The Battle of Morat took place during the Burgundian Wars (1474–1477) that was fought on 22 June 1476 between Charles the Bold, the Duke of Burgundy, and a Swiss Confederate army at Morat (Murten), about 30 kilometres from Bern. The result was a crushing defeat for the Burgundians at the hands of the Swiss.
Illustration from the Zürcher Schilling (1480/1484)
Illustration of the siege of Morat. By Diebold Schilling the Younger, 1513.
Portion of the painting Schlacht bei Murten by Louis Braun, 1893
The Burgundian Wars (1474–1477) were a conflict between the Burgundian State and the Old Swiss Confederacy and its allies. Open war broke out in 1474, and the Duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold, was defeated three times on the battlefield in the following years and was killed at the Battle of Nancy in 1477. The Duchy of Burgundy and several other Burgundian lands then became part of France, and the Burgundian Netherlands and Franche-Comté were inherited by Charles's daughter, Mary of Burgundy, and eventually passed to the House of Habsburg upon her death because of her marriage to Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor.
The battle of Morat, from Diebold Schilling's Berne Chronicle
Charles the Bold, a contemporary portrait by Rogier van der Weyden
Assault of the Burgundian army on the walls of Morat (22 June 1476)
