Old Swiss Confederacy
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1550 illustration for the Sempacherbrief of 1393, one of the major alliance contracts of the Old Swiss Confederacy |
The
Old Swiss Confederacy was the precursor of modern-day
Switzerland. The
Swiss Eidgenossenschaft (originally,
of Schwyz, after the most prominent founding member), as the
confederacy was called, began as an alliance between the communities of the valleys in the central
Alps to facilitate the management of common interests such as
free trade and to ensure the peace along the important trade routes through the mountains. In the late
Middle Ages, this region belonged to the
Holy Roman Empire, and because of its strategic importance the
Hohenstaufen emperors had granted it
reichsfrei status in the early
13th century. As
reichsfrei regions, the
cantons (or regions) of
Uri,
Schwyz, and
Unterwalden were under the direct authority of the emperor without any intermediate
liege lords and thus were largely autonomous.
With the rise of the
Habsburg dynasty, the kings and dukes of Habsburg sought to extend their influence over this region and to bring it under their rule; as a consequence, a conflict ensued between the Habsburgs and these mountain communities who tried to defend their privileged status as
reichsfrei regions. The three founding cantons were joined in the early
14th century by the city states of
Lucerne,
Zürich, and
Berne, and they managed to defeat Habsburg armies on several occasions. They also profited from the fact that the
emperors of the Holy Roman Empire, for most of the 14th century, came from the
House of Luxembourg and regarded them as potential useful allies against the rival Habsburgs. By 1460, the confederates controlled most of the territory south and west of the
Rhine to the Alps and the
Jura mountains. At the end of the
15th century, two wars resulted in an expansion to thirteen cantons (
Dreizehn Orte): in the
Burgundy Wars of the
1470s, the confederates asserted their hegemony on the western border, and their victory in the
Swabian War in
1499 against the forces of the Habsburg emperor
Maximilian I ensured a
de facto independence from the empire. During their involvement in the
Italian Wars, the Swiss brought the
Ticino under their control.
Two similar federations sprung up in neighboring areas in the Alps in the 14th century: in the
Grisons, the federation of the
Three Leagues (
Drei Bünde) was founded, and in the
Valais, the Seven Tenths (
Sieben Zenden) were formed as a result of the conflicts with the
Dukes of Savoy. Neither federation was part of the medieval
Eidgenossenschaft but both maintained very close connections with it.
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The Devil's bridge was built in the 13th century to complete the road over the St. Gotthard Pass. The original bridge was damaged by war and destroyed by a flood in 1888. The image shows the second bridge built in 1826 and above it the third bridge from 1958. |
Under the
Hohenstaufen dynasty of the
Holy Roman Empire, the three regions of
Uri,
Schwyz and
Unterwalden (the
Waldstätten or "forest communities") had gained the
Reichsfreiheit, the first two because the emperors wanted to place the strategically important pass of the St. Gotthard under their direct control, the latter because most of its territory belonged to
reichsfrei monasteries. The cities of
Berne and
Zürich had also become
reichsfrei when the dynasty of their patrons, the
Zähringer, had died out.
When
Rudolph I of Habsburg was elected "King of the Germans" in 1273, he also became the direct
liege lord of these
reichsfrei regions. He instituted a strict rule and raised the taxes to finance wars and further territorial acquisitions. When he died in 1291, his son
Albert I got involved in a power struggle with
Adolf of Nassau for the German throne, and the Habsburg rule over the alpine territories weakened temporarily. Anti-Habsburg insurgences sprung up in
Swabia and
Austria, but were quenched quickly by Albert in 1292.
Zürich had participated in this uprising. Albert
besieged the city, which had to accept him as its patron.
This time of turmoil prompted the
Waldstätten to cooperate more closely, trying to preserve or regain their
Reichsfreiheit. Uri and Schwyz got their status reconfirmed by
Adolf of Nassau in 1297, but to no avail, for Albert finally won the power struggle and became emperor in 1298 after Adolf was killed in the
battle of Göllheim.
The nucleus
The
Federal Charter of 1291 is regarded the oldest surviving written document of an alliance between Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden. Its authenticity is disputed, and it is generally considered to have been written a few decades later. It is likely that a similar arrangement between the three "forest communities" existed well before, maybe even since the time of the
interregnum. After the death of emperor
Albert I in 1308, the German emperors came from the House of Luxembourg (with the exception of Louis IV from Bavaria) until 1438, and they reconfirmed the
Freibriefe of the three communities and generally honored their status as
reichsfrei regions. Even Unterwalden was finally properly granted this status by Albert's successor
Henry VII in 1309. This did not prevent the dukes of Habsburg, who originally had had their homelands in the
Aargau, from trying to reassert their sovereignty over the territories south of the Rhine.
