The Confederation extends its power: 15th century
The ''thousand-flower'' tapestry: part of the booty seized from Charles the Bold at Murten. The Burgundian treasure captured by the Bernese is still owned by the city.© Stefan Rebsamen / Bern Historical Museum
The Confederation was not the only power in Europe which was in the process of expansion. The 14th and 15th centuries saw the rapid rise of the dukedom of Burgundy, which in the space of less than a century became one of the wealthiest and most ambitious powers in western Europe.
By the mid-15th century Burgundian territory stretched in a broken patchwork from the Netherlands in the north to the Franche-Comté to the west of what is now Switzerland. Duke Charles the Bold, who came to power in 1467, undertook to link up his lands, but Bern saw this as a threat to itself.
In 1476-7 at the battles of Grandson, Murten (Morat) and Nancy the Bernese, with grudging help from the other Confederates, smashed the Burgundian army. Charles himself fell at Nancy.
The Confederates made little territorial gain from their victory. The chief beneficiary was the French monarchy who got rid of a fearsome rival and reabsorbed the Duchy. Other parts of Charles' possessions went to the Habsburgs.
There was little love lost between Charles the Bold and the Confederates. Before the Battle of Murten Charles announced that he would "put to the sword any Swiss who fell into his hands in order to wipe this brutish people from the face of the earth." The victorious Swiss responded in kind: fleeing Burgundian soldiers were "skewered like Christmas geese," their skulls cracked open "as men crack nuts," if contemporary accounts are to be believed. The expression "as cruel as at Murten" passed into the local language. A type of algae which sometimes appears in the lake turning its water red, is commonly known as "blood of the Burgundians" (Sang des Bourguignons).
Links to other websites
- The Castle of Grandson swissinfo (2002)
- Private site depicting the panorama of the Battle of Murten Battle of Murten