Swiss mercenaries

thumb|upright|1513 illustration of Swiss mercenaries crossing the [[Alps]]

The Swiss mercenaries were a powerful infantry force of professional soldiers originating from the cantons of the Old Swiss Confederacy. They were notable for their service in foreign armies, especially among the military forces of the kings of France, throughout the early modern period of European history, from the Late Middle Ages into the 19th century. The native German term Reisläufer literally means "one who goes to war" and is derived from the Middle High German Reise, meaning "military campaign".

The Swiss mercenaries, with their head-down attack in huge columns with the long pike, refusal to take prisoners, and consistent record of victory, were greatly feared and admired—for instance, the Italian diplomat and political philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli addressed their system of combat at length in the twelfth chapter of his literary masterpiece, The Prince (1513–1532). Although often referred to as "pikemen", the Swiss mercenary units also contained halberdiers as well until several decades into the 16th century, as well as a small number of skirmishers armed with bows, crossbows, or early firearms to precede the rapid advance of the attack column.

The young men who went off to fight, and sometimes die, in foreign service had several incentives—limited economic options in the still largely rural cantons; adventure; pride in the reputation of the Swiss as soldiers; and what military historian Sir Charles Oman describes as a pure love of combat and warfighting in and of itself, forged by two centuries of conflict.

Italian Wars and the Landsknechts

Until roughly 1490, the Swiss had a virtual monopoly on pike-armed mercenary service. After that date, the Swiss mercenaries were increasingly supplanted by imitators, chiefly the Landsknechts. Landsknechts were Germans (at first largely from Swabia) and became proficient at Swiss tactics, even surpassing them with their usage of the Zweihänder to crush opposing pike formations. This produced a force that filled the ranks of European armies with mercenary regiments for decades.

After 1515 the Swiss pledged themselves to neutrality, other than regarding Swiss soldiers serving in the ranks of the Royal French army. The Landsknecht, would continue to serve any paymaster, even, at times, enemies of the Holy Roman Emperor. Landsknechts at times even fought each other on the battlefield. The Landsknecht often assumed the multi-coloured and striped clothing of the Swiss.

The Swiss were not flattered by the imitation, and the two bodies of mercenaries immediately became bitter rivals over employment and on the battlefield, where they were often opposed during the major European conflict of the early sixteenth century, the Italian Wars. Although the Swiss generally had a significant edge in a simple "push of pike", the resulting combat was quite savage, and known to Italian onlookers as "bad war". Period artists such as Hans Holbein attest to the fact that two such huge pike columns crashing into each other could result in a maelstrom of battle, with many dead and wounded on both sides.

Despite the competition from the Landsknechts, and imitation by other armies (most notably the Spanish, which adopted pike-handling as one element of its tercios), the Swiss fighting reputation reached its zenith between 1480 and 1525. The Battle of Novara, fought by Swiss mercenaries, is seen by some as the perfect Swiss battle. Even the close defeat at the Battle of Marignano in 1515, the "Battle of Giants", was seen as an achievement of sorts for Swiss arms due to the ferocity of the fighting and the good order of their withdrawal.

The repulse at Marignano presaged the decline of the Swiss form of pike warfare—eventually, the two-century run of Swiss victories ended in 1522 with disaster at the Battle of Bicocca when combined Spanish tercios and Landsknecht forces decisively defeated them using superior tactics, fortifications, artillery, and new technology (i.e. handguns). At Bicocca, the Swiss mercenaries, serving the French king, attempted repeatedly to storm an impregnable defensive position without artillery or missile support, only to be mown down by small-arms and artillery fire. Never before had the Swiss suffered such heavy losses while being unable to inflict much damage upon their foe. The Swiss are generally considered to have been surpassed by the Landsknechts after the Battle of Pavia in 1525.

Organization and tactics

thumb|The [[Battle of Novara (1513)|Battle of Novara, which marked the pinnacle of Swiss military supremacy in Europe]]

The early contingents of Swiss mercenary pikemen organized themselves rather differently than the cantonal forces. In the cantonal forces, their armies were usually divided into the Vorhut (vanguard), Gewalthut (center) and Nachhut (rearguard), generally of different sizes. In mercenary contingents, although they could conceivably draw up in three similar columns if their force was of sufficient size, more often they simply drew up in one or two huge columns which deployed side by side, forming the center of the army in which they served.