In the struggle for the crown of the
Holy Roman Empire in 1314 between duke
Frederick I of Austria and the
Bavarian king
Louis IV, the
Waldstätten sided with the
Wittelsbacher for fear of the Habsburgs trying to annex their counties again, like Rudolph I had done. When a long-simmering conflict between
Schwyz and the abbey of
Einsiedeln escalated once more, the Habsburgs responded by sending a strong army of knights against these peasants to subdue their insurrection, but the Austrian army of Frederick's brother
Leopold I was utterly defeated in the
Battle of Morgarten in
1315. The three cantons renewed their alliance, and Louis IV reconfirmed their
Reichsfreiheit.
Expansion to the Acht Orte
Subsequently, the three communities (their territories did not yet correspond to the areas of the modern-day
cantons) followed a slow policy of expansion. Uri entered a pact with the previously Habsburg valley of
Urseren in 1317. In 1332, the city of
Lucerne, trying to achieve
Reichsfreiheit from the Habsburgs, joined the alliance. In 1351, these four forest communities (
Vier Waldstätten, a name that lives on in the
German name of
Lake Lucerne) were joined by the city of
Zürich, where a strong citizenship had gained power following the installation of the
Zunftordnung (
guild laws) and the banning of the noble authorities in 1336. The city also sought support against the Habsburg city of
Rapperswil, which had tried to overthrow mayor
Rudolf Brun in Zürich in 1350. With the help of its new allies, Zürich was able to withstand the siege of duke
Albert II of Austria, and the confederates even conquered the city of
Zug and the valley of
Glarus in 1352. They had to return both Glarus and Zug to the Habsburgs in the peace treaty of Regensburg in 1356; emperor
Charles IV in return recognized the
Zunftordnung of Zürich and confirmed its
reichsfrei status in spite of his having forbidden any confederations within the empire in his
Golden Bull issued in January of that same year.
The
Eidgenossenschaft had signed "perpetual" alliances with both Glarus and Zug in 1352, and thus, even if these pacts apparently were disregarded only a few years later, this date is often considered the entry of these two cantons into the confederation despite their remaining under Habsburg rule for a few more years.
[Glauser, T.: 1352 – Zug wird nicht eidgenössisch, State archive of the Canton of Zug; Tugium 18, pp. 103-115; 2002. (PDF file, 359 KB; in German).]In the west, the
Vier Waldstätten had already formed an alliance with the city of
Berne in 1323, and even sent a detachment to help the Bernese forces in their territorial expansion against the
dukes of Savoy and the Habsburgs in the
Battle of Laupen in 1339. In 1353, Berne entered an "eternal" alliance with the confederation, completing the "alliance of the eight places" (
Bund der Acht Orte).
This alliance of the
Acht Orte was a not a homogeneous state but rather a conglomerate of eight independent cities and lands, held together not by one single pact but by a net of six different "eternal" pacts, none of which included all eight parties as signatories. Only the three
Waldstätten Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden were part of all these treaties. All eight parties would still pursue their own particular interests, most notably in the cases of the strong cities of Zürich and Berne. Zürich was also part of an alliance of cities around
Lake Constance which also included
Constance,
Lindau and
Schaffhausen and for some time included cities as far away as
Rottweil or
Ulm, and Berne followed its own hegemonial politics, participating successively in various alliances with other cities including
Fribourg,
Murten,
Biel or
Solothurn. This Bernese "Burgundian Confederation" was a more volatile construct of varying alliances, and in the Battle of Laupen, Fribourg even sided against Berne. Berne's position after that battle was strong enough that such alliances often ended with the other party becoming a Bernese dependency, as it happened with e.g.
Burgdorf or
Payerne.
