Battle of Morgarten

Part of the creation of the Swiss Confederation

Illustration from the Tschachtlanchronik of 1470

Date	15 November 1315
Location	Morgarten Pass
Result	Decisive Swiss victory

Belligerents

Old Swiss Confederacy:
Uri
Schwyz

Unterwalden

Duchy of Austria

Commanders and leaders

Werner Stauffacher

Leopold I, Duke of Austria

Strength

1,500 infantry and archers

5,500 infantry and 2,500 heavy cavalry

Casualties and losses

Unknown

1,500 Habsburg soldiers killed

Old Swiss Confederacy:
Uri
Schwyz

The Battle of Morgarten occurred on 15 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, led by Werner Stauffacher, defeated the Austrians, who were under the command of Duke Leopold I. The Swiss victory consolidated the Everlasting League of the Three Forest Cantons, which formed the core of modern Switzerland.

Toward the end of the 13th century, the 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 within the empire. In 1314 tensions between the Habsburgs and Confederates heightened when Duke Louis IV of Bavaria (who would become Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor) and Frederick the Handsome, a Habsburg prince, each claimed the crown of the Holy Roman Emperor. The Confederates supported Louis IV because they feared the Habsburgs would annex their lands, which they had tried to do in the late 13th century. War eventually broke out after the Confederates of Schwyz raided the Habsburg-protected Einsiedeln Abbey, as a result of a dispute regarding access to pastures.

...
Wikipedia