Battle of Laupen

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Battle of Laupen

Illustration of the Battle of Laupen (by Diebold Schilling the Elder, 1480s). The confederate forces are shown on the right.]]

Date	June 21, 1339
Location	Laupen, Berne
Result	Berne Victory and tightening of Berene and Swiss confederate relationships resulting in Berne's permanent accession in 1353.

Belligerents

Berne
Swiss Confederation:

Uri
Schwyz
Unterwalden

Habsburg

Burgundy

Commanders

Rudolf von Erlach

Louis the Bavarian

Strength

6,000

12,000

The Battle of Laupen (46°54′N, 7°14′E) of 1339 was fought between the Berne and its allies on one side, and Habsburg together with Burgundian allies on the other, with Berne victorious.

Prior to hostilities the City of Berne had undergone heavy expansion, however this expansion came at high expense to the feudal lords in the area. Angered, the feudal lords created a combined force of 12,000 men primarily heavy cavalry. Preceding the battle was an eleven days' siege of Laupen by a force of 12,000 under the command of Louis the Bavarian and the bishop of Basel (Johann II. von Munsingen). The siege was relieved on 21 June by a force of 6,000, consisting of Bernese, supported by Swiss confederates, who had entered a military alliance with Berne in 1323, and other allies (Simmental, Weissenburg, Oberhasli). The victory of the Bernese/Swiss against all odds, outnumbered two to one by a better equipped army, came as a surprise, and chronists record that comments like "God himself must have become a Bernese citizen" were heard among the retreating Habsburg troops. Comparable to the Battle of Bannockburn 25 years earlier, Laupen was one of a string of battles presaging the definite decline of High Medieval heavy cavalry (knights) in the face of improving pikemen tactics during the following century. The battle is also the first occasion for which use of the Swiss cross as a badge to identify confederate troops is attested; it was shown on combatants' clothing as two stripes of textile, contrasting with the red St. George's cross of Habsburg Austria, and with the Saint Andrew's cross used by Burgundy and Maximilian I.