Misplaced Pages

#550449

215-610: During the Late Middle Ages , mercenary forces grew in importance in Europe , as veterans from the Hundred Years War (1337–1453) and other conflicts came to see soldiering as a profession rather than a temporary activity, and commanders sought long-term professionals rather than temporary feudal levies to fight their wars. Swiss mercenaries ( German : Reisläufer ) were valued throughout the kingdoms and states of medieval Europe for

430-800: A French army commanded by Francis, Count of Enghien , defeated the Imperials at Ceresole , a victory of limited strategic value since they failed to make progress elsewhere in Lombardy. The Imperial position was further strengthened at Serravalle in June, when Alfonso d'Avalos defeated a mercenary force led by the Florentine exile Piero Strozzi on their way to meet Enghien. An English army captured Boulogne on 10 September, while Imperial forces advanced to within 100 kilometres (60 miles) of Paris. However, with his treasury exhausted and concerned by Ottoman naval strength in

645-539: A capitulation signed by Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy and the Catholic cantons of Lucerne, Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Zug and Fribourg. In 1579, Emmanuel Philibert expanded his personal guard with a Swiss company, initially composed of seventy soldiers and three officers. His successor, Charles Emmanuel , established the unit as the Swiss Guard ( Guardia Svizzera ), also called the "Hundred Swiss" ( Cento Svizzeri ) after

860-510: A combined Franco-Florentine army appeared outside Pisa. Once again, the French artillery quickly opened a gap in the walls but several assaults were repulsed and the siege was abandoned on 11 July. With Milan firmly in his control, Louis returned to France and left the Florentines to blockade Pisa, which eventually surrendered in 1509. Anxious to begin the conquest of Naples, on 11 November he signed

1075-456: A combined Franco-Ottoman fleet under Hayreddin Barbarossa captured Nice on 22 August and besieged the citadel, the onset of winter and presence of a Spanish fleet forced them to withdraw. A joint attack by Christian and Islamic troops on a Christian town was regarded as shocking, especially when Francis allowed Barbarossa to use the French port of Toulon as a winter base. On 14 April 1544,

1290-501: A decisive advantage. On 1 January 1515, Louis XII died and was succeeded by his son-in-law, Francis I , who took up his predecessor's cause and routed the Swiss at Marignano on 13–14 September 1515. Combined with the unpopularity of Massiliano Sforza, victory allowed Francis to retake Milan and the Holy League collapsed as both Spain and Pope Leo X saw little benefit in fighting on. In

1505-884: A disastrous attack on Ottoman port of Algiers , which severely weakened his military and led Suleiman to reactivate his French alliance. With Ottoman support, on 12 July 1542 Francis once again declared war on the Holy Roman Empire, initiating the Italian War of 1542–46 . In August, French armies attacked Perpignan on the Spanish border, as well as Artois, Flanders and Luxemburg , a Valois possession prior to 1477. Imperial resistance proved far more formidable than expected, with most of these attacks easily repulsed and in 1543 Henry VIII allied with Charles and agreed to support his offensive in Flanders. Neither side made much progress, and although

1720-436: A fruitless expedition that diverted resources from Italy, where the situation had become more serious. The 1536 Franco-Ottoman alliance , a comprehensive treaty covering a wide range of commercial and diplomatic issues, also agreed to a joint assault on Genoa, with French land forces supported by an Ottoman fleet. Finding the garrison of Genoa had recently been reinforced while a planned internal uprising failed to materialise,

1935-628: A long time dominated the eastern Mediterranean in politics and culture. By the 14th century, however, it had almost entirely collapsed into a tributary state of the Ottoman Empire , centered on the city of Constantinople and a few enclaves in Greece . With the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, the Byzantine Empire was permanently extinguished. The Bulgarian Empire was in decline by the 14th century, and

2150-529: A maelstrom of battle, with very many dead and wounded on both sides. Despite the competition from the Landsknechts , and imitation by other armies (most notably the Spanish, which adopted pike-handling as one element of its tercios ), the Swiss fighting reputation reached its zenith between 1480 and 1525, and indeed the Battle of Novara , fought by Swiss mercenaries, is seen by some as the perfect Swiss battle. Even

2365-559: A major regional power, and the annexation of the vast Republic of Novgorod in 1478 laid the foundations for a Russian national state. After the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, the Russian princes started to see themselves as the heirs of the Byzantine Empire . They eventually took on the imperial title of Tzar , and Moscow was described as the Third Rome . The Byzantine Empire had for

SECTION 10

#1732855915551

2580-569: A new alliance with Venice. As Leo X had backed his candidacy for Emperor, he also counted on Papal support but Leo sided with Charles in return for his help against Martin Luther and his proposed reforms to the Catholic church. In November 1521, an Imperial-Papal army under Prospero Colonna and the Marquis of Pescara captured Milan and restored Francesco Sforza as duke. After Leo died in December, Adrian VI

2795-1003: A policy of excluding France and the Holy Roman Empire from the Italian peninsula. Lorenzo's death in April 1492 severely weakened the League at a time when France was seeking to expand in Italy. This originated when Louis XI of France inherited the County of Provence from his cousin Charles IV of Anjou in 1481, along with the Angevin claim to the Kingdom of Naples . His son Charles VIII succeeded him in 1483 and formally incorporated Provence into France in 1486; its ports of Marseille and Toulon provided direct access to

3010-670: A private capitulation with Swiss mercenary Hercules Capol , a Protestant who had left French service in 1685, raising a regiment of 1,600 men from the Grisons for Dutch service. Zürich authorized the recruitment of 800 men the same year. In 1696, the Protestant cantons of Bern and Schaffhausen , as well as the Republic of Geneva and the Principality of Neuchâtel (both Protestant associate states of Switzerland ), entered into similar accords with

3225-483: A pro-French government, Charles turned north and on 6 July was intercepted by the League outside Fornovo di Taro . In the resulting Battle of Fornovo , the French forced their opponents back across the Taro river and continued onto Asti , leaving most of their supplies behind. Both sides claimed victory but the general consensus favoured the French, since the League suffered heavier casualties and failed to halt their retreat,

3440-427: A request Louis was in no hurry to fulfil since they had refused to support his capture of Milan. He was also initially occupied in defeating efforts to regain his duchy by Ludovico, who was captured at Novaro in April 1500 and spent the rest of his life in a French prison. However, Louis needed to maintain good relations with Florence, whose territory he would have to cross in order to conquer Naples, and on 29 June 1500

3655-493: A significant number of contemporary accounts, including those of Francesco Guicciardini , Niccolò Machiavelli , and Blaise de Montluc . After 1503, most of the fighting was initiated by French invasions of Lombardy and Piedmont , but although able to hold territory for periods of time, they could not do so permanently. By 1557, the growth of Protestantism meant the major belligerents faced internal conflict over religion, forcing them to refocus on domestic affairs. This led to

3870-609: A so-called "depression of the Renaissance". In spite of convincing arguments for the case, the statistical evidence is simply too incomplete for a definite conclusion to be made. Italian Wars Timeline The Italian Wars were a series of conflicts fought between 1494 and 1559, mostly in the Italian Peninsula , but later expanding into Flanders , the Rhineland and Mediterranean Sea . The primary belligerents were

4085-456: A spiritual individual and recognized himself as such." This proposition was later challenged, and it was argued that the 12th century was a period of greater cultural achievement. As economic and demographic methods were applied to the study of history, the trend was increasingly to see the late Middle Ages as a period of recession and crisis. Belgian historian Henri Pirenne continued the subdivision of Early , High , and late Middle Ages in

4300-445: A ten-year halt in hostilities and left France in possession of most of Savoy , Piedmont and Artois. The 1538 truce failed to resolve underlying tensions between Francis, who still claimed Milan, and Charles, who insisted he comply with the treaties of Madrid and Cambrai. Their relationship collapsed in 1540 when Charles made his son Philip Duke of Milan, thus precluding any possibility it would revert to France. In 1541, Charles made

4515-594: A time of civil unrest. In April 1791 the nominal strength of the Swiss line regiments in French service was 11,429 men with a further 2,330 in the Swiss Guards. Swiss regiments made up a significant proportion of the royal troops summoned to Paris by Louis XVI in early July 1789. A detachment of Swiss grenadiers from the Salis-Samade Regiment was sent to reinforce the garrison of the Bastille prison shortly before it

SECTION 20

#1732855915551

4730-524: The Landsknechts . Landsknechts were Germans (at first largely from Swabia ) and became proficient at Swiss tactics, even surpassing them with their usage of the Zweihänder to crush opposing pike formations. This produced a force that filled the ranks of European armies with mercenary regiments for decades. After 1515 the Swiss pledged themselves to neutrality, other than regarding Swiss soldiers serving in

4945-600: The stadhouder in 1795 and the establishment of the Batavian Republic , all Swiss regiments were disbanded in 1796. After the return of the Prince of Orange in 1813, four regiments of Swiss infantry, numbered 29 to 32 in the line, were raised, of which the 32nd served as a guard regiment performing guard duties at the Royal Palace of Amsterdam after 1815. These units were also disbanded in 1829. Several Swiss soldiers joined

5160-584: The 6th Mountain Division . Due to Switzerland's neutral status, their allegiances were considered illegal and in 1943 the government decided that those who cooperated with Germany would be deprived of their nationality. By 1945, there were only 29 such cases. A number of Swiss citizens were taken prisoner by the Soviet Union while fighting on the Eastern Front . The plot of George Bernard Shaw 's comedy Arms and

5375-402: The Angevin claim to the throne of Naples as a pretext. This in turn was driven by the intense rivalry between Ludovico's wife, Beatrice d'Este , and that of his nephew Gian Galeazzo Sforza , husband of Isabella of Aragon . Despite being the hereditary Duke of Milan, Gian Galeazzo had been sidelined by his uncle in 1481 and exiled to Pavia . Both women wanted to ensure their children inherited

5590-685: The Atlantic Ocean to America . As Genoese and Venetian merchants opened up direct sea routes with Flanders , the Champagne fairs lost much of their importance. At the same time, English wool export shifted from raw wool to processed cloth, resulting in losses for the cloth manufacturers of the Low Countries. In the Baltic and North Sea , the Hanseatic League reached the peak of their power in