Consolidation
In 1364,
Schwyz re-conquered the city and land of
Zug and renewed the alliance the following year. In the
1380s,
Lucerne expanded its territory aggressively, conquering
Wolhusen, claiming sovereignty over the valley of the
Entlebuch and the formerly Habsburg city of
Sempach. As a consequence,
Leopold III of Austria assembled an army and met the
Eidgenossen near Sempach in 1386, where his troops were defeated decisively in the
Battle of Sempach and he himself was killed. In the wake of these events
Glarus declared itself free and constituted its first
Landsgemeinde (regional
diet) in 1387. In the
Battle of Näfels in 1388, an Austrian army of
Albert III, the successor of Leopold, was defeated, and in the peace treaty concluded the next year, Glarus maintained its independence from the Habsburgs.
The loose federation of states was reinforced by additional agreements amongst the partners. In the
Pfaffenbrief of 1370, the signatory six states (without Berne and Glarus) for the first time expressed themselves as a territorial unity, referring to themselves as
unser Eydgnosschaft. They assumed in this document authority over clericals, subjecting them to their worldly legislation. Furthermore, the
Pfaffenbrief forbade
feuds and the parties pledged to guarantee the peace on the road from Zürich to the
St. Gotthard pass. Another important treaty was the
Sempacherbrief in
1393. Not only was this the first document signed by all eight of the
Acht Orte (plus the associated Solothurn), but it also defined that none of them was to unilaterally start a war without the consent of all the others.
Beginning in 1401, the confederates supported the insurrection of
Appenzell against the abbey of
St. Gallen and
Frederick IV of Austria, duke in
Tyrol and
Vorderösterreich. Appenzell became a protectorate of the
Acht Orte in 1411, who concluded a 50-year peace with Frederick IV in 1412.
Emperor
Sigismund banned Frederick IV in 1415, who had sided with
Antipope John XXIII at the
Council of Constance, and encouraged others to take over the duke's possessions, amongst which was the
Aargau. After being granted far-reaching privileges by the emperor (all eight cantons became
reichsfrei) and a decree that placed the ban over the peace treaty of 1412, the
Eidgenossen conquered the Aargau. A large part became Bernese, while the
County of Baden was subsequently administered by the confederation as a common property until 1798. Only the
Fricktal remained Habsburgian.
In the
Valais, the conflict between the
Bishop of Sion and the
Duchy of Savoy, which had led to a separation in 1301 (the bishop controlling the upper Valais and the Savoyards the lower part), broke out again. Twice the Savoyards temporarily occupied the whole Valais, but both times they were ultimately defeated. Both peace treaties from 1361 and 1391 restored the
status quo of 1301. As a result of these struggles, the villages in the upper Valais organized themselves in the
Sieben Zenden ("seven tenths") around 1355, emerging after these wars as largely independent small states, much like the cantons of the
Eidgenossenschaft.
In the
Grisons, called
Churwalchen then, the
bishop of Chur and numerous local noble families competed for the control of the region with its many alpine passes. Throughout the 14th century, three leagues of free communities appeared. The
Gotteshausbund ("League of the House of God"), covering the area around
Chur and the
Engadin, was founded when the bishop in 1367 planned to hand over the administration of his diocese to the Austrian Habsburgs. It bought its freedom by paying the bishop's debt and in the following decades increased its control over the secular administration of the princebishopric, until the bishop's regent was deposed in 1452. In the upper valley of the
Rhine, the
Grauer Bund ("Gray League") was founded in 1395 under the direction of the abbot of
Disentis and including not only the peasant communities but also the local nobles to end the permanent
feuds of the latter. By 1424 the Gray League was dominated by the free communities and gave itself a more democratic charter.
Internal crisis
The relationships between the individual cantons of the confederation were not without tensions, though. A first clash between Berne and the
Vier Waldstätten over the Raron conflict (Berne supported the barons of Raron, while the forest cantons sided with the
Sieben Zenden) in the upper
Valais was barely avoided. The local noble barons of Raron established themselves as the leading family in the upper Valais in the late 14th century and competed with the bishop of Sion for the control of the valley. When emperor
Sigismund designated them counts in 1413 and ordered the bishop to hand over his territories to the
von Raron, a revolt broke out in 1414. The following year, both rulers had lost: the
von Raron had not succeeded in ousting the bishop, who in turn had to concede far-reaching rights to the
Sieben Zenden in the treaty of Seta in 1415.
