Swiss Warrior: From Italian and Burgundian Wars to Papal Guard

[Music] in the first video we created on the rise of Swiss military power in the late Middle Ages we went through the very earliest stages of the Confederate resistance to the Holy Roman Empire and how this prompted the development of Swiss Pike Square tactics in this episode we will go over Swiss involvement in the Burgundian Wars of shall the bold and the final emergence of Swiss warriors into the wider view of medieval Europe this would eventually lead to the rice lava becoming some of the most sought after mercenaries in Europe creating a legacy that would last until the modern age shout-out to one of our most cherished partners Magellan TV for sponsoring this video this new type of documentary streaming membership has the richest and most varied history content available anywhere ancient modern current early modern war biography and even non-historical genres like science and crime are historical in nature Magellan TV will give you insight and knowledge about the topics you're passionate about this service run by filmmakers has over 2000 documentaries across many series and one of the most impressive playlists covers the Warriors of different eras from the Vikings to the Templars and from the Romans to the Mongols you can stream Magellan from anywhere on any device without any ads and no limited access new programs are added on a weekly basis and many of them are available in 4k if you haven't tried out Magellan yet you have to give it a try at Magellan tv.com slash kings and Generals for a free one month membership trial thanks to Magellan for supporting our channel the Burgundian wars were a series of conflicts caused by the reckless duke of burgundy 'he's attempts to enlarge his territories with the aim of creating a Burgundian empire which would stretch from france to italy it opened with a brief but crushing encounter at the Battle of Herrick or where a combined Swiss Austrian and Alsatian army drove back a 12,000 strong Burgundian force in the early months of 1476 shall be bold advanced on Bern as part of his grand plan to cut through the Confederation Bern heard about this and reinforced its garrison at the town of grandson which stood on shells line of March the Burgundians crushed the garrison and captured grandson quickly however the killing of Swiss prisoners enraged the Confederate forces a fact which was never good for the recipients of Swiss anger on March 2nd both armies encountered each other at calm seas a hamlet 7.5 kilometers northeast of Grand song while the Burgundian vanguard was setting up its tents swiss scouting forces surprised them leading to shall becoming alerted these Scouts were 2,500 strong and had contingents from sweets boots an Zurich and st. gallen in addition to the towns of being went to and they were followed by the main vanguard from ban Zola turn and Freiburg while the gevalt health an abandoned a defensive position in the rear and followed behind the burgundians made their camp in a pine forest at the bottom of a slope near calm seas while the Swiss halted their own march at the top however the unruly Sweetzer contingent went forward skirmishing on the slopes and firing on Burgundian positions below hearing this the duke wrote to the front of his vanguard and ordered his own archers to repel these swift skirmishes after regrouping around their ensign these sweets's inflicted heavy casualties and repelled with the guardians at 11:00 a.m. some 10,000 Swiss warriors form up into a giant Pike Square at the bottom of the slope after the Vanguard was ready pika volt - were still following up behind the Battle of grandson commenced with a Burgundian artillery barrage which ripped into the swiss square and the advance of the 300 strong confederate forlorn hope in a typically fearless manner the artillery did not even make the swiss flinch shall then began to launch repeated knight's charges at the Hedgehog formation only to be speared from their steeds on mass with heavy losses it was clear that this wasn't working so the Duke ordered a redeployment of his forces to draw the Swiss square away when he did so not realizing the square he faced was not the main Swiss Army the give alt Halfin appeared with war horns blaring and frightened the burgundians into retreat grandson was one of the most significant battles the Swiss ever fought because it was the first occasion in which there developed pike tactics were effectively employed in the typical square formation the Confederacy defeated shell twice at Marea in 1476 and non-si in 1477 the latter being the decisive clash in which the Duke was killed and the Burgundian wars ended during their battles against child Swiss armies had proved flexible beyond any think their enemy and even their allies could muster and the realization of this was one of the key military movements of the late medieval period the wars demonstrated how antiquated the mounted Knight had become essentially the pike block was the formation which horses could barely get close to finally it showed the importance of the long pike as a primary infantry weapon by the end of the 15th century over 2/3 of infantry were armed with the pike the victories against burgundy maids the great powers of Europe to take notice and they began hiring Swiss mercenaries almost immediately as early as 1481 around 6,000 Swiss mercenaries were officially in the service of King Louis xi of France and in 1497 a corps of 100 elite Swiss formed the French king's personal bodyguard unit the guarded assault Swiss their main role was the protection of the Kings in the Royal Palace but the guard often accompanied the Kings in battle such as at the Battle of javea in 1525 these Swiss Guardsmen were armed with two weapons a traditional Swiss Halbert and a gold hilted longsword though the pike was lethal when massed in a battlefield banks it was completely useless in individual combat and was obviously very unwieldy not fit for protecting a king in the palace even after the Golden Age of Swiss warfare had come to a close by the mid 16th century individual Swiss troops or units were still regarded as incredibly reliable loyal and ferocious troops on the