STORY & BACKGROUND
STORY SYNPOSIS
Two Brothers from an impoverished farmer's family in Schwyz become Swiss mercenaries. It's the end of the 13th century.
They get hired and be trained with arms in Zurich.
They travel in groups to their respective service destination and rob people on the way there. (One goes to Cologne, the other to Vienna.)
They start mercenary war service in small groups of Swiss mercenaries in the midst of other soldiers and slaughter and plunder. (One of them in Thuringia, the other in Styria.)
In the big decisive battle they encounter each other. One of them tries to avoid the showdown. The other one stabs the king to death.
Back home one of them becomes training instructor for Swiss mercenaries, the other one finds his family in severest poverty.
STORY IN THE INTRO SCENE (VIDEO)
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
With the Federal Charter of 1291, the valley communities of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden form an alliance which is considered the founding of Switzerland. They take advantage of a political vacuum. After the death of King Rudolf I. of Habsburg in 1291, it is not Rudolf's son, but Adolf of Nassau who gets elected in 1292 as the new king of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1294 and 1295 the troops of Adolf devastated and plundered the Thuringian countryside. Rudolf's son Albrecht I. is King of Austria and Styria. He must quell uprisings of aristocrats in Styria and assaults of Bavaria. In 1298 Albrecht I. becomes king after Adolf was first deposed and then defeated by Albrecht in the Battle of Gölheim. Albrecht enters into a peace with Philip IV., King of France. There followed fierce fighting in Bohemia. Albrecht was finally killed in 1308 in Königsfelden (CH). The Habsburgs were engaged for years in the defense of their territories in Austria and other regions. They left the "Urschweiz" alone. Only in 1315 Duke Leopold I. marched in with an army to reclaim the land in the Alps. His army was defeated at Morgarten.
The rural population in the founding cantons of Switzerland is dirt poor in the late 13th century. With the change to the dairy industry, the feudal structures were aggravated, the monasteries dominated this new industry. The peasants had no choice. On top of this, they were taxed and harassed by the Habsburg bailiffs. The only way out for the young was: Emigration and entering military services and make money so that later at home the family gets a better life. The Swiss mercenaries were soon known throughout Europe for their uncompromising commitment to fighting with halberds and pikes. They were hired from all sides. An important part of the craft of Swisss mercenaries was robbing, looting and pillaging. Often, they made private loot inbetween battles.
More about the background of the game SWISSMERCENARIES you find on the project-website >