5805-551: The Battle of Agincourt in 1415 briefly paved the way for a unification of the two kingdoms, but his son Henry VI soon squandered all previous gains. The loss of France led to discontent at home. Soon after the end of the war in 1453, the dynastic struggles of the Wars of the Roses (c. 1455–1485) began, involving the rival dynasties of the House of Lancaster and House of York . The war ended in

6020-653: The Battle of Bailén in 1808, the Swiss regiments pressed into French service defected back to the 3rd Swiss Regiment Reding under Theodor von Reding . The Swiss regiments suffered heavy losses in the following years of the Peninsular War, numbering only a few hundred men by 1812. They were finally disbanded in 1823 during the Trienio liberal . The Swiss fighting in the ranks of the Spanish army generally followed its organization, tactics and dress. The Swiss regiments were however distinguished by their blue coats, in contrast to

6235-504: The Battle of Bailén with Swiss troops in the Spanish Army) and in Russia. During the retreat from Moscow Swiss losses amounted to 80% of their original numbers. The Swiss were allowed to keep the distinctive red coats which had distinguished them prior to 1792, with different facings identifying each regiment. During the first Bourbon Restoration of 1814–1815, the grenadier companies of

6450-471: The Battle of Pavia in 1525. The early contingents of Swiss mercenary pikemen organized themselves rather differently than the cantonal forces. In the cantonal forces, their armies were usually divided into the Vorhut ( vanguard ), Gewalthut (center) and Nachhut ( rearguard ), generally of different sizes. In mercenary contingents, although they could conceivably draw up in three similar columns if their force

6665-609: The Castel Sant'Angelo , while Urbino and the League army sat outside and failed to intervene. Although the French marched south to relieve Rome, they were too late to prevent Clement making peace with Charles V in November. Meanwhile, Venice, the largest and most powerful of the Italian states and which also possessed the most effective army, now refused to contribute any more troops to the League. Weakened by its losses in 1509 to 1517 and with its maritime possessions increasingly threatened by

Swiss mercenaries - Misplaced Pages Continue

6880-549: The Colonna family , who competed with the rival Orsinis for control of the city, and Clement was forced to pay them to withdraw. Seeking to recapture Milan, Francis invaded Lombardy at the beginning of 1527, with an army financed by Henry VIII, who hoped thereby to win Papal support for divorcing his first wife, Katherine of Aragon . In May, Imperial troops, many of whom were followers of Martin Luther, sacked Rome and besieged Clement in

7095-507: The Council of Trent . The European balance of power changed significantly during the Italian Wars. The affirmation of French power in Italy around 1494 brought Austria and Spain to join an anti-French league that formed the "Habsburg ring" around France (Low Countries, Aragon, Castile, Empire) via dynastic marriages that eventually led to the large inheritance of Charles V. On the other hand,

7310-621: The Czechs , but both the Catholic Church and the German element within the country were weakened. Martin Luther , a German monk, started the German Reformation by posting 95 theses on the castle church of Wittenberg on October 31, 1517. The immediate provocation spurring this act was Pope Leo X 's renewal of the indulgence for the building of the new St. Peter's Basilica in 1514. Luther

7525-594: The Duchy of Milan , the long-running Wars in Lombardy had finally been ended by the 1454 Treaty of Lodi . Followed shortly thereafter by a non-aggression pact known as the Italic League , it led to a forty-year period of stability and economic expansion, marred only by the 1479 to 1481 Pazzi conspiracy and 1482 to 1484 War of Ferrara . The League's main supporter was the Florentine ruler Lorenzo de' Medici , who also pursued

7740-745: The Dutch East India Company (VOC) for service in the Cape of Good Hope , Ceylon and the Dutch East Indies . In 1781, the Meuron Regiment was hired for VOC service in the Cape Colony. The regiment was later transferred to Ceylon, where it campaigned against the Kingdom of Kandy . In 1787, the six Swiss regiments in the Dutch States Army numbered a total of 9,600 men. With the abdication of

7955-809: The Eighty Years' War . By the middle of the 17th century, Philip III and his successor Philip IV had signed capitulations for a dozen Swiss regiments. These were deployed in the Portuguese Restoration War , the Reapers' War , and the Nine Years' War in the latter half of the century. Swiss soldiers in Spanish service saw action in Italy during the War of the Quadruple Alliance in 1718, in North Africa during

8170-660: The English aristocracy, such as John of Gaunt , the movement was not allowed to survive. Though Wycliffe himself was left unmolested, his supporters, the Lollards , were eventually suppressed in England. The marriage of Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia established contacts between the two nations and brought Lollard ideas to her homeland. The teachings of the Czech priest Jan Hus were based on those of John Wycliffe, yet his followers,

8385-504: The French Revolutionary Army . Others followed King Ferdinand IV into exile in 1799, following his overthrow by the Parthenopean Republic , and again from 1806 to 1815 during Napoleonic rule in Naples . After his restoration in 1815, Ferdinand, now monarch of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies , negotiated with the Swiss Federal Diet and concluded treaties in 1824 with the cantons of Lucerne , Uri, Unterwalden and Appenzell Innerrhoden , and in 1825 with Solothurn and Fribourg , for

8600-406: The Glorious Revolution of 1689. A first capitulation was signed in 1690 between England and the Protestant cantons of Zürich, Bern, Glarus, Schaffhausen and Appenzell Ausserrhoden, as well as the city of St. Gallen . Starting in the 1750s, Swiss soldiers also served in the armies of the British East India Company (EIC). Between 1751 and 1754, 518 mercenaries, mostly Swiss and Germans, were sent to

8815-416: The Golden Bull of 1356 made the king of Bohemia first among the imperial electors , but the Hussite revolution threw the country into crisis. The Holy Roman Empire passed to the House of Habsburg in 1438, where it remained until its dissolution in 1806. Yet in spite of the extensive territories held by the Habsburgs , the Empire itself remained fragmented, and much real power and influence lay with

Swiss mercenaries - Misplaced Pages Continue

9030-515: The High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Europe, the Renaissance ). Around 1350, centuries of prosperity and growth in Europe came to a halt. A series of famines and plagues , including the Great Famine of 1315–1317 and the Black Death , reduced the population to around half of what it had been before the calamities. Along with depopulation came social unrest and endemic warfare . France and England experienced serious peasant uprisings, such as

9245-490: The House of Capet in 1328, was at its outset marginalized in its own country, first by the English invading forces of the Hundred Years' War and later by the powerful Duchy of Burgundy . The emergence of Joan of Arc as a military leader changed the course of war in favour of the French, and the initiative was carried further by King Louis XI . Meanwhile, Charles the Bold , Duke of Burgundy , met resistance in his attempts to consolidate his possessions, particularly from

9460-431: The Hussites , were to have a much greater political impact than the Lollards. Hus gained a great following in Bohemia , and in 1414, he was requested to appear at the Council of Constance to defend his cause. When he was burned as a heretic in 1415, it caused a popular uprising in the Czech lands. The subsequent Hussite Wars fell apart due to internal quarrels and did not result in religious or national independence for

9675-402: The Italian Peninsula . By the 15th century, they were greatly valued as mercenary soldiers, particularly following their series of notable victories in the Burgundian Wars (1474–1477) in the latter part of the century. The standing mercenary army of the Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus , known as the " Black Army " (1458–1490), also contained Swiss pikemen units, who were held in high regard by

9890-413: The Jacquerie and the Peasants' Revolt , as well as over a century of intermittent conflict, the Hundred Years' War . To add to the many problems of the period, the unity of the Catholic Church was temporarily shattered by the Western Schism . Collectively, those events are sometimes called the Crisis of the Late Middle Ages . Despite the crises, the 14th century was also a time of great progress in

10105-455: The Low Countries and the Holy Roman Empire under one ruler, and meant France was surrounded by the so-called "Habsburg ring". Francis I had also been a candidate for the Imperial throne, adding a personal dimension to his rivalry with Charles that became one of the fundamental conflicts of the sixteenth century. Planning an offensive against Habsburg possessions in Navarre and Flanders , Francis first secured his position in Italy by agreeing

10320-501: The Mediterranean and thus the ability to pursue his territorial ambitions. In the run-up to the First Italian War , Charles sought to secure the neutrality of other European rulers through a series of treaties. These included the November 1492 Peace of Étaples with Henry VII of England and the March 1493 Treaty of Barcelona with Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor . The war began when Ludovico Sforza , then Regent of Milan , encouraged Charles VIII of France to invade Italy, using

10535-428: The Mediterranean Sea , on 14 September Charles agreed the Treaty of Crépy with Francis, which essentially restored the position to that prevailing in 1542. The agreement excluded Henry VIII, whose war with France continued until the two countries made peace in 1546 and confirmed his possession of Boulogne. Francis died on 31 March 1547 and was succeeded by his son, Henry II of France . He continued attempts to restore

10750-451: The Ottoman Empire . After Italy, Hungary was the first European country where the Renaissance appeared. However, the glory of the Kingdom ended in the early 16th century, when the King Louis II of Hungary was killed in the Battle of Mohács in 1526 against the Ottoman Empire . Hungary then fell into a serious crisis and was invaded, ending its significance in central Europe during the medieval era. The state of Kievan Rus' fell during

10965-447: The Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL) after the Swiss regiments in the Netherlands were dissolved. Like the French Foreign Legion , the KNIL profited from the dissolution of Swiss units across Europe during the 19th century. In the 1850s, some 1,200 men from the Swiss regiments of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies entered KNIL service, similarly to 240 mercenaries from the short-lived British Swiss Legion, disbanded in 1856. Many of

SECTION 50

#1732855915551

11180-425: The Savoyard state to Emmanuel Philibert , who settled in Piedmont, and Corsica to the Republic of Genoa . For this reason, the conclusion of the Italian Wars for France is considered to be a mixed result. At the end of the wars, about half of Italy was ruled by the Spanish Habsburgs, including all of the south (Naples, Sicily, Sardinia) and the Duchy of Milan; the other half of Italy remained independent (although

11395-410: The Spanish Civil War , incurring heavy losses. Swiss citizens also served in the German Wehrmacht during the Second World War, although purely on an individual and voluntary basis. At least 2,000 Swiss fought for Germany during the war, mostly from the German-speaking cantons of Bern and Zürich, and many of them had dual German nationality. Besides the Wehrmacht some also joined the SS , particularly