The
Old Zürich War, which began as a dispute over the succession to the
count of Toggenburg, was a more serious test of the unity of the
Acht Orte. Zürich did not accept the claims of Schwyz and Glarus, which were supported by the rest of the cantons, and in 1438 declared an
embargo. The other members of the confederation expelled Zürich from the confederation in 1440 and declared war. In retaliation Zürich made a pact with the Habsburgs in 1442. The other cantons invaded the canton of Zürich and besieged the city, but were unable to capture it. By 1446, both sides were exhausted, and a preliminary peace was concluded. In 1450, the parties made a definitive peace and Zürich was admitted into the confederation again, but had to dissolve its alliance with the Habsburgs. The confederation had grown into a political alliance so close that it no longer tolerated separatist tendencies of its members.
The end of the dynasty of the counts of Toggenburg in 1436 also had effects on the
Grisons. In their former territories in the
Prättigau and
Davos, the (initially eleven, after a merger only ten) villages founded the
Zehngerichtebund ("League of the Ten Jurisdictions"). By 1471, the three leagues, together with the city of
Chur, had formed a close federation, based on military assistance and free trade pacts between the partners and including a common federal diet: the
Drei Bünde was born, even though the alliance would be officially concluded in a written contract only in 1524.
Further expansion
In the second half of the 15th century, the confederation expanded its territory further. In the north, the formerly Habsburg cities of
Schaffhausen and
Stein am Rhein had become
reichsfrei in 1415, with the ban of Frederick IV. The two strategically important cities—they offered the only two fortified bridges over the river
Rhine between Constance and Basel—not only struggled with the
robber barons from the neighbouring
Hegau region but also were under pressure from the Habsburg dukes, who sought to re-integrate the cities into their domain. On
June 1,
1454, Schaffhausen became an associate (
Zugewandter Ort) of the confederacy by entering an alliance with six of the eight cantons (Uri and Unterwalden did not participate). With the help of the confederates, a Habsburg army of about 2,000 men was warded off east of
Thayngen. Stein am Rhein concluded a similar alliance on
December 6,
1459.
The city of
St. Gallen had also become free in 1415, but was in a conflict with its
abbot, who tried to bring it under his influence. But as the Habsburg dukes were unable to support him in any way, he was forced to seek help from the confederates, and the abbey became a protectorate of the confederacy on
August 17,
1451. The city was accepted as an associate state on
June 13,
1454.
Fribourg, another Habsburg city, came under the rule of the
Duke of Savoy during the
1440s and had to accept the duke as its lord in 1452. Nevertheless, it also entered an alliance with Berne in 1454, becoming an associate state, too. Two other cities also sought help from the
Eidgenossen against the Habsburgs:
Rottweil became as associate on
June 18,
1463, and
Mülhausen on
June 17,
1466 through an alliance with Berne (and Solothurn). In
Rapperswil, a Habsburg
enclave on
Lake Zurich within confederate territory, a pro-confederate coup d'état in 1458 led to the city becoming a protectorate of the confederacy in 1464.
Duke
Sigismund of Austria got involved in a power struggle with
Pope Pius II over the nomination of a bishop in Tyrol in 1460. When the duke was banned by the pope, a situation similar to that of 1415 arose. The confederates took advantage of the problems of the Habsburgs and conquered the Habsburg
Thurgau and the region of
Sargans in the autumn of 1460, which became both commonly administered property. In a peace treaty from
June 1,
1461, the duke had no choice but to accept the new situation.
The Swiss also had an interest to extend their influence south of the
Alps to secure the trade route across the
St. Gotthard Pass to
Milan. Beginning in 1331, they initially exerted their influence through peaceful trade agreements, but in the 15th century, their involvement turned military. 1403 the upper
Leventina, as the valley south of the pass is called, became a protectorate of Uri. Throughout the 15th century, a changeful struggle between the Swiss and the
Duchy of Milan ensued. In 1439, Uri assumed full control of the upper Leventina; the Duchy of Milan gave up its claims there two years later, and so did the
chapter of Milan in 1477. Twice the Swiss conquered roughly the whole territory of the modern canton of
Ticino and also the
Ossola valley. Twice, the Milanese reconquered all these territories except the Leventina. Both times, the Swiss managed, despite their defeats, to negotiate peace treaties that were actually favourable for them.
The Burgundy Wars
The
Burgundy Wars were an involvement of confederate forces in the conflict between the
Valois Dynasty and the
Habsburgs. The aggressive expansionism of the
Duke of Burgundy,
Charles the Bold, brought him in conflict with both the
French king
Louis XI and emperor
Frederick III of the House of Habsburg. His embargo politics against the cities of Basel,
Strasbourg and
Mulhouse prompted these to turn to Berne for help.
