Battle of Ane

The Battle of Ane was fought in 1227 between Otto II of Lippe, Bishop of Utrecht, and a group of rebel Drenths.

Background

From the middle of the 11th Century the Bishops of Utrecht were given the lands of Groningen, Overijssel and Drenthe as a fief by the Holy Roman Emperor. The inhabitants of Drenthe were unhappy with the transferal of their rights and taxation to the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Utrecht. The local lords of the Drenthe city of Coevorden, though nominally under the authority of the Bishop, began to oppose him.

The battle

On July 28, 1227 the armies of the Bishop of Utrecht Otto II of Lippe and a large group of rebellious Drenths led by Rudolph of Coevorden met on a field near the present-day village of Ane. The Bishop had traveled to this area to call the rebellious province of Drenthe to order, and he had called up many of his warlords to support him together with a couple of warbands supplied by the Bishops of Munster and Cologne.

The Drenths knew that they did not stand a chance if they faced this army in the field, and they managed to lure the Bishopric army into an area with soft and swampy ground called the ‘’Mommenriete’’. The horses of the Bishop’s army sank into the ground, and the knights with their heavy armour were unable to fight effectively because of this. The Drenthe rebel army was light, and was used to fighting on this kind of ground. This kind of fighting where armoured knights were beaten by light forces because of the soft ground bears many resemblances to the Battle of the Golden Spurs in Flanders in 1302.

The Drenthe rebels managed to beat the Bishop’s forces, and killed most of it including the Bishop Otto II of Lippe, and many of his supporting warlords. Otto’s successor, Wilbrand of Oldenburg, roused the Frisian people into supporting him against the rebellious Drenths which led to the Frisian-Drentic war in 1231-1233.

In 1967 a monument was erected near Ane to commemorate this battle.

Noble casualties

* Duke Gerard III of Gelre (wounded)
* Lord Gijselbert of Amstel
* Otto II of Lippe, Bishop of Utrecht
* Diderick van der Lippe, Bishop of Münster
* Gerhart van der Lippe, Bishop of Bremen
* The lord of Arkel, and his cousin
* Berend van Horstmar, Crusader knight
* Gerhart, Earl of Goor
* Diderick, Earl of Cleve
* Baldewijn, Earl of Bentheim
* Engelbert, Lord of Groningen