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TIL: In 1375, Enguerrand de Coucy led 10,000 mercenaries—the Guglers—into Switzerland to claim Habsburg lands. Swiss peasants defeated them in night raids. Years later, de Coucy denied ever being there.

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4XOW6 TIL The East India Company controlled its own army, which by 1800 comprised some 200,000 soldiers, more than twice the membership of the British Army at that time. The army was used to carry out officially sanctioned looting within Indian States, along with forced over-taxation.
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