between the native nobility and Savoy, the owner of Low Valais, on the
one hand, and the bishops of Sion and the people, on the other. It was,
in fact, a contest between the Romance and the German populations, the
latter of whom the French had driven into a corner. The dynasts Von Turn
had Bishop Tavelli seized in his castle and hurled from its very windows
down a precipice. This foul murder was avenged in the great battle of
Visp, where Savoy is said to have left four thousand dead (1388). The
barons of Raron sustained a defeat at Ulrichen, in 1414, though assisted
by Bern (of which town they were citizens) and Savoy. These powerful
nobles left the country, and the Valisians gradually secured autonomy,
and, being helped in their quarrels by the Forest men, they finally drew
nearer to the Confederation, as _Zugewandte_ (1488).
We must not pass over a singular custom which prevailed amongst the
Valais folk. It was a custom observed as a preliminary to serious
warfare. If a tyrant was to fall, he was attainted and doomed by the
Mazze. This was a huge club on which was carved a distressed-looking
face as a symbol of oppression, the club being wound round with bramble.
It was carried from village to village, and hamlet to hamlet, even to
the remotest spots, and set up at public places to attract the attention
of the people. One of the malcontents would then step forward and
denounce the oppressor to the figure, and promise help. It was said that
when the name of Raron was pronounced the figure bowed deeply in token
of assent, and the insurgents drove nails into the face as a declaration
of hostility, and the instrument was deposited at the gate of the
baron's castle.
Graubuenden (Grisons), the land of ancient and mediaeval memories, of
crumbling and picturesque castles, was, on account of its rugged surface
and its almost countless dales, split up into numberless territorial
lordships. Here in this rocky seclusion held sway the Belmonts, the
Montforts, the Aspermonts, the Sax-Misox, and many others whose sonorous
names tell of their origin. Here also were found the families of
Haldenstein, Werdenberg, Toggenburg, and many more--Italian, Romansch,
and German mingling closely. Yet the lord-paramount of them all was the
Bishop of Chur, who had attained the rank of _Reichsfuerst_ or duke, who
had a suite of nobles attached to his quasi-royal household, and who
held lands even in Italy. Quite contrary to the usual rule, noble and
peasant in general lived amicably together. The political freedom of the
state was due rather to remarkable coalitions than to acts of war or
insurrection. In the fourteenth century, when the bishops of Chur
revealed a strong leaning towards Austria-Tyrol, the Gotteshausbund
sprang into existence as a check on the alien tendencies of the
prince-bishops. This league was formed in 1367 by the _Domstift_
(chapter of clergy), the nobles, and the common people. The bishops
themselves ruled over people of three different nationalities. A glance
at the place-names on the map of Buenden shows how the old Latin race
(Romansch), the Italians, and the migrated German race, were mixed up
pell-mell in the district. Yet the Walchen Romansch (Welsh) were slowly
retreating before the Valser, or Germans of the Valais, who had a strong
bent for colonization and culture. In 1397 the _Graue Bund_ (Grey
League) was started in the valleys of the Vorder-Rhine by the Abbot of
Disentis, some of the nobles, and the people at large. On the death of
the last of the Toggenburgs in 1436 his various domains of Malans,
Davos, Praettigau, &c., dreading Austrian interference, united into a
league known as the ten _Gerichte Bund_ (Jurisdictions), so called
because each of the districts had its own place of execution. Gradually
the three leagues formed a federal union (1471), and held their diets at
one centre, Vazerol. Thus Buenden, developing after the manner of the
Forest Cantons, grew into a triple and yet federal democracy which,
threatened by the Austrian invasion during the Swabian wars, turned to
the Eidgenossen for help, and joined with them in 1497 as "connections."
In 1414 met the famous Council convoked by the Emperor Sigismund to
remedy the evils which galled the Church, that Council which by a
strange irony of fate sentenced to death by fire John Huss, the staunch
opponent of the very abuses which the Council was called to redress. The
Council proved fatal to the Habsburg interests in Swiss lands. Frederick
IV. of Austria--the enemy of Appenzell--refused his homage to the German
monarch, and for material reasons espoused the cause of John XXIII., one
of the three deposed popes. John gave a tournament to cover his
departure, and during the spectacle fled in a shabby postillion's dress
to the Austrian town, Schaffhausen, whither Frederick followed.
