Gugler

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English and French mercenaries are referred to as Guglers who, under the leadership of Enguerrand VII. De Coucy, marched through Alsace via Waldshut to the Swiss plateau at the end of 1375 . The name was derived from their dome-shaped helmets (probably from Middle High German gugel (e) " hood " from Latin cuculla ).

Coucy was descended from the Habsburgs on his mother's side and fought in the Hundred Years War . During an armistice, he recruited 22,000 unemployed English and French soldiers. With these he wanted to enforce the inheritance claim of his mother Katharina von Habsburg († 1349), daughter of Duke Leopold I of Austria , by force. The target of the conquest were the Aargau and the cities of Aarau , Bremgarten , Lenzburg , Sempach , Sursee and Willisau . According to an inheritance contract, his mother was entitled to these, but were given by her relatives, the dukes Albrecht III. and Leopold III. , retained.

At the beginning of December 1375, the Guglers marched across the Jura, plundering and robbing, and split up into three separate armies: Enguerrand de Coucy and the main army moved into quarters in the St. Urban monastery , the southern French captain Jean de Vienne in the Gottstatt monastery and the Welsh captain Owain Lawgoch (Ivo of Wales) in the monastery Fraubrunnen . The raid continued in the area between western Aargau and Zealand . The towns of Fridau and Altreu were completely destroyed. The residents of the affected area, including Petermann I von Grünenberg from his Grünenberg castle , as well as Aarwangen castle , which Coucy burned for him, and later also the city of Bern, organized the resistance and inflicted considerable losses on the individual armies in night fighting , on December 25 at Buttisholz , on December 26 at Ins and on December 27 at Fraubrunnen . The winter cold, but also the fearlessness of the locals, moved the Guglers to retreat, the main army of Coucy was no longer used.

In 1376 the Guglers withdrew again without any of the war aims being achieved. Coucy received in 1387 in a settlement with Albrecht III. the rule of Büren and half of the city of Nidau ​​were awarded as pledge. But just a year later, his property was lost to the cities of Bern and Solothurn .

literature

  • Karl H. Flatt: The Gugler in Oberaargau 600 years ago . In: Yearbook of the Oberaargau . tape 18 . Schelbli + Co., Herzogenbuchsee 1975, p. 93–106 ( unibe.ch [PDF; accessed on August 8, 2012]).
  • Barbara Tuchman : The Distant Mirror . Düsseldorf 1980.
  • Chronicle of Switzerland . Ex Libris Verlag / Chronik Verlag, 1987.

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