The conflicts culminated in
1474, after duke
Sigismund of Austria had concluded a peace agreement with the confederates in Constance (later called the
Ewige Richtung). The confederates, united with the Alsacian cities and Sigismund in an "anti-burgundian league", conquered part of the Burgundian Jura (
Franche-Comté), and the next year, Bernese forces conquered and ravaged the
Vaud, which belonged to the
Duchy of Savoy, which in turn was allied with Charles the Bold. The
Sieben Zenden, with the help of Bernese and other confederate forces, drove the Savoyards out of the lower Valais after a victory in the
Battle on the Planta in November 1475. In 1476, Charles retaliated and marched to
Grandson with his army, but suffered three devastating defeats in a row, first in the
Battle of Grandson, then in the
Battle of Murten, until he was killed in the
Battle of Nancy in
1477, where the confederates fought alongside an army of
René II,
Duke of Lorraine.
[Sieber-Lehmann, C.: ; January 18, 2005.] There is a proverbial saying in Switzerland summarizing these events as
"Bi Grandson s'Guet, bi Murte de Muet, bi Nancy s'Bluet" (hät de Karl de Küeni verloore) ("[Charles the Bold lost] his goods at Grandson, his boldness at Murten and his blood at Nancy").
As a result of the Burgundy Wars, the dynasty of the
dukes of Burgundy had died out. Berne returned the Vaud to the duchy of Savoy against a
ransom of 50'000
guilders already in 1476, and sold its claims on the
Franche-Comté to
Louis XI for 150'000 guilders in 1479. The confederates only kept small territories east of the
Jura mountains, especially Grandson and Murten, as common dependencies of Berne and Fribourg. The whole Valais, however, would henceforth be independent, and Berne would reconquer the Vaud in
1536. While the territorial effects of the Burgundy Wars on the confederation were minor, they marked the beginning of the rise of Swiss mercenaries on the battlefields of Europe.
Swiss mercenaries
In the Burgundy Wars, the Swiss soldiers had gained a reputation of near invincibility, and their
mercenary services became increasingly sought after by the great European political powers of the time.
Shortly after the Burgundy Wars, individual cantons concluded mercenary contracts, so-called "
capitulations", with many parties, including the
Pope — the papal
Swiss Guard was founded in 1505 and became operational the next year. More contracts were made with
France (a Swiss Guard of mercenaries would be destroyed in the storm of the
Tuileries in
Paris in 1792), the
Duchy of Savoy,
Austria, and still others.
Swiss mercenaries would play an initially important, but later minor role on European battlefields until well into the 18th century.
Swiss forces soon got involved in the
Italian Wars between the Valois and the Habsburgs over the control of northern
Italy. When the power of the
Duchy of Milan perished in these wars, the Swiss finally managed to bring the whole
Ticino under their control. In 1500, they occupied the strategically important fortress of
Bellinzona, which the French king
Louis XII, who ruled Milan at that time, ceded definitively in 1503. From 1512 on, the confederates fought on the side of
Pope Julius II and his
Holy League against the French in territories south of the Alps. After initial successes and having conquered large parts of the territory of
Milan, they were utterly defeated by a French army in the
Battle of Marignano in
1515, which put an end to military territorial interventions of the confederation, mercenary services under the flags of foreign armies excepted. The result of this short intermezzo were the gain of the
Ticino as a common administrative region of the confederacy and the occupation of the valley of the Adda river (
Veltlin,
Bormio, and
Chiavenna) by the
Drei Bünde, which would remain a dependency of the
Grisons until 1797 with a brief interruption during the
Thirty Years' War.
The Dreizehn Orte
Both Fribourg and Solothurn, which had participated in the Burgundy Wars, wanted to join the confederation following the war, which would have tipped the balance in favour of the city cantons. The rural cantons were thus strongly opposed. In 1477 they marched upon the cities in protest.
At
Stans in 1481 a
Tagsatzung was held in order to resolve the issues, but war seemed inevitable! A local hermit,
Niklaus von der Flüe, was consulted on the situation. He requested that a message be passed on to the members of the
Tagsatzung on his behalf. The details of the message have remained unknown to this day, however it did calm the tempers and led to the drawing up of the
Stanser Verkommnis. Fribourg and Solothurn were admitted into the confederation.
