Battle of St. Jakob an der Birs

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Battle of St. Jakob an der Birs, fought near Basel in Switzerland on 26 August 1444, was a battle of the Old Zürich War.

In 1443, the seven cantons of the Old Swiss Confederacy invaded the canton of Zürich and besieged the city. Zürich had made an alliance with Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor, who now appealed to Charles VII of France to send an army to relieve the siege.

Charles, seeking to send away troublesome troops made idle by the truce with Henry VI of England in the Hundred Years' War, sent his son the Dauphin (later Louis XI of France) with an army of about 20,000 mercenaries into Switzerland, most Armagnac mercenaries. They were halted at Basel by a small force of 1,500 Swiss pikemen from Berne, but instead took the defensive and let the Swiss forces take the offensive and cross a local stream. It would be the first engagement in which the Swiss troops primarily used pikes rather than halberds, as in the battle of Morgarten and Sempach.

The commander of the 1,500 knew well that the crossing of the stream would be suicidal, but under complaints of the fellow pikemen the commander was forced to cross the stream. Immediately the Swiss forces formed three pike squares of five hundred men each, and they fought well when Armagnac cavalry charged again and again and were repulsed. However the fighting lasted around five hours, and all three pike squares were weakening, so the commander ordered his men to retreat into a small hospital in St. Jakob. A reinforcement force from Basel was repulsed, and the Armagnac troops set their own artillery into bombarding the small hospital. The Swiss pikemen suffered heavy casualties. When the Armagnac forces moved in, the Swiss fought to the last men in a fierce hand-to-hand battle that would last just under half an hour.

It was a major blow to Berne, the canton which contributed the force, but the French forces suffered around four thousand death, and were forced to retreat. The bravery of the Swiss pikemen at St. Jakob an der Birs was remembered, but this battle also showed the weakness of Swiss pikemen to artillery fire; more Swiss pikemen were killed by artillery fire than in the battle or the final engagement.