Pike and the Swiss pike square
Pica y cuadro de piqueros suizos
- Date
- 1339 (Laupen) · confidence medium
- Place
- Laupen, Bern, Switzerland
- Credited to
- Swiss Confederates (Bern and the forest cantons)
- Field
- Conflict
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A deep, disciplined infantry formation with long pikes and halberds, able to repel cavalry charges and, advancing quickly, to break feudal armies. The Swiss used it to defeat the Habsburgs (Laupen, 1339; Sempach, 1386) and Charles the Bold (1476-1477).
There are precedents in the Scottish schiltrons (Bannockburn, 1314) and Flemish militias (Courtrai, 1302); the Laupen date is a convention.
What it led to
- German landsknechts and the pike-and-shot model
- the Spanish tercio
- the end of heavy cavalry dominance