Likewise, their tactics were not quite similar to those used by the Swiss cantons in their brilliant tactical victories of the Burgundian Wars and Swabian War, in which they relied on maneuver at least as much as the brute force of the attack columns. In mercenary service they became much less likely to resort to outmaneuvering the enemy and relied more on a straightforward steamroller assault of the phalanx formation.

Such deep pike columns could crush lesser infantry in close combat and were invulnerable to the effects of a cavalry charge, but they were vulnerable to firearms if they could be immobilized, as seen in the Battle of Marignano. The Swiss mercenaries deployed bows, crossbows, handguns and artillery of their own, however these always remained very subsidiary to the pike and halberd square. Despite the proven armour-penetration capability of firearms, they were also very inaccurate, slow-loading, and susceptible to damp conditions, and did not fit well with the fast-paced attack tactics used by the Swiss mercenary pike forces. The Spanish invention of the armor piercing arquebus leading to the later tercios formation changed the optimal war tactics.

The Swiss remained primarily pikemen throughout the sixteenth century. After that period they adopted similar infantry formations and tactics to other units in the armies in which they served. They began to deviate from their previously unique tactics, and they took a normal place in the battle line amongst the other infantry units.

End of military ascendancy

thumb|left|upright|The Swiss (on the left) assault the Landsknecht mercenaries in the French lines at the [[Battle of Marignano]]

In the end, as proven at Marignano and Bicocca, the mass pike attack columns of the Swiss mercenaries proved to be too vulnerable to gunpowder weapons as firearms technology advanced, especially arquebusiers and artillery deployed on prepared ground (e.g., earthworks) and properly supported by other arms. These arquebusiers and heavy cannons scythed down the close-packed ranks of the Swiss squares in bloody heaps—at least, as long as the Swiss attack could be bogged down by earthworks or cavalry charges, and the vulnerable arquebusiers were backed up by melee infantry—pikemen, halberdiers, and/or swordsmen (Spanish sword-and-buckler men or the Doppelsöldner wielding the Zweihänder)—to defend them if necessary from the Swiss in close combat.

Other stratagems could also take the Swiss pikemen at a disadvantage. For instance, the Spanish rodeleros, also known as sword-and-buckler men, armed with steel rodelas and espadas and often wearing a helmet and a breastplate, were much better armed and armored for man-to-man close quarters combat. They could defeat the Swiss pike square by dashing under their unwieldy pikes and stabbing them.

This tactic operated in support of allied pike squares and required the opposing pike square to be fully engaged in the chaos of the push of pike. Swiss pike columns that retained good formation were often able to beat back Spanish rodeleros with impunity, such as in the Battle of Seminara, in which the Swiss pike were heavily outnumbered.

Despite the end of their supremacy after the Battle of Pavia, the Swiss pike-armed mercenaries continued to be amongst the most capable close order infantry in Europe throughout the remainder of the sixteenth century. This was demonstrated by their battlefield performances in the service of the French monarchy during the French Wars of Religion, in particular at the Battle of Dreux, where a block of Swiss pikemen held the Huguenot army until the Catholic cavalry were able to counterattack.

Capitulations and treaties

thumb|Return of the Swiss Soldier ([[Sigmund Freudenberger, )]]

During the period of formalization of the employment of Swiss mercenaries in organized bodies from the late 16th century on, customary capitulations existed between employing powers and the Swiss cantons or noble families assembling and supplying these troops. Such contracts would generally cover specific details such as the numbers, quality, pay rates and equipment of recruits. Provisions were commonly made that Swiss soldiers would only serve under officers of their own nationality, would be subject to Swiss laws, would carry their own flags and would not be employed in campaigns that would bring them into conflict with Swiss in the service of another country.

It has been claimed that such contracts might also contain a commitment that Swiss units would be returned if the confederation came under attack. However, surviving capitulations from the 16th and 17th centuries are not known to contain provisions to this effect.

