies, coalitions and mercenaries; participation ranged from Bohemia to Burgundy, and gave the conflict, which now also played into differences between the Pope in Rome and the (reform) Council of Basel, a European dimension.
At the height of the feud in the summer of 1447 tried the Archbishop Dietrich von Moers, the resistance of the city from a siege to break it. With a Bohemian and Thuringian mercenaries from existing as well as our own and allied troops army, he joined a city, and after some initial successes, however, he went from the middle, which made for a bad mood among his soldiers. In this situation, the bishop decided to put everything on one card and the city overcome by a major assault on the wall. The attack failed, not only because of the
brave and stubborn resistance of the Soest, but also because of the attacker probably some mistakes were made. Such were, for example, some of the used scaling ladders too short ...
After this failure, and because of the insolvency of the Archbishop had to be abandoned the siege. The soldiers marched away, Soest was rescued. But until two years later, in April 1449, peace was concluded; Soest had prevailed and enforced.