Switzerland: Military History and Notable Events

1315 - Battle of Morgarten (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Three Forest Cantons of the Swiss and their forces defeated Duke Leopold of Austria and his forces, thus having consolidated the League of the Three Forest Cantons, which formed the core of the Old Swiss Confederacy

• Battle in which a smaller army of Swiss foot-soldiers at Luke Zug had routed the army which came to the valleys of Schwyz and Unterwalden to

  • subdue the peasant farmers there

  • bring central Switzerland within the domain of the Habsburg Empire

• Battle prior to which the Habsburgs had long enjoyed manorial rights in the valleys of Schwyz and Unterwalden, but hadn’t ever pressed their claim to political power there

• Battle which caused the Three Forest Cantons, which were become increasingly independent prior to the namesake, to come together and fortify the entrances to their valley

• Battle which was triggered when a dispute over grazing rights involved the men of Schwyz in attacking an abbey and taking some of its monks hostage

• Battle in which Duke Leopold of Austria devised a plan involving naval forces on Lake Lucerne to block off Unterwalden and attack Schwyz

  • However, he did not reckon with the slaughter that followed, mostly of his own men and its noble leaders in the namesake district

1386 - Battle of Sempach (All Facts)

• Battle in which the (Old) Swiss Confederation defeated Leopold III of Austria and his forces

• Battle in which Leopold III of Austria was killed in battle

• Battle which broke out due to Leopold III of Austria’s growing power in the Duchy of Swabia

• Battle after which a treaty was signed, (supposedly) the Treaty of Zurich by Albert, which recognized recent Swiss conquests and allowing the Swiss to keep all the land they won

• Battle after which a few years later the Habsburg dukes of Austria agreed to another 20-year truce with the Swiss Confederation

1474 - Perpetual Peace (All Facts)

• Peace treaty signed between Archduke Sigismund of Habsburg Austria and the Old Swiss Confederacy (the Eight Cantons), in which the parties agreed to effectively end over a century of open hostilities between themselves, forcing Austria to renounce its claims on several Swiss-occupied territories and establishing a critical anti-Burgundian alliance

1474 - 1477 - Burgundian Wars (All Facts)

• Series of conflicts between the Old Swiss Confederacy (the Eight Cantons) and France and the territories of Burgundy under Charles Martin

• Series of conflicts in which

  • The Swiss and the French took the district of Vaud

  • Charles Martin seized Lorraine in France

• Series of conflicts which effectively ended the Kingdom of Burgundy

1476 - Battle of Grandson (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Swiss defeated Charles Martin and his forces during the Burgundian Wars

• Battle in which the Swiss pikemen bore down the heavily-armored Burgundian cavalry

1476 - Battle of Morat (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Swiss and Duke Rene II of Lorraine defeated Charles Martin and his forces during the Burgundian Wars

• Battle in which Charles sought revenge for “shameful defeat” by besieging the namesake city, only to again be routed by the Swiss

• Battle in which half of Charles Martin’s army died

• Battle after which Charles Martin fled

1477 - Battle of Nancy (All Facts)

• Battle in which the Swiss and Duke Rene II of Lorraine and his French forces defeated Charles Martin and his Burgundian forces, thus ending the Burgundian Wars and ending the Dukedom of Burgundy

• Battle after which Charles Martin’s body was found naked on a frozen pond, half eaten by wolves, and his skull cloven by a Swiss battle-axe; having been completely unrecognizable and identifiable only by the scars on his body

1494 - 1559 - Italian Wars (All Facts)

• Series of conflicts between the Valois (France) and the Habsburgs (Spain and Holy Roman Empire) that began with the First Italian War and ended with the Ninth Italian War and mostly took place in (Northern) Italy

1494 - 1498 - First Italian War (All Facts)

• Conflict in which the Habsburgs (Spain), with support from the Papacy and League of Venice, defeated the Valois (France)

• Conflict that began with King Charles VIII of France’s invasion of the Kingdom of Naples

• Conflict in which King Charles VIII and his army infected the Kingdom of Naples with the “French Pox” disease

• Conflict in which King Charles VIII and his army was forced to retreat from Italy, thus halting French expansion and preventing France from securing a permanent foothold in the Kingdom of Naples

1495 - Battle of Fornovo (All Facts)

• Battle in which King Charles VIII of France and his forces were defeated by the Italians and Swiss

• Battle which left the French army exhausted, emaciated, and riddled with disease, limping its way home to France after its defeat

1499 - 1501 - Second Italian War (All Facts)

• Conflict in which the Valois (France), with support from the Papacy, Venice, Florence, and Switzerland, defeated the Habsburgs (Spain)

• Conflict in which King Louis XII of France, with the help of Gian Giacomo Trivulzio and his Italian forces, seized and conquered the Duchy of Milan

• Conflict after which Ludovico Sforza fled from the Duchy of Milan

• Conflict in which the Milanese rebelled against Gian Giacomo Trivulzio and his Italian forces and the French, thus Sforza returned and took advantage of the revolt and attacked the French back

  • He was eventually deserted by his troops, however, and handed over to the enemy and imprisoned by the French