1 Introduction
The inhabitants of the Old Swiss Confederacy had a poor reputation in other countries, where they were mainly perceived as mercenaries. In his Utopia in 1516, the English humanist Thomas More described them as ugly, barbaric, a wild mountain people born solely for war. For a little pay, he claimed, these “Zapoletes” would offer their services to any master; indeed, they exploited any opportunity for war, because military service was their only trade. They had no scruples about changing employer for more pay, according to More, and it was rare for a war to break out without numerous Zapoletes in both armies, facing each other as enemies.1 The omnipresence of Swiss mercenaries on the battlegrounds of Europe is a well-known fact, and demonstrates the high degree of integration of the Corpus helveticum into the ‘fiscal-military system’ of Europe.2
How do researchers explain the strong presence of the Swiss in the mercenary service of European powers? The historiography began in the 18th century with the extensive and systematic treatises written by two former high-ranking Swiss mercenary officers, who emphasized the various advantages that the Corpus helveticum derived from its alliances with France and other powers.3 In the 19th and the first half of the 20th century, this ‘entangled
The Corpus helveticum – this conglomerate of small states and microstates – took a very different path from the major European powers. After the first phase of the Italian Wars (1494–1516), it was only indirectly involved in European wars via its alliances and ‘capitulations’ (Kapitulationen, i.e. military contracts or agreements). It kept out of the dynamics of the ‘military revolution’ and followed its own nation-building path as an ‘island of peace’ in the middle of Europe. In the 17th and 18th centuries, it did not maintain a standing army in the traditional sense. Instead, it had access to its permanent mercenary troops abroad, which could, according to the terms of the military alliances, be summoned back if they were needed for defence purposes. The training and maintenance of these troops were financed by the foreign powers. By externalizing the costs of a standing army and accepting pensions as payment for recruiting rights on their mercenary markets, the cantons were able to keep their taxes low. No ‘extraction-coercion cycle’15 was set in motion here; nor did the Corpus helveticum become a ‘fiscal-military state’,16 which as a ‘contractor state’17 would have commissioned various actors to supply the Swiss armies with mercenaries, goods, and capital.18 Instead, the Corpus helveticum itself acted as a supplier of mercenaries, and as an international financial centre serving the belligerent powers. In the service, capital and goods markets of the Swiss area, politicians, officers, military entrepreneurs, marchands-banquiers, and other actors catered to various war-related needs in the broadest sense. In the following discussion, we use the terms ‘contractor’ and ‘military entrepreneur’ as synonyms.19 By way of alliance contracts and capitulations, many elite Swiss families were involved in transnational military transactions: as service providers, entrepreneurs and proprietors of military units, as traders on the
One fact that benefited the Swiss military entrepreneurs was that the Corpus helveticum was made up of numerous independent small states, each with its own particular interests with regard to political alliances. In the first section of this paper, an outline of the political system of the Corpus helveticum presents the political context for Swiss military entrepreneurship. The second part explains the significance of the country’s geopolitical position and the strategy of Stillesitzen (sitting still) or neutrality with its effects on power politics and security policies. The third part describes the changing nature of mercenary service over the centuries. The fourth part deals with the actors involved in military entrepreneurship and their practices, addressing financial, commercial, and technical aspects, as well as the economic, political, social, and confessional conditions.
2 The Corpus helveticum: A Composite Polity
To designate the totality of the 13 cantons (Orte), allied cantons (Zugewandte Orte), and subject territories (Untertanengebiete), we use the expression found in historical sources, Corpus helveticum.21 It underlines the composite structure of this conglomeration of very unequal elements, and the complexity of the alliances connecting them. This allows us to avoid the teleological and ahistorical simplifications inherent in the terms ‘Switzerland’ and ‘Swiss Confederacy’, which are strongly influenced by the experience of the Swiss federal and national state in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Relations within the Corpus helveticum were structurally complex and shaped by conflicting interests and rivalries between the cantons, exacerbated by the Reformation and the conflict between the denominations. The internal integration of the Corpus helveticum was weak. However, the small states of the Corpus helveticum did not perceive the heterogeneity and non-uniformity of the relationships and their lack of integration as a problem. They had never entered into their unequal alliances with the intention of forming a joint state
Until the end of the Ancien Régime in 1798, the Corpus helveticum formed a complex structure made up of several systems of alliances.23 These systems emerged in the period from the 13th to the 15th century, establishing loose connections between numerous communal, noble and ecclesiastical dominions. Over time, certain (urban and rural) communes asserted themselves as dominant powers in these systems. Thanks to successful territorial policies and power politics, they came to have sovereignty over subject territories of various sizes. These communes formed the core of the so-called Confederacy (Eidgenossenschaft), which, by 1513, had expanded to include 13 small, communal states, which all belonged to the Holy Roman Empire. These were the cantons (Kantone, Orte). The allied cantons (Zugewandte Orte) formed a second category of territories within the Corpus helveticum. These autonomous or sovereign dominions (Valais, the Three Leagues, the Principality of Neuchâtel, the Princely Abbey of Saint Gall, the cities of St. Gallen, Biel, Mulhouse in Alsace, Rottweil, Geneva, and others) maintained closer, asymmetrical alliances with some of the 13 cantons, but they were integrated much more loosely into the Corpus helveticum than these cantons. Lastly, large parts of the Corpus helveticum consisted of subject territories (Untertanengebiete), which were governed by individual cantons or collectives of several cantons. In the latter case they were known as condominiums (Gemeine Herrschaften).
There were substantial social and economic differences between the 13 communal states of the Confederacy. The population size can be taken as an indicator, since it reflects the military power and the economic and financial clout of a polity. In 1798 there were 1.023 million people living in the territory of the 13 cantons, distributed very unevenly across the individual cantons: on the one hand the urban cantons with their large, heavily populated subject territories, on the other hand the small rural cantons. 59 per cent of the total population of the 13 cantons lived in the two large Reformed urban cantons of Bern and Zurich. The urban cantons were also more economically developed and diversified, and had access to greater financial and economic power resources than the rural cantons. Nor was the Corpus helveticum unified in ethnic, linguistic, or cultural terms. German was spoken in the 13 cantons making up the core territories of the Confederacy, which saw themselves culturally as part of the German nation. French and Italian were spoken in the subject territories and allied cantons in modern-day western Switzerland and Tessin, Rhaeto-Romanic in the Three Leagues.
Remarkably, the Corpus helveticum – except for the involvement of the Three Leagues in the Thirty Years’ War – was not involved in the wars of the European powers for the whole early modern period until the War of the Second Coalition in 1799. Contrary to the narrative of traditional national history, the existence of the Corpus helveticum as an island of peace in the middle of a warlike Europe was not based on the country’s fundamental aversion to war and its affinity with neutrality. Instead it was based – seemingly paradoxically – on the web of political alliances with the great European powers and entanglement in their wars, and on the strategic management of the country’s favourable geopolitical position.24
As a result of the Burgundian Wars (1474–77) and the Italian Wars (1494–1559), the Corpus helveticum was incorporated into the sphere of influence of the Spanish Habsburg Empire. Inevitably, this meant that it also became a strategic factor for the king of France, the great rival of the Habsburgs. Both powers wanted to gain the allegiance of the Corpus helveticum and achieve as close and exclusive a relationship as possible, in order to secure the advantages of its location, or at least to neutralize this area in view of its potential threat. The Ewige Richtung and the Erbeinung with Habsburg-Austria (signed in 1474/77 and 1511 respectively) and the peace and alliance treaties with France in 1516 and 1521 governed the relations of the cantons with these two powers. At the end of the 16th century, in 1587, an alliance between the Catholic cantons (with the exception of Solothurn) and Spain-Milan was added.
These alliances granted the cantons security in a dynamic and warlike environment. Both sides pledged to be peaceful neighbours and to give military help in the case of an attack by third parties. The cantons subsequently dispensed with any costly expansion of their defence structures or modernization of their militia troops, and trusted that they would be permitted to recall their mercenary troops from abroad if they needed to defend themselves. To all intents and purposes, the Swiss regiments in foreign service acquired the character of externally financed standing armies abroad. This enabled the cantons to externalize the high costs of modernizing their defences, at the expense of their allies (or the taxpayers in those countries). They were therefore able to
The feature that made the Corpus helveticum such an attractive partner for alliances was its favourable location. This was the result of conflicts over power and dominion in the 15th and the early 16th century in what is now Switzerland. In this period, the communes of the Confederacy were able to assert themselves against the rival Habsburg, Burgundy, and Savoy dynasties, and affirm their longterm position as the preeminent power in the central section of the Alpine region.26 This was partly due to the Swiss infantry tactics, which retained their supremacy until the early 16th century. Its sovereign control of strategically important alpine passes and its immediate proximity to important battlegrounds of the wars between Habsburg and France and their allies gave the Corpus helveticum a geostrategically central position in the middle of Europe.27 It thus became an attractive and indispensable ally for the rival powers. This attractiveness was intensified by the fact that, after the defeat against the king of France at the Battle of Marignano in 1515, and the conquest of the Vaud in 1536, the Corpus helveticum ceased to engage in any power politics of its own. Instead it remained passive and made itself politically neutral (the policy of Stillesitzen).28 The existence of a Corpus helveticum that was weak in terms of power politics, but useful for military purposes, security and commerce, was very much in the interest of the European powers. The country served as a security buffer between the rival crowns and as military flank protection; as an intact mercenary market and a safe transit area for moving troops between Italy and the war zones in north-western Europe; as a credit provider and a hub
As an area close to the wars but unscathed by them, the Corpus helveticum was an integral part of the transnational European fiscal-military system.29 It benefited from wars in Europe and from the fact that the warring powers had to mobilize the resources for their wars in a competitive environment.30 In particular, it exploited the fact that the European powers (as ‘contractor states’)31 outsourced war-related activities to private individuals. This business model was the basis for the existence of the numerous military entrepreneurs and mercenaries from the Corpus helveticum. From the 15th to the 19th century, they catered to a wide range of war-related needs, developing a unique tradition of labour and career migration for purposes of military entrepreneurship.32 The bellicosity of Europe and the Stillesitzen of the Corpus helveticum were two sides of the same coin.33
4 Phases of Swiss Mercenary Service (13th-19th Century)
The centuries-long history of the Corpus helveticum as a supplier of mercenaries for the wars in Europe can be divided into four phases.34 The different phases were defined partly by the developments in military technology and tactics that made up the military revolution, and partly by internal social, economic, and political factors, which brought structural change in mercenary services over the centuries.
