The Burgundian Wars should have been the zenith of the rise of Burgundy to becoming a fully independent state. In less than 100 years, Burgundian dukes had increased their power to such an extent that by the early 1470s, Burgundy had become a strong force between the Kingdom of France and the Habsburg Holy Roman Empire. Not content with ruling vast tracts of lands in the Low Countries and what is now France and Germany, Duke Charles the Bold (r. 1467-77) sought to expand his influence southwards along the River Rhine. In doing so, he came into conflict with the Holy Roman Empire but failed to successfully besiege Neuss.
Sigismund, the Habsburg Archduke of Austria, subsequently formed an anti-Burgundian league with the Swiss Confederacy in 1474. The confederacy consisted of small, independent cantons that formed the nucleus of modern Switzerland and together with the Austrians they conquered a part of Burgundian Franche-Comté. Charles retaliated by marching on the western Swiss canton of Vaud but he was heavily defeated at the Battle of Grandson on 2 March 1476.
Charles was forced to flee the battlefield and lost much of his artillery, supplies and treasure. Nevertheless, he stayed in Switzerland and reorganised his army at Lausanne with a plan to march on Bern, which was the most powerful Swiss canton. Despite his earlier defeat, Charles commanded a highly organised standing army of professional soldiers. It was also technologically superior and contained the best field and siege artillery in Europe. Charles used these explosive assets to protect his soldiers when the Burgundians besieged their first objective on the march to Bern at Morat. Located on the eastern shore of Lake Morat in the canton of Fribourg, Morat (known in German as ‘Murten’) was only 30 miles from Bern and Charles hoped to provoke the Swiss into attacking him.