Thursday 19 September 2024

The Swabian War of 1499 - a review of a super book

Helion’s latest in their growing from Retinue to Regiment 1453-1618 series is The Swabian War of 1499 by Albert Winkler. The war was the first occasion where the feared Swiss faced the Landsknechts raised and indeed trained and equipped in their image by Maximilian von Habsburg the future Holy Roman Emperor. It was a relatively short war, yet costly in lives and destruction to land and property. Not a great deal has been published in English about this war, so this is bound to be an attraction to anyone interested in later Middle Ages and early Renaissance warfare and the rise of the Swiss’ and Landsknechts’ reputations as formidable soldiers.

The author first of all takes us through a brief description of the weapons and armour used by the Swiss, together with their dress, discipline (or lack of it), aggression on the battlefield, organisation and tactics. This sets the scene nicely for an introduction to the complex background and causes of the war.

The war itself is of course covered in detail, with opening moves and the plans of the opposing armies described clearly. While not wholly unified, the Swiss Confederation and the Grey Leagues proved superior in their strategy while the Empire was riven with petty squabbling, in-fighting and the scarcity of funds, which made things difficult to say the least. The major engagements of the war, at Schwaderloh, Frastanz, Calvert and Dornoch are covered in great detail, with excellent full page colour maps for each of them. Other operations surrounding these actions are also covered putting the whole campaign into context. It was indeed a very costly war in terms of the lives of soldiers and civilians, the land was laid waste, and ultimately neither side could see much point in continuing with the war, which came to an end in September 1499. The author’s analysis of the war and its impact on the participating countries is sobering - militarily and geopolitically it was senseless; nothing changed, no land was won or given up, and the relationship between the Swiss and the Empire remained essentially as it was before hostilities broke out. He does note however that in the rise of the Swabian Landsknechts the Swiss met a worthy and bitter foe.

There is the now expected and much anticipated central spread of eight pages of colour illustrations. For me the best of these are those original images depicting the appearance of the common soldiers on both sides. There is also a splendid, vibrant and very ‘busy’ reproduction of a near contemporary woodcut of the battle of Dornoch. We also get full page colour maps of three of the key battles of the war thus enabling the reader to follow the narrative on the maps, together with a wide selection of black and white images. Some of these are photos of surviving weapons and armour, while the rest, near contemporary and more than likely as close as you will ever get, are woodcuts, and are illustrative in their depiction of soldiers or scenes representative of the appearance of the men and the armies they served in.

The book is aimed at a broad target audience, from wargamers, military history enthusiasts and researchers to more serious historians, a job the author has done well, and will be of interest and perhaps even inspiration to them all. It certainly ticked all my boxes and I found the entire book well written and an incredibly informative and engaging read. An excellent addition to the series.

ISBN 978-1-804515-54-9 Soft covers 115 pages

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