11610-487: The Swiss Cantons to supply him with 6,000 mercenaries. After a year of fighting in which Louis XII occupied large parts of the Papal States, in October 1511 Julius formed the anti-French Holy League, which included Henry VIII of England , Maximilian and Spain. A French army defeated the Spanish at Ravenna on 11 April 1512, but their leader Gaston de Foix was killed, while the Swiss recaptured Milan and restored Ludovico's son Massimiliano Sforza as duke. The members of

11825-410: The Swiss Confederation formed in 1291. When Charles was killed in the Burgundian Wars at the Battle of Nancy in 1477, the Duchy of Burgundy was reclaimed by France. At the same time, the County of Burgundy and the wealthy Burgundian Netherlands came into the Holy Roman Empire under Habsburg control, setting up conflict for centuries to come. Bohemia prospered in the 14th century, and

12040-400: The Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis , under which France was largely expelled from Italy, but in exchange gained Calais from England, and the Three Bishoprics from Lorraine . In turn, Spain acquired sovereignty over the Kingdom of Naples and Kingdom of Sicily in southern Italy, as well the Duchy of Milan in northern Italy. Largely driven by the rivalry between the Republic of Venice and

12255-524: The Treaty of Chambord with several Protestant princes within the Empire, which gave him control of the Three Bishoprics of Toul , Verdun , and Metz . Following the outbreak of the Second Schmalkaldic War in March 1552, French troops occupied the Three Bishoprics and invaded Lorraine . In 1553, a Franco-Ottoman force captured the Genoese island of Corsica , while supported by Henry's wife, Catherine de' Medici , French-backed Tuscan exiles seized control of Siena. This brought Henry into conflict with

12470-550: The Treaty of Granada with Ferdinand II of Aragon, an agreement to divide the kingdom between the two. Since Ferdinand had supported the expulsion of the French from Naples in 1495, Louis hoped these concessions would allow him to acquire the bulk of the kingdom without an expensive war. His action was criticised by contemporaries like Niccolò Machiavelli and modern historians, who argue the 1499 Treaty of Marcoussis already gave Louis everything he needed, while inviting Spain into Naples could only work to his detriment. In July 1501,

12685-470: The Valois kings of France , on one side, and their opponents in the Holy Roman Empire and Spain on the other. At different points, various Italian states participated in the war, some on both sides, with limited involvement from England , Switzerland, and the Ottoman Empire . The Italic League established in 1454 achieved a balance of power in Italy, but fell apart after the death of its chief architect, Lorenzo de' Medici , in 1492. Combined with

12900-416: The War of the Spanish Succession , including the La Reine, Alt, Lombach, Frid, Schmid, and Reding regiments. Due to the French invasion of the Duchy of Savoy, most of the regiments were scattered before they could fully assemble. They served with distinction at the Siege of Turin . The War of the Polish Succession saw a further surge in Swiss mercenaries, now in the service of the Kingdom of Sardinia , with

13115-403: The bill of exchange and other forms of credit that circumvented the canonical laws for gentiles against usury and eliminated the dangers of carrying bullion ; and new forms of accounting , in particular double-entry bookkeeping , which allowed for better oversight and accuracy. With the financial expansion, trading rights became more jealously guarded by the commercial elite. Towns saw

SECTION 60

#1732855915551

13330-453: The condottieri of the Italian city-states. All over Europe, Swiss mercenaries were in particularly high demand. At the same time, the period also saw the emergence of the first permanent armies. It was in Valois France, under the heavy demands of the Hundred Years' War, that the armed forces gradually assumed a permanent nature. Parallel to the military developments emerged also a constantly more elaborate chivalric code of conduct for

13545-436: The eponymous French unit . The company's size varied between 175 men in 1597 and 112 in 1774. In addition to the Swiss cantons, Savoy employed a number of units from the Valais , a Catholic associate state of Switzerland , starting with the Kalbermatten Regiment in 1615. Swiss Protestants, mostly from Vaud and Bern, entered Sardinian service in the 18th century. Several Swiss regiments were taken into Savoyard service during

13760-431: The expedition to Oran and Mers el-Kebir in 1732, and in Sicily and Naples during the War of the Polish Succession in 1734–1735. In the War of the Austrian Succession , 30,000 Swiss mercenaries from five regiments fought for the Spanish Crown in Lombardy , Savoy and the County of Nice . During the second half of the 18th century, Spain employed four Swiss regiments which took part in all of its campaigns, including

13975-438: The invasion of Portugal in 1762, the invasion of Algiers in 1775 and the American Revolutionary War . By the 1790s there were about 13,000 men making up the Swiss contingents in a total Spanish Army of 137,000. The practice of recruiting directly from the Catholic cantons was however disrupted by the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars . Recruiting agents substituted Germans, Austrians and Italians and in some regiments

14190-401: The population of Europe to perhaps no more than a third of what it was a century earlier. The effects of natural disasters were exacerbated by armed conflicts; this was particularly the case in France during the Hundred Years' War . It took 150 years for the European population to regain similar levels of 1300. As the European population was severely reduced, land became more plentiful for

14405-490: The second Bourbon Restoration , a final capitulation was signed in 1816 for the recruitment of six Swiss regiments, four for the line infantry and two for the Royal Guard, with a nominal strength of 14,000 men. All Swiss units were disbanded following the final overthrow of the Bourbon monarchy in the Revolution of 1830 , where about three hundred Swiss soldiers were killed in the defense of the Fontainebleau and Louvre palaces. Another major employer of Swiss mercenaries from

14620-415: The siege of Belgrade of 1521. By the end of the medieval period, the entire Balkan peninsula was annexed by, or became vassal to, the Ottomans. Avignon was the seat of the papacy from 1309 to 1376. With the return of the Pope to Rome in 1378, the Papal State developed into a major secular power, culminating in the morally corrupt papacy of Alexander VI . Florence grew to prominence amongst

14835-432: The town of the same name from the Ottomans. The Venetian army suffered enormous losses due to fighting and disease, and the Siege of Negroponte had to be lifted in October 1688. The remaining two hundred Swiss soldiers were then transferred to Lepanto . Poor treatment by the Venetian commanders and disputes among Swiss officers further aggravated the situation, and the regiment was finally disbanded in 1691. The outcome of

15050-431: The "Peace of the Ladies" because it was negotiated by Francis's mother, Louise of Savoy , and Charles's aunt Margaret , Francis recognised Charles as ruler of Milan, Naples, Flanders and Artois. Venice also made peace, leaving only Florence, which had expelled their Medici rulers in 1527. At Bologna in the summer of 1529, Charles V was named King of Italy ; he agreed to restore the Medici on behalf of Pope Clement, who

15265-418: The 13th century in the Mongol invasion . The Grand Duchy of Moscow rose in power thereafter, winning a great victory against the Golden Horde at the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380. The victory did not end Tartar rule in the region, however, and its immediate beneficiary was the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , which extended its influence eastwards. Under the reign of Ivan the Great (1462–1505), Moscow became

15480-476: The 14th century but started going into decline in the fifteenth. In the late 13th and early 14th centuries, a process took place – primarily in Italy but partly also in the Empire ;– that historians have termed a "commercial revolution". Among the innovations of the period were new forms of partnership and the issuing of insurance , both of which contributed to reducing the risk of commercial ventures;

15695-730: The 1850s for the Crimean War , was disbanded in 1856 without having been deployed. The permanent employment of Swiss mercenaries by the Kingdom of Naples began with the transfer of the Neapolitan crown to the Spanish Bourbons . In 1731, Philip V of Spain put two of his most experienced Swiss units (the Nideröst and Bessler regiments) at the disposal of his son Charles, Duke of Parma (the future Charles III of Spain ). After becoming King of Naples in 1734, Charles raised two new Swiss regiments under

15910-778: The 18th-century was North America , where Swiss mercenaries in the British Army served in the French and Indian War . Some, such as Henry Bouquet and Frederick Haldimand (both from the Royal American Regiment), achieved distinction in North America and held high offices in the British colonial administration . In 1781, Charles-Daniel de Meuron , a former colonel of the French Swiss Guards, founded his own mercenary regiment under

16125-905: The Austrian army but in British pay. The Swiss soldiers were then transferred to British service. They fought in the Napoleonic Wars, mainly around the Mediterranean. They were based in Malta and then in Egypt from 1801 to 1803, fighting in Sicily and Naples . The regiment fought in the Battle of Maida in Southern Italy in July 1806. Kept up to strength by Spanish and Portuguese recruits from 1811 to 1813, De Watteville's Regiment

16340-670: The Catholic cantons of Central Switzerland , Solothurn, and the city of St. Gallen, was raised for Venetian service in the Morean War . Led by Sebastian Peregrin Schmid of Uri , the Swiss set sail from Venice in May 1688, arriving at the Peloponnese peninsula (then known as Morea ) about a month later. In early July, the regiment was transferred to the Greek island of Negroponte , where it had orders to seize

16555-573: The Châteauvieux, played a major part in the Nancy affair (mutiny) of 1790 and 23 of its soldiers were executed, after trial by their own Swiss officers. The Swiss Guard however remained loyal and was massacred on 10 August 1792, when the mob attacked the Tuileries Palace , although Louis XVI had already left the building. The eleven Swiss regiments of line infantry were disbanded under a decree passed by

16770-598: The Duchy and when Isabella's father became Alfonso II of Naples in January 1494, she asked for his help in securing their rights. In September Charles invaded the peninsula, which he justified by claiming he wanted to use Naples as a base for a crusade against the Ottoman Turks . In October, Ludovico formally became Duke of Milan following the death of Gian Galeazzo, who was popularly supposed to have been poisoned by his uncle, and

16985-759: The Duchy of Milan were left in personal union to the king of Spain while continuing to be part of the Holy Roman Empire. The division of the Empire of Charles V, along with the capture of the Pale of Calais and the Three Bishoprics , was a positive result for France. However, the Habsburgs had gained a position of primacy in Italy at the expense of the French Valois. In return, France was forced to end opposition to Habsburg power and abandon its claims in Italy. Henry II also restored