With the passing of the amendment to the Swiss Constitution of 1874 banning the recruitment of Swiss citizens by foreign states, such contractual relations ceased. Military alliances had already been banned under the Swiss constitution of 1848, though troops still served abroad when obliged by treaties. One such example were the Swiss regiments serving under Francis II of the Two Sicilies, who defended Gaeta in 1860 during the Italian War of Unification. This marked the end of an era.

Service by country

France

thumb|upright|Fusilier and ensign of the French Swiss Guards during the 17th century

thumb|upright|Swiss soldiers of the [[French Imperial Army during the Napoleonic Wars]]

thumb|Swiss soldiers of [[Charles X of France|Charles X's Royal Guard defending the Louvre Palace during the July Revolution]]

Swiss soldiers continued to serve as valued mercenaries with a number of European armies from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, in spite of extensive changes in tactics, drill and weapons. The most consistent and largest-scale employer of these troops was the French army, where the Swiss formed an elite part of the infantry. The Swiss Guards regiment, the most senior of the twelve Swiss mercenary regiments in French service, was essentially identical to the French Guards in organization and equipment, other than wearing a red uniform as opposed to the blue coats of the French corps. The Swiss adopted the musket in increasingly large numbers as the seventeenth century wore on, and abandoned the pike, their ancient trademark, altogether at around the same time as other troops in the French army, circa 1700. They also served in the New World: Samuel De Champlain's map of the Île Sainte-Croix (Saint Croix Island) settlement shows a barracks for the Swiss.

The Swiss mercenaries were recruited according to contracts (capitulations) between the French monarchy and Swiss cantons or individual noble families. By 1740 more than 12,000 Swiss soldiers were in French service. During the remainder of the eighteenth century, Swiss numbers varied according to need, reaching a peak of 20,000 during the Austrian War of Succession and falling to 12,300 after 1763. In addition to the direct military value of employing Swiss in French service, a political purpose was achieved through the extension of French diplomatic and commercial influence over the neighbouring cantons.

The Swiss soldier was paid at a higher level than his French counterpart but was subject to a harsher disciplinary code, administered by his own officers. The basis of recruitment varied according to regiment – in some units recruits were drawn exclusively from the Swiss inhabitants of specific cantons while in others German or French volunteers were accepted to make up for shortfalls in the number of available Swiss.

During the latter part of the 18th century, increasing reliance was placed on recruiting from the "children of the regiment" – the sons of Swiss soldiers who had married French women and stayed in France after their term of service had ended. The effect was to partially break down barriers between the Swiss and the French population amongst whom they were garrisoned. On the eve of the French Revolution the log-book of one Swiss regiment expressed concern that Franco-Swiss recruits were becoming prone to desertion as general discontent spread. French-speaking Swiss soldiers were generally to prove more susceptible to revolutionary propaganda than their German-speaking colleagues.

At the outbreak of the French Revolution the Swiss troops were, as at least nominal foreigners, still considered more reliable than their French counterparts in a time of civil unrest. In April 1791 the nominal strength of the Swiss line regiments in French service was 11,429 men with a further 2,330 in the Swiss Guards. Swiss regiments made up a significant proportion of the royal troops summoned to Paris by Louis XVI in early July 1789. A detachment of 32 Swiss grenadiers from the Salis-Samade Regiment under Ludwig von Flüe was sent to reinforce the garrison of the Bastille prison, shortly before it was besieged by the revolutionary crowd.

The Swiss and other royal troops were subsequently withdrawn to their frontier garrisons. Over the next three years The Ernest Regiment in particular faced a series of clashes with local citizens, culminating in a two-day battle with Marseilles' militia in 1791. This indication of growing popular resentment against the Swiss caused the Canton of Berne to recall the disarmed regiment. Another Swiss regiment, the Châteauvieux, played a major part in the Nancy affair (mutiny) of 1790 and 23 of its soldiers were executed, after trial by their own Swiss officers.

The Swiss Guard remained loyal and was massacred on 10 August 1792, when the mob attacked the Tuileries Palace, although Louis XVI had already left the building. The eleven Swiss regiments of line infantry were disbanded under a decree passed by the French Assembly on 20 August 1792. Over three thousand Swiss soldiers transferred individually to French units and continued in service. However, many of the rank and file returned to Switzerland, where measures had to be taken to provide them with relief and reintegration into the rural society from which most had been drawn.