The first phase, from the 13th to the mid-16th century, encompassed the emergence of the mercenary phenomenon and the first attempts at contractual regulation. In this early phase of mostly unregulated mercenary soldiering, the wars were characterized by short, in some cases seemingly chaotic
The ongoing high demand for Swiss mercenaries did not diminish despite their failure to keep up with the advances in weapons technology (firearms) that took place around 1500. In the second phase (mid-16th to mid-17th century), the cantons began to provide contractually regulated and consolidated mercenary services to the warring powers. Alliances and capitulations guided the export of mercenaries into the politically desired direction. They also helped to ensure that the profits from mercenary trading were monopolized by those families within the Swiss power elite who were increasingly focusing their activities on military entrepreneurship. The third phase, from the mid-17th to the mid-18th century, was characterized by the emergence of standing armies. The mercenaries, now in the uniform of their employer and generally committed to serving for several years, were expected to show new skills in weapon handling, drills, and discipline. At the same time, the princely employers reduced the entrepreneurial freedoms of the captains and restricted their prospects of making a profit, by expanding bureaucratic control over their foreign mercenaries. Another problem was that the military entrepreneurs from the Protestant cantons had increasing difficulties replenishing their troops with new recruits. Phase four (mid-18th century to the revolutionary period around 1800) saw a gradual decline in the importance of military labour migration due to attractive employment opportunities in domestic
The suspension of foreign mercenary service can only partly be attributed to radical changes on the political map of Europe. Another crucial factor was the changed political balance of power within the Corpus helveticum, which eventually brought about the demise of paid military service in the mid-19th century. The fact was that the age-old practice of labour and career migration from the Corpus helveticum had been accompanied throughout its existence by a more or less fundamental criticism of this practice, with its problematic effects on the political, social, economic, and cultural conditions within the country. The breakdown of families and of the domestic labour market, the incursion of foreign habits of consumption, the venality of the mercenary leaders and political elites, and the political conflicts of interest between the cantons were the main focus of criticism in the late 15th and the early 16th century. The large numbers of men departing for distant wars and their contact with foreign cultures were perceived as a threat to their identity as Confederates.40 In the 16th century, the Reformers condemned the practice of killing for money in the service of foreign rulers, citing religious and moral reasons, and therefore rejected alliances with the European powers.41 The enlightened reformers of the 18th century complained that mercenary service led to population losses. They rebuked the authorities for their poor governance, which was unable to prevent the emigration of valuable workers.42 19th-century liberals, finally, rejected mercenary service for national and ideological reasons. They thought it was unworthy of a republic that young Swiss men should be risking their lives to defend monarchies against national unification movements in Italy.43 It was these liberal circles with their critical attitude towards mercenary service who emerged victorious from the Sonderbund War between the liberal and Catholic cantons in 1847. As the dominant political force, they went on to enshrine a ban on new capitulations in the federal constitution of 1848. The existing capitulations, however, and the possibility of recruiting individuals as
5 Swiss Contractors in Action
The Corpus helveticum was an important market for the cross-border trade in war-making resources, which involved various actors in different roles. Officers, entrepreneurs, career migrants,46 diplomats, politicians, and specialists from the Corpus helveticum featured as contractors on the markets of violence, supplying the warring powers of Europe with mercenaries, loans, equipment and food, information, intelligence, and expertise. They also provided other services such as granting rights of passage to foreign troops.47 The mercenary officers and their soldiers constituted the core of the Swiss contractors.
5.1 Military Labour Migrants: Mercenary Officers and Their Soldiers
The integration of the cantons into the European fiscal-military system, as reliable suppliers of mercenaries, turned migration into a mass phenomenon for
Of particular importance in military but also economic and cultural terms was the alliance with France (1521), which was renewed regularly until the 18th century (the last renewal was in 1777).50 Besides France, several other states intermittently recruited troops in the Corpus helveticum during the modern era: Spain (or Spain-Milan),51 Savoy (or Sardinia-Piedmont),52 the Netherlands,53
Mercenary officers from the Corpus helveticum experienced rapid career progression while abroad, with some reaching the top of foreign armies as commanders. One particularly impressive military career migrant was Hans Ludwig von Erlach (1595–1650), descendant of a powerful patrician family in Bern. After serving various employers in the Thirty Years’ War (Anhalt, Brandenburg, Brunswick, Sweden, Saxe-Weimar), the talented officer accomplished an astonishing ascent while serving France. As the governor of the fortress of Breisach (the conquest of which he himself had organized in 1638, while under the command of Bernard of Saxe-Weimar), he was appointed lieutenant general in 1647 and then, in 1649, commander of the French army in the empire.66 As commanders of guard units, Swiss officers enjoyed the trust of powerful princes, and commanded small groups of hand-picked elite soldiers who were responsible for the personal safety of the rulers and their families.67 Another remarkable career was that of Johann Peter Stuppa (1621–1701), originally from Chiavenna, a town in the subject territory of the Three Leagues. Stuppa entered the service of France in his youth and tenaciously worked his way up to the highest military ranks. Seven years after Stuppa’s promotion to lieutenant general in 1678, Louis XIV appointed him colonel of the Swiss guards regiment in 1685. Between 1674 and 1688, Stuppa also acted as colonel general of all the Swiss soldiers and those from the Three Leagues. He occupied this role on behalf of Prince Louis Auguste de Bourbon, Duc du Maine (1670–1736), who had not yet come of age. In this function he acted as a direct advisor to the French king and his Secretary of War. Responsible for the organization of the Swiss troops in the French army, he played a crucial role in the allocating
It is impossible to determine exactly how many men from the Corpus helveticum went to fight in foreign service. With regard to the mercenary officers, more precise data is at least known for Glarus. It is reported that 975 mercenary officers from this small canton (with a population of around 10,550 in 1700) served in foreign armies between the 15th and 19th centuries: 475 Catholics, 488 members of the Reformed Church, 12 unspecified.70 Other than that, exact figures are only available for individual cantons and for specific years in the 18th century. For the year 1762, for example, there is evidence of 47 officers in foreign service from Lucerne and 14 from Zug. For 1763, 45 are documented from Protestant Glarus, 35 from Catholic Glarus, 73 from Schwyz, 73 from Uri, and 59 from Valais. In 1780, when mercenary service was well past its peak, there were still 232 officers from the Three Leagues in the pay of foreign powers.71 By the 19th century, it is likely that several thousand officers from the Corpus helveticum had served in foreign armies.72 Attempts to at least count the number of military units in foreign military service are very valuable, but are either limited to certain countries or suffer from the fact that they do not include individual companies, but only entire regiments.73 A rough idea of the
Estimates of military labour migration from the Corpus helveticum
| Estimates in absolute numbers | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15th century | 16th century | 17th century | 18th century | Total | |
| Wyler, pp. 58–59. Emigrated: Population loss: |
500,000 | 400,000 | 500,000 | 1.4 million | |
| Bickel, p. 91. Emigrated: Population loss: |
50,000–100,000 | 250,000–300,000 | 250,000–300,000 | 300,000–350,000 | 850,000–1.05 million |
| Peyer, pp. 220–222. Emigrated: Population loss: |
50,000–100,000 30,000–60,000 |
Max. 400,000 Max. 270,000 |
350,000–500,000 [?] 200,000–340,000 [?] |
350,000–500,000 200,000–340,000 |
1.15–1.5 million 700,000–1.01 million |
| Mattmüller, pp. 320, 329. Emigrated: Population loss: |
100,000 | 100,000 | 200,000 | ||
| Estimates as percentages | |||||
| 15th century | 16th century | 17th century | 18th century | ||
| Head-König, p. 233. Percentage of adult men migrating to other countries as mercenaries: |
10–30 | 5–20 | |||
SOURCE: JULIUS WYLER, “DAS ÜBERVÖLKERUNGSPROBLEM DER SCHWEIZ,” ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR SCHWEIZERISCHE STATISTIK UND VOLKSWIRTSCHAFT 59 (1923), 56–67; WILHELM BICKEL, BEVÖLKERUNGSGESCHICHTE UND BEVÖLKERUNGSPOLITIK DER SCHWEIZ SEIT DEM AUSGANG DES MITTELALTERS (ZURICH, 1947); PEYER, “BEDEUTUNG”; MARKUS MATTMÜLLER, BEVÖLKERUNGSGESCHICHTE DER SCHWEIZ, TEIL I: DIE FRÜHE NEUZEIT, 1500–1700, 1 (BASEL, 1987); ANNE-LISE HEAD-KÖNIG, “HOMMES ET FEMMES DANS LA MIGRATION: LA MOBILITÉ DES SUISSES DANS LEUR PAYS ET EN EUROPE (1600–1900),” IN LES MIGRATIONS INTERNES ET À MOYENNE DISTANCE EN EUROPE, 1500–1900, 1, ED. OFELIA REY CASTELAO (SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, 1994), 225–245.
Note: For 19th-century mercenary migration, Bickel, Bevölkerungsgeschichte, p. 160, estimates that a total of 50,000 men from Switzerland died in the Napoleonic campaigns, and that in 1816, according to the capitulations, 23,000 Swiss soldiers served in France, Holland, and Prussia. Later Naples and the Papal States also featured as employers.
5.2 Mercenary Service and Elite Formation in the Swiss Cantons
The canton-regulated export of mercenaries was organized by military entrepreneurs, most of whom belonged to families from the political elite of their cantons. The economic and political interests of the Swiss power elites were in fact closely interwoven with the mercenary services.75 Officers in foreign service not only collected pay and pensions, they also gained important military experience of leadership and war, improved their language skills, and developed personal connections with the power centres of Europe. Their close contacts with France, Spain, and Savoy familiarized these career migrants with the customs of European princely society. Holding high military ranks and decorated with patents of nobility and the insignia of exclusive orders of knighthood, they knew how to operate in aristocratic and courtly circles. While many mercenary officers dedicated themselves to a military career and did not return to their home country for the rest of their lives, for others mercenary service was simply a stage in their biography, part of an intergenerational
However, military entrepreneurship as a factor in the formation of elites played a substantially larger role in the rural cantons of central Switzerland and in Glarus, in the patrician towns of Bern, Lucerne, Solothurn, and
In the ‘confessional age’, a pragmatic approach to religious denomination was part of the repertoire of career strategies for successful military entrepreneurs. Converting to Catholicism was often the prerequisite for promotion to top positions in the French army or integration into courtly and aristocratic society via marriage with a French noblewoman.85 There is less evidence of Catholic officers entering the service of Reformed foreign rulers.86 Sometimes the pragmatism of the contractors extended to the princely employers
The mercenary markets in the territory of the Corpus helveticum were not free trade areas with unrestricted market access.88 Rather, the cross-border market logic of the fiscal-military system was confronted with complex local constellations of power and interests. The leading families used political measures to protect their monopoly on the positions of command. The capitulations restricted access to officer ranks, excluding subjects, non-citizens, or families who did not belong to the political elite. In many cases, the only option available to those in less privileged circles was to try to make a living in economically and politically precarious conditions as a captain in a Freikompanie, raised in contravention of alliances, or to be satisfied with the rank of a subordinate officer (Unteroffizier) or deputy captain (captain by commission, also referred to as a Manimanist).89 Therefore, a career as a military entrepreneur was determined not so much by military expertise and entrepreneurial talent, but by the family one was born into. With its claim to exclusivity, the patriciate secured not only the profitable officer posts, but also consolidated its position as the sole negotiating partner if a European ruler wanted to recruit mercenaries or propose an alliance.90 Thus, the rulers’ success in recruiting mercenaries on the highly competitive markets of violence depended very much on good relations with the influential politicians and military entrepreneurs, whose support they attempted to secure with the resources of patronage
Important military entrepreneur families from Swiss cantons and allied cantons (selection)
| Zurich | Hirzel, Lochmann, Werdmüller |
| Bern | von Erlach, Jenner, von May, Stürler, von Wattenwyl |
| Lucerne | Amrhyn, Fleckenstein, Pfyffer, Rüttimann, Sonnenberg |
| Uri | Bessler, von Beroldingen, Jauch, Püntener, von Schmid |
| Schwyz | Auf der Maur, Betschart, Nideröst, Reding, Weber |
| Obwalden | von Flüe, Imfeld, Wirz |
| Nidwalden | Achermann, Leuw, Lussi, Stulz, Zelger |
| Glarus | Bachmann, Brändle, Freuler, Gallati, Hässi, Tschudi |
| Zug | Andermatt, Brandenberg, Knopfli, Kreuel, Zurlauben |
| Freiburg/Fribourg | d’Affry, Castella, de Diesbach, de Gottrau, de Reynold |
| Solothurn | Arregger, Besenval, Greder, von Roll, Stäffis-Molondin, von Sury, Vigier |
| Three Leagues | Buol, Capol, Enderlin, von Planta, von Salis, Schorsch, Sprecher |
| Valais | de Courten, von Kalbermatten, de Riedmatten, Stockalper |
| Neuenburg/Neuchâtel | Chambrier, Guy, de Tribolet, de Marval, de Montmollin, de Pury |
| Geneva | de Budé, Buisson, Gallatin, de Grenus, Le Fort, Pictet |
SOURCE: HLS, ARTICLES ON FAMILIES.