17200-636: The Dutch colonies in Asia, Africa, South America and the Caribbean. The Fourgeoud Regiment, which was sent to Berbice in 1763 in response to a slave rebellion , undertook numerous expeditions against the maroons in neighboring Surinam until 1778. A narrative of the Surinam campaigns, written by John Gabriel Stedman , was later published. Between 4,000 and 5,000 Swiss mercenaries were employed, mostly on an individual basis, by

17415-724: The East Indies. The EIC's Swiss contingent was increased in 1757 by four regiments recruited by Jacques Marc Prevost , a Genevan officer of the Royal American Regiment . During the Seven Years' War , the Swiss were numerous among the auxiliary troops from continental Europe that fought in the war's Indian theater on behalf of the EIC. Some Swiss mercenaries reached important posts within the company and amassed considerable wealth, notably through looting. Another important theater of war in

17630-513: The English became acquainted with, and adopted, the highly efficient longbow . Once properly managed, this weapon gave them a great advantage over the French in the Hundred Years' War. The introduction of gunpowder affected the conduct of war significantly. Though employed by the English as early as the Battle of Crécy in 1346, firearms initially had little effect in the field of battle. It

17845-524: The French Assembly on 20 August 1792. Over three thousand Swiss soldiers transferred individually to French units and continued in service. However, many of the rank and file returned to Switzerland, where measures had to be taken to provide them with relief and reintegration into the rural society from which most had been drawn. Following the French invasion of Switzerland in 1798, a project to raise six demi-brigades of Swiss infantry for French service

18060-406: The French army reached Capua ; strongly defended by forces loyal to Frederick of Naples , it surrendered on 24 July after a short siege but was then sacked. In addition to the extensive material destruction, many women were subjected to mass rape and estimates of the dead ranged from 2,000 to 4,000, actions that caused consternation throughout Italy. Resistance crumbled as other towns tried to avoid

18275-512: The French at St. Quentin on 10 August. Despite this, in January 1558 the French took Calais ; held by the English since 1347, its loss severely diminished their future ability to intervene directly in mainland Europe. They also captured Thionville in June but peace negotiations had already begun, with Henry absorbed by the internal conflict that led to the French Wars of Religion in 1562. The Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis on 3 April 1559 brought

18490-566: The French instead occupied the towns of Pinerolo , Chieri and Carmagnola in Piedmont. Fighting continued in Flanders and northern Italy throughout 1537, while the Ottoman fleet raided the coastal areas around Naples, raising fears of invasion throughout Italy. Pope Paul III , who had replaced Clement in 1534, grew increasingly anxious to end the war and brought the two sides together at Nice in May 1538. The Truce of Nice, signed on 18 June, agreed to

18705-515: The French marched through Italy virtually unopposed, entering Pisa on 8 November, Florence on 17th, and Rome on 31 December. Charles was backed by Girolamo Savonarola , who used the opportunity to established a short-lived theocracy in Florence, while Pope Alexander VI allowed his army free passage through the Papal States . In February 1495, the French reached Monte San Giovanni Campano in

18920-472: The French monarchy and Swiss cantons or individual noble families. By 1740 more than 12,000 Swiss soldiers were in French service. During the remainder of the eighteenth century, Swiss numbers varied according to need, reaching a peak of 20,000 during the Austrian War of Succession and falling to 12,300 after 1763. In addition to the direct military value of employing Swiss in French service, a political purpose

19135-609: The French position in Italy, encouraged by Italian exiles and his cousin Francis, Duke of Guise , who claimed the throne of Naples through his grandfather René II, Duke of Lorraine . Henry first strengthened his diplomatic position by reactivating the Franco-Ottoman alliance and supporting their capture of Tripoli in August 1551. Despite his devout personal Catholicism and persecution of Huguenot "heretics" at home, in January 1552 he signed

19350-477: The German historian Christoph Cellarius published Universal History Divided into an Ancient, Medieval, and New Period (1683). For 18th-century historians studying the 14th and 15th centuries, the central theme was the Renaissance , with its rediscovery of ancient learning and the emergence of an individual spirit. The heart of this rediscovery lies in Italy, where, in the words of Jacob Burckhardt , "Man became

19565-686: The Great Schism had done irreparable damage. The internal struggles within the Church had impaired her claim to universal rule and promoted anti-clericalism among the people and their rulers, paving the way for reform movements. Though many of the events were outside the traditional time period of the Middle Ages, the end of the unity of the Western Church (the Protestant Reformation ) was one of

19780-620: The Hirzel Regiment formed part of the Dutch contingent sent to serve in England as allies at the time of the Jacobite rising in Scotland that year. With the threat of a French invasion in 1748, the Netherlands concluded a capitulation with all Protestant cantons (except Basel ) in addition to Glarus , Appenzell Ausserrhoden , St. Gallen and Neuchâtel. The capitulation of 1748 increased to 20,400

19995-532: The Holy Roman Empire went to his brother Ferdinand I , while Spain, its overseas territories and the Spanish Netherlands were assigned to Philip. Over the next century, Naples and Lombardy became a major source of men and money for the Spanish Army of Flanders during the 1568 to 1648 Eighty Years' War . England entered the war in June 1557 and the focus shifted to Flanders, where a Spanish army defeated

20210-565: The Iberian peninsula, but there were also some in France, the Empire, and the Low Countries, as well as London in England. Through battles such as Courtrai (1302), Bannockburn (1314), and Morgarten (1315), it became clear to the great territorial princes of Europe that the military advantage of the feudal cavalry was lost and that a well equipped infantry was preferable. Through the Welsh Wars ,

20425-408: The Italian Wars. The Italian Wars represented a revolution in military technology and tactics, some historians suggesting they form the dividing point between modern and medieval battlefields. Contemporary historian Francesco Guicciardini wrote of the initial 1494 French invasion that "...sudden and violent wars broke out, ending with the conquest of a state in less time than it used to take to occupy

20640-544: The Italian city-states through financial business, and the dominant Medici family became important promoters of the Renaissance through their patronage of the arts. Other city-states in northern Italy also expanded their territories and consolidated their power, primarily Milan , Venice , and Genoa . The War of the Sicilian Vespers had by the early 14th century divided southern Italy into an Aragon Kingdom of Sicily and an Anjou Kingdom of Naples . In 1442,

20855-535: The Italian wars to an end. Corsica was returned to Genoa, while Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy , re-established the Savoyard state in northern Italy as an independent entity. France retained Calais and the Three Bishoprics, while other provisions essentially returned the position to that prevailing in 1551. Finally, Henry II and Philip II agreed to ask Pope Pius IV to recognise Ferdinand as Emperor, and reconvene

21070-495: The Jews. Monarchs gave in to the demands of the people, and the Jews were expelled from England in 1290, from France in 1306, from Spain in 1492, and from Portugal in 1497. While the Jews were suffering persecution, one group that probably experienced increased empowerment in the late Middle Ages was women. The great social changes of the period opened up new possibilities for women in the fields of commerce, learning, and religion. Yet at

21285-467: The Kingdom of Naples and despatched envoys to negotiate terms with its Neapolitan garrison, who murdered them and sent their mutilated bodies back to the French lines. On 9 February, the enraged besiegers breached the walls of the castle with artillery fire, then stormed it, killing everyone inside. Known as the "Sack of Naples", widespread outrage within Italy allied with concern over the power of France led to

21500-484: The Kingdom of Naples. Aware of the hostility caused by French ambitions in Italy, in July 1498 he renewed the 1492 Peace of Étaples with England and signed a treaty confirming French borders with Burgundy . This was followed in August by the Treaty of Marcoussis with Ferdinand II of Aragon ; although it did not address outstanding territorial disputes between the two countries, it agreed "have all enemies in common except

21715-493: The League army, hoped to take advantage of this confusion. However, he delayed taking the offensive awaiting additional Swiss reinforcements. Although the League gained an easy victory on 24 June when the Venetians occupied Lodi , this delay allowed Charles to gather fresh troops and support a Milanese revolt in July against Francesco Sforza, who was once again forced into exile. In September, Charles financed an attack on Rome by

21930-523: The League of Venice, which he viewed as an essential barrier to French intervention, but Florence was convinced he favoured Pisa and refused to accept mediation. To enforce a settlement, in July 1496 Maximilian besieged the Florentine city of Livorno , but withdrew in September due to shortages of men and supplies. Following the death of Charles VIII in April 1498, Louis XII began planning another attempt on Milan, while also pursuing his predecessor's claim to

22145-458: The League then fell out over dividing the spoils and the death of Pope Julius on 20 February 1513 left it without effective leadership. In March, Venice and France formed an alliance, but from June to September 1513 the League won victories at Novara and La Motta in Lombardy, Guinegate in Flanders and Flodden in England. Despite this, fighting continued in Italy, with neither side able to gain

22360-555: The Magnificent , asking for Ottoman assistance. Although Suleiman avoided involvement on this occasion, it was the beginning of a long-standing, if often unacknowledged, Franco-Turkish relationship. Francis was eventually released in March 1526 after signing the Treaty of Madrid , in which he renounced French claims to Artois , Milan and Burgundy . Once Francis was free, his Council renounced

22575-448: The Man (and of the operetta The Chocolate Soldier based on it) is focused on a fictional Swiss mercenary serving in the 1885 Serbo-Bulgarian War ; there is, however, no evidence of actual such mercenaries in that war. Late Middle Ages The late Middle Ages or late medieval period was the period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500. The late Middle Ages followed

22790-791: The Negroponte expedition and overdue payments strained Venetian relations with the Swiss, particularly the Catholic cantons, in the late 17th century. Nevertheless, Venice continued to employ Swiss regiments, concluding a new capitulation with the Protestant cantons of Bern and Zürich, as well as the Grisons, in 1706. Swiss mercenaries served the Republic of Venice until 1719. Swiss mercenaries were also employed at various dates by Prussia , Brandenburg , Genoa , Portugal , Tuscany , Poland , Saxony , Denmark , Sweden , and Bavaria , among other states. Since 1859, only one Swiss mercenary unit has been permitted,

23005-574: The Netherlands. In 1700, 11,200 Swiss soldiers served in the Dutch States Army . At the Battle of Malplaquet in 1709, during the War of the Spanish Succession , six Swiss regiments in Dutch pay (Chambrier, Schmid von Grüneck, Hirzel, May, Stürler and Mestral) fought a French army which included Swiss infantry regiments and Louis XIV's Swiss Guards . The Republic sent Swiss regiments to Scotland in 1715 and 1745; in 1745, three battalions of

