The victory at Morgarten over Habsburg forces on horseback by the allied Swiss infantry threatened the long-standing tradition that cavalries were militarily superior and laid the foundation for the modern Swiss Confederation.
The Swiss Republic includes twenty-six districts or “cantons” not united by a common ethnic stock, language, or religion, nor by natural boundaries or ancient roots. The Roman Empire never organized the Transalpine Celts into a political entity. The Germanic invaders became the majority of a population divided into four ethnic and lingual groups—Alamanni
During the breakup of Charlemagne’s empire, it would have been logical for these groups to be annexed by their German, French, and Italian neighbors, but this was forestalled by a thirteenth century central Alpine federative movement. Within the large and loose framework of the Holy Roman Empire
The origins of the battle and of Switzerland must be told in terms of the geography, local history, and legends of the “inner Alps.” The thirteenth century brought significant changes to these forest cantons. Construction of the Devil’s Bridge over the Schoellenen Gorge on the Reuss River opened a trade route through the central Alps. Travelers and pack animals could go from Milan via Lake Maggiore, the Saint Gotthard Pass and Lake Lucerne to the Basle road, the Rhine, and Flanders. The formerly poor and isolated forest cantons began to prosper. At the same time, an increasing power struggle in the Holy Roman Empire saw emperors, their rivals, and the greater princes ready to sell charters for lands, political and tax rights, or privileges to wealthy nobles, towns, and peasant communities. The forest cantons now had the money to join the bidding. As early as 1231, the freemen of Uri
Ultimately, the Habsburgs were the threat against which the forest cantons would join in alliance. This family from the northwestern foothills of the Alps increased its feudal estates until by 1290 it held land, tax, or political rights in nine Swiss cantons, stretching from the Rhine through the Saint Gotthard Pass, in addition to sovereignty over Austria and Styria. Habsburg rents, taxes, tariffs, trade controls, and over-zealous bailiffs all seemed to threaten the local rights of the central Alpine burghers and peasants.
In August of 1291, Schwyz, Uri, and Unterwalden
A greater complication is the legend of Wilhelm Tell,
The Battle of Morgarten.
In the Tell legend, Swiss beginnings are explained as a revolt against Habsburg injuries and insults to the self-respect of Swiss men, women, and children. In actuality, Habsburg tariffs and trade controls may have been equally important, as well as cantonal opposition in imperial politics. Certainly the immediate cause of war was the Schwyzois raid in January of 1314 on disputed properties at Einsiedeln, an abbey under Habsburg protection. The Habsburg imperial contender, Frederick the Fair, ordered an expedition to destroy the revolutionary movement.
Frederick’s brother, Duke Leopold I of Austria
The knights headed a column stretching over more than half a mile of mediocre track, an obviously vulnerable situation, but an attack by untrained peasants was clearly not expected. About a mile south of Lake Aegeri, the knights were brought up short, either by a roadblock or rough footing. The spare narratives written later do not fit the present terrain exactly, but the main effect is clear. The defenders—thirteen hundred Schwyzois, two hundred from Uri, and others from Unterwalden—emerged from the forests along Morgarten heights, rolled boulders and tree trunks down the rocky slope of the Figlenfluh, and attacked on foot. In addition to using arrows, spears, clubs, and axes, the Swiss defenders used the halberd—a combination of spear, axe, and hook—to pull armored knights off their mounts. Surprised, the Austrian cavalry tried to deploy their undoubtedly panicked horses into a combat formation, but the narrow way gave no room for this. The battle was simply a running rout. In less than two hours, more than half the knights were killed, some drowning in the swamp or in Lake Aegeri, and the Habsburg army completely scattered. Duke Leopold survived only by flight and, demoralized, abandoned the unsuccessful flank attack on Unterwald.
For Europe, the defeat of mounted knights by infantry at Morgarten, like the similar case at Courtrai in 1302, threatened the military superiority that cavalries had claimed since the Battle of Adrianople in 378. That a small force of peasants only emerging from serfdom could outmaneuver and outfight a much larger army led by mounted knights threatened the very basis of European feudalism.
As for the forest cantons, Morgarten cemented their alliance and gained them de facto independence and credibility. Lucerne joined the alliance in 1332, Zürich in 1351, Zug and Glarus in 1352, and Bern in 1353, completing the Eight Canton Federation
-
Bonjour, E., H. S. Offler, and G. R. Potter. A Short History of Switzerland. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1952. Scholarly overview of Swiss history that includes coverage of the Battle of Morgarten. -
Gabriel, Richard A., and Donald W. Boose, Jr. “The Swiss Way of War: Morgarten, Laupen, Sempach.” In The Great Battles of Antiquity: A Strategic and Tactical Guide to Great Battles That Shaped the Development of War. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1994. Analysis of the Battle of Morgarten from the point of view of military history. -
McCrackan, William D. The Rise of the Swiss Republic. 2d rev. ed. New York: AMS Press, 1970. Explores the legend of Wilhelm Tell. -
Martin, William. Switzerland. New York: Praeger, 1971. Comprehensive Franco-Swiss scholarship examining Switzerland as a nation. -
Wheatcroft, Andrew. The Habsburgs: Embodying Empire. New York: Viking Press, 1995. A history of the house of Habsburg from the early eleventh century through the late twentieth century that provides insight into the Austrian reaction to the Swiss victory at Morgarten.