In modern times, the nation state of Switzerland has the reputation of being a peaceful nation,
neutral in all conflicts since at least the Napoleonic Wars. However, the Swiss of the
past were anything but peaceful. Welcome to our first of two videos on the Swiss Reislaufer
mercenaries, arguably the first soldiers of early modern war.
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The ‘original’ inhabitants of the modern Switzerland were the infamous Celtic Helvetii
tribe eventually subdued by Julius Caesar and the Romans beginning in the first century
BC, becoming freeborn citizens of the Empire like so many others around the Mediterranean
world. Despite suffering many invasions after the fall of the Western Empire, the inhabitants
of the lands which would later become known as Switzerland remained free and independent
until the late thirteenth century. Such autonomy was primarily a function of geography. Even
today, when picturing Switzerland in our minds, we get the impression of a naturally beautiful
land spotted with forested hills, valleys and mountain ranges, and this influenced the
region’s political structures. The many valley communities of modern day Switzerland,
divided by treacherous mountain ranges as they were, were often just left to run their
own affairs. Despite being technically subjects of the Holy Roman Emperor, they enjoyed a
status of ‘Imperial Immediacy’, which granted them a degree of autonomy. The oligarchic
nature of these communities at the local level, which came to be known as ‘cantons’, was
contrasted by a sense of autonomy at the regional, national and international level. They were
used to enjoying and defending their own collective way of life. The relatively hostile landscape
provided the baseline for potential combat readiness among the population. Even among
young boys, the threat of hostile wildlife such as wolves and bears, complimented by
the possible menace presented by aggressive neighbors made martial skill and self defence
necessary.
1291 was a crucial year in Swiss history and to the development of its population into
formidable troops. Three small cantons on the shore of Lake Lucerne - Uri, Schwyz and
Unterwalden, collectively known as the Waldstatte, or ‘forest cantons’, formed an alliance
known as the Schweizerische - the Swiss Confederation. But what prompted such autonomous and often
feuding local communities into making this alliance? Increasing domestic prosperity in
the Swiss lands during the thirteenth century was primarily due to pasturing of horses and
cattle, leading to a sharp increase in production of dairy products. The increasing size of
economic structures was naturally beneficial to the inhabitants of valleys and cities alike,
while the development of transportation infrastructure in the Gotthard mountain pass, beginning in
the 1220s, facilitated more efficient commercial activity with the Low Countries and Italy,
and the region’s prosperity painted an obvious target on the back of the cantons. Late in
the thirteenth century, the Austrian Habsburgs started coveting the control of the increasing
traffic between two halves of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1291, Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor
Rudolf I encroached on the confederation’s independence by seizing the crucial city of
Lucerne, and this led to the creation of this alliance.
Swiss infantry tactics underwent a substantial transformation during the wars for freedom
and independence which began in the late 1200s and went on for centuries after. However,
the development can be divided can be divided into two main stages: the first period ranging
from 1315 to 1422 and then the second from 1444 to 1499 and beyond. First we’ll go
through the initial stage, characterised by the employment of simple and yet deadly tactics
to gain victory. One of the first of the occasions where such tactics were used was at the pass
of Morgarten in 1315. Schwyz was one of the first Waldstatte to assert its autonomy against
the Habsburgs by plundering a protected monastery at Einsiedeln, an act which naturally prompted
a military response. They faced an Austrian army of around 9,000 troops, including 2,000
of the finest and noblest mounted knights of the Empire, commanded by Holy Roman Emperor
Leopold I. It’s worth noting that at this time in military history, the mounted knight
was the elite of feudal society and the creme de la creme of medieval armies. This highly
trained, well equipped fighting man would crush their opponent of Swiss peasants with
ease, or so it was thought. Realising that this relatively large Austrian force, at least
by medieval standards, vastly outnumbered their own modest 1,300 men, the Schwyzer population
retreated behind a sophisticated system of earthworks and palisades. Leopold I was aware
of this and chose to advance at its weakest point, through the pass at Morgarten.
As the Austrian army approached the pass in a long column, its vanguard of knights found
the route to be blocked by enemy defences. Detouring around this, they then engaged a
small group of enemies stubbornly blocking their line of march at the hamlet of Schafstetten.