Mercenary companies were the main source of income for military entrepreneurs from the Corpus helveticum.95 The basic mechanism of company management (Kompaniewirtschaft) was that the princely employer paid a lump sum to the military entrepreneur to cover soldiers’ pay and other expenses. Unlike major military entrepreneurs in the empire, such as Wallenstein, Mansfeld, Saxe-Weimar, or Tilly, who provided their princely employers with whole regiments and armies – for a fee – during the Thirty Years’ War,96 the business of the Swiss military entrepreneurs operated on a much more modest level. In the 17th and 18th centuries, they generally captained companies of about 200 men, and no Swiss military entrepreneur managed more than four
There are two main reasons for the predominance of the company, rather than the regiment, as an administrative and economic unit. These reasons simultaneously offer insights into the underlying structures of Swiss military entrepreneurship. Firstly, the company commanders, who had established their companies in accordance with alliances and capitulations, were not the owners of their units. Military entrepreneur families did in many cases attempt to make their units hereditary, and sought to support their claims with normative provisions, especially in the 18th century.101 But the terms Eigentumskompanie (privately owned company, company under a captain-proprietor) and
In this competitive context, the greatest challenge for military entrepreneurs was the procurement of scarce goods. These included immaterial resources such as expertise, information, political support, and protection, but above all mercenaries and money.106 Competition for the resources necessary for war was a structural obstacle to the development of large-scale military entrepreneurship and made it impossible for individual contractors to provide a foreign ruler with entire regiments. The structural conditions of the Swiss mercenary markets brought specific entrepreneurial challenges. The crucial elements for
The mercenary soldiers were the most important resource of the company commanders. Over the centuries, the social profile of this group changed considerably. The relatively short military campaigns of the 15th and 16th centuries offered an attractive, accessible, and temporary earning opportunity (pay and booty) for unmarried farmers’ sons and farmhands, and urban workmen, but also for impecunious men with wives and children, from various social strata and occupational groups. Among those going off to war there were probably also men who mainly saw mercenary service as a chance for a change, an adventure, or an escape from the threat of criminal prosecution. They risked their physical integrity for money and other advantages, accepting the danger of dying in battle or from epidemics and illnesses.107 At the time, the campaigns lasted only days or weeks, and for many they were a form of military labour migration, offering an opportunity to bridge the seasonal fluctuations in the agricultural workload. The underlying motives for the decision to accept a bounty and enter mercenary service varied by region and by class, but in many cases, the decision to leave home was probably based on a family economy that relied on additional income earned by the male family members in mercenary service.108 In the course of the early modern period, mercenaries became an increasingly scarce commodity. This was partly due to changes in warfare, the structure of armies and military technology, and partly due to alternative employment opportunities in the rapidly developing, predominantly Reformed proto-industrial regions. Service in the standing armies of the 17th and 18th centuries now lasted considerably longer, often several years; for many it lasted a lifetime. Deployments in the protracted wars alternated with periods of monotonous garrison life, with drills and exercises. The new
The early modern period saw not only a gradual decline in the appeal of a mercenary career, but also a steady reduction in the financial leeway available to military entrepreneurs. From the mid-17th century onwards, the foreign rulers and their military bureaucracy interfered more and more in the organization, arming, and equipment of the troops.119 By issuing so-called
5.4 The Family as a Sociocultural and Economic Foundation
For military entrepreneurs from the Corpus helveticum, the family was the decisive sociocultural and economic foundation for their business model. There were two reasons for this. Firstly, the mutual trust and codependence between family members reduced the transaction costs of military entrepreneurship. This is apparent from the frequent loans between family members, or the use of shared recruitment infrastructure. Secondly, debt claims and profit targets could be transferred to subsequent generations, thanks to the intergenerational solidarity within the family.141 Since the high investments of company commanders often required accounts to be kept beyond their own lifetime, the management of a mercenary company was of necessity an intergenerational practice. Entrepreneurs could not pass on their companies to the
5.5 Doing War Business as Suppliers, Financial Service Providers, and Military Technicians
Around the core business of exporting mercenaries – regulated by international law and organized within kinship structures – other, less bloody business opportunities arose for the military entrepreneurs. As well as recruiting and commanding units of soldiers, it was not unusual for company commanders to add additional services to their war business portfolio. They might, for
Gunsmiths, cannon-makers and engineers from the Corpus helveticum (selection)
| Name, date of birth and death, place of origin | Activity | Career abroad |
|---|---|---|
| Jean-Etienne Amand de Courten (1695–1745, Siders) | Engineer | Spain, Italy |
| Nicolas Doxat (1682–1738, Yverdon) | Engineer | Holland, Austria, Serbia |
| Urs Christian Egg (1748–1831, Oberbuchsiten) | Gunsmith | London |
| Joseph Egg (1775–1837, Oberbuchsiten [?]) | Gunsmith | London |
| Johann Jakob Keller (1635–1700, Zurich) | Cannon-maker | France, Piedmont, Breisach |
| Johann Balthasar Keller (1638–1702, Zurich) | Cannon-maker, statue-maker | France, Piedmont, Breisach |
| Filiberto Lucchesi (1606–66, Melide) | Architect, plasterer, engineer | Austria, Poland, Slovakia |
| Johannes Maritz (1680–1743, Burgdorf) | Turner and cannon-maker | Lyon |
| Johann Maritz (1711–90, Burgdorf) | Cannon-maker | Lyon; France |
| Pietro Morettini (1660–1737, Cerentino) | Building contractor, engineer | Besançon; Landau (Palatinate); Namur; Netherlands; Savoy; Papal States; Genoa |
| Bernardino Paleari (1520/30–95, Morcote) | Engineer | Spain; Franche-Comté |
| Giorgio Paleari (1520/30–89, Morcote) | Engineer | Milan; Tunis; Monferrato; Domodossola, Liguria; Sardinia; Balearic Islands; Pamplona |
| Giovan Giacomo Paleari (1520/30–86, Morcote) | Fortification engineer | France and Spain; Tortona; Milan; Corsica; Sardinia; Pamplona; Ciudadela de Menorca, Mahon and Palma de Mallorca; North Africa; Gibraltar; São Julião da Barra and Setúbal; Roses |
| Pietro Paleari (1601–98, Morcote) | Engineer, architect | Malaga; Fuenterrabía; Santa Isabel; San Sebastián; Navarre |
| Domenico Pelli (1657–1728, Aranno) | Engineer | Strasbourg; Denmark (Schleswig; Odesloo, Kronborg, Rendsburg); Germany (Gottorf, Glückstadt) |
| Giacomo Soldati (d. before 17 October 1600, Neggio) | Hydraulic and fortification engineer | Milan; Savoy; Turin; Vercelli; Perosa, Monmorone and Rocco di Molaro in Gravère in the Val di Susa, Torre in the Val Luserna; San Giovanni Evangelista in Pragelato |
| Isaak Steiger (1698–1755, Bern) | Engineer | Breisach; Belgrade; Vienna; Salzkammergut and Upper Austria; Peterwardein |
| François Treytorrens (1590–1660, Yverdon) | Fortification engineer | Denmark; Sweden; Augsburg; States General |
SOURCE: HLS, ARTICLES ON FAMILIES.
Two examples serve to illustrate how far some of these highly qualified career migrants advanced. The Zurich cannon-maker Johann Balthasar Keller (1638–1702), with his brother Johann Jakob (‘Les Kellers’), directed the arsenal in Paris and established foundries in Douai, Besançon, Pignerol and Breisach. After the successful casting of an equestrian statue of Louis XIV, the king appointed him Commissaire général des fontes de l’artillerie de France.156 The fortification engineer Giovan Giacomo Paleari (1520/30–86), from Morcote in
6 Conclusion
For many countries in Europe in the modern period, war became the ‘the flywheel in the machinery of state’, as the historian Otto Hintze once put it.158 The arms race and the costly wars forced the states to build up military and bureaucratic systems intended to provide them with the necessary resources for war. War made the state, and the state made war. This well-known thesis does not apply to the Old Swiss Confederacy, however. Instead, it kept out of the European wars. It did not take part in the arms race itself, and it allowed the European rulers or rather their taxpayers to pay for the modernization of its troops in foreign service. Subsequently the Swiss militia troops at home fell further and further behind developments in military technology and became structurally incapable of warfare.159
The Corpus helveticum, however, was an integral component not only of the European market for mercenaries and arms, but also of war operations on the continent. It served as a transit area for troop movements, a mercenary market, a financial centre, and hub for the trade in war materials, and as a site for innovations in military technology. Civil and military service providers, whether mercenaries, merchants, fortification engineers, weapon manufacturers, officers, or politicians, were directly or indirectly integrated into cross-border and often cross-denominational business networks, providing the armies of Europe with mercenaries, money and credit, technical expertise, information, and other services. Many families from the political elite linked their activities in the cross-border business of war with their power politics, monopolizing the profits for themselves and using their diverse social contacts with the European centres of power to expand and secure their domestic position of
Thomas Morus, Thomas Morus und sein berühmtes Werk Utopia, aus dem Englischen übersetzt mit bio- und bibliographischer Einleitung, ed. Eduard M. Oettinger (Leipzig, 1846), pp. 161–162.
Peter H. Wilson, Marianne B. Klerk, “The Business of War Untangled: Cities as Fiscal-Military Hubs in Europe, 1530s–1860s,” War in History 29 (2020), 80–103; Peter H. Wilson, “Competition through Cooperation: The European Fiscal-Military System, 1560–1850 (Inaugural lecture at the University of Oxford, 30 January 2017),” 2017. Available at https://www.history.ox.ac.uk/article/peter-h-wilson-inaugural-lecture. Accessed 17 August 2020.