After isolated bilateral pacts between the leagues in the
Grisons and some cantons of the confederation had already existed since the early 15th century, the federation of the
Three Leagues as a whole became an associate state of the confederation in 1498 by concluding alliance agreements with the seven easternmost cantons.
When the confederates refused to accept the resolutions of the
Reichstag of 1495 in
Worms, the
Swabian War (
Schwabenkrieg, also called the
Schweizerkrieg in Germany) broke out in
1499, opposing the confederation against the
Swabian League and emperor
Maximilian I. After some battles around Schaffhausen, in the Austrian
Vorarlberg and in the
Grisons, where the confederates were victorious more often than not, the
Battle of Dornach, where the emperor's commander was killed, put an end to the war. In September 1499, a peace agreement was concluded at Basel that effectively established a
de facto independence of the
Eidgenossenschaft from the empire, although it continued nominally to be part of the
Holy Roman Empire until after the
Thirty Years' War and was not included into the system of
Imperial Circles in 1500.
As a direct consequence of the Swabian War the previously associated city states of
Basel and
Schaffhausen joined the confederation in 1501. In 1513, the
Appenzell followed suit as the thirteenth member. The cities of
St. Gallen,
Biel,
Mulhouse and
Rottweil as well as the Three Leagues in the Grisons were all associates of the confederation (
Zugewandte Orte); the Valais would become an associate state in 1529.
Myths and legends
The events told in the saga of
William Tell, which are purported to have occurred around 1307, are not substantiated by historical evidence. This story, like the related story of the
Rütlischwur (the oath on the
Rütli, a meadow above
Lake Lucerne), seems to have its origins in the late
15th century Weisse Buch von Sarnen, a collection of folk tales from 1470, and is generally considered a fictitious glorification of the independence struggles of the
Waldstätten.
The
legend of
Arnold von Winkelried likewise is first recorded in the middle of the
16th century; earlier accounts of the
Battle of Sempach do not mention him. Winkelried is said to have opened a breach in the lines of the Austrian footsoldiers by throwing himself into their
lances, taking them down with his body such that the confederates could attack through the opening.
The developments beginning in about the 13th century had profound effects on the society. Gradually the population of
serfs changed into one of free peasants and
citizens. In the cities—which were small by modern standards; Basel had about 10,000 inhabitants, Zürich, Berne, Lausanne, and Fribourg about 5,000 each—the development was a natural one, for the
liege lords very soon gave the cities a certain autonomy, in particular over their internal administration. At the beginning of the 14th century, the artisans in the cities began forming
guilds and increasingly took over political control, especially in the cities along the Rhine, e.g. in the Alsace, in Basel, Schaffhausen, Zürich, or Chur. (But not, for instance, in Bern or Lucerne—or, in Germany, Frankfurt—where a stronger aristocracy seems to have inhibited such a development.) The guild cities had a relatively democratic structure, with a city council elected by the citizens.
In the rural areas, people generally had less freedom, but some lords furthered the colonization of remote areas by granting some privileges to the colonists. One well-known colonization movement was that of the
Walser from the Valais to the Grisons, colonizing some valleys there in the 14th century. In the mountainous areas, a community management of common fields, alps, and forests (the latter being important as a protection against
avalanches) soon developed, and the communes in a valley cooperated closely and began buying out the noble landowners or simply to dispossess them of their lands. Regional diets, the
Landsgemeinden, were formed to deal with the administration of the commons; it also served as the high court and to elect representatives, the
Landamman.
Although both poor and rich citizens or peasants had the same rights (though not the same status), not all people were equal. Immigrants into a village or city had no political rights and were called the
Hintersassen. In rural areas, they had to pay for their use of the common lands. They were granted equal rights only when they acquired the citizenship, which not only was a question of wealth (for they had to buy their citizenship), but they also had to have lived there for some time; especially in the rural areas.
[Holenstein, A.: ; September 5, 2005.]The
cities followed an expansionist territorial politics to gain control over the surrounding rural areas, on which they were dependent, using military powers or more often more subtle means such as buying out, or accepting as citizens the subjects (and thereby freeing them:
"Stadtluft macht frei"—"city air liberates") of a
liege lord. It was the cities, now, that instituted reeves to manage the administration, but this only sometimes and slowly led to a restriction of the communal autonomy of the villages. The peasants owned their land, the villages kept administering their commons; and the villagers participated in the jury of the city reeve's court. They had, however, to provide military service for the city, which on the other hand included the right to own and carry weapons.
