November 1315, a small contingent of men from the Swiss Confederacy ambushed a group of Austrian Soldiers near the Morgarten Pass. The Swiss victory furthered the confederacy between Unterwalden, Uri and Schwyz, the core of modern Switzerland.
Recent archaeological excavations near the site of the battle of Morgarten in 1315 have uncovered two knives, a number of arrows, a scabbard and a cavalier’s spur plus 12 pfennigs or silver coins. The items will be on show at the nearby Bundesbriefmuseum this summer, which also exhibits two famous relics: the Morgarten flag and the treaty from 1315. A series of celebrations have been planned in connection with the 700-year anniversary. This will culminate in the traditional memorial event, which takes place in November.
Background
Toward the end of the 13th century, the Austrian House of Habsburg coveted the area around the Gotthard Pass as it offered the shortest passage to Italy. But the Confederates of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden, who had formalized the Swiss Confederacy in 1291, held imperial freedom letters from former Habsburg emperors granting them local autonomy within the empire. In 1314 tensions between the Habsburgs and Confederates heightened and war eventually broke out after the Confederates of Schwyz had raided the Habsburg-protected Einsiedeln Abbey.
The Battle

The Battle of Morgarten occurred on the 15th of November 1315, when a 1,500-strong force from the Swiss Confederacy ambushed a group of Austrian soldiers of the Holy Roman Empire on the shores of Lake Ägeri near the Morgarten Pass in Switzerland. The Swiss were led by Werner Stauffacher, defeated the Austrians, who were under the command of Duke Leopold I. The Swiss victory consolidated the League of the Three Forest Cantons, which formed the core of modern Switzerland.
Frederick’s brother, Leopold of Austria, led a large army, including a small number of knights, to crush the rebellious Confederates. He planned a surprise attack from the south via Ägerisee (also known as Lake Äegen or Lake Aegeri) and the Morgarten Pass, counting on complete victory. Johannes von Winterthur’s chronicle of the battle from c. 1340 puts the Austrian forces at 20,000. However, that number is now believed to be inaccurate. Other medievalists assess the size of his army to be 2 – 9,000, while that of the confederates numbered 1500 -3000.

The Confederates prepared a road-block and an ambush at a point between Lake Ägerisee and Morgarten Pass, where a small path led between a steep slope and a swamp. When the Confederates attacked from above with rocks, logs and halberds, the Austrian knights had no room to defend themselves and suffered a crushing defeat, while the foot soldiers in the rear fled back to the city of Zug. About 1,500 Habsburg soldiers were killed in the attack, which demonstrated that an unarmoured man with a 2 meter long halberd could unseat an armoured man-at-arms. This led to the displacement of the halberd with a new type of four-meter long pike and later the pike square tactical formation. The duke was one of the few men of the imperial forces to escape. The battle marked the first time peasants destroyed a feudal force. Along with the battles of Crecy and Bannockburn, it ended feudal cavalry’s tactical supremacy; although it continued to be fielded as late as 1415 at Agincourt with (once more devastating consequences).
Within a month of the battle, in December 1315, the Confederates renewed the oath of alliance made in 1291, initiating a period of growth within the Confederacy, which Licerne, Zug and Zürich later joined.
SOURCE
Morgartenkrieg
By Josef Wiget
Die Schlacht von Morgarten hats gegeben!
VISIT:
The official site for the celebration 1315 – 2015
Archäologen von Morgarten-Fund begeistert
FEATURED PHOTO:
Morgarten with the lake Ageri . Source: Morgarten 1315