Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/822

 786 SWITZERLAND [HISTORY. death (April 30, 1436) was the signal for the breaking out of strife. The Prattigau and Davos valley formed the League of the Ten Jurisdictions in Rhsetia (see below), while Frederick's widow sided with Zurich against Schwyz for different portions of the great inheritance which had been promised them. After being twice defeated, Zurich was forced in 1440 to buy peace by certain cessions (the Upper March) to Schwyz, the general feeling of the Con- federates being opposed to Zurich, several of them going so far as to send men and arms to Schwyz. Zurich, how- ever, was bitterly disappointed at these defeats, and had recourse to that policy which she had adopted in 1356 and 1393 an alliance with Austria (concluded in 1442), which now held the imperial throne in the person of Frederick III. Though technically within her rights ac- cording to the terms on which she had joined the League in 1351, this act of Zurich caused the greatest irritation in the Confederation, and civil war at once broke out, especially when the Hapsburg emperor had been solemnly received and acknowledged in Zurich. In 1443 the Zurich troops were completely defeated at St Jakob on the Sihl, close under the walls of the city, Stiissi himself being slain. Next year the city itself was long besieged. Frederick, unable to get help elsewhere, procured from Charles VII. of France the despatch of a body of Armagnac free lances (the lilcorcheurs), who came, 30,000 strong, under the dauphin Louis, plundering and harrying the land, till, at the very gates of the free imperial city of Basel (which had made a twenty years' alliance with Bern), by the leper house of St Jakob on the Birs (August 26, 1444), the desperate resistance of a small body of Confederates (1200 to 1500) till cut to pieces, checked the advance of the freebooters, who sustained such tremendous losses that, though the victors, they hastily made peace, and returned whence they had come. Several small en- gagements ensued, Zurich long declining to make peace because the Confederates required, as the result of a solemn arbitration, the abandonment of the Austrian alliance. At length it was concluded in 1450, the Confederates restoring almost all the lands they had won from Zurich. Thus ended the third attempt of Austria to conquer the League l>y means of Zurich, which used its position as an imperial free city greatly to the harm of the League, and was the cause of the first civil war which distracted the League. Consti- These fresh proofs of the valour of the Confederates, tution an( j O f th e growing importance of the League, did not fail League to P ro( ^ uce important results. In 1452 the "Confederates . 1450. f ^ e Old League of Upper Germany" (as they styled themselves) made their first treaty of alliance with France, a connexion which was destined to exercise so much influ- ence on their history. Kound the League there began to gather a new class of allies (known as "Zugewandte Orte," or associated districts), more closely joined to it, or to certain members of it, than by a mere treaty of friendship, yet not being admitted to the rank of a full member of the League. Of these associates three, the abbot (1451) and town of St Gall (1454), and the town of Bienne (Biel), through its alliance (1352) with Bern, were given seats and votes in the diet, being called " socii"; while others, known as " confoederati," were not so closely bound to the League, such as Wallis (1416-17), Schaff- hausen (1454), Miihlhausen (1466), Rothweil (1463). 1 Ap- penzell, too, in 1452, rose from the rank of a "protected district " into the class of associates, outside which were certain places "protected" by several members of the League, such as Gersau (1359), the abbeys of Engelberg (c. 1421) and Einsiedeln (1397-1434), and the town of 1 To the class of " confoederati" belonged in later times Neuchatel (1495-98), the Leagues of Rhsetia (1497-98), Geneva (1519-36), and the bishop of Basel (1579). Rapperschwyl (1458). The relation of the "associates" to the League may be compared with the ancient practice of " commendation " : they were bound to obey orders in the matter of declaring war, making alliances, &c. In 1439 Sigismund succeeded his father Frederick in. the Hapsburg lands in Alsace, the Thurgau, and Tyrol, and, being much irritated by the constant encroachments of the Confederates, in particular by the loss of Rapper- schwyl (1458), declared war against them, but fared very badly. In 1460 the Confederates overran the Thurgau, and occupied Sargans. Winterthur was only saved by an heroic defence. Hence in 1461 Sigismund had to give up his claims on those lands and renew the peace for fifteen years, while in 1467 he sold Winterthur to Zurich. Thus the whole line of the Rhine was lost to the Haps- burgs, who retained (till 1802) in the territories of the Confederates the Frickthal only. The Thurgovian baili- wicks were governed in common as "subject" lands by all the Confederates except Bern. The touchiness of the now rapidly advancing League was shown by the eager- ness with which in 1468 its members took up arms against certain small feudal nobles who were carrying on a harassing guerilla warfare with their allies Schaffhausen and Miihlhausen. They laid siege to Waldshut, and to buy them off Sigismund in August 1 468 engaged to pay 10,000 gulden as damages by June 24, 1469 ; in default of payment the Confederates were to keep for ever the Black Forest, Waldshut, and certain other Black Forest, towns on the Rhine. A short time before (1467) the League had made treaties of friendship with Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy, and with the duke of Milan. All was now prepared for the intricate series of intrigues which led up to the Burgundian War, a great epoch in the history of the League, as it created a common national feel- ing, enormously raised its military reputation, and brought about the close connexion with certain parts of Savoy which finally (1803-15) were admitted into the League. Sigismund did not know where to obtain the sum he The Bur- had promised to pay. In this strait he turned to Charles g un(iian the Bold (properly the Rash), duke of Burgundy, who ar ' was then beginning his wonderful career, and aiming at restoring the kingdom of Burgundy. For this purpose Charles wished to marry his daughter and heiress to Maximilian, son of the emperor, and first cousin of Sigis- mund, in order that the emperor might be induced to give him the Burgundian crown. Hence he was ready to meet Sigismund's advances. On May 9, 1469, Charles promised to give Sigismund 50,000 florins, receiving as security for repayment Alsace, the Breisgau, the Sundgau, the Black Forest, and the four Forest towns on the Rhine (Rheinfelden, Siickingen, Lauffenburg, and Waldshut) ; in addition, Charles took Sigismund under his protection, specially against the Swiss, and agreed to give him aid in a war if he was attacked by them. It was not unnatural for Sigismund to think of attacking the League, but Charles's engagement to him is quite inconsistent with the friendly agreement made between Burgundy and the League as late as 1467. The emperor then on his side annulled Sigismund's treaty of 1468 with the Swiss, and placed them under the ban of the empire. Charles com- mitted the mortgaged lands to Peter von Hagenbach, who proceeded to try to establish his master's power there by such harsh and severe measures as to cause all the people to murmur, then rise against him. The Swiss in these circumstances began to look towards Louis XI. of France, who had confirmed the treaty of friendship made with them by his father in 1452. Sigis- mund had applied to him early in 1469 to help him in his many troubles, and to give him aid against the Swiss, but Louis had point-blank refused. Anxious to secure