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n Where the river Rhine enters a narrow valley belownBingen, there is a small, rocky island midstream on which the Romans built anwatchtower, which fell down often and was often rebuilt. In the mid-tenthncentury, Hatto II, Archbishop of Mainz, had this tower rebuilt and he placednarmed men in it, who fired on ships that refused to pay the Archbishop’s tollnto pass up and down the narrows. He was an ambitious man, proud and avaricious,nwho imposed taxes and tolls on the poor people who lived in his archbishopric,nbuilding for himself great wealth and influence.
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| Bingen |
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nHis tower was called the Mauthturm,nwhich means the ‘toll-tower’, but it became known as the Mäuseturm,nthat is ‘Mouse-tower’, because, some said, it stood like a cat waitingnfor mice (the ships) and snatched them up in its claws. Others say the name isna corruption of muserie, a type of cannon that was fired at the shipsnthat either refused to pay the toll or tried to sneak past without payment.
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| The Mouse Tower |
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nButnthere is another legend that accounts for the name. There was a disastrouslynwet summer in the 960s (accounts vary as to the date) and water stood in thenusually fertile fields until the beginning of winter, causing the grain crop tonrot in the mud. Food became scarce but Hatto packed his barns with whatnlittle grain could be harvested, regardless of the fate of his subjects. Thingsnworsened as winter’s grip took a cold hold and a great famine seized Germany,nas bread became a scant luxury. The starving people appealed to theirnArchbishop for aid, begging for some of the grain stacked in his manynwell-stocked barns but their appeals fell on Hatto’s deaf ears. In his richnepiscopal palace, the heedless Hatto continued to feast in opulent indifferencento the fate of his flock.
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| The Mouse Tower |
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nAgain and again they appealed to his mercy and againnand again they were met with refusal and all seemed hopeless when, against allnthe odds, Hatto suddenly relented and issued an order that any people whonlacked food, or the money to pay for the inflated prices of what little wasnavailable, should come to his great barn at Kaub. From the hamlets and farms,nthe pitiful peasants flocked to Hatto’s bountiful barn, grateful to theirnbishop and singing praises to his goodness and mercy, thanking God fornsoftening his heart. They packed themselves into his barn until it was so fullnthat no more could fit inside, whereupon the Archbishop ordered his soldiers tonbar up the doors and fasten the windows tight. Then he took a torch and set hisnbarn alight, burning all the poor unfortunates inside to death; as they died innagony in the inferno the cruel-hearted Hatto was heard to remark,
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n“Listen!nhow the mice are squeaking among the corn. This eternal begging is at an end atnlast.”n
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| The Mouse Tower |
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nWhen at last the massacre was ended and the barn and its contentsnreduced to cinders, the contented Archbishop went back to his castle and satndown to a sumptuous feast, stuffing himself with the best that his deep pursencould afford. But his self-satisfied satiety was interrupted by a serving man,nwho brought news that the Archbishop’s barns were being ravaged by a plague ofnrats and mice and his great stores of grain were all lost to the rampagingnrodents. Hatto took to his bed and slept fitfully, more upset at the loss ofnhis riches rather than the innocent lives he had taken so callously, and whennhe rose on the following morning and looked from his window, he saw that thenrats had stripped every scrap of vegetation from the countryside surroundingnhis castle. Worse yet, he then discovered that they had got into his palace andnhad eaten his recently completed portrait, leaving nothing but an empty framenon the floor.
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| He went off at full gallop |
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nIn a blind panic, Hatto leapt onto his horse and forced it to thenbank of the Rhine, where he dived into a boat and rowed madly for the islandnacross the swift, foaming waters and the safety of his tall toll-tower. Micenswarmed behind him, chasing him as he fled, drowning in their thousands as theyndived into the river in his wake but with a innumerable flood of them pursuingnhim onto the rocky island. Hatto crashed into his tower, slamming the greatnoaken doors and barring them behind himself, hurling himself up the stairs andninto the uppermost guardroom.
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| The Mice and the Mouse Tower |
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nIt was all in vain, as legions of mice gnawedndown the doors, swarmed up the walls, flooded in through the windows, scamperednupwards and through the floors, a black, writhing, vengeful mass that invadednthe tower and sought out the cowering Hatto. In their thousands they devourednhim, gnawing and nibbling, biting and tearing with chisel-sharp teeth untilnnothing was left of the avaricious archbishop but a pile of white bones.
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| Eaten by mice |
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nThat,nsay some, is why it is called the Mouse Tower. Hatto was an archbishop of Mainznbut was really no better nor worse than any other archbishop of his times – henwas ambitious and proud, it is true, but the story of burning the barn and thenmassacre of the peasants has no basis in history.
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| Hatto and the mice |
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nThe poet laureate RobertnSouthey wrote a poem inspired by the legend, God’s Judgement on a WickednBishop, first published in the Morning Post of November 27thn1799,
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n“And in at the windows and in at the door,n
nAnd through the wallsnhelter-skelter they pour,n
nAnd down through the ceiling, and up through thenfloor,n
nFrom the right and the left, from behind and before,n
nFrom within andnwithout, from above and below,n
nAnd all at once to the Bishop they go.n
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nThey havenwhetted their teeth against the stones,n
nAnd now they pick the Bishop’s bones;n
nThey gnawed the flesh from every limb,n
nFor they were sent to do judgment on him.”n
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nAnd people criticise McGonagall!
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