Beat F. Zurlauben, Histoire militaire des Suisses au service de la France, 1–8 (Paris, 1751–53); Emmanuel May de Romainmôtier, Histoire militaire de la Suisse et celle des Suisses dans les différens services de l’Europe, 1–8 (Lausanne, 1788). See also Beat F. Zurlauben, “Avantages mutuels que la France & les Suisses trouvent dans leurs Alliances,” in Code militaire des Suisses, 1 (Paris, 1758), pp. 12–26.
Wilhelm Oechsli, “Zur Zwinglifeier 1484–1884: Der Pensionenbrief von 1503,” in Bausteine zur Schweizergeschichte, ed. Wilhelm Ochseli (Zurich, 1890), 93–117; Georg Gerig, Reisläufer und Pensionenherren in Zürich 1519–1532: Ein Beitrag zur Kenntnis der Kräfte, welche der Reformation widerstrebten (Zurich, 1947); Johann J. Aellig, Die Aufhebung der schweizerischen Söldnerdienste im Meinungskampf des 19. Jahrhunderts (Basel/Stuttgart, 1954).
The ideologically motivated romanticization of Swiss mercenary services is manifested particularly vividly in Paul de Vallière, Treue und Ehre: Geschichte der Schweizer in Fremden Diensten (Neuchâtel, 1913), which was reissued in 1940, during the Second World War, in a situation that posed a great threat to Switzerland’s security.
For example August von Gonzenbach, Der General Hans Ludwig von Erlach von Castelen: Ein Lebens- und Charakterbild aus den Zeiten des Dreissigjährigen Krieges, 1–3 (Bern, 1880–82); Albert Maag, Die Schicksale der Schweizerregimenter in Napoleons I. Feldzug nach Russland 1812 (Biel, 1900); Schweizer Kriegsgeschichte: Im Auftrage des Chefs des Generalstabes, Oberstkorpskommandant Sprecher von Bernegg, bearb. von Schweizer Historikern unter Leitung von M. Feldmann und H. G. Wirz, 1–4 (Bern, 1915–35).
Hans Conrad Peyer, “Die Anfänge der schweizerischen Aristokratien,” in Könige, Stadt und Kapital: Aufsätze zur Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte des Mittelalters, eds. Ludwig Schmugge, Roger Sablonier, and Karl Wanner (Zurich, 1982), 219–231; idem, “Die wirtschaftliche Bedeutung der fremden Dienste für die Schweiz vom 15. bis zum 18. Jahrhundert,” in Könige, Stadt und Kapital: Aufsätze zur Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte des Mittelalters, eds. Ludwig Schmugge, Roger Sablonier, and Karl Wanner (Zurich, 1982), 219–231; idem, “Wollgewerbe, Viehzucht, Solddienst und Bevölkerungsentwicklung in der Stadt und Landschaft Freiburg i.Ü. vom 14. bis zum 16. Jahrhundert,” in Könige, Stadt und Kapital: Aufsätze zur Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte des Mittelalters, eds. Ludwig Schmugge, Roger Sablonier, and Karl Wanner (Zurich, 1982), 163–182.
Hermann Suter, Innerschweizerisches Militär-Unternehmertum im 18. Jahrhundert (Zurich, 1971); Hans Steffen, Die Kompanien Kaspar Jodok Stockalpers: Beispiel eines Soldunternehmens im 17. Jahrhundert (Brig, 1975); Kurt Messmer, Peter Hoppe, Luzerner Patriziat: Sozial- und wirtschaftsgeschichtliche Studien zur Entstehung und Entwicklung im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert (Lucerne, 1976); Walter Bührer, Der Zürcher Solddienst des 18. Jahrhunderts: Sozial- und wirtschaftsgeschichtliche Aspekte (Bern, 1977).
Ralf Pröve, “Vom Schmuddelkind zur anerkannten Subdisziplin? Die ‘neue MilitärGeschichte’ der Frühen Neuzeit: Perspektiven, Entwicklungen, Probleme,” in Lebenswelten: Militärische Milieus in der Neuzeit: Gesammelte Abhandlungen, eds. Bernhard R. Kroener, Angela Strauß (Berlin, 2010), 105–123.
Anne-Lise Head, “Intégration ou exclusion: Le dilemne des soldats suisses au service de France,” Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte 8 (1990), 37–55; Urs Kälin, Die Urner Magistratenfamilien: Herrschaft, ökonomische Lage und Lebensstil einer ländlichen Oberschicht, 1700–1850 (Zurich, 1991); Viktor Ruckstuhl, Aufbruch wider die Türken: Ein ungewöhnlicher Solddienst am Ende des 17. Jahrhunderts: Mit besonderer Berücksichtigung Obwaldens und der Kompanie Schönenbüel (Zurich, 1991); Urs Kälin, “Salz, Sold und Pensionen: Zum Einfluss Frankreichs auf die politische Struktur der innerschweizerischen Landsgemeindedemokratien im 18. Jahrhundert,” Der Geschichtsfreund 149 (1996), 105–124; idem, “Die fremden Dienste in gesellschaftsgeschichtlicher Perspektive: Das Innerschweizer Militärunternehmertum im 18. Jahrhundert,” in Gente ferocissima: Solddienst und Gesellschaft in der Schweiz (15.-19. Jahrhundert): Festschrift für Alain Dubois, eds. Norbert Furrer et al. (Zurich, 1997), 279–287; Jean Steinauer, Patriciens, fromagers, mercenaires: L’émigration fribourgeoise sous l’Ancien Régime (Lausanne, 2000); Christian Windler, “‘Ohne Geld keine Schweizer’: Pensionen und Söldnerrekrutierung auf den eidgenössischen Patronagemärkten,” in Nähe in der Ferne: Personale Verflechtung in den Aussenbeziehungen der Frühen Neuzeit, eds. Hillard von Thiessen, Christian Windler (Berlin, 2005), 105–133; Nathalie Büsser, “Die ‘Frau Hauptmannin’ als Schaltstelle für Rekrutenwerbungen, Geldtransfer und Informationsaustausch,” in Dienstleistungen: Expansion und Transformation des ‘dritten Sektors’ (15–20. Jahrhundert), eds. Hans-Jörg Gilomen, Margrit Müller, and Laurent Tissot (Zurich, 2007), 143–153; idem, “Drängende Geschäfte: Die Söldnerwerbungen Maria Jakobea Zurlaubens um 1700 und ihr verwandtschaftliches Beziehungsnetz,” Der Geschichtsfreund 161 (2008), 189–224; idem, “Salpeter, Kupfer, Spitzeldienste und Stimmenkauf: Die kriegswirtschaftlichen Tätigkeiten des Zuger Militärunternehmers und Magistraten Beat Jakob II. Zurlauben um 1700 für Frankreich,” in Kriegswirtschaft und Wirtschaftskriege, eds. Valentin Groebner, Sebastien Guex, and Jakob Tanner (Zurich, 2008), 71–84; Schweizer Solddienst: Neue Arbeiten, neue Aspekte, eds. Rudolf Jaun, Pierre Streit (Birmensdorf, 2010); Nathalie Büsser, “Militärun-ternehmertum, Aussenbeziehungen und fremdes Geld,” in Geschichte des Kantons Schwyz, 3, ed. Historischer Verein des Kantons Schwyz (Zurich, 2012), 69–127; Nicolas Disch, Hausen im wilden Tal: Alpine Lebenswelt am Beispiel der Herrschaft Engelberg (Vienna, 2012); Louiselle Gally-de Riedmatten, Du sang contre de l’or: Le service étranger en Valais sous l’Ancien Régime (unpublished Ph.D. diss., Bern, 2014); Benjamin Hitz, “Wer ging überhaupt und weshalb? Die Eidgenossenschaft als Söldnerlandschaft: Das Beispiel von Luzern im späten 16. Jahrhundert,” in Söldnerlandschaften: Frühneuzeitliche Gewaltmärkte im Vergleich, eds. Philippe Rogger, Benjamin Hitz (Berlin, 2014), 203–222; idem, Kämpfen um Sold: Eine Alltags- und Sozialgeschichte schweizerischer Söldner in der Frühen Neuzeit (Cologne, 2015); Marc Höchner, Selbstzeugnisse von Schweizer Söldnern im 18. Jahrhundert (Göttingen, 2015); Philippe Rogger, Geld, Krieg und Macht: Pensionsherren, Söldner und eidgenössische Politik in den Mailänderkriegen 1494–1516 (Baden, 2015); idem, “Familiale Machtpolitik und Militärunternehmertum im katholischen Vorort – Die Pfyffer von Luzern im Umfeld des Dreissigjährigen Krieges,” in Im Auge des Hurrikans: Eidgenössische Machteliten und der Dreissigjährige Krieg, eds. André Holenstein, Georg von Erlach, and Sarah Rindlisbacher (Baden, 2015), 122–138; Regula Schmid, “The Swiss Confederation Before the Reformation,” in A Companion to the Swiss Reformation, eds. Amy Nelson Burnett, Emidio Campi (Leiden/Boston, 2016), 14–58; Nathalie Büsser, “Klare Linien und komplexe Geflechte: Verwandtschaftsorganisation und Soldgeschäft in der Eidgenossenschaft (17–18. Jahrhundert),” in Soldgeschäfte, Klientelismus, Korruption in der Frühen Neuzeit: Zum Soldunternehmertum der Familie Zurlauben im schweizerischen und europäischen Kontext, eds. Kaspar von Greyerz, André Holenstein, and Andreas Würgler (Göttingen, 2018), 185–210; Après Marignan: La paix perpétuelle entre la France et la Suisse, eds. Alexandre Dafflon, Lionel Dorthe, and Claire Gantet (Lausanne, 2018); Katrin Keller, “Ein Schweizer Gardehauptmann als französischer Unterhändler: Johann Peter Stuppas Werbeverhandlungen in der Eidgenossenschaft 1671,” in Beobachten, Vernetzen, Verhandeln: Diplomatische Akteure und politische Kulturen in der frühneuzeitlichen Eidgenossenschaft, eds. Philippe Rogger, Nadir Weber (Basel, 2018), 92–115; Philippe Rogger, “Kompanie-wirtschaft, Verflechtungszusammenhänge, familiale Unternehmensorganisation: Die Zurlauben als Militärunternehmer auf den eidgenössischen Söldnermärkten um 1700,” in Soldgeschäfte, Klientelismus, Korruption in der Frühen Neuzeit: Zum Soldunternehmertum der Familie Zurlauben im schweizerischen und europäischen Kontext, eds. Kaspar von Greyerz, André Holenstein, and Andreas Würgler (Göttingen, 2018), 211–237; Benjamin Ryser, Zwischen den Fronten: Berner Militärunternehmer im Dienst des Sonnenkönigs Ludwig XIV. (Zurich, 2021).
André Holenstein, Mitten in Europa: Verflechtung und Abgrenzung in der Schweizer Geschichte (Baden, 2014).
Was heisst Kulturgeschichte des Politischen?, ed. Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger (Berlin, 2005).