Following the French invasion of Switzerland in 1798, a project to raise six demi-brigades of Swiss infantry for French service was initiated. However, recruitment proved difficult and by May 1799 only a quarter of the intended establishment of 18,000 had been raised. Napoleon authorized the recruitment of a Swiss infantry regiment for French service in July 1805. A further three infantry regiments were created in October 1807, each including an artillery company. He specified that these newly raised Swiss units should comprise only citizens of Switzerland without "mingling in deserters or other foreigners". The Swiss regiments fought well both in Spain (where they clashed at the Battle of Bailén with Swiss troops in the Spanish Army) and in Russia. During the retreat from Moscow Swiss losses amounted to 80% of their original numbers. The Swiss were allowed to keep the distinctive red coats which had distinguished them prior to 1792, with different facings identifying each regiment.

During the first Bourbon Restoration of 1814–1815, the grenadier companies of the by now under-strength four Swiss regiments undertook ceremonial guard duties in Paris. Upon Napoleon's return from Elba in 1815, the serving Swiss units were recalled to Switzerland on the grounds that a new contract signed with the government of Louis XVIII had now been rendered void. Still, one composite regiment of Napoleon's Swiss veterans fought at Wavre during the Hundred Days. After the second Bourbon Restoration, a final capitulation was signed in 1816 for the recruitment of six Swiss regiments, four for the line infantry and two for the Royal Guard, with a nominal strength of 14,000 men. All Swiss units were disbanded following the final overthrow of the Bourbon monarchy in the Revolution of 1830, where about three hundred Swiss soldiers were killed in the defense of the Fontainebleau and Louvre palaces.]]

Another major employer of Swiss mercenaries from the later 16th century on was Spain. After the Protestant Reformation, Switzerland was split along religious lines between Protestant and Catholic cantons. Swiss mercenaries from the Catholic cantons were thereafter increasingly likely to be hired for service in the armies of Habsburg Spain in the late 16th century. The first regularly embodied Swiss regiment in the Spanish Army was that of Walter Roll of Uri (a Catholic canton), formed in 1574 for service in the Eighty Years' War. By the middle of the 17th century, Philip III and his successor Philip IV had signed capitulations for a dozen Swiss regiments. Spain's Swiss units served against the French in the War of the Pyrenees, and one Swiss regiment (Betschart) formed part of the Allied army at the Siege of Toulon in 1793. Their final role in Spanish service was against the French in the Peninsular War, in which the five Swiss regiments (Rüttimann, Jann, Reding, Schwaller and Courten) mostly stayed loyal to their Spanish employers. At the Battle of Bailén in 1808, the Swiss regiments pressed into French service defected back to the 3rd Swiss Regiment Reding under Theodor von Reding. The Swiss regiments suffered heavy losses in the following years of the Peninsular War, numbering only a few hundred men by 1812. After initial attempts by the Dutch Republic to raise Swiss regiments during the Franco-Dutch War failed, the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 by Louis XIV of France prompted a feeling of common threat among Protestants. In March 1693, the Dutch envoy to Zürich, Petrus Valkenier, concluded a private capitulation with Swiss mercenary Hercules Capol, a Protestant who had left French service in 1685, raising a regiment of 1,600 men from the Grisons for Dutch service. Zürich authorized the recruitment of 800 men the same year. The fighting was brutal and the Swiss soldiers, ignoring their common origin, gave each other no quarter.

The Republic sent Swiss regiments to Scotland in 1715 and 1745; in 1745, three battalions of the Hirzel Regiment formed part of the Dutch contingent sent to serve in England as allies at the time of the Jacobite rising in Scotland that year. With the threat of a French invasion in 1748, the Netherlands concluded a capitulation with all Protestant cantons (except Basel) in addition to Glarus, Appenzell Ausserrhoden, St. Gallen and Neuchâtel.

thumb|upright|Illustration of Swiss soldiers in the [[Royal Netherlands Army between 1815 and 1829]]

Swiss mercenaries were also deployed to the Dutch colonies in Asia, Africa, South America and the Caribbean. A narrative of the Surinam campaigns, written by John Gabriel Stedman, was later published. Between 4,000 and 5,000 Swiss mercenaries were employed, mostly on an individual basis, by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) for service in the Cape of Good Hope, Ceylon and the Dutch East Indies.

