Swiss arms and armour - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Old Swiss Confederacy

The Old Swiss Confederacy was the precursor of modern-day Switzerland....

developed a number of characteristic weapons during their period of military activity in the 15th and early 16th centuries, perfected further during the Early Modern period

Early Modern Switzerland

The early modern history of the Old Swiss Confederacy , lasting from formal independence in 1648 to the French invasion of 1798 came to be referred as Ancien Régime retrospectively, in post-Napoleonic Switzerland.The early modern period was characterized by an increasingly...

(16th and 17th centuries).

The halberd

Halberd

A halberd is a two-handed pole weapon that came to prominent use during the 14th and 15th centuries. Possibly the word halberd comes from the German words Halm , and Barte - in modern-day German, the weapon is called Hellebarde. The halberd consists of an axe blade topped with a spike mounted on...

was the primary weapon of the early Swiss armies in the 14th and early 15th centuries.
Later on, the Swiss added the pike

Pike (weapon)

A pike is a pole weapon, a very long thrusting spear used extensively by infantry both for attacks on enemy foot soldiers and as a counter-measure against cavalry assaults. Unlike many similar weapons, the pike is not intended to be thrown. Pikes were used regularly in European warfare from the...

to better repel heavy cavalry and roll over enemy infantry formations, with the halberd, longsword

Longsword

The longsword is a type of European sword designed for two-handed use, current during the late medieval and Renaissance periods, approximately 1350 to 1550 .Longswords have long cruciform hilts with grips over 10 to 15 cm length The longsword (of which stems the variation called the bastard...

, or the Swiss dagger

Swiss dagger

The Swiss dagger is a distinctive type of dagger used in Switzerland and by Swiss mercenaries during the 16th century.It develops from similar dagger types known as basler which were in use during the 14th and 15th centuries...

used for closer combat.
The German Landsknechte, who imitated Swiss warfare methods during the early 16th century, also used the pike, supplemented by the halberd.
The halberd is still the ceremonial weapon of the Swiss Guard

Swiss Guard

Swiss Guards or Schweizergarde is the name given to the Swiss soldiers who have served as bodyguards, ceremonial guards, and palace guards at foreign European courts since the late 15th century. They have had a high reputation for discipline, as well as loyalty to their employers...

in the Vatican

Vatican City

Vatican City , or Vatican City State, in Italian officially Stato della Città del Vaticano , which translates literally as State of the City of the Vatican, is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of...

.

The Swiss armies of the late 14th and 15th centuries besides halberds and later pikes also carried
other polearms such as the Lucerne hammer

Lucerne hammer

The Lucerne hammer is a type of polearm which was popular in Switzerland during the 15th to 17th centuries. It was a combination of the bec de corbin with the blunt war hammer....

.
By the 15th century, the carrying of side arms (the degen

Swiss degen

The Swiss degen was a short sword, an elongated version of the Swiss dagger, with the same double-crescent shape of the guard.It was used as a type of side arm in the Old Swiss Confederacy and especially by Swiss mercenaries, from the first half of the 15th century until the mid 16th century.The...

or dagger

Swiss dagger

) had become ubiquitous. Also common were the crossbow

Crossbow

A crossbow is a weapon consisting of a bow mounted on a stock that shoots projectiles, often called bolts or quarrels. The medieval crossbow was called by many names, most of which derived from the word ballista, a torsion engine resembling a crossbow in appearance.Historically, crossbows played a...

and later the arquebuse.
The city cantons could also employ siege engine

Siege engine

A siege engine is a device that is designed to break or circumvent city walls and other fortifications in siege warfare. Some have been operated close to the fortifications, while others have been used to attack from a distance. From antiquity, siege engines were constructed largely of wood and...

s . Berne

Berne

The city of Bern or Berne is the Bundesstadt of Switzerland, and, with a population of , the fourth most populous city in Switzerland. The Bern agglomeration, which includes 43 municipalities, has a population of 349,000. The metropolitan area had a population of 660,000 in 2000...

in the Burgdorferkrieg of 1383-84 used medieval types of catapults and battering rams, but for the first time also cannons and early handguns.

The bladesmiths of Basel, Berne and Zurich during the late 15th and the 16th centuries perfected their production of bladed weapons, developing the "national weapons" of the Swiss, viz. the Swiss dagger

Swiss dagger

and Swiss degen

Swiss degen

, and later also the early type of sabre

Sabre

The sabre or saber is a kind of backsword that usually has a curved, single-edged blade and a rather large hand guard, covering the knuckles of the hand as well as the thumb and forefinger...

known as schnepf.
A peculiarity of the Swiss armies of this period was the principle of self-equipment: each man was expected to purchase his own personal weapon

Personal weapon

A personal weapon or ordnance weapon is a weapon that is issued to an individualmember of a military or paramilitary unit, e.g. to individual infantry soldiers, but also side arms carried by officers or other personnel....

