Gugler

The Gugler (also Gügler) were a body of mostly English and French knights who as mercenaries invaded Alsace and the Swiss plateau under the leadership of Enguerrand VII de Coucy during the Gugler War of 1375.

Origin of the term

Barbara Tuchman indicates that the term Gugler is derived from the appearance of the knights dressed for winter, wearing pointed helmets and cowl-like hoods, Gugle (or Gügle) being a Swiss German term for cowl or point.

Background

During the lulls of the Hundred Years War unemployed knights and soldiers of free companies often rampaged and plundered the French countryside until they were again engaged and paid by French or British overlords to do their bidding. De Coucy gathered a mercenary army of such knights to enforce his inheritance rights versus his Habsburg relatives. The French king Charles V encouraged and financed de Coucy as he hoped also to move these free companies off the French lands. There is disagreement about the size of the army De Coucy put together, Tuchman estimates them to be a force of about 10,000 men, a contemporary Alsacian document names 16,000, and other writings place the numbers much higher. As the army was plundering in groups it may not have presented a unified entity. De Coucy's plan was to gain the Sundgau, Breisgau and the county of Ferrette. According to a treaty they had belonged to his Habsburg mother Catherine of Bohemia but were retained by her former brothers-in-law, Albrecht III, Duke of Austria and Leopold III, Duke of Austria.