23220-500: The Ottomans, under Andrea Gritti the Republic tried to remain neutral and after 1529 avoided participation in the fighting. Supported by a Genoese fleet, in April 1528 a French expeditionary force besieged Naples before disease forced them to withdraw in August. Both sides were now anxious to end the war and after another French defeat at Landriano on 21 June 1529, Francis agreed the Treaty of Cambrai with Charles in August. Known as

23435-526: The Pope." On 9 February 1499, Louis signed the Treaty of Blois , a military alliance with Venice against Ludovico. With these agreements finalised, a French army of 27,000 under the Milanese exile Gian Giacomo Trivulzio invaded Lombardy , and in August besieged Rocca d'Arazzo, a fortified town in the western part of the Duchy of Milan. The French siege artillery breached the walls in less than five hours and after

23650-514: The Spanish expedition under Christopher Columbus to the Americas in 1492 and Vasco da Gama 's voyage to Africa and India in 1498. Their discoveries strengthened the economy and power of European nations. The changes brought about by these developments have led many scholars to view this period as the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of modern history and of early modern Europe . However,

23865-583: The Spanish kingdoms supported the Avignon Papacy, France's enemy England stood behind the pope in Rome, together with Portugal, Scandinavia, and most of the German princes. At the Council of Constance (1414–1418), the Papacy was once more united in Rome. Even though the unity of the Western Church was to last for another hundred years, and though the Papacy was to experience greater material prosperity than ever before,

24080-409: The Swiss cantons had gradually developed a reputation across Europe as skilled soldiers, due to their successful defense of their liberties against their Austrian Habsburg overlords, starting as early as the late 13th century, including remarkable upset victories over heavily armoured knights at Morgarten and Laupen . This was furthered by later successful campaigns of regional expansion, mainly into

24295-602: The Swiss constitution of 1848, though troops still served abroad when obliged by treaties. One such example were the Swiss regiments serving under Francis II of the Two Sicilies , who defended Gaeta in 1860 during the Italian War of Unification . This marked the end of an era. Swiss soldiers continued to serve as valued mercenaries with a number of European armies from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, in spite of extensive changes in tactics, drill and weapons. The most consistent and largest-scale employer of these troops

24510-402: The Swiss mercenaries, serving the French king, attempted repeatedly to storm an impregnable defensive position without artillery or missile support, only to be mown down by small-arms and artillery fire. Never before had the Swiss suffered such heavy losses while being unable to inflict much damage upon their foe. The Swiss are generally considered to have been surpassed by the Landsknechts after

24725-558: The Swiss participated in mutinies against their Dutch superiors at Java in 1860. The Dutch government then suspended their recruitment, only to resume it in 1866. By the start of the First World War , about 7,600 Swiss mercenaries had served throughout the Dutch colonial empire . The first Swiss mercenaries in the service of the House of Savoy (rulers of the Duchy of Savoy and later the Kingdom of Sardinia ) were recruited in 1577 through

24940-466: The Swiss pikemen at a disadvantage. For instance, the Spanish rodeleros , also known as sword-and-buckler men, armed with steel rodelas and espadas and often wearing a helmet and a breastplate, were much better armed and armored for man-to-man close quarters combat. Accordingly, they could defeat the Swiss pike square by dashing under their unwieldy pikes and stabbing them. However, this tactic operated in support of allied pike squares and thus required

25155-424: The Treaty of Madrid, claiming conditions extorted under duress could not be considered binding. Concerned that Imperial power now posed a threat to Papal independence, on 22 May 1526 Clement VII formed the League of Cognac , whose members included France, the Papal States, Venice, Florence and Milan. Many of the Imperial troops were close to mutiny having not been paid for months and the Duke of Urbino , commander of

25370-407: The Two Sicilies were officially disbanded. Mercenaries from Switzerland and the Grisons were individually employed by the Republic of Venice as early as the 15th century. In 1500, a capitulation authorized Venice to recruit 4,000 men from the Grisons, in return for Venice's support at the Battle of Calven the previous year. A treaty signed in 1560 raised a Swiss regiment of twelve companies, under

25585-441: The Vatican's Swiss Guard , which has been protecting the pope for the last five centuries, dressed in colourful uniforms, supposedly drawn by Michelangelo , reminiscent of the Swiss mercenary's heyday. Despite its being prohibited, individual Swiss citizens carried on the tradition of foreign military service into the twentieth century. This included 800 Swiss volunteers who fought with the Republican International Brigades during

25800-449: The West, particularly Italy. Combined with this influx of classical ideas was the invention of printing, which facilitated the dissemination of the printed word and democratized learning. Those two things would later lead to the Reformation . Toward the end of the period, the Age of Discovery began. The expansion of the Ottoman Empire cut off trading possibilities with the East. Europeans were forced to seek new trading routes, leading to

26015-443: The accession of Henry VII of the House of Tudor , who continued the work started by the Yorkist kings of building a strong, centralized monarchy. While England's attention was thus directed elsewhere, the Hiberno-Norman lords in Ireland were becoming gradually more assimilated into Irish society, and the island was allowed to develop virtual independence under English overlordship. The French House of Valois , which followed

26230-422: The ambition of Ludovico Sforza , its collapse allowed Charles VIII of France to invade Naples in 1494, which drew in Spain and the Holy Roman Empire. Although Charles was forced to withdraw in 1495, ongoing political divisions among the Italian states made them a battleground in the struggle for European domination between France and the Habsburgs. Fought with considerable brutality, the wars took place against

26445-467: The arts and sciences. Following a renewed interest in ancient Greek and Roman texts that took root in the High Middle Ages, the Italian Renaissance began. The absorption of Latin texts had started before the Renaissance of the 12th century through contact with Arabs during the Crusades , but the availability of important Greek texts accelerated with the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks , when many Byzantine scholars had to seek refuge in

26660-400: The ascendancy of Serbia was marked by the Serbian victory over the Bulgarians in the Battle of Velbazhd in 1330. By 1346, the Serbian king Stefan Dušan had been proclaimed emperor. Yet Serbian dominance was short-lived; the Serbian army led by the Lazar Hrebeljanovic was defeated by the Ottoman Army at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, where most of the Serbian nobility was killed and

26875-421: The background of religious turmoil caused by the Reformation , particularly in France and the Holy Roman Empire. They are seen as a turning point in the evolution from medieval to modern warfare, with the use of the arquebus or handgun becoming common, along with significant technological improvements in siege artillery. Literate commanders and modern printing methods also make them one of the first conflicts with

27090-405: The basis for several 17th-century capitulations between Venice and the Swiss. Two Swiss units, the Werdtmüller and Weiss regiments, were formed in 1648 and 1658, respectively, for service in Venetian Dalmatia . The Büeler Regiment, from Solothurn, took part in the Cretan War against the Ottoman Empire , serving in Dalmatia from 1652 to 1664. In 1687, a Swiss regiment of 2,500 men, recruited from

27305-441: The battlefield, where they were often opposed during the major European conflict of the early sixteenth century, the Italian Wars . Although the Swiss generally had a significant edge in a simple " push of pike ", the resulting combat was nonetheless quite savage, and known to Italian onlookers as "bad war". Period artists such as Hans Holbein attest to the fact that two such huge pike columns crashing into each other could result in

27520-402: The by now under-strength four Swiss regiments undertook ceremonial guard duties in Paris. Upon Napoleon's return from Elba in 1815, the serving Swiss units were recalled to Switzerland on the grounds that a new contract signed with the government of Louis XVIII had now been rendered void. Still, one composite regiment of Napoleon's Swiss veterans fought at Wavre during the Hundred Days . After

27735-501: The cantons of Ticino , Vaud, Bern and the Grisons. However, due to budgetary reasons, he was forced to sign the capitulation for only one regiment (Christ) from the Grisons, which never reached its nominal strength and was disbanded in 1816. The Hundred Swiss of the Guard, who were also disbanded in 1798 and restored in 1814, continued to perform their duties at the Royal Palace of Turin until their final dissolution in 1832. The Kingdom of England began to recruit Swiss mercenaries after

27950-409: The case of France, the Habsburg result is also variously interpreted. Many historians in the 20th century, including Garrett Mattingly , Eric Cochrane and Manuel F. Alvarez, identified the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis as the beginning of a Spanish hegemony in Italy. However, this view has been contested and abandoned in 21st-century historiography. Christine Shaw, Micheal J. Levin, and William Reger reject

28165-448: The change of dynasties in Austria and Spain. Following the War of the Spanish Succession and other wars of succession, the Habsburg-Lorraine of Austria largely replaced Spain and gained direct or indirect control of the fiefs of Imperial Italy, whereas the south eventually passed to an independent branch of the Spanish Bourbons. France would return in Italy to confront Habsburg power, first under Louis XIV, and later under Napoleon, but only

28380-591: The close defeat at the Battle of Marignano in 1515, the "Battle of Giants", was seen as an achievement of sorts for Swiss arms due to the ferocity of the fighting and the good order of their withdrawal. Nonetheless, the repulse at Marignano presaged the decline of the Swiss form of pike warfare —eventually, the two-century run of Swiss victories ended in 1522 with disaster at the Battle of Bicocca when combined Spanish tercios and Landsknecht forces decisively defeated them using superior tactics, fortifications, artillery, and new technology (i.e. handguns ). At Bicocca,

28595-428: The close-packed ranks of the Swiss squares in bloody heaps—at least, as long as the Swiss attack could be bogged down by earthworks or cavalry charges, and the vulnerable arquebusiers were backed up by melee infantry—pikemen, halberdiers, and/or swordsmen (Spanish sword-and-buckler men or the Doppelsöldner wielding the Zweihänder)—to defend them if necessary from the Swiss in close combat. Other stratagems could also take

28810-413: The coast of Africa , and in 1498, Vasco da Gama found the sea route to India . The Spanish monarchs met the Portuguese challenge by financing the expedition of Christopher Columbus to find a western sea route to India, leading to the discovery of the Americas in 1492. Around 1300–1350, the Medieval Warm Period gave way to the Little Ice Age . The colder climate resulted in agricultural crises,