Basel became the center of higher education and science in the second half of the 15th century. The city had hosted the
Council of Basel from 1431 to 1447, and in 1460, a university was founded, which eventually would attract many notable thinkers, such as
Erasmus or
Paracelsus.
Economy
The population of the cantons numbered about 600,000 in the
1400s and grew to about 800,000 by the
1500s. The grain production sufficed only in some of the lower regions; most areas were dependent on imports of
oats,
barley, or
wheat. In the Alps, where the yield of grains had always been particularly low due to the climatic conditions, a transition from farming to the production of cheese and butter from cow milk occurred. As the roads got better and safer, a lively trade with the cities developed.
The cities were the marketplaces and important trading centers, being located on the major roads through the Alps.
Textile manufacture, where St. Gallen was the leading center, developed.
Cheese (esp.
Emmentaler and
Gruyère) also was a major export item. The exports of the Swiss cities went far, until the
Levant or to
Poland.
In the late 15th century, the
mercenary services became also an important economic factor. The
Reisläuferei, as the mercenary service was called, attracted many young adventurous Swiss who saw in it a way to escape the relative poverty of their homes. Not only the mercenaries themselves were paid, but also their home cantons, and the
Reisläuferei, while being heavily criticized already at that time as a heavy drain on the human resources of the confederation, became popular in particular among the young peasants from the rural cantons.
Political organization
Initially, the
Eidgenossenschaft was not united by one single pact, but rather by a whole set of overlapping pacts and separate bilateral treaties between various members, with only minimum liabilities. The parties generally agreed to preserve the peace in their territories, help each other in military endeavours, and defined some arbitration in case of disputes. The
Sempacherbrief from 1393 was the first treaty uniting all eight cantons, and subsequently, a kind of federal
diet, the
Tagsatzung developed in the 15th century. The second unifying treaty later became the
Stanser Verkommnis in 1481.
The
Tagsatzung typically met several times a year. Each canton delegated two representatives; typically this also included the associate states. Initially, the canton where the delegates met chaired the gathering, but in the 16th century, Zürich permanently assumed the chair (
Vorort), and Baden became the sessional seat.
[Würgler, A.: ; September 1, 2004.]The
Tagsatzung dealt with all inter-cantonal affairs and also served as the final arbitral court to settle disputes between member states, or to decide on sanctions against dissenting members, as happened in the
Old Zürich War. It also organized and oversaw the administration of the commons such as the
County of Baden and the neighbouring
Freiamt, the
Thurgau, in the Rhine valley between Lake Constance and Chur, or those in the
Ticino. The reeves for these commons were delegated for two years, each time by a different canton.
Despite its informal character (there was no formal legal base describing its competencies), the
Tagsatzung was an important instrument of the eight, later thirteen cantons to decide inter-cantonal matters. It also proved instrumental in the development of a sense of unity among these sometimes highly individual cantons. Slowly, they defined themselves as the
Eidgenossenschaft and considered themselves less as thirteen separate states with only loose bonds between.
*
Bishopric of Sion*
House of Habsburg*
History of the Valais*
History of the Grisons*
Swabian War*
Swiss illustrated chroniclesMain sources:
*Im Hof, U.:
Geschichte der Schweiz, Kohlhammer, 1974/2001. ISBN 3-170-14051-1.
*Schwabe & Co.:
Geschichte der Schweiz und der Schweizer, Schwabe & Co 1986/2004. ISBN 3-796-52067-7.
Other sources:
*Luck, James M.:
A History of Switzerland / The First 100,000 Years: Before the Beginnings to the Days of the Present, Society for the Promotion of Science & Scholarship, Palo Alto 1986. ISBN 0-930-66406-X.
*Schneider, B. (ed.):
Alltag in der Schweiz seit 1300, Chronos 1991; in German. ISBN 3-905-27870-7.
*Stettler, B:
Die Eidgenossenschaft im 15. Jahrhundert, Widmer-Dean 2004; in German. ISBN 3-952-29270-2.
*
Swiss Historical Encyclopedia (in German, French, Italian and Rumanch).
*
The Old Swiss Confederation by Markus Jud (in English and German).
*
Switzerland in the Middle Ages by "Presence Switzerland", an official body of the Swiss Confederation. (In English, available also
in many other languages.)
