Battle of Dornach 1499

[Atheling]

Hi,

I'm looking for information on the Battles of the Swabian League; the Battle of Dornach in particular.



Obviously, there is Osprey for reference and Wiki, but I've not been able to find very much information on the troop types present (apart from the obvious) and how the battle went.

I wonder if any LAF members might have any additional information, like OOB's and in particular some kind of 'battle map'?

Here's what Wiki have to say:

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.

On 19 July, Imperial troops marching on Dorneck Castle were sighted, and Solothurn called Bern for help. Bern sent 5000 troops, Zurich 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 16,000 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" were the Imperial troops turned to flight after several hours' fighting.

The commander of the Imperial troops, Heinrich von Fürstenberg, was killed in 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 any member state of the Holy Roman Empire. The Treaty of Basel of 22 September was the conclusion of the war. It was a strategic victory for the Swiss Confederacy, revoking the imperial ban against the Swiss cantons, legalising the alliance of the League of the Ten Jurisdictions with the Confederates and placing the Thurgau under Swiss jurisdiction.

A relief wall was erected in 1949 in the town of Dornach commemorating the battle.

Kind Regards

[Condottiere]

Not an OOB, but might be of use: Castles on the wood engraving of the battle of Domach in 1499

The great battle of Dornach (near Basel) opposing the Swiss Confederacy and the troops of King Maximilian 1st, the 22 July 1499, was preserved for posterity that very year by un unknown artist who executed a wood engraving. This portrays all the stages of the battle, set in a landscape delimited at the bottom by the course of the river Birse, and at the top by the silhouette of the peaks of the Jura. The general view of the composition is highly stylized and compressed, but the details - houses, scenes of combat, arms and equipment - distinguish themselves by their realism, touching on naturalism. This is also the case for the three castles of Dorneck, Birseck and Reichenstein, depicted as they were circa 1500 in a very authentic manner; thus very different from other contemporary views in which castles are either figments of the artists' imaginations, or are so stylized that they have become no more than symbols. The portrayal of theses three castles on the engraving of the battle of Dornach is consequently of great value, as a very early example of the very accurate architectural restitutions of the late Middle Ages. Therefore, this engraving constitutes a precious source for the monumental study of three castles near to Basel.

Unlike Academia.edu, I'm not familiar with ResearchGate...

[Atheling]

Not an OOB, but might be of use: Castles on the wood engraving of the battle of Domach in 1499

First off, thanks - this looks to be a good resource.

Unlike Academia.edu, I'm not familiar with ResearchGate...

Yeah, does anyone know how safe the site is? 

Kind Regards

[Pattus Magnus]

ResearchGate is a legitimate website, mainly for university researchers. It is for researchers to showcase their own work and fish for jobs.

[Atheling]

ResearchGate is a legitimate website, mainly for university researchers. It is for researchers to showcase their own work and fish for jobs.

Thanks Pattus. I'll check it out  .

Kind Regards

[Mad Doc Morris]

There are a couple of (nearly) contemporary accounts, like Willibald Pirckheimer's De bello Suitense sive Eluetico or the chronicles of Heinrich Brennwald and Valerius Anshelm. Neither is available in English, I'm afraid, and there's little non-German reference material to guide you to.

You've already found the pictorial evidence as given by the, again fairly contemporary, woodcut posted above. There's another one depicting the whole war at once, dating back to 1502 or shortly thereafter, preserved at the Albertina (it's in several pieces, all to be found here).

The last 'wave' of studies was released in 1999. Of course, predominantly in German. But this issue of the Jahrbuch für solothurnische Geschichte contains a number of pictures. Perhaps of particular interest are the captured flags (e.g. page 225).
It may only confirm the Wikipedia article, but here's my summary of the passages from the journal dealing with the actual battle:

The Imperial troops under Count Heinrich von Fürstenberg were about to besiege the Swiss-held castle of Dorneck. They numbered about 15-16,000 men and included Burgundian cavalry (the "Welsche Garde", c. 400 men under Louis de Vaudrey/Loys de Vouldray), landsknechts from the Low Countries, Southern Germany and Alsace, as well as contingents of cities and the nobility of Southern Germany. As they had just arrived and were clearly superior in numbers, the troops were allowed to recover. Their overtly relaxed and careless behaviour was likely also meant to demoralise the Swiss garrison of Dorneck.

The Swiss relief force was made up of about 5-7,000 men; approximately 1,000 from Solothurn under Niklaus Conrad, 3,500 from Bern under Kaspar von Stein (500) and Rudolf von Erlach (3,000), 400 from Zurich under Kaspar Göldli and Jakob Stapfer, and a number of mercenaries hired in Lucerne and Dornach respectively. The advance guard was mainly formed by the men from Solothurn, the others followed in the main 'Gewalthaufen'. Reinforcements from Lucerne (600 under Petermann Feer) and Zug (400 under Werner Steiner) arrived only four to five hours after fighting had commenced.
The battle was no surprise attack, rather the Swiss commanders were forced to engage as soon as possible (on July 22, about 4 o'clock in the afternoon) because their troops were about to disperse. Even during battle there were arguments among the Swiss, some troops started plundering, and some (particularly those from Solothurn) simply left the field.