29025-409: The concept of a Spanish hegemony on the ground that too many limits prevented Spain's dominance in the peninsula, and maintain that other powers also held major influence in Italy after 1559. Although Spain gained control of about half of the Italian states, the other half remained independent; among them, the Papacy in particular emerged strengthened by the conclusion of the Council of Trent according to

29240-573: The conflict originated in the long-standing rivalry between Florence and the Republic of Pisa , which had been annexed by Florence in 1406 but took advantage of the French invasion to regain its independence in 1494. Despite Charles' retreat in 1495, Pisa continued to receive support from Genoa , Venice and Milan, all of whom were suspicious of Florentine power. In order to strengthen his own position, Ludovico once again invited an external power to settle an internal Italian affair, in this case Emperor Maximilian I . In doing so, Maximilian hoped to bolster

29455-410: The consolidation of central authority and the emergence of the nation state . The financial demands of war necessitated higher levels of taxation, resulting in the emergence of representative bodies – most notably the English Parliament . The growth of secular authority was further aided by the decline of the papacy with the Western Schism and the coming of the Protestant Reformation . After

29670-456: The conversion of Lithuania, also marked the end of paganism in Europe. Louis did not leave a son as heir after his death in 1382. Instead, he named as his heir the young prince Sigismund of Luxemburg . The Hungarian nobility did not accept his claim, and the result was an internal war. Sigismund eventually achieved total control of Hungary and established his court in Buda and Visegrád. Both palaces were rebuilt and improved, and were considered

29885-429: The country into a succession crisis , and the English king, Edward I , was brought in to arbitrate. Edward claimed overlordship over Scotland, leading to the Wars of Scottish Independence . The English were eventually defeated, and the Scots were able to develop a stronger state under the Stewarts . From 1337, England's attention was largely directed towards France in the Hundred Years' War . Henry V's victory at

30100-400: The defining feature of an entire European historical epoch. The period from the early 14th century up until – and sometimes including – the 16th century is rather seen as characterized by other trends: demographic and economic decline followed by recovery, the end of Western religious unity and the subsequent emergence of the nation-state , and the expansion of European influence onto

30315-496: The distinguishing characteristics of the medieval period. The Catholic Church had long fought against heretic movements, but during the late Middle Ages, it started to experience demands for reform from within. The first of these came from Oxford professor John Wycliffe in England. Wycliffe held that the Bible should be the only authority in religious questions, and he spoke out against transubstantiation , celibacy , and indulgences . In spite of influential supporters among

30530-414: The division is somewhat artificial, since ancient learning was never entirely absent from European society. As a result, there was developmental continuity between the ancient age (via classical antiquity ) and the modern age . Some historians, particularly in Italy, prefer not to speak of the late Middle Ages at all but rather see the high period of the Middle Ages transitioning to the Renaissance and

30745-468: The duchy on his death, which occurred on 1 November 1535. Francis refused to accept this, arguing Milan was rightfully his along with Genoa and Asti , and once again prepared for war. In April 1536, pro-Valois elements in Asti expelled the Imperial garrison and a French army under Philippe de Chabot occupied Turin , although they failed to take Milan. In response, a Spanish army invaded Provence and captured Aix on 13 August 1536, before withdrawing,

30960-602: The employment of Swiss mercenaries in organized bodies from the late 16th century on, customary capitulations existed between employing powers and the Swiss cantons or noble families assembling and supplying these troops. Such contracts would generally cover specific details such as the numbers, quality, pay rates and equipment of recruits. Provisions were commonly made that Swiss soldiers would only serve under officers of their own nationality, would be subject to Swiss laws, would carry their own flags and would not be employed in campaigns that would bring them into conflict with Swiss in

31175-465: The enemy and relied more on a straightforward steamroller assault of the phalanx formation. Such deep pike columns could crush lesser infantry in close combat and were invulnerable to the effects of a cavalry charge, but they were vulnerable to firearms if they could be immobilized (as seen in the Battle of Marignano ). The Swiss mercenaries did deploy bows, crossbows, handguns and artillery of their own, however these always remained very subsidiary to

31390-479: The eve of the French Revolution the log-book of one Swiss regiment expressed concern that Franco-Swiss recruits were becoming prone to desertion as general discontent spread. French-speaking Swiss soldiers were generally to prove more susceptible to revolutionary propaganda than their German-speaking colleagues. At the outbreak of the French Revolution the Swiss troops were, as at least nominal foreigners, still considered more reliable than their French counterparts in

31605-457: The failed union of Sweden and Norway of 1319–1365, the pan-Scandinavian Kalmar Union was instituted in 1397. The Swedes were reluctant members of the Danish -dominated union from the start. In an attempt to subdue the Swedes, King Christian II of Denmark had large numbers of the Swedish aristocracy killed in the Stockholm Bloodbath of 1520. Yet this measure only led to further hostilities, and Sweden broke away for good in 1523. Norway, on

31820-412: The first of which is known as the Great Famine of 1315–1317 . The demographic consequences of this famine , however, were not as severe as the plagues that occurred later in the century, particularly the Black Death . Estimates of the death rate caused by this epidemic range from one third to as much as sixty percent. By around 1420, the accumulated effect of recurring plagues and famines had reduced

32035-545: The formation of the League of Venice on 31 March 1495, an anti-French alliance composed of Republic of Venice , Milan, Spain , and the Holy Roman Empire . Later joined by Florence, following the overthrow of Savonarola, the Papal States and Mantua , this coalition cut off Charles and his army from their bases in France. Charles' cousin, Louis d'Orleans , now tried to take advantage of Ludovico's change of sides to conquer Milan, which he claimed through his grandmother, Valentina Visconti . On 11 June, he captured Novara when

32250-463: The formation of two Swiss regiments. A third regiment were raised in 1826, through a treaty with Valais , the Grisons and Schwyz, and fourth by Bern in 1829. These capitulations , concluded for a period of thirty years, offered commercial advantages. The Swiss regiments went through unrest under the reign of Ferdinand II , with frequent changes of garrison. During the Revolutions of 1848–1849 , Swiss mercenaries were deployed in two campaigns against

32465-416: The future landammann of Nidwalden , Melchior Lussy , for Venetian service. Another regiment, belonging to the Salis family of the Val Bregaglia , was recruited by the Republic around the same time. In 1571, a contingent of six hundred Catholics from the Grisons served at the Battle of Lepanto as rowers in the Venetian Navy . An alliance with the cantons of Zürich and Bern, signed in 1615, served as

32680-444: The garrison defected, and reached Vigevano , forty kilometres from Milan. At this crucial point, Ludovico was incapacitated either by a stroke or nervous breakdown, while his unpaid soldiers were on the verge of mutiny. In his absence, his wife Beatrice d'Este took personal control of the Duchy and the siege of Novara, with Louis eventually forced to surrender in return for his freedom. Having replaced Ferdinand II of Naples with

32895-444: The genuine Swiss element dwindled to 100 or less. Spain's Swiss units served against the French in the War of the Pyrenees , and one Swiss regiment (Betschart) formed part of the Allied army at the Siege of Toulon in 1793. Their final role in Spanish service was against the French in the Peninsular War , in which the five Swiss regiments (Rüttimann, Jann, Reding, Schwaller and Courten) mostly stayed loyal to their Spanish employers. At

33110-451: The growing power of guilds , while on a national level, special companies would be granted monopolies on particular trades, like the English wool Staple . The beneficiaries of these developments would accumulate immense wealth. Families like the Fuggers in Germany, the Medicis in Italy, and the de la Poles in England and individuals like Jacques Cœur in France would help finance the wars of kings, achieving great political influence in

33325-428: The individual principalities. In addition, financial institutions, such as the Hanseatic League and the Fugger family, held great power, on both economic and political levels. The Kingdom of Hungary experienced a golden age during the 14th century. In particular the reigns of the Angevin kings Charles Robert (1308–42) and his son Louis the Great (1342–82) were marked by success. The country grew wealthy as

33540-477: The king. The native German term Reisläufer literally means "one who goes to war" and is derived from the Middle High German Reise, meaning "military campaign". The Swiss mercenaries, with their head-down attack in huge columns with the long pike, refusal to take prisoners, and consistent record of victory, were greatly feared and admired—for instance, the Italian diplomat and political philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli addressed their system of combat at length in

33755-453: The last Italian war ended with the division of the Habsburg empire between the Spanish and Austrian Habsburgs following the abdication of Charles V. Philip II of Spain was heir of the kingdoms held by Charles V in Spain, southern Italy, and South America. Ferdinand I was the successor of Charles V in the Holy Roman Empire extending from Germany to northern Italy and became suo jure king of the Habsburg monarchy . The Habsburg Netherlands and

33970-475: The later 16th century on was Spain . After the Protestant Reformation , Switzerland was split along religious lines between Protestant and Catholic cantons. Swiss mercenaries from the Catholic cantons were thereafter increasingly likely to be hired for service in the armies of Habsburg Spain in the late 16th century. The first regularly embodied Swiss regiment in the Spanish Army was that of Walter Roll of Uri (a Catholic canton), formed in 1574 for service in

34185-421: The main European supplier of gold and silver. Louis the Great led successful campaigns from Lithuania to Southern Italy, and from Poland to Northern Greece. He had the greatest military potential of the 14th century with his enormous armies (often over 100,000 men). Meanwhile, Poland 's attention was turned eastwards, as the Commonwealth with Lithuania created an enormous entity in the region. The union, and

34400-454: The modern era. The term "late Middle Ages" refers to one of the three periods of the Middle Ages , along with the early Middle Ages and the High Middle Ages. Leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodization in his History of the Florentine People (1442). Flavio Biondo used a similar framework in Decades of History from the Deterioration of the Roman Empire (1439–1453). Tripartite periodization became standard after

34615-421: The most capable close order infantry in Europe throughout the remainder of the sixteenth century. This was demonstrated by their battlefield performances in the service of the French monarchy during the French Wars of Religion , in particular at the Battle of Dreux , where a block of Swiss pikemen held the Huguenot army until the Catholic cavalry were able to counterattack. During the period of formalization of

