Armagnac troops set their artillery to bombard the hospital, inflicting heavy casualties on the Swiss. Nevertheless, as the offensive party, the Swiss categorically refused to surrender. As the Armagnacs moved into the hospital, the remaining Swiss were pressed into the hospital's garden and killed to the last man within half an hour. Aftermath Even though the battle itself was a devastating defeat for the Swiss, and a significant blow to Bern, the canton which contributed the force, it was nevertheless a Swiss success in strategic terms. Because of the heavy casualties on the French side, the original plan of moving towards Zürich, where a Swiss force of 30,000 was ready, was now judged unfavourably by the Dauphin. The French troops turned back, contributing to the eventual Swiss victory in the Old Zürich War. The actions of the Swiss were praised as heroic by contemporary observers, and reports of the event quickly spread throughout Europe. The Dauphin formally made peace with the Swiss Confederacy and Basel in a treaty signed at Ensisheim on 28 October, and withdrew his troops from the Alsace in the spring of 1445. The intervention of the Church Council being held in the city of Basel at that time was crucial in instigating this peace: the Swiss Confederates were allies of the city of Basel, and so the Dauphin's war could also be construed as an aggressive act against the Council housed within its walls. Charles VII of France had implemented the reformist decrees of the Council of Basel in 1438, so it was important for the Dauphin not to appear to be threatening its members. In terms of military tactics, the battle exposed the weakness of pike formations against artillery, marking the beginning of the era of gunpowder warfare. Legacy in Swiss historiography and patriotism While the sheer bravery or foolhardiness on the Swiss side was recognized by contemporaries, it was only in the 19th century, after the collapse of the Napoleonic Helvetic Republic, that the battle came to be stylized as a kind of Swiss Thermopylae, a heroic and selfless rescue of the fatherland from a French invasion.<ref>Wie einst der Spartanerkönig Leonidas und seine Schar hatte sich die tapfere Jungmannschaft der Eidgenossen geopfert, um das Vaterland vor der Zerstörung zu bewahren.' Volker Reinhardt, Die Geschichte der Schweiz. Von den Anfängen bis heute. C. H. Beck, München 2011.</ref> The battle became a symbol of Swiss military