Greatest battles

Canton of lucerne, Switzerland, 9 July 1386

How the Swiss fared against the Habsburgs at the Battle of Sempach

While the Hundred Years’ War tends to dominate 14th-century history, the Swiss struggle to be free from the grip of Austria in the 1380s was also pivotal for Europe. The Austrians, led by the mighty Habsburg dynasty, claimed lands south of the Upper Rhine extending deep into the cantons of the rugged Northern Alps. This threatened the autonomy of the Swiss, who had largely been free of feudal constraints in the Middle Ages.

Rudolf of Habsburg, the first of the dynasty to become king of Germany, substantially enhanced the fortunes of his family. In the closing years of the 13th century he not only owned lands in many of the Swiss cantons, but also gained the duchies of Austria and Styria through conquest.

Among the Swiss lands that Rudolf’s descendents coveted were the three rural districts of Schwyz, Uri and Unterwalden — the so-called forest cantons. But the fiercely independent people there had no interest in bowing to Rudolf’s family. In the face of Habsburg aggression, they formed a defensive alliance in 1291, an event that marked the birth of what we now call the Old Swiss Confederacy.

Duke Leopold I of Austria, Rudolf’s grandson, used a minor dispute over his rights to grazing lands in Schwyz to invade the region but the commoners ambushed and defeated his mounted knights at the Battle of Morgarten in 1315. Armed with halberds, the Swiss showed no mercy to their enemy, cutting down high- and lowborn alike. Because of their brutality and disregard for the rules of chivalry, the Habsburgs learned to fear and loath them.

The Old Swiss Confederacy expanded in the mid14th century with the additions of Bern, Lucerne,

Zug and Zurich. The mercantile, urban communities enhanced the Confederacy’s wealth and manpower and strengthened its military forces.

Emboldened by their growing power, the confederated cantons refused to swear an oath of fealty to the Habsburgs. In 1385, Lucerne even raided towns south of the Rhine that were controlled by the dynasty, deposing Habsburg officials and destroying farms and crops. But when Lucerne seized the town of Rothenburg in December 1385, Duke Leopold III of Austria vowed revenge.

Leopold summoned vassals from Alsace, Swabia and Tyrol for a campaign against the Swiss. The Austrian army assembled in the town of Brugg in Aargau in early July 1386 and marched 72.5 kilometres to Sempach in Lucerne. Leaving the majority of his untrained infantry to hold the town, Leopold moved northeast, likely in the hope of intercepting forces reinforcing it.

The Habsburg army collided with the Lucerne contingent on 9 July 1386 outside the village of Hildisrieden. A desperate melee ensued with the Austrian knights fighting dismounted. Just when it seemed they had vanquished the Swiss army, a large body of forest canton reinforcements arrived. The well-disciplined, highly trained Swiss infantry exhibited their renowned powerful offensive action as they wheeled and struck the Austrians in the flank. Leopold was slain while leading the counterattack and his army quickly retreated.

While the modern, unified state of Switzerland we know today was still hundreds of years away, the Swiss won a decisive victory that furthered the cause of their independence. The Austrian Habsburgs were forced to admit defeat and control of territories around the Rhine would collapse in the coming years, granting Lucerne, Bern and Solothurn unchecked expansion in the region. The Swiss win also forced other states to acknowledge the Confederacy’s military prowess and their presence as a growing European power.