Nähe in der Ferne: Personale Verflechtung in den Aussenbeziehungen der Frühen Neuzeit, eds. Hillard von Thiessen, Christian Windler (Berlin, 2005); Akteure der Aussenbeziehungen: Netzwerke und Interkulturalität im historischen Wandel, eds. Hillard von Thiessen, Christian Windler (Cologne, 2010).
André Holenstein, Patrick Kury, and Kristina Schulz, Schweizer Migrationsgeschichte: Von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart (Baden, 2018).
Charles Tilly, Coercion, Capital, and European States, AD 990–1990 (Oxford, 1990).
John Brewer, The Sinews of Power: War, Money and the English State 1688–1783 (London, 1989); The Fiscal-Military State in Eighteenth-Century Europe: Essays in Honour of P.G.M. Dickson, ed. Christopher Storrs (Farnham, 2009).
Rafael Torres Sánchez, Military Entrepreneurs and the Spanish Contractor State in the Eighteenth Century (Oxford, 2016); Rafael Torres Sánchez, Pepijn Brandon, and Marjolein‘t Hart, “War and Economy: Rediscovering the Eighteenth-Century Military Entrepreneur,” Business History 60:1 (2018), 1–19.
David Parrott, The Business of War: Military Enterprise and Military Revolution in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge, 2012), pp. 196–259.
Jeff Fynn-Paul, Marjolein ‘t Hart, and Griet Vermeesch, “Introduction: Entrepreneurs, Military Supply, and State Formation in the Late Medieval and Early Modern Periods: New Directions,” in War, Entrepreneurs and the State in Europe and the Mediterranean, 1300–1800, ed. Jeff Fynn-Paul (Leiden, 2014), 1–12, pp. 8–9; Torres Sánchez, Brandon, and ’t Hart, “War and Economy,” p. 7.
Kälin, “Dienste,” pp. 283–284.
André Holenstein, “Corpus helveticum,” 2005, in Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz [HLS]. Available at https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/de/articles/009824/2005-03-01/. Accessed 6 September 2020.
Tom Scott, The Swiss and Their Neighbours 1460–1560: Between Accomodation and Aggression (Oxford, 2017), p. 175.
For a general treatment, see Hans Conrad Peyer, Verfassungsgeschichte der alten Schweiz (Zurich, 1978); Bernhard Stettler, Die Eidgenossenschaft im 15. Jahrhundert: Die Suche nach einem gemeinsamen Nenner (Zurich, 2004); André Holenstein, “Gemeine Herrschaften,” 2005, in HLS. Available at https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/de/articles/009817/2005-08-19/. Accessed 7 September 2020; Andreas Würgler, “Eidgenossenschaft,” 2008, in HLS. Available at https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/de/articles/026413/2012-02-08/. Accessed 7 September 2020; Clive H. Church, Randolph C. Head, A Concise History of Switzerland (Cambridge, 2013); Die Geschichte der Schweiz, ed. Georg Kreis (Basel, 2014); Andreas Würgler, “Zugewandte Orte,” 2014, in HLS. Available at https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/de/articles/009815/2014-02-26/. Accessed 7 September 2020; Thomas Maissen, Geschichte der Schweiz, 6th ed. (Baden, 2019).
Holenstein, Mitten in Europa.
Martin Körner, “Der Einfluss der europäischen Kriege auf die Struktur der schweizerischen Finanzen im 16. Jahrhundert,” in Proceedings of the Seventh International Economic History Congress, ed. Michael Flinn (Edinburgh, 1978), 274–281; idem, “The Swiss Confederation,” in The Rise of the Fiscal State in Europe, c. 1200–1815, ed. Richard Bonney (Oxford, 1999), 327–357; Stefan Altorfer-Ong, Staatsbildung ohne Steuern: Politische Ökonomie und Staatsfinanzen im Bern des 18. Jahrhunderts (Baden, 2010).
Stettler, Eidgenossenschaft; Scott, Swiss.
Guy P. Marchal, “Ein Staat werden: Die Eidgenossen im 15. Jahrhundert,” in Karl der Kühne von Burgund, eds. Klaus Oschema, Rainer C. Schwinges (Zurich, 2010), 41–51; Holenstein, Mitten in Europa.
André Holenstein, “Die wirklich entscheidenden Folgen von Marignano: Das Corps helvétique auf dem Weg zur Einigung mit Frankreich (1515–1521),” in Après Marignan: La paix perpétuelle entre la France et la Suisse, eds. Alexandre Dafflon, Lionel Dorthe, and Claire Gantet (Lausanne, 2018), 181–207.
Wilson, “Competition”.
Parrott, Business, pp. 313–314.
War, Entrepreneurs and the State in Europe and the Mediterranean, 1300–1800, ed. Jeff Fynn-Paul (Leiden, 2014); Richard Harding, Sergio Solbes Ferri, The Contractor State and Its Implications, 1659–1815 (Gran Canaria, 2012); Torres Sánchez, Military Entrepreneurs; Torres Sánchez, Brandon, and ’t Hart, “War and Economy”.
Holenstein, Kury, and Schulz, Migrationsgeschichte, pp. 47–59.
Peyer, Verfassungsgeschichte, p. 128.
Hans Conrad Peyer, “Schweizer in fremden Diensten: Ein Überblick,” Schweizer Soldat und MFD 67:6 (1992), 4–8; cf. also Philippe Henry, “Fremde Dienste,” 2017, in HLS. Available at https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/de/articles/008608/2017-12-08/. Accessed 5 September 2020; and Holenstein, Mitten in Europa.
Rogger, Geld; Holenstein, Mitten in Europa, pp. 32–40.
Peyer, “Schweizer,” p. 4; for the content and form of military capitulations, see Suter, Militär-Unternehmertum, pp. 5–17; Robert-Peter Eyer, Die Schweizer Regimenter in Neapel im 18. Jahrhundert (1734–1789) (Bern, 2008), pp. 78–81, 207–269, and 539–606.
Alain-Jacques Tornare, Le 10 août 1792: Les Tuileries: L’été tragique des relations franco-suisses (Lausanne, 2012); for the provisional end of mercenary services in Naples, see Robert-Peter Eyer, “Die Auflösung der Schweizer Regimenter in Neapel 1789,” in Schweizer Solddienst: Neue Arbeiten, neue Aspekte, ed. Rudolf Jaun, Pierre Streit (Birmensdorf, 2010), 199–214.
Alain-Jacques Tornare, Vaudois et Confédérés au service de France 1789–1798 (Yens-sur-Morges, 1998); idem, Les Vaudois de Napoléon: Des Pyramides à Waterloo (Yens-sur-Morges, 2003).
Henry, “Fremde Dienste”; cf. also Douglas Porch, The French Foreign Legion: A Complete History of the Legendary Fighting Force (New York, 1991); Hans Rudolf Fuhrer, Robert-Peter Eyer, “‘Söldner’: Ein europäisches Phänomen,” in Schweizer in “Fremden Diensten”, eds. Hans Rudolf Fuhrer, Robert-Peter Eyer (Zurich, 2006), 27–48; Hubert Foerster, “Anhang: Übersicht der Schweizer Truppenaufstellungen für den fremden Dienst vor 1797 und nach 1814/15,” in Schweizer Solddienst: Neue Arbeiten, neue Aspekte, eds. Rudolf Jaun, Pierre Streit (Birmensdorf, 2010), 247–252; Christian Koller, Die Fremdenlegion: Kolonialismus, Söldnertum, Gewalt 1831–1962 (Paderborn, 2013); Herman Amersfoort, “The End of an Enterprise: Swiss Regiments in the Royal Dutch Army, 1814–1829,” in De Nimègue à Java: Les soldats suisses au service de la Hollande XVIIe–XXe siècles, ed. Sébastien Rial (Morges, 2014), 189–202; Peter Huber, Fluchtpunkt Fremdenlegion: Schweizer im Indochina- und im Algerienkrieg, 1945–1962 (Zurich, 2017); Philipp Krauer, “Welcome to Hotel Helvetia! Friedrich Wüthrich’s Illicit Mercenary Trade Network for the Dutch East Indies, 1858–1890,” BMGN: Low Countries Historical Review 134:3 (2019), 122–147; idem, “Colonial Mercenaries: Swiss Military Labour and the Dutch East Indies, 1848–1914,” 2020. Available at https://gmw.ethz.ch/forschung/projekte/philipp-krauer.html. Accessed 12 November 2020.
Guy P. Marchal, Schweizer Gebrauchsgeschichte: Geschichtsbilder, Mythenbildung und nationale Identität, 2nd ed. (Basel, 2007).
Der lange Schatten Zwinglis: Zürich, das französische Soldbündnis und eidgenössische Bündnispolitik, 1500–1650, eds. Hans Rudolf Fuhrer, Christian Moser (Zurich, 2009).
Hans Dubler, Der Kampf um den Solddienst der Schweiz im 18. Jahrhundert (Frauenfeld, 1939).
Aellig, Aufhebung.
“Bundesgesetz betreffend die Werbung und den Eintritt in den fremden Kriegsdienst (Vom 30. Heumonat 1859),” in Amtliche Sammlung der Bundesgesetze und Verordnungen der Schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft, 6 (Bern, 1860), pp. 312–314; Aellig, Aufhebung, p. 165.
Cf. Philippe Rogger, “Söldneroffiziere als gefragte Militärexperten: Zum Transfer militärischer Kultur in die frühneuzeitliche Eidgenossenschaft,” in Miliz oder Söldner? Wehrpflicht und Solddienst in Stadt, Republik und Fürstenstaat (13.-18. Jahrhundert), eds. Philippe Rogger, Regula Schmid (Paderborn, 2019), 141–172.
For the phenomenon of career migration, see André Holenstein, Transnationale Schweizer Nationalgeschichte: Widerspruch in sich oder Erweiterung der Perspektiven? (Bern, 2018), pp. 30–31; idem, “Militärunternehmer, gelehrte Geistliche und Fürstendiener: Karrieremigranten als Akteure der Aussenbeziehungen im Corpus Helveticum der frühen Neuzeit,” in Beobachten, Vernetzen, Verhandeln: Diplomatische Akteure und politische Kulturen in der frühneuzeitlichen Eidgenossenschaft, eds. Philippe Rogger, Nadir Weber (Basel, 2018), 154–165.
For the concept of ‘war-making resources’ cf. Wilson, “Competition”.
Holenstein, Kury, and Schulz, Migrationsgeschichte, pp. 47–59. For a general consideration of push- and pull-factors, see Philippe Rogger, Benjamin Hitz, “Söldnerlandschaften: Räumliche Logiken und Gewaltmärkte in historisch-vergleichender Perspektive: Eine Einführung,” in Söldnerlandschaften: Frühneuzeitliche Gewaltmärkte im Vergleich, eds. Philippe Rogger, Benjamin Hitz (Berlin, 2018), 9–46.
For the genesis of the Swiss markets of violence, see Peyer, “Schweizer”; Rogger, Geld.
