[77] Macchiavelli even says that the pikemen in his day did not wear the steel-cap, which was entirely confined to the halberdiers. But this can be shown from other sources to be an exaggeration.
[78] See Kirk’s Charles the Bold, book iv. chap. 2.
[79] At Morat, according to Commines, they were nearly a third, 10,000 out of 35,000. At Arbedo they were a seventh: among the Confederates who joined Charles VIII in his march to Naples only a tenth of the force.
[80] E.g. the Forest Cantons were bitterly opposed to the Bernese policy of engaging in war with Charles the Bold; but their troops did no worse service than the rest at Granson or Morat.
[81] Rudolf von Erlach’s position as commander-in-chief at Laupen was quite exceptional. If we hear in the cases mentioned above of Swiss commanders, we must remember that they were co-ordinate authorities, among whom one man might exert more influence than another, but only by his personal ascendancy, not by legal right. It is a mistake to say that Réné of Lorraine formally commanded at Morat or Nancy.
[82] Macchiavelli has a very clear account of this form of advance, see Arte de Guerra, tr. Farneworth, book iii.
[83] See Elgger’s Kriegswesen der Schweizerische, etc. p. 280.
[84] See Elgger as before.
[85] Arte de Guerra, tr. Farneworth, p. 57.
[86] Quoted at length in Elgger.