Battle of Dornach

The Battle of Dornach was a battle fought on 22 July 1499 between the troops of Emperor Maximilian I and the Old Swiss Confederacy close to the Swiss village of Dornach. The battle turned into a decisive defeat for Maximilian, and concluded the Swabian War between the Swiss and the Swabian League: it amounted to de-facto independence of Switzerland from the Holy Roman Empire, acknowledged by Maximilian in the Treaty of Basel on 22 September (the independence was however not formally recognized until the Peace of Westphalia of 1648).

On 19 July, Imperial troops marching on Dornach castle were sighted, and Solothurn called Bern for help. Bern sent 5000 troops, Zürich 400, and smaller contingents from Uri, Unterwalden and Zug also started to move to Dornach. On 20 July, 600 troops left Lucerne. The Austrians had about 16000 troops. Many of these were bathing in the Birs.^[1] The first attacks on 22 July were executed by the troops of Bern, Zurich and Solothurn, but they were beaten back. Only with the arrival of the reinforcements from Lucerne and Zug, which suddenly broke out of the woods "with horns and shouting" would the Imperial troops be turned to flight after several hours' fighting.

The commander of the Imperial troops, Heinrich von Fürstenberg , was killed at the early stages of fighting. When Maximilian in Überlingen heard about the lost battle, he was reportedly devastated by the news.

The battle of Dornach was the last armed conflict between the Swiss and the Holy Roman Empire. A large relief in downtown Dornach commemorates the battle.

References

• Riezler, S.: Die Grafen von Fürstenberg im Schweizerkriege 1499; Tübingen 1883. In German. Detailed chronological account of the events of the Swabian war.

1. ^ Fossedal, Gregory, Direct Democracy in Switzerland , (New Brunswick, 2006) p.23

Further reading

• Kurz, H.R.: Schweizerschlachten, 2nd ed; Francke, Bern 1977; pp. 165 – 171, ISBN 3-7720-1369-4.