Alain-Jacques Czouz-Tornare, Les troupes suisses capitulées et les relations franco-helvétiens à la fin du XVIIIe siècle 2 (unpublished Ph.D. diss., Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes Paris, 1996); Andreas Würgler, “Symbiose ungleicher Partner: Die französisch-eidgenössische Allianz 1516–1798/1815,” Jahrbuch für Europäische Geschichte 12 (2011), 53–75; Rogger, Geld; Après Marignan, eds. Dafflon, Dorthe, and Gantet; Holenstein, “Folgen”.
Rudolf Bolzern, Spanien, Mailand und die katholische Eidgenossenschaft: Militärische, wirtschaftliche und politische Beziehungen zur Zeit des Gesandten Alfonso Casati (1594–1621) (Luzern, 1982); Andreas Behr, Diplomatie als Familiengeschäft: Die Casati als spanisch-mailändische Gesandte in Luzern und Chur (1660–1700) (Zurich, 2015); Javier Bragado Echevarría, Los regimientos suizos al servicio de España en el siglo XVIII (1700–1755): guerra, diplomacia y sociedad militar (Madrid, 2019).
N. Gysin, “Les troupes suisses dans le royaume de Sardaigne 1577–1815,” Revue Militaire Suisse 59:7 (1914), 529–552; Arnold Biel, Die Beziehungen zwischen Savoyen und der Eidgenossenschaft zur Zeit Emanuel Philiberts (1559–1580) (Basel, 1967); Willy Pfister, Aargauer in fremden Kriegsdiensten, 1–2 (Aarau, 1980–84).
Martin Bundi, Bündner Kriegsdienste in Holland um 1700: Eine Studie zu den Beziehungen zwischen Holland und Graubünden von 1693 bis 1730 (Chur, 1972); Pfister, Aargauer, 2; Jürg A. Meier, Vivat Hollandia: Zur Geschichte der Schweizer in holländischen Diensten 1740–1795. Griffwaffen und Uniformen (Wettingen, 2008); De Nimègue à Java: Les soldats suisses au service de la Hollande XVIIe–XXe siècles, ed. Sébastien Rial (Morges, 2014).
Rudolf Gugger, Preussische Werbungen in der Eidgenossenschaft im 18. Jahrhundert (Berlin, 1997).
Eyer, Regimenter.
F. von Schramm-Schießl, “Die Schweizer und Bündner Regimenter in kaiserlich-österreichischen Diensten von 1691–1750,” Bündnerisches Monatsblatt (1937), 22–27; Christoph Tepperberg, “Die Schweizergarde,” in 700 Jahre Schweiz: Helvetia-Austria. Archivalische Kostbarkeiten des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs, ed. Generaldirektion des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs (Wien, 1991), 59–67.
Adolf Bürkli, Das Schweizerregiment von Roll in englischem Dienste 1795–1816 (Zurich, 1893).
Martin Bundi, Frühe Beziehungen zwischen Graubünden und Venedig (15./16. Jahrhundert) (Chur, 1988); Ruckstuhl, Aufbruch.
Paul M. Krieg, Die Schweizergarde in Rom (Lucerne, 1960); Robert Walpen, Die Päpstliche Schweizergarde: Acriter et fideliter – tapfer und treu (Zurich, 2005); Hirtenstab und Hellebarde: Die Päpstliche Schweizergarde in Rom 1506–2006, eds. Urban Fink, Hervé de Weck, and Christian Schweizer (Zurich, 2006).
Henry, “Fremde Dienste”.
Philippe Henry, “Schweizergarden,” 2007, in HLS. Available at https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/de/articles/008623/2007-06-29/. Accessed 17 August 2020.
Elisabeth Salvi, “Survie, lucre ou exploit? Le service non avoué dans quelques Etats italiens au XVIIIe siècle,” in Gente ferocissima: Solddienst und Gesellschaft in der Schweiz (15.-19. Jahrhundert), eds. Norbert Furrer et al. (Zurich, 1997), 75–88.
Oliver Landolt, “Die Urschweiz und die Päpstliche Schweizergarde,” in Hirtenstab und Hellebarde: Die Päpstliche Schweizergarde in Rom 1506–2006, eds. Urban Fink, Hervé de Weck, and Christian Schweizer (Zurich, 2006), 207–237, pp. 223–226; Krieg, Schweizergarde, pp. 297–298 lists not only Rimini and Ancona but also Pesaro, Loreto, Foligno, Spoleto, and Terni as papal cities with Swiss guards, but does not give sources.
Johann E. Kilchenmann, Schweizersöldner im Dienste der englisch-ostindischen Kompanie um die Mitte des 18. Jahrhunderts: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der englischen Unternehmungen in Vorderindien (Grüningen, 1911); Guy de Meuron, Le régiment Meuron, 1781–1816 (Lausanne, 1982). Another early example of the use of Swiss mercenaries outside Europe is the deployment of Franz Adam Karrer’s (1672–1741) regiment in North America in the service of France. See Adrian Baschung, “Schweizer Söldner in Nordamerika.” Available at https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/2022/08/schweizer-soeldner-in-nordamerika/. Accessed 25 August 2022.
For these often poorly documented military services, see the entries on Hans Heinrich Bürkli (1647–1730), Abraham Philibert Clavel (1669–1748), Johann Ludwig von Erlach (1595–1650), Johann Ludwig von Erlach (1661- after 1691), Sigmund von Erlach (1614–99), Friedrich Ludwig von Hallwyl (1644–84), Johann Konrad Hotz (1739–99), Hans Ludwig Krug (1611–87), Johann Rudolf May von Rued (1619–72), Franz Ludwig Pfyffer von Altishofen (1699–1771), Rudolf Pfyffer von Altishofen (1545–1630), Paul Philippe Polier (1711–59), Hans Jakob Steiner (1576–1625), Albert Treytorrens (1594–1633), François Treytorrens (1590–1660), Conrad Werdmüller (1606–74), and Hans Ludwig Zollikofer (1595–1633) in HLS. Available at https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/de/. Accessed 25 July 2020.
August von Gonzenbach, Der General Hans Ludwig von Erlach von Castelen: Ein Lebens- und Charakterbild aus den Zeiten des Dreissigjährigen Krieges, 1–3 (Bern, 1880–82).
Henry, “Schweizergarden”; Philippe Rogger, “Leibwächter der Mächtigen Europas. Die Schweizergarden in der Frühen Neuzeit,” Der Geschichtsfreund 176 (2023), 45–67.
Keller, “Gardehauptmann”.
For the Freikompanien, see Keller, “Gardehauptmann,” pp. 95–99; and Gustav Allemann, “Söldnerwerbungen im Kanton Solothurn von 1600–1723,” Jahrbuch für solothurnische Geschichte 18 (1945), 1–122, pp. 90–98.
Hans Thürer, “Glarus und die fremden Dienste,” in Glarus und die Schweiz: Streiflichter auf wechselseitige Beziehungen, ed. Jürg Davatz (Glarus, 1991), 96–104, p. 98; idem, Glarner Offiziere in fremden Kriegsdiensten (typoscript, 1984).
Kälin, “Dienste,” p. 281 (table).
For an impression of the number of Swiss mercenary officers, see the biographical entries in HLS and its predecessor, the Historisch-biographisches Lexikon der Schweiz [HBLS]. Available at https://www.digibern.ch/katalog/historisch-biographisches-lexikon-der-schweiz.
Victor Louis Jean François Belhomme, Histoire de l’infanterie en France, 1–5 (Paris, 1893–1902); Georg Tessin, Die Regimenter der europäischen Staaten im Ancien Régime des XVI. bis XVIII. Jahrhunderts, 1 (Osnabrück, 1986), pp. 685–694.
Kälin, “Dienste,” p. 281 (note 5). In 1743 Uri (not including the Ursern) had 9,828 inhabitants, Schwyz (including Gersau and Reichenburg) had 25,815, Obwalden had 8,885, and Nidwalden 7,814. For these population figures, see the entries on Uri, Schwyz, Obwalden, and Nidwalden in HLS. Available at https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/de/. Accessed 14 July 2020.
For the connection between military entrepreneurship and the formation of elites, see Messmer, Hoppe, Luzerner Patriziat, pp. 77–93; Kälin, Magistratenfamilien, pp. 104– 138; idem, “Dienste”; Steinauer, Patriciens; Büsser, “Militärunternehmertum”; Rogger, Geld, pp. 323–343; Rogger, “Machtpolitik”; Kaspar von Greyerz, André Holenstein, and Andreas Würgler, “Soldgeschäfte, Klientelismus, Korruption in der Frühen Neuzeit: Zum Sold-Unternehmertum der Familie Zurlauben im schweizerischen und europäischen Kontext,” in Soldgeschäfte, Klientelismus, Korruption in der Frühen Neuzeit: Zum Soldunternehmertum der Familie Zurlauben im schweizerischen und europäischen Kontext, eds. Kaspar von Greyerz, André Holenstein, and Andreas Würgler (Göttingen, 2018), 9–33, pp. 13–17.
For the close interweaving of the mercenary service and the militia system (in terms of personnel), see Rogger, “Söldneroffiziere”.
Suter, Militär-Unternehmertum, p. 35; Eyer, Regimenter, pp. 288–290.
Steffen, Kompanien, 159–202. Steffen, however, suggests on p. 160 that Stockalper could possible have commanded his own troops during a stay in Paris in 1644. For Stockalper, see also Marie-Claude Schöpfer Pfaffen, “Kaspar Stockalper vom Thurm,” 2012, in: HLS. Available at https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/de/articles/021488/2012-05-29/. Accessed 17 August 2020; Gally-de Riedmatten, sang, pp. 357–411.
Steffen, Kompanien, pp. 162, 202–205, and 273–275.
Kälin, “Salz”; Daniel Schläppi, “‘In allem Übrigen werden sich die Gesandten zu verhalten wissen’: Akteure in der eidgenössischen Aussenpolitik des 17. Jahrhunderts. Strukturen, Ziele, Strategien am Beispiel der Familie Zurlauben von Zug,” Der Geschichtsfreund 151 (1998), 5–90; Büsser, “Militärunternehmertum,” pp. 85–103; Cécile Huber, Katrin Keller, “Französische Pensionen in der Eidgenossenschaft und ihre Verteilung in Stadt und Amt Zug durch die Familie Zurlauben,” in Soldgeschäfte, Klientelismus, Korruption in der Frühen Neuzeit: Zum Soldunternehmertum der Familie Zurlauben im schweizerischen und europäischen Kontext, eds. Kaspar von Greyerz, André Holenstein, and Andreas Würgler (Göttingen, 2018), 153–182.
Messmer, Hoppe, Luzerner Patriziat, p. 87.
Messmer, Hoppe, Luzerner Patriziat, p. 87 (table 10).
Philippe Rogger, “Transnationale und transregionale Elitefamilien: Grenzüberschreitende Biographien, Beziehungen und Loyalitäten des Luzerner Patriziats am Beispiel der Pfyffer in der frühen Neuzeit,” Der Geschichtsfreund 170 (2017), 63–77, p. 70.
For examples, see the articles on the Budé, Buisson, Gallatin, Grenus, Le Fort, Micheli or Pictet families in HLS. Available at https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/.