battlefield louis xiii / borne of france founded another Swiss Guard regiment in 1616 this elite unit possessed the usual unwavering reputation in both peace and war time the pay was sniffing tea higher for men in this unit than for troops in regular French units and far harsher swiss disciplinary measures were employed a moment of glory came on August 10th 1792 during the French Revolution of the 900 Swiss Guards which protected the Tory palace in Paris on that day around 600 were killed in a stalwarts bush futile stand during which they were vastly outnumbered by the revolutionaries to markets like forces came together in this period and determined the extensive degree to which an average young man from these Swiss cantons took part in the walls desire for mercenaries in general and high-quality mercenaries in particular grew in the period due to the sheer number and scale of the wars this is especially important given the increasingly conflicted nature of the 16th and 17th centuries more Wars required more soldiers the supply of potential mercenaries in the Swiss cantons rows with changing men to land ratios meaning that the amount of men that possessed lands decreased farming was a standard occupation in the Canton's as it was almost everywhere else during the pre-industrial age but herding was gradually beginning to intrude on traditional land practices pushing many young men into other professions foremost among them soldiering the supply of mercenaries was then maintained by an increasingly organized recruitment process among the classes which developed over the course of about ten to twelve generations and the soldier's life became a typical Swiss occupation in the 15th century soldiering was usually a part-time seasonal occupation which essentially served as an income top-up vital farmers who were awaiting the year's harvest however the following hundred years changed all of this Swiss infantry tactics were copied by rivals such as the German lands connects with whom the Swiss had a ferocious rivalry and their strategic weaknesses such as lack of artillery and other new ranged weapons came increasingly revealed nevertheless Swiss troops in particular were believed to have certain advantages when compared to native soldiers or even mercenaries hired from one's own country use of foreign troops in contrast was generally considered to be politically safe since they were detached from the factional disputes and conflicts of interests that might embroil native troops a king might have implemented a tax increase for his gentry and his Knights might therefore be unwilling to serve Him as loyally in comparison Swiss mercenaries were both incredibly reliable soldiers and were disconnected from the larger political situation around them when the French Revolution broke out the Swiss knew their loyalties lay with the king and protected his interests until the end more cynically Swiss mercenaries empowered both the king and the nobility against the peasants because as foreigners they often felt little sympathy towards them now we'll turn to what might be the most famous example of Swiss troops serving in a foreign land in this particular case they did so for hundreds of years and still do to this day the papal Swiss Guard because of the many benefits it was only natural that pope julius ii turns to the swiss when he began to plan a restoration of papal authority throughout europe despite his relatively advanced age of 60 julius was an energetic military man it's worth noting that popes during the renaissance were much like their secular counterparts in the ways that they sought to secure their interests embarking on marriage alliances financial arrangements and the implication of rival in essence the central project of Julius's reign was to make the papacy into a powerful real-world monarchy which served as the political master of Italy and through religious authority the spiritual overlord of Europe in addition to the establishment of good government in the papal States and the imposition of order on the crime-ridden streets of Rome Julius also began to realize that he would need a corps of personal bodyguards shortly after election this guard would have to be both loyal and tough naturally his gaze turned north to the Swiss cantons for a few notable reasons Julius had witnessed the brutal but or inspiring skill of the Swiss in person twice firstly when he had petitioned the King of France for 2,000 of his own mercenary troops with which he could subdue his unruly territories near Genoa in 1495 second was the more reliable evidence of Swiss prowess in his visit with French Kings shall the 7th to Naples where he witnessed close-up how well the Swiss fought in battle among mercenaries in this period Julius regarded the Swiss as the greatest as they assumed the usual non-committal mercenary trait instead fighting as a moving wall another factor in Julius for Seconds decision to employ the Swiss as his guard was the political neutrality of the Canton's which did not fall naturally into regular alliances with any of the major European nations at the time because of this the Pope believed that he could create a select body of men to whom he could entrust his personal safety as we can see with over 500 years of history behind us since that point he was correct one Swiss advisor in particular was relied on by Julius to bring his plan to ition a certain Peter Vaughn hurtin Stein a lesser cleric who had made a name for himself by performing various tasks for Pope's since innocent the eighth when Herron Stein was called to Rome in late 1505 to discuss the matter with Julius he recommended his relative Casper Fonzie Leland a strong military man destined to become the first commander of the Swiss Guard the Pope eagerly accepted this proposal and sent one hurtin Stein back to Swiss lands with a letter from Julius asking for two hundred men the famous fuga banking family provided funds for the recruitment and transportation of troops but several obstacles still arose the foremost of these issues was the Confederations government itself which was trying to control the sheer number of its citizens who took up service with foreign princes in military