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Study the rise of Swiss heavy infantry. Describe the arms, armor and tactical formation of the Swiss heavy infantryman. How is the Swiss heavy infantry different from earlier medieval heavy infantry? For the most part, Western Europe was dominated by cavalry heavy armies, an attribute to the feudalization that spawned from France; however, it was in the un-feudalized sections of Europe that infantry dominated. Nowhere was this more prevalent in the region that became known …

…cavalry. For the first time in a thousand years, disciplined infantry forces once again began to appear on the battlefields of Europe, and as far as the Swiss Infantry were concerned, their expertise did not necessarily lead to world conquest like their ancestral phalanxes did, but the security of the Swiss Federation was preserved by the ultimate defeat and subsequential death of Charles (near Nancy in October 1476 at the hands of Duke René of Lorraine).