Several Swiss soldiers joined the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL) after the Swiss regiments in the Netherlands were dissolved.

Savoy

thumb|upright|Uniform of the Sardinian Swiss Guard between 1817 and 1830

The first Swiss mercenaries in the service of the House of Savoy (rulers of the Duchy of Savoy and later the Kingdom of Sardinia) were recruited in 1577 through a capitulation signed by Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy and the Catholic cantons of Lucerne, Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Zug and Fribourg. In 1579, Emmanuel Philibert expanded his personal guard with a Swiss company, initially composed of seventy soldiers and three officers. Several Swiss regiments were taken into Savoyard service during the War of the Spanish Succession, including the La Reine, Alt, Lombach, Frid, Schmid, and Reding regiments.

The War of the Polish Succession saw a further surge in Swiss mercenaries, now in the service of the Kingdom of Sardinia, with the recruitment of new units such as the Guibert, Du Pâquier, Kyd, and Donatz regiments, most of which were disbanded shortly after the war. A first capitulation was signed in 1690 between England and the Protestant cantons of Zürich, Bern, Glarus, Schaffhausen and Appenzell Ausserrhoden, as well as the city of St. Gallen. All Swiss units in British service were demobilized in 1816, although in 1815 about 150 of them were hired by the Hudson's Bay Company to fight in the Pemmican War still wearing their British uniforms. A short-lived British Swiss Legion, recruited in the 1850s for the Crimean War, was disbanded in 1856 without having been deployed. In 1731, Philip V of Spain put two of his most experienced Swiss units, the Nideröst and Bessler regiments, at the disposal of his son Charles, Duke of Parma, the future Charles III of Spain. In 1500, a capitulation authorized Venice to recruit 4,000 men from the Grisons, in return for Venice's support at the Battle of Calven the previous year. Led by Sebastian Peregrin Schmid of Uri, the Swiss set sail from Venice in May 1688, arriving at the Peloponnese peninsula (then known as Morea) about a month later.

Modern times

Since 1859, only one Swiss mercenary unit has been permitted, the Vatican's Swiss Guard, which has been protecting the pope for the last five centuries, dressed in colourful uniforms, supposedly drawn by Michelangelo, reminiscent of the Swiss mercenary's heyday. Despite its being prohibited, individual Swiss citizens carried on the tradition of foreign military service into the twentieth century. This included 800 Swiss volunteers who fought with the Republican International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War, incurring heavy losses.

Swiss citizens also served in the German Wehrmacht during the Second World War, although purely on an individual and voluntary basis. At least 2,000 Swiss fought for Germany during the war, mostly from the German-speaking cantons of Bern and Zürich, and many of them had dual German nationality. Besides the Wehrmacht, some joined the SS, particularly the 6th Mountain Division. Due to Switzerland's neutral status, their allegiances were considered illegal and in 1943 the Federal Council decided that those who cooperated with Germany would be stripped of their nationality. By 1945, there were only 29 such cases. A number of Swiss citizens were taken prisoner by the Soviet Union while fighting on the Eastern Front.

The plot of George Bernard Shaw's comedy Arms and the Man (and of the operetta The Chocolate Soldier based on it) is focused on a fictional Swiss mercenary serving in the 1885 Serbo-Bulgarian War; there is, however, no evidence of actual such mercenaries in that war.

Notable Swiss mercenaries

Louis-Auguste-Augustin d'Affry
Karl Josef von Bachmann
Pierre Victor de Besenval de Brünstatt
Henry Bouquet
Jean Victor Constant de Rebecque
Samuel Constant de Rebecque
Johann Ludwig von Erlach
Wilhelm Frölich
Urs Graf
Frederick Haldimand
Ludwig Pfyffer
Theodor von Reding
Caspar Röist
Kaspar von Silenen
Sebastian Peregrin Zwyer