At first the advance guard marched towards the castle of Dorneck on the northern flank of the Schartenfluh (a cliff, here's a photo). On the march they split up into two parties, aimed at capturing the enemy's artillery positions to the right and left. The party on the right succeeded (the Imperial commander was killed possibly on this spot) and reformed beneath the castle walls, at the Dornach-Dornachbrugg road. There they faced an onslaught by the "Welsche Garde", but tried to disengage in order to support their comrades on the left who had failed to capture the guns at Ramstel (a valley or hamlet?). This led to high casualties among the Swiss early on.
While this was happening, the 'Gewalthaufen' reached the plain and engaged the enemy's main body of troops. The reassembled advance guard joined them later. But due to the Imperials' superiority in numbers and struggles within the Swiss army the battle was only decided when the Swiss reserves from Zug and Lucerne rushed in.

The Swiss stayed on the battlefield for three days. Troops from the Unterwald district (Ur and Freiburg) arrived on July 23, the men from Schwyz a day later. Accounts are somewhat unreliable, as always, so estimated losses (killed, wounded, MIA) were about 5-900 Swiss and 2-4,000 Imperials, the latter including wounded or scattered men killed in the aftermath. However, the Imperial troops weren't completely destroyed, as the "Welsche Garde" recaptured some of the guns on their move to Liestal on July 28.

Hope this helps a bit. Sorry, if the wording is awkward, wrote this up on the fly. I touched upon this topic during work on my doctoral thesis, but it's bits and pieces merely.

EDIT: Corrected some minor errors.

[Mad Doc Morris]

Small addendum. Remembered there's a map of the battle:



Taken from Fritz Rieter, Der Schwabenkrieg vor 450 Jahren, in: Schweizer Monatshefte 29,3 (1949/50), pp. 129–150. It's available online (LINK) and there are more battles included. This map appears on p. 144. They're all somewhat sketchy, so this one may or may not reflect the course of action given in the journal mentioned above.

[Atheling]

Thanks Mad Doc Morris! 

I'm currently reading a paper on the subject so the map will hopefully prove to be a valuable visual aid

[Mad Doc Morris]

I'm currently reading a paper on the subject so the map will hopefully prove to be a valuable visual aid

Care to share its title? Got curious as well.

[Atheling]

Care to share its title? Got curious as well.

I've PM'ed you Mad Doc Morris.

Info is all there and a direct link to boot.

[Elrak]

If it wasn't posted yet:
A contemporary historical report (rhymed chronicle) containing up to 40 woodcuts  is available online.
It was written by Niklas Schradin the town scribe of Luzern and was printed / is dated to Septembre 1st 1500.

To cut a long story short - the link to the digitized source:
http://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/0004/bsb00040196/images/index.html?fip=193.174.98.30&seite=1&pdfseitex=

And another digitized copy (Hannover):
http://diglib.hab.de/inkunabeln/37-4-poet-1/start.htm

[bluechi]

Mission impossible to read

The swabian force :
14 000 foot 800 from Worms, Speyer, Mainz, Straßburg
2000 on horse

Did you need the nobles ?

Cant find the historical picture of Heinrich again. But he wear the same armor as his brother Wolfgang. The plump on his helmet are eagle wings on both sides like Asterix.

[Atheling]

Mission impossible to read

The swabian force :
14 000 foot 800 from Worms, Speyer, Mainz, Straßburg
2000 on horse

Did you need the nobles ?

Cant find the historical picture of Heinrich again. But he wear the same armor as his brother Wolfgang. The plump on his helmet are eagle wings on both sides like Asterix.

Yes please 

That would be fantastic 

If it wasn't posted yet:
A contemporary historical report (rhymed chronicle) containing up to 40 woodcuts  is available online.
It was written by Niklas Schradin the town scribe of Luzern and was printed / is dated to Septembre 1st 1500.

To cut a long story short - the link to the digitized source:
http://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/0004/bsb00040196/images/index.html?fip=193.174.98.30&seite=1&pdfseitex=

And another digitized copy (Hannover):
http://diglib.hab.de/inkunabeln/37-4-poet-1/start.htm

Many, many thanks!! This looks like an excellent resource. 

At a quick glance at the first few images the Swiss look much more like the TAG Italians (not the pike!) and with what seems to be the beginnings of relatively small slashes in the manuscript I reckon the TAG Landsnechts would be suitable for both the "Swiss" and "German" troops. A few feathers might well be judiciously placed on the Swiss for distinction.

With the caveat that I've only had the time to take a cursory look at the wood cuts thus far.

[bluechi]

At that time the Fashion be the same....Same same but different 😂.

[bluechi]

Historicum.net is a usefull side for the swabian war. Including a list of the forces of the swabian League. But many original Texts are in old german with south slang.