Champ de bataille de Morat (1476)
Origin of the name Champ de bataille de Morat (1476)
The battle takes its name from Murten, Morat in French, the town the Duke of Burgundy was besieging when the Confederate army attacked him.[1]
Founding of Champ de bataille de Morat (1476)
Defeated at Grandson in March 1476, Duke Charles the Bold of Burgundy regrouped his army at Lausanne and planned a fresh attack on Bern through the Broye valley. Murten, where a garrison had been stationed since October 1475, blocked his way. The duke besieged the town from 9 June and set up his command post in the Bois Domingue, on the hill to the south. On 22 June the Confederate relief army attacked the Burgundian positions on the plateau east of the town and routed the ducal army.[1][2]
History of Champ de bataille de Morat (1476)
March 1476. Charles the Bold suffers his first defeat at Grandson, on Lake Neuchâtel, and loses rich booty there.[2]
April 1476. Bern and Fribourg reinforce Murten: 1'500 men under Adrian von Bubenberg (or 2'000 men) and 100 under Guillaume d'Affry.[1][2]
Late May 1476. The Burgundian army, more than 20'000 soldiers and more than 3'000 women in the baggage train, leaves Lausanne.[1][2]
9 June 1476. The siege of Murten begins. Charles sets up his command post in the Bois Domingue.[1][2][3]
17 June 1476. The defenders repel a Burgundian assault.[1]
22 June 1476. Nearly 24'000 Confederates, including more than 1'400 horsemen, deploy in three staggered bodies of pikemen, halberdiers and arquebusiers. The attack begins around noon, after heavy rain. Taken by surprise, Charles sees his artillery positions on the Grünhag overrun and flees on horseback. The Burgundians lose between 8'000 and 20'000 men, the Confederates a few hundred dead and wounded.[1][2][3]
October 1476. Bern holds a ten-day « pilgrimage to Rome », drawing thousands of people seeking indulgences. All the cantons endow masses for those killed in the battle.[1]
5 January 1477. After fleeing through Franche-Comté and Lorraine, Charles the Bold dies at Nancy.[1][2]
1477. Fribourg celebrates 22 June with a public theatre performance.[1]
1486. Fribourg and Bern have an ossuary with a chapel built to hold the bones of the Burgundians. It is enlarged in 1506.[1]
1798. French troops destroy the ossuary.[1][2]
1822. The Fribourg government raises an obelisk of about 18 m on its site, at Meyriez.[1][3]
1834. The anniversary of the battle merges with the end-of-school-year festivities, the Solennité of Murten. Major commemorations take place in 1876, 1926 and 1976.[1]
1893-1894. Louis Braun paints the panorama of the battle, a circular canvas shown in 2002 on the top floor of the Monolith, on the Murten arteplage of Expo.02.[1][4]
Historic sites in Champ de bataille de Morat (1476)
Bois Domingue. Hill south of Murten where Charles the Bold had his command post. An information panel stands there, and it can be seen from the Tournaletta tower on the town walls.[2][3]
Meyriez obelisk. Monument of about 18 m raised in 1822 by the canton of Fribourg on the site of the ossuary.[1][2][3]
Battle trail. A 16 km hike that starts at the Murten ramparts, follows the lake to Muntelier, climbs to the Aderahubel and Burg, crosses the plateau where the fighting took place and reaches the Bois Domingue, before the multimedia show at the Murten Museum.[2][3]
Remains in Champ de bataille de Morat (1476)
Burgundian ossuary. Built in 1486 by Fribourg and Bern with a chapel and enlarged in 1506, it held the bones of the Burgundian soldiers as a memorial of the battle. French troops pulled it down in 1798.[1][2]
Legends of Champ de bataille de Morat (1476)
The saying of the three defeats. A saying handed down through the generations sums up the duke's fate: at Grandson he lost his goods, at Murten his courage and at Nancy his blood.[2]
Sources
- Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse, « Morat, bataille de » (Regula Schmid Keeling), version du 12.08.2026
- Fribourg Région, « Battle of Murten » (contes et légendes)
- Fribourg Région, « The Battle of Murten » (randonnée thématique)
- Association des Anciens d'Expo.02, « Le Panorama de la bataille de Morat »
Other villages near Champ de bataille de Morat (1476)
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