From
Wikipedia:
Duke Leopold III, after he
unsuccessfully tried to establish a cheap peace, decided to
assemble his forces in order to save possessions and honor of
his house. With the help from Tyrol and Italy his army was
considerably stronger than that of his uncle Leopold I of
Austria at Morgarten. His strength was estimated to be between
3000 and 4000 men.
But the Confederation's army was also probably twice as strong
as at the Battle of Morgarten and numbered somewhere between
6000 and 8000 men, since it was made not only of men from the
four forest cantons, but also other Swiss cantons (Lucerne,
Zürich).
Leopold wisely decided not to attack principal places and turned
to the small town of Sempach, some 14 to 16 kilometres (8.7 to
9.9 mi) north of Lucerne. He assembled his army at Sursee, about
8 kilometres (5.0 mi) down from Sempach, then surrounded Sempach
on the evening of July 8. His men taunted those behind the walls
of the village, and a knight waved a noose at them and promised
them he would use it on their leaders. Another mockingly pointed
to the soldiers setting fire to the ripe fields of grain, and
asked them to send a breakfast to the reapers. From behind the
walls, there was a shouted retort: "Lucerne and the allies will
bring them breakfast!" Leopold did not take the direct route to
Lucerne, but rather turned east.
The Confederation army had presumably assembled at the bridge
over the Reuss River at Gisikon. It marched from there, hoping
to catch Leopold still at Sempach where he could be pressed
against the lake. Around noon, the two armies made contact near
Sempach, close to the village of Hildisrieden. The battlefield
has been proved to be by the old battle chapel.
As the knights of Leopold's army approached, they dismounted and
sought to storm the high ground. Their marksmen then took the
Swiss under heavy fire. Leopold reasonably believed that the
Swiss army lay before him, and engaged in battle before his rear
units moved up from the approaching column. But it was only the
confederates' advance guard that they were fighting.
The main body of the Confederation army finally completed its
deployment from the marching column, formed up, and attacked the
knights from the flank aggressively. The attack was so powerful
that the knights fighting on foot were immediately overrun and
the soldiers, who were holding knights' horses, took flight and
the mounted Habsburg army was carried away by the fugitives.
Duke Leopold and with him a large number of nobles and knights
were slain.
Arnold von Winkelried is a legendary figure. According to 16th
century accounts, he opened a breach in the Habsburg lines by
throwing himself into their pikes, taking them down with his
body so that the confederates could attack through the opening.
The Lucerne chronicle shows a hill scattered with the
fashionable pointy footwear of the Austrian knights, which they
had to take off as they dismounted, and which the Confederates
found orphaned after the Austrian defeat.
