Burgundian Wars

The Battle of Héricourt on 13 November 1474 was an early engagement of the Burgundian Wars and resulted in a victory for the Swiss Confederacy and its allies over the Burgundian State. The Swiss force of 18,000 overcame a Burgundian army of 12,000 commanded by Jacques of Savoy, inflicting approximately 1,600 casualties on the Burgundian side. The outcome demonstrated the capacity of the Swiss Confederacy and its allies to meet and defeat Burgundian forces in open battle, establishing an early precedent in what would prove a damaging series of military reversals for the Burgundian State across the war.

The Siege of Neuss was a failed Burgundian operation conducted by Charles the Bold against the Imperial City of Neuss, undertaken in the context of both the Cologne Diocesan Feud and the broader Burgundian Wars. The siege ended when Charles was compelled to abandon it by the advance of a substantial Imperial army under Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor. The outcome demonstrated the limits of Burgundian power projection when confronted with organized Imperial resistance, and underscored the degree to which the Cologne Diocesan Feud had drawn Burgundy into direct confrontation with Imperial authority. The failed siege represented a significant check on Charles the Bold's ambitions in the region during the Burgundian Wars, a conflict that would ultimately conclude with the defeat and death of Charles at Nancy in 1477.

The Battle on the Planta, fought around Conthey near Sion in Valais, was an engagement within the broader Burgundian Wars of 1474–1477. A Swiss Confederation force under Supersaxo, numbering approximately 3,000, faced a Savoyard army of around 10,000. Despite being heavily outnumbered, the Swiss inflicted roughly 1,000 casualties on the Duchy of Savoy's forces. The engagement formed part of the wider conflict in which the Swiss Confederation and its allies moved against the power of Charles the Bold of Burgundy and his associated territories, with Savoy drawn into the conflict as a Burgundian ally. The battle's occurrence in Valais reflects the extent to which the Burgundian Wars spread into the Alpine and Savoyard sphere beyond the core confrontations further west and north.

The Battle of Grandson, fought on 2 March 1476, resulted in a major defeat for Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, at the hands of the Old Swiss Confederacy. The engagement took place during the Burgundian Wars and represented a significant reversal for Burgundian military power. Charles the Bold commanded a force of approximately 20,000 against a Swiss army of roughly 18,000. The defeat at Grandson stands as one of the defining setbacks of the Burgundian Wars, a conflict that would ultimately end with the dissolution of Burgundian power under Charles the Bold by 1477.

The Battle of Morat, fought on 22 June 1476 near Bern, was the second major engagement of the Burgundian Wars and resulted in a severe defeat for Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. A Swiss Confederation force of approximately 25,000 engaged a Burgundian army of around 12,000, inflicting casualties estimated between 6,000 and 10,000 men. The scale of those losses permanently crippled the Burgundian army and its capacity for sustained military operations. Coming as the second major defeat of the war, Morat compounded the erosion of Burgundian military strength and left Charles unable to recover the offensive power needed to press his ambitions against the Confederation and allied forces including René II, Duke of Lorraine. The battle thus marked a decisive turning point in the Burgundian Wars, shifting the strategic balance firmly against the Duchy of Burgundy.

The Battle of Nancy was the final and decisive engagement of the Burgundian Wars, fought outside the walls of Nancy, Lorraine. René II, Duke of Lorraine, commanding a force that outnumbered the Burgundian army by a substantial margin, defeated Charles the Bold and ended Burgundian military resistance. Charles himself was killed in the battle; his mutilated body was recovered two days after the fighting. The death of Charles the Bold in the concluding engagement of the war effectively ended the conflict and removed the central figure around whom Burgundian power had been organized, with direct consequences for the political future of the Duchy of Burgundy and its territorial holdings.