occupations moreover the whole idea of mercenary service was becoming controversial in the Canton's this was because in the year 1500 two groups of Swiss won for the King of France and another for Ludovico il Moro of Milan fought each other and shared much blood the Swiss diet attempted to prohibit recruitment but individual Canton's found the temptation of mercenary work too hard to resist due to its profitability serving the pontiff might seem like a prestigious and honorable job but the Pope's representatives actually had to compete with other buyers especially France with all its wealth luxuries and possibility of offensive warfare and booty in contrast papal service mostly involved dull guard duty in Rome shielding the Pope from his many enemies this competitive climate had its impact and the prelate was only able to sign up 150 troops instead of the request 200 they arrived in Rome in the winter of 1505 stylish Li clad in their special uniforms the swiss unit marched to the great campo de fiori and then through to the Vatican itself where they took residence and began their service the most notable of all military engagements which the papal guard took part in was the devastating sack of Rome in 1527 perpetrated by mutinous imperial troops of the holy roman emperor charles v on may 6 15 27 an initial assault on rome was launched by this army's commander the dupe of baba santo spirito but it was repelled by disciplined artillery fire from swiss guard positions on the Castel Sant'Angelo in the vicious fighting 5 imperial banners were captured by the defenders and the Jews was even killed by arquebus fire with their general killed it briefly seems that the defenders might gain a victory but this was overly optimistic the roman defenders were massively outnumbered and arrayed against them were competent military minds when the city walls were finally breached the militia fled for their homes and it was essentially only the Swiss Guard which retained its discipline and stayed at their post the papal Swiss Guard 189 men strong held its position as the Campo Santo a cemetery inside the walls of the Vatican they were led by their faithful commander Kasper Royce who intended to give Pope Clement time to escape vastly outnumbered by the Imperial Army the Swiss fought valiantly and managed to delay the enemy's advance in this last stand of the Swiss Guard 147 of the 189 perished protecting their liege killing nine hundred attackers as they did Commander Royce was injured and then executed by Spanish mercenaries in full view of his wife while the remaining guard escaped with the Pope and were eventually integrated into the reconstituted guard today the conditions for service in the Swiss Guard are quite strict and selective partly due to tradition and partly due to the need to maintain good standards applicants must be Swiss citizens who are Roman Catholic in faith be of gwit moral and ethical background and have attended military school in switzerland the age requirement for the Pope's guard was between 19 and 30 years of age in addition aspiring Swiss Guards must be at least 174 centimeters or 5 feet 7 inches tall must not be married and must have a professional diploma or high school degree if a candidate meets all of these requirements and possesses all of these traits they must go to the guards recruiting office in new housing a small town north of Zurich close to the highest waterfall in all of Europe having passed the application process and subsequent interviews recruits arrived in Rome by train three times a year a far cry from the initial foot march over the outs 500 years ago new arrivals begin a training regime immediately learning practical military affairs such as the Swiss Guard traditions including proper maintenance of military uniform appropriate behavior in the various areas of the Vatican and other oddities of papal service they also continuously drill with halbert's in the courtyards and gardens of the Vatican both individually and in groups under the supervision of an officer given the nickname of Sergeant bar Beto it a more modern sense the Swiss Guard become trained in the use of modern firearms frequently taking trips to a nearby Italian police gun range where they learn to aim and care for their weapons such emphasis on non ceremonial duties and modern military equipment was placed after the attempted assassination of pope john paul ii in 1981 the guard takes part in physical training at a gym located in their barracks as well as studying various martial arts theoretically all guards passed through a recruit school instructing them about the nature of the Vatican and its personnel teaching them about Rome and Italy and learning Italian the guardsmen have increasingly learned english due to its common usage younger men in the service generally consider papal training not as difficult as regular Swiss army training but also consider unexpected parts of the job harder than it seems at first for example wearing the ancient military dress consumes a large amount of energy by itself such as the stereotypical metal helmet which weighs 9 pounds and ceremonial armor weighing almost 50 pounds standing perfectly still in the Italian Sun wearing this heavy equipment is incredibly straining but Swiss Guard officers claim that they have even perfected psychological techniques that make even an itch go away we are planning to release more videos on the elite troops of the past so make sure you are subscribed to our channel 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Channel: Kings and Generals

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Keywords: swiss mercenaries, pike and shot, military history, european history, swiss pikemen, swiss pike square, middle ages, medieval warfare, pike square, kings and generals, history channel, full documentary, history documentary, animated historical documentary, decisive battles, history lesson, documentary film, ancient rome, ancient history, world history, roman empire, king and generals, animated documentary, cantons, holy roman empire, italian wars, pope, vatican, guard

Id: v9ykI1EaKpI

Length: 20min 41sec (1241 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 13 2020