34830-428: The name Regiment de Meuron , first serving the Dutch East India Company, and from 1796, the British East India Company. Under British service, the regiment fought in the Mysore campaign of 1799, the Mediterranean campaigns of the Napoleonic Wars and the Peninsular War . The Regiment de Watteville was a Swiss regiment founded by Louis de Watteville and recruited from regiments that served between 1799 and 1801 in

35045-410: The north was largely formed by formal fiefs of the Austrian Habsburgs as part of the Holy Roman Empire). The most significant Italian power left was the papacy in central Italy , as it maintained major cultural and political influence during the Catholic Reformation . The Council of Trent, suspended during the war, was reconvened by the terms of the peace treaties and came to an end in 1563. As in

35260-400: The number of Swiss mercenaries in Dutch service, and additional regiments were taken into service, but that year, the War of Austrian Succession ended and three of these regiments were retired from service. In 1749 a regiment of Swiss Guards ( Zwitsersche Guardes ) was raised, the recruits coming from the ranks of the existing Swiss infantry regiments. Swiss mercenaries were also deployed to

35475-403: The number of available Swiss. During the latter part of the 18th century, increasing reliance was placed on recruiting from the "children of the regiment" – the sons of Swiss soldiers who had married French women and stayed in France after their term of service had ended. The effect was to partially break down barriers between the Swiss and the French population amongst whom they were garrisoned. On

35690-400: The opposing pike square to be fully engaged in the chaos of the push of pike . Swiss pike columns that retained good formation were often able to beat back Spanish rodeleros with impunity, such as in the Battle of Seminara , in which the Swiss pike were heavily outnumbered. Despite the end of their supremacy after the Battle of Pavia, the Swiss pike-armed mercenaries continued to be amongst

35905-468: The other hand, became an inferior party of the union and remained united with Denmark until 1814. Iceland benefited from its relative isolation and was the last Scandinavian country to be struck by the Black Death . Meanwhile, the Norse colony in Greenland died out, probably under extreme weather conditions in the 15th century. These conditions might have been the effect of the Little Ice Age . The death of Alexander III of Scotland in 1286 threw

36120-451: The other hand, landowners were able to exploit the situation to force the peasantry into even more repressive bondage. The upheavals caused by the Black Death left certain minority groups particularly vulnerable, especially the Jews , who were often blamed for the calamities. Anti-Jewish pogroms were carried out all over Europe; in February 1349, 2,000 Jews were murdered in Strasbourg . States were also guilty of discrimination against

36335-474: The ownership of the Tschudi family of Glarus . The Bessler Regiment was replaced by a regiment belonging to the Jauch family, from Uri . Three of the regiments were stationed in the city of Naples and the surrounding area, with a fourth garrisoned in Sicily . The Swiss regiments in Neapolitan service, totaling between 6,000 and 7,000 men, remained active until 1789. After their dismissal, several Swiss soldiers joined other foreign regiments and went on to fight

36550-408: The period has reached a consensus between the two extremes of innovation and crisis. It is now generally acknowledged that conditions were vastly different north and south of the Alps, and the term "late Middle Ages" is often avoided entirely within Italian historiography. The term "Renaissance" is still considered useful for describing certain intellectual, cultural, or artistic developments but not as

36765-449: The pike and halberd square. Despite the proven armour-penetration capability of firearms, they were also very inaccurate, slow-loading, and susceptible to damp conditions, and did not fit well with the fast-paced attack tactics used by the Swiss mercenary pike forces (the Spanish invention of the armor piercing arquebus leading to the later tercios formation changed the optimal war tactics). The Swiss remained primarily pikemen throughout

36980-439: The power of their determined mass attack in deep columns with the spear , the pike , and halberd . Hiring them was made even more attractive because entire ready-made Swiss mercenary contingents could be obtained by simply contracting with their local governments, the various Swiss cantons —the cantons had a form of militia system in which the soldiers were bound to serve and were trained and equipped to do so. The warriors of

37195-441: The process. Though there is no doubt that the demographic crisis of the 14th century caused a dramatic fall in production and commerce in absolute terms, there has been a vigorous historical debate over whether the decline was greater than the fall in population. While the older orthodoxy held that the artistic output of the Renaissance was a result of greater opulence, more recent studies have suggested that there might have been

37410-454: The ranks of the Royal French army. The Landsknecht , however, would continue to serve any paymaster, even, at times, enemies of the Holy Roman Emperor (and Landsknechts at times even fought each other on the battlefield). The Landsknecht often assumed the multi-coloured and striped clothing of the Swiss. The Swiss were not flattered by the imitation, and the two bodies of mercenaries immediately became bitter rivals over employment and on

37625-456: The reason for fighting in the first place. In the south, despite some initial reverses , by September 1495 Ferdinand II had regained control of his kingdom. Although the French invasion achieved little, it showed the Italian states were rich and comparatively weak, making future intervention attractive to outside powers. Charles himself died on 7 April 1498, and was succeeded by the former Duke of Orleans, who became Louis XII. The next phase of

37840-450: The recently-disbanded Swiss units in French service, were raised for the Sardinian Army in 1793. Each regiment was reduced to a single battalion in 1797, following Sardinia's defeat in the Italian campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars , and later passed into the service of the French Republic in 1798 as the Helvetic Legions in Italy. After his return to Turin in 1814, King Victor Emmanuel I considered raising six Swiss regiments from

38055-516: The recruitment of new units such as the Guibert, Du Pâquier, Kyd, and Donatz regiments, most of which were disbanded shortly after the war. The Swiss also fought for the King of Sardinia in the War of the Austrian Succession , suffering heavy losses at the Siege of Villafrance and distinguishing themselves at the battles of Madonna dell'Olmo and Assietta . By the end of the war in 1748, about 10,600 Swiss soldiers were employed by Sardinia. Three new Swiss regiments, largely consisting of soldiers from

38270-565: The reforming movements with what has been called the Catholic Reformation, or Counter-Reformation . Europe became split into northern Protestant and southern Catholic parts, resulting in the Religious Wars of the 16th and 17th centuries. The increasingly dominant position of the Ottoman Empire in the eastern Mediterranean presented an impediment to trade for the Christian nations of the west, who in turn started looking for alternatives. Portuguese and Spanish explorers found new trade routes – south of Africa to India , as well as across

38485-512: The rest of the world. The limits of Christian Europe were still being defined in the 14th and 15th centuries. While the Grand Duchy of Moscow was beginning to repel the Mongols , and the Iberian kingdoms completed the Reconquista of the peninsula and turned their attention outwards, the Balkans fell under the dominance of the Ottoman Empire . Meanwhile, the remaining nations of the continent were locked in almost constant international or internal conflict. The situation gradually led to

38700-403: The revolutionary Roman Republic and took part in the suppression of the Sicilian Revolution . Their behaviour on this occasion was criticized within Switzerland, which led the Federal Council in 1851 to ban all recruitment for foreign service and to demand the removal of the cantonal and national coats of arms from regimental flags. After Ferdinand II's death in 1859, the Swiss regiments in

38915-477: The richest of the time in Europe. Inheriting the throne of Bohemia and the Holy Roman Empire, Sigismund continued conducting his politics from Hungary, but he was kept busy fighting the Hussites and the Ottoman Empire , which was becoming a menace to Europe in the beginning of the 15th century. King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary led the largest army of mercenaries of the time, the Black Army of Hungary , which he used to conquer Moravia and Austria and to fight

39130-531: The ruler of Florence, Cosimo de' Medici , who defeated a French army at Marciano on 2 August 1554; although Siena held out until April 1555, it was absorbed by Florence and in 1569 became part of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany . In July 1554, Philip II of Spain became king of England through his marriage to Mary I , and in November he also received the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily from his father, who reconfirmed him as Duke of Milan. In January 1556, Charles formally abdicated as Emperor and split his possessions;

39345-476: The same fate and on 12 October Louis appointed the Duke of Nemours his viceroy in Naples. However, the Treaty of Granada had left the ownership of key Neapolitan territories undecided and disputes over these quickly poisoned relationships between the two powers. This led to war in late 1502, which ended with the French being expelled from Naples once again after defeats at Cerignola on 28 April 1503, and Garigliano on 29 December. On 18 October 1503, Pius III

39560-417: The same time, women were also vulnerable to incrimination and persecution, as belief in witchcraft increased. The accumulation of social, environmental, and health-related problems also led to an increase in interpersonal violence in most parts of Europe. Population increase, religious intolerance, famine, and disease led to an increase in violent acts in vast parts of medieval society. One exception to this

39775-474: The scholars Antelantonio Spagnoletti and Benedetto Croce. Furthermore, according to the historians Christine Shaw and Salvatore Puglisi, the Holy Roman Empire continued to play a role in Italian politics. Peter J. Wilson writes that three overlapping and competing feudal networks, Imperial, Spanish, and Papal, were affirmed in Italy as a result of the end of the wars. In the long-term, Habsburg primacy in Italy continued to exist, but it varied significantly due to

39990-513: The service of another country. It has been claimed that such contracts might also contain a commitment that Swiss units would be returned if the confederation came under attack. However, surviving capitulations from the 16th and 17th centuries are not known to contain provisions to this effect. With the passing of the amendment to the Swiss Constitution of 1874 banning the recruitment of Swiss citizens by foreign states, such contractual relations ceased. Military alliances had already been banned under

40205-403: The seventeenth century wore on, and abandoned the pike, their ancient trademark, altogether at around the same time as other troops in the French army, circa 1700. They also served in the New World: Samuel De Champlain 's map of the Île Sainte-Croix ( Saint Croix Island ) settlement shows a barracks for the Swiss. The Swiss mercenaries were recruited according to contracts (capitulations) between

40420-666: The sixteenth century, but after that period they adopted similar infantry formations and tactics to other units in the armies in which they served. Accordingly, they began to deviate from their previously unique tactics, and they took a normal place in the battle line amongst the other infantry units. In the end, as proven at Marignano and Bicocca, the mass pike attack columns of the Swiss mercenaries proved to be too vulnerable to gunpowder weapons as firearms technology advanced, especially arquebusiers and artillery deployed on prepared ground (e.g., earthworks) and properly supported by other arms. These arquebusiers and heavy cannons scythed down