See for example the conversions of the military entrepreneurs Johann Jakob von Erlach (1628–94): Ryser, Fronten, pp. 118–119; and Johann Peter Stuppa (1621–1701): Keller, “Gardehauptmann,” pp. 95–96.
For the example of a Catholic Pfyffer in the service of Brandenburg, see Rogger, “Elitefamilien,” p. 70; Suter, Militär-Unternehmertum, pp. 69–70.
François Cojonnex, Un Vaudois à la tête d’un régiment bernois: Charles de Chandieu (1658–1728) (Pully, 2006).
For the functioning of early modern markets of violence, see Rogger, Hitz, “Söldnerlandschaften”.
Suter, Militär-Unternehmertum, pp. 119–124; Bührer, Solddienst, pp. 101–164, esp. p. 159; Pfister, Aargauer, 1, pp. 96–107, 2, pp. 117–131; Steinauer, Patriciens, p. 179; Höchner, Selbstzeugnisse, pp. 33–34. For the Freikompanien, see Allemann, “Söldnerwerbungen,” pp. 90–98; Suter, Militär-Unternehmertum, pp. 8–9; Keller, “Gardehauptmann,” pp. 95–99.
In this respect, the Swiss political and military entrepreneurs can be described as power elites, as defined by Wolfgang Reinhard: for purely personal interest, they supported the expansion of state power in the military field, as a foundation on which to build up their own special political status: Wolfgang Reinhard, “Introduction: Power Elites, State Servants, Ruling Classes, and the Growth of State Power,” in Power Elites and State Building, ed. Wolfgang Reinhard (Oxford, 1996), 1–18, p. 6.
Windler, “‘Ohne Geld’”; Rogger, Geld.
Beobachten, Vernetzen, Verhandeln: Diplomatische Akteure und politische Kulturen in der frühneuzeitlichen Eidgenossenschaft, eds. Philippe Rogger, Nadir Weber (Basel, 2018); Holenstein, Mitten in Europa, pp. 133–141.
Behr, Diplomatie; Andreas Affolter, Verhandeln mit Republiken: Die französischeidgenössischen Beziehungen im frühen 18. Jahrhundert (Cologne, 2017).
Kälin, “Salz”; Schläppi, “‘In allem Übrigen’”; Carlo Steiner, “Informelle Netzwerke in der Aussenpolitik der eidgenössischen Orte: Das labile Kräfteverhältnis in der Beziehung zwischen dem Zuger Solddienstunternehmer Beat II. Zurlauben und dem französischen Ambassador Jean de la Barde,” Argovia 22 (2010), 45–65; Sarah Rindlisbacher, “Zwischen Evangelium und Realpolitik: Der Entscheidungsprozess um die Annahme der französischen Soldallianz in Bern 1564/65 und 1582,” Berner Zeitschrift für Geschichte 75 (2013), 3–39; Rogger, Geld; idem, “Ein Friedensschluss unter schwierigen Bedingungen: Die französisch-eidgenössischen Friedensverhandlungen zwischen Widerstand und Konsens,” in Après Marignan: La paix perpétuelle entre la France et la Suisse, eds. Alexandre Dafflon, Lionel Dorthe, and Claire Gantet (Lausanne, 2018), 319–335.
Steffen, Kompanien; Hitz, Kämpfen, pp. 171–184; Rogger, “Kompaniewirtschaft”; Ruckstuhl, Aufbruch, pp. 64–71; Ryser, Fronten, pp. 91–112.
Fritz Redlich, The German Military Enterpriser and his Work Force: A Study in European Economic and Social History, 1–2 (Wiesbaden, 1964–65); Parrott, Business; idem, “The Military Enterpriser in the Thirty Years’ War,” in War, Entrepreneurs and the State in Europe and the Mediterranean, 1300–1800, ed. Jeff Fynn-Paul (Leiden, 2014), 63–86.
Hermann Romer, “Militärunternehmer,” 2009, in HLS. Available at https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/de/articles/024643/2009-11-10/. Accessed 17 August 2020.
Kälin, “Dienste,” p. 281 (note 5).
Ryser, Fronten, p. 201.
Kälin, Magistratenfamilien, p. 125.
For more on the supposedly inheritable Eigentumskompanien, see for example Suter, Militär-Unternehmertum, pp. 10, 15–17 (“capitaines propriétaires” as a term found in historical sources on p. 17, though propriétaire in French means both possessor and owner), and 87; Kälin, Magistratenfamilien, pp. 117–118, 127–130, and 228; idem, “Salz,” pp. 119–120, 122 (esp. note 52); Eyer, Regimenter, pp. 70–77, 111–112, and 515; Höchner, Selbstzeugnisse, p. 34; Büsser, “Linien,” p. 200. Although Kaspar Stockalper is alleged to have gifted his Freikompanie (which was serving France) to a son (see Steffen, Kompanien, p. 162), the rights of disposal were probably even more precarious for Freikompanien than they were for regular, officially authorized (avouierte) troops, since the commanders of Freikompanien could not count on the advocacy of the cantons if they had a disagreement with their princely employers.
Rogger, “Kompaniewirtschaft”, pp. 235–237; see also Hitz, Kämpfen, p. 183.
Clear examples of the clientelist awarding of companies are provided by Keller, “Gardehauptmann”; Ryser, Fronten, pp. 71–82.
Daniel Schläppi, “Das Staatswesen als kollektives Gut: Gemeinbesitz als Grundlage der politischen Kultur in der frühneuzeitlichen Eidgenossenschaft,” Historical Social Research 32 (2007), 169–202.
Bührer, Solddienst, pp. 18–19; Kälin, Magistratenfamilien, p. 126; Büsser, “Militärunternehmertum,” p. 116.
Kälin, “Dienste,” p. 282.
Peyer, “Anfänge,” p. 221.
Suter, Militär-Unternehmertum, pp. 124–127; Steffen, Kompanien, p. 238; Bührer, Solddienst, pp. 14–54; Arnold Esch, “Lebensverhältnisse von Reisläufern im spätmittelalterlichen Thun: Ein Beschlagnahme-Inventar von 1495,” in: Alltag der Entscheidungen: Beiträge zur Geschichte der Schweiz an der Wende vom Mittelalter zur Neuzeit, ed. Arnold Esch (Bern, 1998), 161–172; idem, “Mit Schweizer Söldnern auf dem Marsch nach Italien: Das Erlebnis der Mailänderkriege 1510–1515 nach bernischen Akten,” in: Alltag der Entscheidungen: Beiträge zur Geschichte der Schweiz an der Wende vom Mittelalter zur Neuzeit, ed. Arnold Esch (Bern, 1998), 249–328; Disch, Hausen im wilden Tal, pp. 199–226; Hitz, “Wer ging überhaupt”; Greyerz, Holenstein, and Würgler, “Soldgeschäfte,” pp. 23–26; for the classification of Swiss mercenary service as military labour migration, see Holenstein, Kury, and Schulz, Migrationsgeschichte, pp. 48–59; and for a diachronic, comparative, and global perspective, see Erik-Jan Zürcher, Fighting for a Living: A Comparative History of Military Labour, 1500–2000 (Amsterdam, 2014).
Suter, Militär-Unternehmertum, pp. 111–118; Bührer, Solddienst, pp. 14–24; Kälin, “Dienste,” pp. 281–282; Holenstein, Kury, and Schulz, Migrationsgeschichte, pp. 51–53; Holenstein, Mitten in Europa, p. 37. For the negative development of soldiers’ pay relative to wages, see Peyer, “Anfänge,” p. 223; idem, “Schweizer,” p. 7.
Büsser, “Militärunternehmertum,” pp. 120–121.
Suter, Militär-Unternehmertum, pp. 28, 41–49, and 129; Pfister, Aargauer, 1, pp. 33–43, 52–55; Gugger, Werbungen, pp. 76–79; Holenstein, Mitten in Europa, p. 37.
For the problem of desertion, see Allemann, “Söldnerwerbungen,” pp. 96–103; Bührer, Solddienst, pp. 81–89; Pfister, Aargauer, 1, pp. 55–66; Hitz, Kämpfen, pp. 146–156. For the meticulous recording of personal descriptions of company members, see, e.g. Staatsarchiv Luzern, Cod 1795, Signalement de tous les hommes, qui composoient le dit regiment suisse de Pfyffer le 11 octobre 1763, l’époque de sa nouvelle formation […]; or Staatsarchiv Graubünden, D VI Z 4, extracts from the company ledger of the Hauser company of guards, Die Guarde Compangie Hauser, den Antheil Herrn Graffen von Salis betreffend (Johann Heinrich Anton v. Salis-Zizers, 1711–1770), 1749–50.
Suter, Militär-Unternehmertum, pp. 32–41; Pfister, Aargauer, 1, pp. 33–43; Gugger, Werbungen, pp. 47–68, 84–127; Rogger, Geld, p. 226; Holenstein, Kury, and Schulz, MigrationsGeschichte, p. 58.
Suter, Militär-Unternehmertum, pp. 32–37.
Schläppi, “‘In allem Übrigen’,” p. 54, Büsser, “Drängende Geschäfte,” pp. 202–203; Greyerz, Holenstein, and Würgler, “Soldgeschäfte,” pp. 20–21.
Kälin, Magistratenfamilien, pp. 108, 115–116, and 131–133; Büsser, “Militärunternehmertum,” pp. 119–120; Franz Auf der Maur, Josef Wiget, “Reding,” 2011, in HLS. Available at https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/de/articles/022904/2014-12-11/. Accessed 12 October 2020.
Dominik Sieber, “In der kirchlichen Etappe: Eigene Geistliche, fromme Geschenke und das Soldgeschäft der Zurlauben im 18. Jahrhundert,” in Soldgeschäfte, Klientelismus, Korruption in der Frühen Neuzeit: Zum Soldunternehmertum der Familie Zurlauben im schweizerischen und europäischen Kontext, eds. Kaspar von Greyerz, André Holenstein, and Andreas Würgler (Göttingen, 2018), 239–258.
Büsser, “‘Frau Hauptmannin’”; idem, “Drängende Geschäfte”; Jasmina Cornut, Femmes d’officiers militaires en Suisse romande: Implications, enjeux et stratégies de l’absence, XVIIe–XIXe siècles (unpublished Ph.D. diss., University of Lausanne, 2023); idem, “Implications féminines dans l’entrepreneuriat militaire familial en Suisse romande (XVIIe–XVIIIe siècles),” Genre & Histoire 19 (2017). Available at http://journals.openedition.org/genrehistoire/2670. Accessed 8 July 2020.
Peyer, “Schweizer,” pp. 7–8; Büsser, “Militärunternehmertum,” p. 114; Rogger, “Kompaniewirtschaft,” pp. 214–215; Holenstein, Mitten in Europa, p. 36; for the topic of military entrepreneurship and standing armies at European level, see David Parrott, “From Military Enterprise to Standing Armies: War, State, and Society in Western Europe, 1600–1700,” in European Warfare, 1350–1750, eds. Frank Tallett, David J.B. Trim (Cambridge, 2010), 74–95; idem, Business, pp. 260–306.
