Swiss Mercenaries: The End of Cavalry Superiority in the Late Middle Ages

Рет қаралды 480,521

5 ай бұрын

In this video we discuss how the cavalry’s long-held dominant position on the battlefield was challenged by pure infantry armies in the 15th century. To show this in an exemplary way we will look at the role the Old Swiss Confederacy played in this development. Before we continue: none of this means that the later French Gendarmes, Winged Hussars or German Black Riders were ineffective or unimportant, but from the 15th century, heavy cavalry no longer reigned supreme on the battlefield in the same way they did in the centuries before.
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Пікірлер: 560

@SandRhomanHistory

This is a revised version of an older video of ours. In fact the original video was one of our very first videos covering miltiary history. It was lacking both in terms of visuals and nuance, so we deicided to delete it a while back but then we thought there's nothing similar on KZfaq, so we refined the argument a little bit (it's still true to wha the original was) and changed most visuals to better reflect the time periods we talk about (ancient Greece, late medieval Europe, early modern Europe). We've pretty much redone all the visuals from ground up and added some necessary nuance where we thought it was needed.

@toddr4532

The Swiss infantry was not that great. They won most of their battles because of their flag. It was a big plus.

@jodofe4879 2 сағат бұрын

I wouldn't say the Swiss army was inexpensive. They required a large number of very well trained and highly disciplined men. That didn't come cheap, and neither did the services of the Swiss as mercenaries.

@aymenmokrane6979 7 сағат бұрын

if that so why armies in the middle ages ever invest in infantry ? they could just focus on cavalry, and even the richer empires like the romans who focused primarly on legions and adding cavalry as supportive forces, i think the lack of centerized funding and commend of the medieval armies made the knights who are armored and has a horse more powerful than the peasents made those knights stronger , not because of the tactics and being mounted but because they were richer, the economical aspects made the battlefield as it was in the middle ages

@sanderd17 14 сағат бұрын

In 1302, (one of) the first victories of infantry against cavalry happened during a Flemish revolt against the French army.

@jackblack7827 21 сағат бұрын

The Mapuche in Chile also used pike formations to counter Spanish cavalry charges. They eventually formed their own cavalry and were able to defeat the Spanish in the field of battle. The Mapuche were never conquered by the Spanish colonists.

@bladdnun3016 21 сағат бұрын

3:27

@micheldesjardins8813 Күн бұрын

The scottish schiltrons during the first scottish war of independance back in the 14th century. Also battle of Courtrai 1302 where the goedendag used by the flemish were excellent at repelling the french's charges.

@DukeVictory Күн бұрын

I agree with all the technical aspects of the formations and weapons, but I think it also leaves out the simple factor, that the swiss normally had a strict no prisoners rule, for the simple fact, that a nobleman's ransom was a fortune for any farmer and would be a risk to the formation for people chasing after it. I also think that this plays into some of the fear and terror of those battles.

@alexandarvoncarsteinzarovi3723 Күн бұрын

Cavalry is not dead, they just switched up from horses to airplanes, and NO, before anybody says anything, no tanks don't count as cavalry, they for better of worse chariots, the same goes for choppers, HELICOPTERS not motorcycles ok, but yes motorbikes can count as the next generation of horses, I mean the Third Reich did that a couple of times,

@wingedhussar5528 14 күн бұрын

Heavy cavalry not effective, meanwhile the winged hussars were impaling mofos well into the 1700s.

@Tibolt-hc1xk 14 күн бұрын

The Gendarmes flank charges on the Swiss columns are one of the reasons for the victory of the French over the Swiss in 1515; the day after, the "Italian" cavalry will finish the Swiss.

@maasbekooy901 21 күн бұрын

I'll love if you could make (a video of) a list of movies with realistic battles

@peterw.5700 21 күн бұрын

I haven't looked it up but as a German I would argue that word by word crowd of force is not the correct translation for Gewalthaufen

@user-bi4iv5kl2r

The batlle of Aljubarrota is an porthuguese exemple of the end of cavalry superiority.

@user-sv6qx1zs5z

Gewalthaufen translates also to pille of vilence or heap of vilence

@ryancarlson2763

What video game was used for the visuals on this

@perretti

Too bad Europeans forgot how to shoot arrows from horse back. No way those Swiss squares could withstand horse archer cavalry.

@Chris-zr1hw

And then the pikemen fell to the winged hussars ( not the Swiss pike men but other pikemen)

@SimonLandenberger-kz3wp

The Swiss killed almost an entire branch of my family in the ambush on Morgarten in 1315. Almost all of the “Alt-Landenbergers” were killed back then.