40635-451: The south of the country came under Ottoman occupation , as much of southern Bulgaria had become Ottoman territory in the Battle of Maritsa 1371. Northern remnants of Bulgaria were finally conquered by 1396, Serbia fell in 1459, Bosnia in 1463, and Albania was finally subordinated in 1479 only a few years after the death of Skanderbeg . Belgrade , a Hungarian domain at the time, was the last large Balkan city to fall under Ottoman rule, in

40850-480: The southern Adriatic coast. Along with the Duchy of Ferrara , Julius united these disparate interests into the anti-Venetian League of Cambrai , signed on 10 December 1508. Although the French largely destroyed a Venetian army at Agnadello on 14 May 1509, Maximilian failed to capture Padua and withdrew from Italy. Now seeing the power of Louis XII as the greater threat, in February 1510 Pope Julius made peace with Venice, followed in March by an agreement with

41065-441: The still largely rural cantons; adventure; pride in the reputation of the Swiss as soldiers; and finally what military historian Sir Charles Oman describes as a pure love of combat and warfighting in and of itself, forged by two centuries of conflict. Until roughly 1490, the Swiss had a virtual monopoly on pike-armed mercenary service. However, after that date, the Swiss mercenaries were increasingly supplanted by imitators, chiefly

41280-466: The survivors, and labour was consequently more expensive. Attempts by landowners to forcibly reduce wages, such as the English 1351 Statute of Laborers , were doomed to fail. These efforts resulted in nothing more than fostering resentment among the peasantry, leading to rebellions such as the French Jacquerie in 1358 and the English Peasants' Revolt in 1381. The long-term effect was the virtual end of serfdom in Western Europe. In Eastern Europe, on

41495-428: The town capitulated, Louis ordered the execution of its garrison and senior members of the civil administration. Other Milanese strongholds surrendered rather than face the same fate, while Ludovico, whose wife Beatrice had died in 1497, fled the duchy with his children and took refuge with Maximilian. On 6 October 1499, Louis made a triumphant entry into Milan. Florence now asked for French assistance in retaking Pisa,

41710-433: The treaty of Noyon , signed on 13 August 1516, Charles I of Spain acknowledged Francis as Duke of Milan, while Francis "passed" his claim to Naples onto Charles. Left isolated, in December Maximilian signed the Treaty of Brussels, which confirmed French possession of Milan. Following the death of Maximilian in January 1519, the German Princes elected Charles I of Spain as Emperor Charles V on 28 June. This brought Spain,

41925-497: The twelfth chapter of his literary masterpiece, The Prince (1513–1532). Although often referred to as "pikemen", the Swiss mercenary units also contained halberdiers as well until several decades into the 16th century, as well as a small number of skirmishers armed with bows , crossbows , or early firearms to precede the rapid advance of the attack column. The young men who went off to fight, and sometimes die, in foreign service had several incentives—limited economic options in

42140-430: The two kingdoms were effectively united under Aragonese control. The 1469 marriage of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon and the 1479 death of John II of Aragon led to the creation of modern-day Spain . In 1492, Granada was captured from the Moors , thereby completing the Reconquista . Portugal had during the 15th century – particularly under Henry the Navigator  – gradually explored

42355-416: The unification of Italy would permanently remove foreign powers from the peninsula. Charles Tilly has characterized the Italian Wars as a key part in his theory of state formation , as the wars demonstrated the value of large armies and superior military technology. In Coercion, Capital, and European States, AD 990–1992 , Tilly argues that a "comprehensive European state system" can be reasonably dated to

42570-409: The warrior class. This newfound ethos can be seen as a response to the diminishing military role of the aristocracy, and it gradually became almost entirely detached from its military origin. The spirit of chivalry was given expression through the new ( secular ) type of chivalric orders ; the first of these was the Order of St. George , founded by Charles I of Hungary in 1325, while the best known

42785-449: The white uniforms of the Spanish line infantry. The Dutch employed many Swiss units from the late 17th century until the 19th century. After initial attempts by the Dutch Republic to raise Swiss regiments during the Franco-Dutch War failed, the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 by Louis XIV of France prompted a feeling of common threat among Protestants. In March 1693, the Dutch envoy to Zürich , Petrus Valkenier, concluded

43000-407: The years around World War I . Yet it was his Dutch colleague, Johan Huizinga , who was primarily responsible for popularising the pessimistic view of the late Middle Ages, with his book The Autumn of the Middle Ages (1919). To Huizinga, whose research focused on France and the Low Countries rather than Italy, despair and decline were the main themes, not rebirth. Modern historiography on

43215-431: Was besieged by the mob . The Swiss and other royal troops were subsequently withdrawn to their frontier garrisons. Over the next years The Ernest Regiment in particular faced a series of clashes with local citizens, culminating in a two-day battle with Marseilles' militia in 1791. This indication of growing popular resentment against the Swiss caused the Canton of Berne to recall the disarmed regiment. Another Swiss regiment,

43430-600: Was North-Eastern Europe, whose population managed to maintain low levels of violence due to a more organized society resulting from extensive and successful trade. Up until the mid-14th century, Europe had experienced steadily increasing urbanization . Cities were also decimated by the Black Death, but the role of urban areas as centres of learning, commerce, and government ensured continued growth. By 1500, Venice, Milan, Naples, Paris, and Constantinople each probably had more than 100,000 inhabitants. Twenty-two other cities were larger than 40,000; most of these were in Italy and

43645-500: Was achieved through the extension of French diplomatic and commercial influence over the neighbouring cantons. The Swiss soldier was paid at a higher level than his French counterpart but was subject to a harsher disciplinary code, administered by his own officers. The basis of recruitment varied according to regiment – in some units recruits were drawn exclusively from the Swiss inhabitants of specific cantons while in others German or French volunteers were accepted to make up shortfalls in

43860-465: Was an Italian power. Many assumed the primacy established at Bologna by Charles V in Italy would also soon pass but instead it was the start of a long period of Imperial dominance. One factor was Venice's withdrawal from Italian affairs after 1530 in favour of protecting its maritime empire from Ottoman expansion. Under the Treaty of Cambrai, Francesco Sforza was reinstated as Duke of Milan; since he had no children, it also stated Charles V would inherit

44075-410: Was challenged to recant his heresy at the Diet of Worms in 1521. When he refused, he was placed under the ban of the Empire by Charles V . Receiving the protection of Frederick the Wise , he was then able to translate the Bible into German . To many secular rulers, the Protestant Reformation was a welcome opportunity to expand their wealth and influence. The Catholic Church met the challenges of

44290-566: Was elected Pope on 9 January 1522, while a French attempt to retake Milan was ended by defeat at Bicocca on 27 April. In May 1522, England joined the Imperial alliance and declared war on France. Venice left the war in July 1523, while Adrian died in November and was succeeded by Clement VII , who tried to negotiate an end to the fighting without success. Although France had lost ground in Lombardy and been invaded by English, Imperial and Spanish armies, her opponents had differing objectives and failed to co-ordinate their attacks. Since Papal policy

44505-428: Was himself a Medici, and after a lengthy siege , Florence surrendered in August 1530. Prior to 1530, interference by foreign powers in Italy was viewed as a short-term problem, since they could not sustain it over time; for example, French conquests of Naples in 1494 and 1501 and Milan in 1499 and 1515 were quickly reversed. On the other hand, Venice was generally viewed by other states as the greatest threat because it

44720-559: Was initiated. However, recruitment proved difficult and by May 1799 only a quarter of the intended establishment of 18,000 had been raised. Napoleon authorized the recruitment of a Swiss infantry regiment for French service in July 1805. A further three infantry regiments were created in October 1807, each including an artillery company. He specified that this newly raised Swiss Corps should comprise only citizens of Switzerland without "mingling in deserters or other foreigners". The Swiss regiments fought well both in Spain (where they clashed at

44935-399: Was involved in the Peninsular War in Spain, defending Cádiz during the Siege of Cádiz . The Meuron and Watteville regiments both sailed to Canada in 1813 to fight in the War of 1812 . De Watteville's Regiment saw action at the Siege of Fort Erie and at the Battle of Fort Oswego . All Swiss units in British service were demobilized in 1816. A short-lived British Swiss Legion, recruited in

45150-496: Was of sufficient size, more often they simply drew up in one or two huge columns which deployed side by side, forming the center of the army in which they served. Likewise, their tactics were not very similar to those used by the Swiss cantons in their brilliant tactical victories of the Burgundian Wars and Swabian War , in which they relied on maneuver at least as much as the brute force of the attack columns. In mercenary service they became much less likely to resort to outmaneuvering

45365-452: Was probably the English Order of the Garter , founded by Edward III in 1348. The French crown's increasing dominance over the Papacy culminated in the transference of the Holy See to Avignon in 1309. When the Pope returned to Rome in 1377, this led to the election of different popes in Avignon and Rome, resulting in the Western Schism (1378–1417). The Schism divided Europe along political lines; while France, her ally Scotland, and

45580-500: Was replaced by Pope Julius II , who as ruler of the Papal States was concerned by Venetian power in northern Italy. This fear was shared by his home town of Genoa , which also resented its expulsion from the Po Valley , and Maximilian, whose acquisition of Gorizia in 1500 was threatened by Venetian possession of neighbouring Friuli . Milan, controlled by Louis XII, was a long-standing opponent of Venice, while Ferdinand II, now king of Naples, wished to regain control of Venetian ports on

45795-403: Was the French army, where the Swiss formed an elite part of the infantry. The Swiss Guards regiment, the most senior of the twelve Swiss mercenary regiments in French service, was essentially identical to the French Guards in organization and equipment, other than wearing a red uniform as opposed to the blue coats of the French corps. The Swiss adopted the musket in increasingly large numbers as

46010-446: Was through the use of cannons as siege weapons that major change was brought about; the new methods would eventually change the architectural structure of fortifications . Changes also took place within the recruitment and composition of armies. The use of the national or feudal levy was gradually replaced by paid troops of domestic retinues or foreign mercenaries . The practice was associated with Edward III of England and

46225-426: Was to prevent either France or the Empire from becoming too powerful, in late 1524 Clement secretly allied himself with Francis, enabling him to mount another offensive against Milan. On 24 February 1525, the French army suffered a devastating defeat at Pavia , in which Francis was captured and imprisoned in Spain. This led to frantic diplomatic manoeuvres to secure his release, including a French mission to Suleiman

#550449