Late Middle Ages · Europe · War

1476

Battle of Murten

June 22, 1476

The Swiss crushed Charles the Bold again, this time in an afternoon bloodbath beside a lake. Ten thousand Burgundians were slaughtered in the shallows and the reeds. Switzerland's pikemen became Europe's most feared infantry overnight. Charles, twice-beaten in one summer, began unraveling into monomaniac obsession. The speed of the Swiss attack became a textbook example of infantry shock tactics studied by military theorists for generations.