The Bread Massacre was a slaughter of unemployed Imperial war veterans in the winter of 1111 IC by the direct order of Emperor Boris I Hohenbach in the Imperial capital of Altdorf. The emperor had recently revoked the tax exemption status of the Dienstleute, the soldiers employed by the Elector Counts. Unable now to afford paying their soldiers in the wake of the new tax, many of the lords began to dismiss from their service thousands of troops. Wilhelm Engel, a seasoned veteran, managed to organize five thousand veterans to march on the capital and petition the emperor for relief. Their demands were simple: bread to feed them and employment.[1a][1b]
Boris was enraged at this sign of disobedience and organised the Kaiserjaeger, the secret police of Altdorf, and its leader Adolf Kreyssig to ambush them. Kreyssig also learned that a knightly order stationed in Altdorf, the Reiksknecht were going to publicly defy the emperor and retreat inside their fortified headquarters for a siege, causing a humiliation for the ruler.[1c]
The stealthy former huntsmen of the Kaiserjaege placed caltrops surrounding the knights during the foggy morning of the protest and prepared an ambush in the mist. The knights soon found themselves surrounded and trapped. Bravely, they charged out anyway, many dying to arrows or impaled on the caltrops. Any survivors were gutted with halberds and swords except for the Grand Master who was taken alive for public execution.[1c]
Meanwhile, Kreyssig sent the rest of his troops to begin running down the protesting veterans. Many were taken to prison, but many more were killed by crossbows, slashed by swords, or impaled with halberds. The surviving protesters hid in the poor sections of the city. Not satisfied with even one of them escaping, Kreyssig locked down any hospitals and other places of healing, knowing that many of the wounded would head there for shelter.[1c]