When this stubborn group managed to block the austrians, it turned a mobile army into
just a static, exposed mass of men. One group of Swiss was used to block the knightly vanguard
from their infantry comrades by blocking the narrow path with debris, while the other charged
out of the woods and engaged the vanguard of enemy knights. A shower of stones was used
as a makeshift missile weapon, before the ferocious axe and halberd-wielding Swiss infantry
charged and cut the Austrians to pieces after driving them into the marshes behind. 2,000
invading troops met their deaths at Morgarten, most of them knights. This battle struck fear
into the mounted nobles of Europe, and showed that the Swiss lacked any respect for them
or for the gentile viewpoint that battles had to be fought like a tournament with ethics
and etiquette. It was the benefits of a surprise attack, combined with skillful use of the
terrain which resulted in Swiss success at Morgarten. However, favourable terrain wasn’t
the only situation in which men of the cantons were skilled fighters, as shown at Laupen
in 1339, when another Swiss force defeated its enemy on an open field
As the fourteenth century wore on, initial signatories of the confederacy were joined
by other cantons, such as Lucerne, Zurich, Zug and Bern. At the same time, ambitious
Austrian duke Leopold III precipitated hostilities by attempting to expand his domains into Switzerland,
resulting in the beginning of war in late 1385. When the two armies met northeast of
Sempach on July 9th 1386, the two main Austrian columns were confronted by a Swiss vanguard
advancing rapidly, seeking to gain its terrain advantage. Neither force had to time deploy
effectively in this rushed situation, but the Austrian knights were forced to dismount
due to the unsuitability of the land for a cavalry attack. Shortly before midday, the
lightly armoured confederate halberdiers clash with the dismounted lance-bearing knights
of Leopold in a wedge formation, its point angled to the right flank. Despite the better
equipped Austrians dealing significant casualties at first, the dogged Swiss did not flinch,
and reconfigured their formation. Showing the grit which would eventually be so valued
in the Swiss, it is reported that one soldier known as Winkelried bravely threw himself
at the lances of the knights opposing him, jumping on the points and snapping their shafts
in the process. With their ‘pike shell’ broken, the dismounted Austrian knights were
no match for the lethal Swiss halberdiers, who quickly poured through the breach and
began their unstoppable charge. The enemy was cut to pieces, and even fresh ducal reinforcements
couldn’t break the confederate push. Within two hours the battle had turned, and around
1,800 Austrians were dead on the field, along with a meagre 200 Swiss. It was now clear
the the almost unarmoured halberdier could hold his own against the great knight.
A landmark moment in Swiss military tactics came in 1422, at the Battle of Arbedo. Territorial
disputes between some of the cantons and the Duchy of Milan led to yet another war over
the city of Bellinzona. 2,500 confederate soldiers marched on the city and a massive
16,000 strong Milanese army, including 5,000 cavalry, marched to stop them. On June 30th,
the condottiere commander Bussone da Carmagnola launched a surprise attack on the Swiss camp
near Bellinzona, and its confederate denizens rallied into a square formation and managed
to repel repeated assaults against the Milanese cavalry attacks, upon which they dismounted.
Nevertheless, they took heavy losses and a subsequent general assault managed to gradually
drive the Swiss back. After doggedly suffering and dishing our damage for a long time, the
Swiss simply turned, cut their way through the enemy ranks and withdrew in good order,
having suffered 500 dead. In addition to showing remarkable discipline in that the canton troops
didn’t just rout, Arbedo also marked a crucial moment because it forced the Swiss to get
rid of the halberd as their primary weapon, to be replaced by the long pike. Shortly after
the battle, a council held at Lucerne issued instructors to increase the proportion of
pikemen in canton contingents. This seemingly mundane decision would eventually revolutionise
military thinking and practice because of the weapon’s unique characteristics.
Due to the massive length of the pike, it could not be utilised individually to any
great effect at all. Much like the Sarissa wielding phalangists of Philip II and Alexander
the Great, they were greater than the sum of their parts, and had to be employed en
masse, in a phalanx. The proper simultaneous handling of the pike would require a massive
amount of training in order to move and fight as one, with only highly competent drilled
troops able to effectively perform necessary maneuvers. The first four ranks of Swiss pikemen
would level their weapons to a 90-degree angle, creating an impenetrable wall of iron heads,
while the fifth rank and beyond would hold their weapons upright, ready to fill any gaps
where necessary. The weapon’s length meant that it was necessary for each rank to hold
the weapon differently, from first to fourth. The front rank would kneel down with their
weapon held low, the second stooped with the weapon’s butt anchored under their right
foot, while the third held it at waist level and the fourth at head height, forming a multi-layered
spiny shield from head to toe. This classic pike phalanx could stop any cavalry charge
in its tracks, as the horses would either refuse to charge at the pikes or be skewered
instantly and rendered useless if they did. Moreover, the ‘forest’ of pikes held upright
from the fifth rank and behind gave the Swiss pike blocks considerable protection against
enemy arrows or other projectiles which might fall on them from above. This was due to the
sheer volume of shafts which was present in such a small space. In short, this formation
was a Macedonian phalanx redeveloped for the medieval age.
