Swiss

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Swiss attract the attention of military historians most for their role in what are called the French Italian wars of the 16th century—despite the fact that these were also fought on the Rhine, the Pyrenees, and the English Channel—from which derived their fame as mercenaries. Their martial skills were forged in an epic struggle for their own independence against the Habsburgs that began with the mutual assistance pact agreed by three Alpine peasant communities in 1291 and did not formally end until the 1648 Peace of Westphalia closed the Thirty Years War. Of the three, the Schwyz won undying repute and their name came to be given to the whole confederation because in 1315, at the ambush battle of Morgarten, their humble spearmen killed several thousand knights, characteristically taking no prisoners. Thus 31 years before Crécy, the knell of military and social supremacy based on knighthood sounded. From the start their preferred weapons were pole arms and their preferred tactic was to advance at the trot in compact columns. We have no way of ascertaining how these became so firmly established. All we can say for sure is that they did not remain on the defensive, and that population pressure and a sort of aggressive collective consciousness (for they were fiercely egalitarian and had no ‘leaders’ as the term is generally understood) produced a highly expansionist policy until the first half of the 16th century, at which point they began to cultivate the (heavily armed) neutrality that remains the signature of Switzerland to this day.

Swiss aggression was felt by neighbours at all points of the compass, and their merciless rivalry with the German landsknechts is notorious. The threat from the Habsburgs was mainly latent, and the Swiss confirmed their reputation as a savage hedgehog best left alone at Morat in 1476, where they checked the pretensions of Charles ‘the Bold’ to revive the Burgundian kingdom, and by killing Charles himself and many of his knights at Nancy the following year. History does not record another occasion in which a small polity overthrew one much larger so completely that it never recovered. The decline of the Swiss as the rulers of the battlefield tends to be ascribed to field artillery and musketry, as though they were too stupid to adapt. They were not invincible even before French guns blasted bloody furrows in their ranks at Marignano in 1515—the Spanish gran capitán Córdoba defeated them at Cerignola in 1503. But what happened after 1515 was that François I had the wit to behave generously towards them, granting them free trading privileges that were to be the foundation of Swiss prosperity. It also bound them to the French interest, such that they shared in the defeats at Bicocca (1522) and Pavia (1525), and red-coated Swiss regiments served the French monarchy faithfully until 1791.

They never evolved cavalry, and their expertise with the crossbow (hence the myth of William Tell) made them slow to adopt firearms, but it was not the Swiss as fighting men who were eclipsed at Bicocca and Ravenna. Rather it was the closure of the brief period when the dynastic rivalries of Europe permitted the Swiss as a nation to play a significant role in the affairs of the continent. As to the careless use of the term ‘mercenary’ as an epithet, to deny a soldier his pay is to refuse the honour due to him and implicit in the contract under which he takes service. The Swiss did not believe in promises and if pay day came around and it was not duly counted out, they would simply leave, no matter what the situation their patron might find himself in. Thus to this day the phrase point d'argent, point des Suisses (no money, no Swiss) persists in French usage. The pope still retains a Swiss Guard.

— Hugh Bicheno

Calendar of Paul Klee Paintings

Prolific Swiss painter Paul Klee was born on this date in 1879. Klee was noted for his mastery of line, form and color, and his whimsical paintings tread the line between abstract and figurative. He produced more than 10,000 paintings, etchings and drawings over his lifetime. Klee was born to a musical family; he played the violin and his affinity for music is often seen in his art. Klee had spent many years in Germany teaching at the Bauhaus Academy, but Nazi persecution forced him to flee with his family in 1933.

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From our Archives: Today's Highlights, December 18, 2005

For a list of words related to Swiss, see:

• Cheese

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See words rhyming with "Swiss."

  See crossword solutions for the clue Swiss.

Dansk (Danish)
adj. - schweizer-, svejtser-, schweizisk
n. - schweizer, dørvogter

idioms:

• swiss guards    Schweizergarden
• swiss roll    roulade

Nederlands (Dutch)
Zwitsers

Français (French)
adj. - suisse
n. - Suisse

idioms:

• swiss guards    gardes suisses
• swiss roll    (GB) gâteau roulé

Deutsch (German)
n. - Schweizer
adj. - Schweizer-, schweizerisch

idioms:

• swiss guards    Schweizergarde
• swiss roll    Biskuitrolle

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. pl. - (οι) Ελβετοί
n. - Ελβετός
adj. - ελβετικός, Ελβετός

idioms:

• swiss guards    Ελβετική φρουρά (του Βατικανού)
• swiss roll    κυλινδρικό κέικ με μαρμελάδα

Italiano (Italian)
svizzero

idioms:

• swiss guards    guardie svizzere
• swiss roll    rotolo dolce

Português (Portuguese)
n. pl. - suíços (m pl)
n. - suíço (m)
adj. - suíço

idioms:

• swiss guards    Guarda Suíça
• swiss roll    pãozinho suíço

Русский (Russian)
швейцарец, швейцарка, швейцарский

idioms:

• swiss guards    наемные солдаты-швейцарцы
• swiss roll    вид пирожного

Español (Spanish)
adj. - suizos, suizo
n. - suizos, suizo

idioms:

• swiss guards    la Guardia Suiza
• swiss roll    enrollado

Svenska (Swedish)
n. pl. - schweizare
n. - schweiziska, schweizisk
adj. - schweizisk, schweizer-

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
瑞士的, 瑞士风格的, 瑞士人, 瑞士腔调

idioms:

• swiss guards    瑞士卫兵
• swiss roll    卷筒夹心蛋糕

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 瑞士的, 瑞士風格的
n. - 瑞士人, 瑞士腔調

idioms:

• swiss guards    瑞士衛兵
• swiss roll    捲筒夾心蛋糕

한국어 (Korean)
adj. - 스위스의, 스위스 사람의, 스위스식의
n. - 스위스 사람, 스위스 치즈

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - スイス人, スイス
adj. - スイス人の, スイスの

idioms:

• swiss guards    スイス護衛兵
• swiss roll    スイスロール

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الجمع) الشعب السويسري (الاسم) الشخص السويسري (صفه) سويسري‏

עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - ‮שווייצי/ת‬
n. - ‮שווייצי/ת, של שווייץ או עמה‬

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