Excommunicated and outlawed--within a few days no fewer than four
hundred nobles sent challenges to him--Duke Friedel, as he was
familiarly called by his faithful Tyrolese peasantry, who alone stood by
him, was driven from his lands and from his people. On all sides German
contingents fell upon his provinces. Sigismund called on the Eidgenossen
in the name of the empire to march on Aargau, his ancestral land,
promising them the province for themselves. As they had just renewed
their peace with Austria, the Eidgenossen were unwilling to break it,
but it was urged by the emperor that their promise to Frederick was not
binding. Bern, ever bent on self-aggrandisement, and determined to
secure the lion's share if possible, threw away her scruples, and within
seventeen days took as many towns and castles.[35] Zurich, consulting
with the Eidgenossen, followed suit and seized Knonau. Lucerne took some
fragment, and the Forest did likewise. Aargau, the retreat of the
Habsburg nobles, offered no serious resistance; but Baden, which was
seized by the Eidgenossen conjointly, the castle of Stein, the royal
residence of the Habsburgs, was being stormed, when Sigismund tried to
stop the siege; for Frederick in despair had in the meantime made an
abject submission, and most of the confiscated lands were restored to
him. However, the Eidgenossen were unwilling, because of the emperor's
wavering policy, to relinquish so good a chance of adding to their
territory. Matters were settled by their paying over a sum of money to
Sigismund, who was ever in financial straits. Henceforth Friedel was
nicknamed "With-the-empty-pocket."[36] Aargau was divided amongst the
Eidgenossen as subject land, what they had seized separately becoming
cantonal, and what conjointly federal, property. Baden and some other
places became federal domains _(gemeine Herrschaften)_, over which each
of the eight states in turn set a governor for two years. With this
precedent we enter upon the curious period in which the Swiss cantons
split into two sets, the governing and the governed.
Whilst the republics vied with each other in extending their borders,
two, Uri and Unterwalden, were unable to increase their territory, being
hemmed in by lofty mountains. They turned their eyes towards the sunny
south, beyond St. Gothard, where they might find additional lands. Like
the Rhaetians of old they had often descended into the Lombard plains,
though for far more peaceful ends. When the St. Gothard pass was thrown
open in the thirteenth century, there was a lively interchange of
traffic between the two peoples--the cismontanes and the transmontanes.
The men of the Forest sold their cheese, butter, cattle, and other
Alpine produce at the marts in the Lombardian towns, and got from thence
their supply of corn and other necessaries. And they of the Forest acted
as guides across the mountains, as they did down to the railway era.
Their youths, too, enlisted amongst the Italians soldiers, induced
either by the prospect of gaining a living, or by a mere desire for
amusement. Thus the Swiss associated on friendly terms with the
southerners. But all this pleasant social intercourse was suddenly cut
off. Whilst the Eidgenossen under the aegis of a weakened empire secured
independence, the mighty Lombard cities, which had objected to imperial
fetters, however light, by a singular contrast sank beneath the
tyrannies of ambitious native dynasts, and under the Visconti the duchy
of Milan sprang up from these free Italian towns. Quarrels that broke
out between the Milanese and the people of the Forest prepared the way
for the acquisition of Ticino by the Swiss. In 1403 Uri and Unterwalden
were robbed of their herds of cattle at the mart of Varese by the
officials of the Visconti, on what pretext is not clear. Failing to get
redress, they at once decided on resorting to force. They seized the
Livinenthal or Leventina, which willingly accepted the new masters.