As unbreakable on the defence as a Swiss pike block was, simply stopping enemy attacks didn’t
content the often-belligerent soldiers of this land. They also quickly mastered the
handling of a pike on an offensive manner as well, becoming capable of launching attacks
which developed a devastating and inexorable momentum. When on the advance, the pike was
held horizontally at chest level, the right arm placed to the back and the left arm forward,
with the weapon itself angled slightly downwards. A heroic stand by a small confederate reconnaissance
force at St Jacob-en-Birs in 1444 was the first major occasion on which the pike was
tested after its adopted. When the Hundred Years’ War stalled in 1444 with the Treaty
of Tours, the peace left France’s king Charles VII with a large mercenary army composed mainly
of Armagnacs. He subsequently allied with Habsburg Emperor Freidrich III and sent 40,000
men into confederate territories. 1,200 Swiss were sent as a reconnaissance force to the
fortress of Farnsberg where they were joined by 300 Basel reinforcements on August 25th.
That night, the Armagnac army sent scouts to observe the Swiss camp. To their surprise,
it was all too clear that the confederates were making no attempt at all to conceal themselves.
At daybreak, the Swiss advanced down a valley and skirmished a few times with the French
cavalry, progressing throughout the day to the Birs River. By now, the fighting spirit
and hunger for battle amongst the rank and file was getting out of control and they wanted
to press on. When their commander suggested a tactical retreat in the face of overwhelming
numbers, there was an uproar in the Swiss ranks, they wanted to fight! The officers,
unable to persuade their men to withdraw, gave the order to cross the river.
After fording the Birs River, the swiss were almost immediately faced with the entire 40,000
strong French mercenary army. Though the situation was grim, it’s possible that a retreat was
possible even at this point, but the Swiss dismissed any thought of it. They would fight.
3 parallel squares were formed with each comprising 500 men. Over 25% of the Swiss troops were
equipped with the pike at this battle, and their subsequent charge into the enemy lines
produced a deadlock which lasted for four hours. This was a phenomenal achievement all
by itself. The confederates were massively outnumbered, but their bravery and tactics
were nevertheless grinding the enemy to a halt. After five hours of battle and a failed
relief attempt by reinforcing Basel troops, the Swiss squares began to weapon, inflicting
massive casualties the entire time as they withdrew to the hospital of St Jacob. After
stubborn Swiss resistance inside the walls and a final storming of the defensible facility,
brutal hand to hand began in which the Swiss army fought to the last man. It is said that
every single confederate was killed, but they took with them a massive toll of 4,000 enemies.
This battle is viewed in Swiss history as ‘their Thermopylae’, becoming both a shining
example of both Swiss courage and indiscipline. It was clear, however, that a more systematic
approach to tactics and battle formations was needed by the mid fifteenth century.
Confederate battle formations commonly consisted of three columns: the vorhut, or vanguard,
the gewalthaufen, or centre, and the nachhut, or rear. These three contingents had no set
size and depended entirely on the situation and terrain of any specific battle. The vanguard
was usually the largest or second largest unit, with the vast majority of crossbowmen
and handgunners interspersed between the core of pikemen. It was this contingent which came
into contact first, but it also carried out reconnaissance and engineering work. The centre
was almost always the largest unit in any Swiss formation, and it was here that the
confederate banner would be found, encircled by a group of bodyguards almost exclusively
using the halberd as a weapon. This core of halberdiers was surrounded by a wall of pikemen,
which formed the rest of the centre. The rear was the smallest group most of the time, and
had the role of either supporting the centre, or detaching to the flanks and advancing on
the sides of an enemy formation. In a battle situation, the three contingents advanced
in echelon. The vanguard marched to attack a predetermined point in the enemy line, while
the centre would advance parallel but slightly behind and to the left or right. The rear
would follow the centre in a similar manner, but it would also often stop as a strategic
reserve before any choice was made to commit it.
With the establishment of the Swiss as a formidable and organised fighting force possessing an
increasingly fearsome reputation, we’ll leave them. In our next video on the Swiss,
we will conclude their development in the Burgundian Wars, outline how they began mercenary
service and how they eventually declined in prominence.
Our mini-series on the Swiss mercenaries will be concluded in the coming months, so make
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