Zurlauben, Code militaire; Ryser, Fronten, pp. 175–206, esp. p. 200.
Suter, Militär-Unternehmertum, pp. 13–16, 29–30, and 144–148; Kälin, Magistratenfamilien, pp. 129–130; Peyer, “Schweizer,” pp. 7–8. The elaborate and intensified administrative penetration of the Swiss mercenary regiments is shown very clearly by the source materials in Naples: Eyer, Regimenter, pp. 24–26, 521–524; or the records of the contrôles de troupes in France: André Corvisier, “Une armée dans l’armée. Les Suisses au service de la France,” in Cinq siècles de relations franco-suisse. Hommage à Louis-Edouard Roulet (Neuchâtel, 1984), 87–98, pp. 90–91.
Ruckstuhl, Aufbruch, p. 67; Büsser, “Militärunternehmertum,” p. 115; see also Suter, Militär-Unternehmertum, pp. 50–77; Hitz, Kämpfen, pp. 171–184.
Büsser, “Militärunternehmertum,” p. 116.
Steffen, Kompanien, pp. 195–200, 244–245, and 248–256; Ruckstuhl, Aufbruch, pp. 67–68, 239–246; Büsser, “Drängende Geschäfte,” pp. 205–210, 211; Hitz, Kämpfen; Rogger, “Kompaniewirtschaft,” pp. 228–230.
Steffen, Kompanien, p. 239; Büsser, “Militärunternehmertum,” pp. 110–111.
Marco Frigerio, “Das Vorgehen des französischen Ambassadors Jean de la Barde im Zusammenhang mit der Bündniserneuerung zwischen der alten Eidgenossenschaft und Frankreich (1653–1658),” Jahrbuch für solothurnische Geschichte 69 (1996), 63–121, p. 80; Rogger, “Kompaniewirtschaft,” p. 220.
Steffen, Kompanien, pp. 159–226; Büsser, “Drängende Geschäfte”; Rogger, “Kompanie-wirtschaft”.
Suter, Militär-Unternehmertum, pp. 14, 85–104; Kälin, Magistratenfamilien, pp. 123–126; Büsser, “Militärunternehmertum,” p. 114.
For example Rogger, “Kompaniewirtschaft,” p. 220.
Guy Rowlands, The Dynastic State and the Army under Louis XIV: Royal Service and Private Interest, 1661–1701 (Cambridge, 2002); Hervé Drévillon, L’impôt du sang: Le métier des armes sous Louis XIV (Paris, 2005); Parrott, “Military Enterprise,” pp. 89–91.
Kälin, Magistratenfamilien, p. 116; Erich Meyer, “Balthasar von Grissach (†1602): Glanz und Ruin eines Diplomaten und Söldnerführers,” Jahrbuch für solothurnische Geschichte 67 (1994), 5–66; Büsser, “Militärunternehmertum,” pp. 114–116.
Hitz, Kämpfen, pp. 266–269.
Hitz, Kämpfen, pp. 247–259, 271–290.
Philippe Gern, Aspects des relations franco-suisses au temps de Louis XVI: Diplomatie, économie, finances (Neuchâtel, 1970), pp. 174–178; Martin Körner, Solidarités financières suisses au XVIe siècle (Lausanne, 1980), pp. 409–430; Bolzern, Spanien, pp. 136–142, 173–188; Frigerio, “Vorgehen”; Simon Rageth, Sold und Soldrückstände der Schweizer Truppen in französischen Diensten im 16. Jahrhundert (Bern, 2008); Würgler, “Symbiose,” p. 61; Hitz, Kämpfen, pp. 269–271. A glance at the indices for the different volumes of the Amtliche Sammlung der älteren eidgenössischen Abschiede shows how much the problem of outstanding soldiers’ pay and pensions occupied the Swiss Diet. See Amtliche Sammlung der älteren eidgenössischen Abschiede [1245–1798], 8 volumes in 22 parts, eds. Jakob Kaiser and others (various places of publication, 1856–1886). Available at https://digital.ub.uni-duesseldorf.de/periodical/structure/207967. Accessed 13 October 2020.
Frigerio, “Vorgehen,” p. 80; Andreas Würgler, Die Tagsatzung der Eidgenossen: Politik, Kommunikation und Symbolik einer repräsentativen Institution im europäischen Kontext (1470–1798) (Epfendorf, 2013), p. 222; Rogger, “Machtpolitik,” pp. 131–134.
So far there has been only rudimentary research into the role of Swiss mercenary officers as actors in diplomacy: Affolter, Verhandeln, pp. 215–243, 366–376; Holenstein, “Militärunternehmer”; Ryser, Fronten, pp. 176–184.
Hitz, Kämpfen, pp. 199–201, 294–296.
Kälin, Magistratenfamilien, p. 123 (table 11); Hitz, Kämpfen, pp. 180–181 (for a detailed account of cash flows and debts in 16th-century company management, see pp. 171–304).
Suter, Militär-Unternehmertum, p. VIII; Kälin, “Dienste,” pp. 282–283; Büsser, “Militärun-ternehmertum,” pp. 116–118; Hitz, Kämpfen, p. 182.
Suter, Militär-Unternehmertum, p. 87; Kälin, “Dienste,” pp. 283–284; Büsser, “Drängende Geschäfte”; idem, “Militärunternehmertum,” pp. 118–121; idem, “Linien”; Rogger, “Kompaniewirtschaft”.
Hartmut Berghoff, “Die Zähmung des entfesselten Prometheus? Die Generierung von Vertrauenskapital und die Konstruktion des Marktes im Industrialisierungs- und Globalisierungsprozess,” in Wirtschaftsgeschichte als Kulturgeschichte: Dimensionen eines Perspektivenwechsels, eds. Hartmut Berghoff, Jakob Vogel (Frankfurt a.M., 2004), 143–168, pp. 149–150; Rogger, “Kompaniewirtschaft,” p. 236. For intergenerationality in mercenary entrepreneurship, see also Büsser, “Linien”; Ryser, Fronten, pp. 112–114.
Rogger, “Söldneroffiziere,” pp. 153–154.
See for example the military careers of the members of the Zurlauben family: Kurt-Werner Meier, Die Zurlaubiana: Werden – Besitzer – Analysen, 1–2 (Aarau, 1981), pp. 871–1007.
Markus Lischer, “Franz Ludwig Pfyffer von Wyher,” 2010, in HLS. Available at https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/de/articles/014464/2010-09-28/. Accessed 13 October 2020; Andreas Fankhauser, “Peter Viktor Besenval von Brunnstatt,” 2002, in HLS. Available at https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/de/articles/017570/2002-11-06/. Accessed 13 October 2020.
Büsser, “Militärunternehmertum,” p. 118.
Kälin, Magistratenfamilien, pp. 127–130.
Büsser, “Salpeter”.
For the logistics and provisioning of armies by private entrepreneurs and financiers, see for example Julia Zunckel, Rüstungsgeschäfte im Dreissigjährigen Krieg: Unternehmerkräfte, Militärgüter und Marktstrategien im Handel zwischen Genua, Amsterdam und Hamburg (Berlin, 1997); Parrott, Business, pp. 196–259; Torres Sánchez, Military Entrepreneurs; Olivier Chaline, Les armées du roi: Le grand chantier, XIIe–XVIIIe siècle (Paris, 2016), pp. 173–272.
Holenstein, Mitten in Europa, p. 105.
The correspondence of Hans Ludwig von Erlach with Alexander Ziegler (1596–1673) and other members of the Ziegler family is mainly located in the Burgerbibliothek Bern, Korrespondenz des Generals Hans Ludwig von Erlach von Kastelen (1595–1650), Manuscripta historica helvetica XXVII.48 and XXVII.50.
See for example the business activity of the Basel-based merchant Marx Conrad Rehlingen (1575–1642, originally from Augsburg), in the service of the army of Saxe-Weimar, described in Quellen und Regesten zu den Augsburger Handelshäusern Paler und Rehlinger 1539–1642: Wirtschaft und Politik im 16./17. Jahrhundert, Teil 2: 1624–1642, ed. Reinhard Hildebrandt (Stuttgart, 2004). For other Basel merchants and bankers such as Theobald Scheppelin, Hans Jacob and Emanuel Schönauer, Daniel Iselin, Jacques and Pierre Battier, Daniel Zollikofer, Barthélemy and Jean-Henri Herwart, and for Basel wagoners such as Hans Georg Sauter and Hans Jakob Wagner, who maintained business relationships with the commander Hans Ludwig von Erlach, see the index of letters in the Burgerbibliothek Bern under Hans Ludwig von Erlach.
Wilson, “Competition”.
André Holenstein, “Fruits de la paix et effets géopolitiques: Les échanges économiques entre la France et le Corps helvétique à l’époque moderne,” in Après Marignan: La paix perpétuelle entre la France et la Suisse, eds. Alexandre Dafflon, Lionel Dorthe, and Claire Gantet (Lausanne, 2018), 573–588, pp. 582–584.
Herbert Lüthy, La banque protestante en France de la Révocation de l’Édit de Nantes à la Révolution, 1 (Paris, 1959), pp. 139–143. Another example of a family involved in war-financing business with France is the Högger family, originally from St. Gallen: Lüthy, banque protestante, pp. 169–187; idem, Die Tätigkeit der Schweizer Kaufleute und Gewerbetreibenden in Frankreich unter Ludwig XIV. und der Regentschaft (Aarau, 1943).
Geoffrey Parker, The Army of Flanders and the Spanish Road, 1567–1659 (Cambridge, 1972); Regula Schmid, “The Military City,” in: Medieval and Early Modern Europe: Urban Societes between Order and Disorder, eds. Gábor Sonkoly, Christina G. Williamson (Cambridge, forthcoming).
Friedrich O. Pestalozzi, “Zwei Zürcher im Dienste des ‘Roi Soleil’ (Joh. Jakob und Joh. Balthasar Keller),” Zürcher Taschenbuch N.F. 28 (1905), 1–69; Agnès Étienne-Magnien, “Une fonderie de Canons au XVIIe siècle: Les frères Keller à Douai (1669–1696),” Bibliothèque de l’École des chartes 149 (1991), 91–105.
Marino Viganò, “Giovan Giacomo Paleari,” 2009, in HLS. Available at https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/de/articles/048411/2009-11-26/. Accessed 17 August 2020.
Otto Hintze, Staatsverfassung und Heeresverfassung (Dresden, 1906).
Miliz oder Söldner? Wehrpflicht und Solddienst in Stadt, Republik und Fürstenstaat: 13–18. Jahrhundert, eds. Philippe Rogger, Regula Schmid (Paderborn, 2019); André Holenstein, “Wenig Krieg, schwache Herrschaft und begrenzte Ressourcen: Wirkungszusammenhänge im Militärwesen der Republik Bern in der frühen Neuzeit,” in Schwerter, Säbel, Seitenwehren: Bernische Griffwaffen 1500–1850, eds. Jürg A. Meier, Marc Höchner (Bern, 2021), 15–32.
Zunckel, Rüstungsgeschäfte; Parrott, Business; Wilson, “Competition”.