From the late 1300s some Swiss started to carry the long pike, at first as a minority weapon, the bulk of their soldiers still carrying the halberd. In 1422, a small Swiss army was beaten at Arbedo by a Milanese army containing a large number of men-at-arms, who dismounted after their initial mounted charge failed. It was noticed that the pikemen fared better in combat against dismounted men-at-arms than the halberdiers, due to the longer reach of their weapons. Swiss system The new Swiss system proved an astounding success on the battlefield: victorious in the Burgundian Wars, defeating the Holy Roman Empire in the Swabian War, and as mercenaries they were a key component of French King Charles VIII's armies in Italy. Soon pike formations were adopted in many western European countries, notably in Germany by the famous 'landsknechts'. Rise of the Swiss In Bohemia, war had broken out between the followers of Jan Hus, a Proto-Protestant religious reformer, and the Catholic royalists. Th