, either pike, halberd or handgun, as well as his personal side arm, and in the 18th century his own musket

Musket

A musket is a muzzle-loaded, smooth bore long gun, fired from the shoulder. Muskets were designed for use by infantry. A soldier armed with a musket had the designation musketman or musketeer....

, bayonet

Bayonet

A bayonet is a knife, dagger, sword, or spike-shaped weapon designed to fit in, on, over or underneath the muzzle of a rifle, musket or similar weapon, effectively turning the gun into a spear...

, sabre and uniform.
Central armouries

Armory (military)

An armory or armoury is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, issued to authorized users, or any combination of those...

(Zeughäuser) which were able to equip the troops of a given city developed only in the more wealthy cities during the 17th and 18th centuries, specifically in Zurich, Berne, Lucerne

Lucerne

Lucerne is a city in north-central Switzerland, in the German-speaking portion of that country. Lucerne is the capital of the Canton of Lucerne and the capital of the district of the same name. With a population of about 76,200 people, Lucerne is the most populous city in Central Switzerland, and...

, Fribourg

Fribourg

Fribourg is the capital of the Swiss canton of Fribourg and the district of Sarine. It is located on both sides of the river Saane/Sarine, on the Swiss plateau, and is an important economic, administrative and educational center on the cultural border between German and French Switzerland...

and Geneva

Geneva

Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...

. These did not supersede the principle of the privately-owned equipment; instead, the armouries offered standard equipment at a reduced price to the individual serviceman.
Consequently, substantial reserves of arms and armour were accumulated in the armouries of the Swiss cities during the Thirty Years' War

Thirty Years' War

The Thirty Years' War was fought primarily in what is now Germany, and at various points involved most countries in Europe. It was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history....

, especially by Zurich

Zürich

Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...

and Solothurn

Solothurn

The city of Solothurn is the capital of the Canton of Solothurn in Switzerland. The city also comprises the only municipality of the district of the same name.-Pre-roman settlement:...

. These armouries were decommissioned after the dissolution of cantonal military forces with the formation of the modern state

Switzerland as a federal state

The rise of Switzerland as a federal state began on September 12, 1848, with the creation of a federal constitution, which was created in response to a 27-day civil war in Switzerland, the Sonderbundskrieg...

in 1848.

By contrast, the population of the rural cantons in the conflicts of the Early Modern period was often armed with simple and ad-hoc weaponry, especially clubs, and maces such as the spiked morning star

Morning star (weapon)

The term morning star is used to describe medieval club-like weapons which included one or more spikes. Each used, to varying degrees, a combination of blunt-force and puncture attack to kill or wound the enemy.- Design :...

. This was the case in the Swiss peasant war of 1653

Swiss peasant war of 1653

The Swiss peasant war of 1653 was a popular revolt in the Old Swiss Confederacy at the time of the Ancien Régime. A devaluation of Bernese money caused a tax revolt that spread from the Entlebuch valley in the Canton of Lucerne to the Emmental valley in the Canton of Bern and then to the cantons of...

, and again in the Stecklikrieg
Stecklikrieg
The Stecklikrieg of 1802 resulted in the collapse of the Helvetic Republic, the renewed French occupation of Switzerland and ultimately the Act of Mediation dictated by Napoleon on 10 March 1803....

uprising of 1802, called after the eponymous Stäckli "club" carried by the insurgents.

In the 18th century, some cantons restricted the permission to marry only to men who owned sufficient personal arms and armour. This was the case in Berne (1712, 1726), in Solothurn (1730) and in Glarus (1790).
This system was seen as exemplary by the Founding Fathers of the United States

Founding Fathers of the United States

The Founding Fathers of the United States of America were political leaders and statesmen who participated in the American Revolution by signing the United States Declaration of Independence, taking part in the American Revolutionary War, establishing the United States Constitution, or by some...

.

Substantial collections of historical arms and armour are kept in the Swiss National Museum

Swiss National Museum

The Swiss National Museum — part of the Musée Suisse Group, itself affiliated with the Federal Office of Culture — is one of the most important art museums of cultural history in Europe and the world...

in Zurich

Zürich

Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...

, in the Historical Museum

Historical Museum of Bern

The Historical Museum of Bern is the second largest historical museum in Switzerland. It was built in 1894 by the Neuchâtel architect André Lambert...

in Berne

Berne

and in the Morges Castle

Morges Castle

Morges Castle is a medieval castle in the Swiss municipality of Morges in the canton of Vaud. It is a Swiss heritage site of national significance.-History:In 1286, Louis of Savoy founded a city in a pasture where a gallows previously stood...

Military Museum.

External links

Switzerland Arms and Armour (NikosAHF at flickr.com)

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

See also

External links