Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/819

 1232-1352.] SWITZERLAND 783 effect of placing them all (despite historical differences) in an identical political position, and that the most privileged yet given to any of them, the freedom of the free com- munity of Schwyz. A few days later the Confederates made a fresh treaty of alliance with Zurich; and in 1310 the emperor placed certain other inhabitants of Schwyz on the same privileged footing as the free community. The Hapsburgs were put off with promises ; and, though their request (1311) for an inquiry into their precise rights in Alsace and in the Forest districts was granted, no steps were taken to carry out this investigation. Thus in Henry's time the struggle was between the empire and the Hapsburgs as to the recognition of the rights of the latter, not between the Hapsburgs and those dependent on them as landlords or counts. On Henry's death in 1313 the electors hesitated long between Frederick the Handsome of Hapsburg and Louis of Bavaria. The men of Schwyz seized this opportunity for making a wanton attack on the great abbey of Einsiedeln, with which they had a long-standing quarrel as to rights of pasture. The abbot caused them to be excommunicated, and Frederick (the choice of the minority of the electors), who was the hereditary " advo- cate" of the abbey, placed them under the ban of the empire. Louis, to whom they appealed, removed the ban ; on which Frederick issued a decree by which he restored to his family all their rights and possessions in the three valleys and Urseren, and charged his brother Leopold with the execution of this order. The Con- federates hastily concluded alliances with Glarus, Urseren, Art, and Interlaken to protect themselves from attack on every side. Leopold collected a brilliant army at the Austrian town of Zug in order to attack Schwyz, while a body of troops was to take Unterwalden in the rear by way of the Briinig pass. On November 15, 1315, Leopold, with from 15,000 to 20,000 men, moved forward along the shore of the Lake of Egeri, intending to assail the village of Schwyz by climbing the steep hillside above the southern end of the lake, through the narrow pass of Morgarten between the mountain and the lake. At the summit of the pass waited the valiant band of the Con- federates, from 1300 to 1500 strong. The march up the rugged and slippery slope threw the Austrian army into disarray, which became a rout and mad flight when huge boulders and trunks of trees were hurled from above by their foes, who charged down on them, and drove them into the lake. No fewer than 1500 Austrians fell ; their brilliant cavalry had completely failed before the onset of the lightly armed Swiss footmen. Leopold fled in hot haste to Winterthur, and the attack by the Briinig was driven back by the men of Unterwalden. On December 9, 1315, representatives of the victorious highlanders met at Brunnen, on the Lake of Lucerne, not far from Schwyz, and renewed the Everlasting League of 1291. In their main lines the two documents are very similar, the later being chiefly an expansion of the earlier. That of 1315 is in German (in contrast to the 1291 League, which is in Latin), and has one or two striking clauses largely indebted to a decree issued by Zurich on July 24, 1291. None of the three districts or their dependents is to recognize a new lord without the consent and counsel of the rest (this is probably meant to provide for an inter- regnum in or disputed election to the empire, possibly for the chance of the election of a Hapsburg); strict obedience in all lawful matters is to be rendered to the rightful lord in each case, unless he attacks or wrongs any of the Con- federates, in which case they are to be free from all obligations; no negotiations, so long as the "Lander" have no lord, are to be entered on with outside powers, save by common agreement of all. Louis solemnly recog- nized and confirmed the new League in 1316, and in 1318 a truce was concluded between the Confederates and the Hapsburgs, who treat with them on equal terms. The lands and rights annexed belonging to the Hapsburgs in the Forest districts are fully recognized as they existed in the days of Henry of Luxemburg, and freedom of com- merce is granted. But there is not one word about the political rights of the Hapsburgs as counts of the Ziirich- gau and Aargau. This distinction gives the key to the whole history of the relations between the Confederates and Hapsburgs; the rights of the latter as landowners are fully allowed, and till 1801 they possessed estates within the Confederation ; it is their political rights which are always contested by the Swiss, who desire to rule themselves, free from the meddling of any external power. As early as 1320 we find the name "Swiss" (derived The from Schwyz, which had always been the leader in the struggle) applied to the Confederation as a whole, though it members, was not till after Sempach (1386) that it came into popu- lar use, and it did not form the official name of the Con- federation till 1803. This is in itself a proof of the great renown which the League won by its victory at Morgarten. Another is that as years go by we find other members admitted to the privileges of the original alliance of the three Forest districts. First to join the League (1332) was the neighbouring town of Lucerne, which had grown up round the monastery of St Leodegar (whence the place took its name), perhaps a colony, certainly a cell of the great house of Murbach in Alsace, under the rule of which the town remained till its sale in 1291 to the Hapsburgs. This act of Lucerne was opposed by the house of Austria, but, despite the decision of certain chosen arbitrators in favour of the Hapsburg claims, the town clung to the League with which it was connected by its natural position, and thus brought a new element into the pastoral associa- tion of the Forest districts, which now surrounded the entire Lake of Lucerne. Next, in 1351, came the ancient city of Zurich, which in 1218, on the extinction of the house of Zaringen, had become a free imperial city in which the abbess of the Fraumiinster (the lady of Uri) had great influence, though from 1240 the citizens elected the council which she had previously named. In 1336 there had been a great civic revolution, headed by Rudolph Brun, which had raised the members of the craft guilds to a position in the municipal government of equal power with that of the patricians, who, however, did not cease intrigu- ing to regain their lost privileges, so that Brun, after long hesitation, decided to throw in the lot of the city with the League rather than with Austria. In this way the League now advanced from the hilly country to the plains, though the terms of the treaty with Zurich did not bind it so closely to the Confederates as in the other cases (the right of making alliances apart from the League being reserved, though the League was to rank before these), and hence rendered it possible for Zurich now and again to incline towards Austria in a fashion which did great hurt to its allies. In 1352 the League was enlarged by the admission of Glarus and Zug. Glarus belonged to the monastery of Sackingen on the Rhine (founded by the Irish monk Fridolin), of which the Hapsburgs were "advocates," claiming therefore many rights over the valley, which refused to admit them, and joyfully received the Con- federates who came to its aid; but it was placed on a lower footing than the other members of the League, being bound to obey their orders. Three weeks later the town and district of Zug, attacked by the League and abandoned by their Hapsburg masters, joined the Confederation, forming a transition link between the civic and rural members of the League. The immediate occasion of the union of these two districts was the war begun by the