Swiss Girl vs German Army December 30, 2017
Author: Beach Combing | in : Medieval , trackback
In 1499 the Swiss fought their last great war in the north. Their battle-hardened democratic armies proved superior to the pitiful Habsburg forces and by Autumn, the end of the campaigning season, the Germans were begging for peace. Here is a lovely episode from the middle of the war that gives some sense of the mettle and spunk of the Swiss forces against their German neighbours. A young Swiss girl (Mädchen) had been used, in July 1499, as a go between, and had been sent to the Emperor Maximilian with a letter. However, the Imperial forces decide to milk her for information, intimidating her in every way possible: she was perhaps ten. The dialogue was caught by Wilibald Pirckheimer (obit 1530), the famous German writer, who was on the Imperial side but who was clearly, for the purposes of this melee, with the Swiss. The child is surrounded by knights.
The girl is asked what the Swiss are doing: ‘Don’t you see they are awaiting your attack?’
The girl is asked how many men the Swiss had: ‘Just enough to repel your advance.’ She also noted that the men of Constance, Habsburg allies, could have counted the Swiss in a recent battle there had they not been blinded in flight.
The girl is asked whether the Swiss are hungry: ‘How are they able to live if they do not eat or drink?’
The girl is told that she will have her head cut off if she does not answer questions properly: ‘Truly you are a hero that you threaten a young girl with death. When you have such a great desire to draw a sword, why don’t you throw yourself on the enemy positions? There you will meet a man who will answer your courage. But it is easier to confront an unarmed and innocent girl than put yourself before an armed enemy who knows how to conduct himself not with words but with deeds.’
At this point the conversation seems to have ground to a halt! It is not the dialogue of a Greek hero with a Trojan hero in the Iliad. It is far more impressive than that: a child raised among citizens talks down to warriors raised in a feudal society. The modern age is about to blow the old world away. Other great war dialogues: drbeachcombing AT gmail DOT com
The translations here are from Albert Winkler’s excellent work on the Swiss wars.