Fresh robberies in 1410 were revenged by the annexation of the
Eschenthal, with Domo d'Ossola, which greatly preferred Swiss supremacy
to that of the Duke of Milan. This is not much to be wondered at, seeing
that Gian Maria Visconti was a second Nero for cruelty. The human beings
who fell victims to his suspicion or revenge he had torn to pieces by
huge dogs, which were fed on human blood. To strengthen their Italian
acquisitions the Eidgenossen bought Bellinzona (1418) from the barons of
Sax-Misox or Misocco of Graubuenden. But the Milanese dukes would not
brook the loss of these lands, and a long-protracted war ensued with
varying success. Most of the more distant cantons being opposed to these
Italian conquests declined to send help, but hearing that Bellinzona had
been captured by the Visconti, some three thousand Eidgenossen marched
to its relief in 1422. They were, however, no match for the twenty-four
thousand troops gathered by the famous general Carmagnola. Lying in
ambush for the Swiss he succeeded in completely shutting them in at
Arbedo, with the exception of six hundred who had escaped into the
valley of Misox. For six hours the small Swiss band fought to the
utmost, refusing to give way, though opposed by a force of ten times
their number, and well trained. Suddenly their brethren came to their
relief, or they would have been crushed. The Swiss loss was two hundred,
that of the enemy nine hundred. But the conquests were forfeited for
the present. Yet the Swiss pushed on to new war to redeem their
misfortunes under the Sforza. A brilliant victory was that of Giornico
(Leventina), 1478, where six hundred Swiss under Theiling from Lucerne
defeated a force of fifteen thousand Milanese soldiers. This tended
greatly to spread Swiss military fame in Italy.
[Illustration: ARMS OF URI.]
FOOTNOTES:
[34] It is related that Uli Rotach kept at bay with his halbert twelve
Austrians, giving way only when the hut against which he leant was set
on fire.
[35] To Bern fell the classic spots Habsburg and Koenigsfelden.
[36] As a retort to those who thus nicknamed him this extravagant prince
built a balcony at Innsbruck whose roof was covered with gold, at the
cost of thirty thousand florins--it would be twenty times more money
now. Every visitor to that romantic city will be struck by the quaint
_Haus zum goldenen Dachere_ (House with the golden roof).
XVII.
WAR BETWEEN ZURICH AND SCHWYZ.
(1436-1450.)
A gloomy picture in Swiss history do these civil wars present, marking
as they do the chasm separating the Confederates, who were each swayed
by a spirit of jealous antagonism. Yet it was clear that the town and
the country commonwealths--citizens and peasants--formed such strong
contrasts that they would not always pull together. Indeed, the
smouldering discontent was suddenly fanned into flame by questions
respecting hereditary succession that threatened to consume the whole
Confederation. Feudalism was tottering to its fall in Switzerland, but
it seemed as if the famous counts of Toggenburg were for a while to stay
its ruin in the eastern portion of the country. Frederick III.
(1400-1436) possessed what would come up to the present canton of St.
Gall, the Ten Gerichte, a large portion of Graubuenden, Voralberg (which
he had wrenched from Friedel "of the Empty Pocket"), and other
districts. Despite the popular struggles for freedom he managed to
maintain his authority by adroit and designing policy and by alliance
with Zurich and Schwyz, which stood by him against foes domestic and
foreign. Having no children Frederick promised that on his death the two
cantons should receive his domains south of Zurich lake, which
acquisition would round off their territory. He died in 1436, but left
no will--intentionally, as was thought by some, with the view of
entangling the Confederates in quarrels--"tying their tails together,"
as the expressive but not very polished phrase had it. Be that as it
may, the apple of discord was soon in the midst, and there set up as
claimants numerous seigneurs of Graubuenden, barons from the Valais, near
relatives, as well as Austria and the empire. Zurich and Schwyz also
contended for the promised stretch of land. To penetrate into the maze
of petty conflicts which followed would be ridiculous as it would be
impossible. In accordance with her more aristocratic inclinations Zurich
paid court to the dowager countess whilst Schwyz humoured rather the
subjects as the future masters, and the three latter proved in the end
to have had the better judgment. The strife, indeed, fell into one of
emulation between the two most energetic and talented statesmen of the
two commonwealths. One of these leading men was burgomaster Stuessi, of
Zurich, and the other was Ital von Reding, from Schwyz, both highly
gifted and energetic men. Even from their youth they had been rivals,
incited by the Emperor Sigismund whose favour they enjoyed.
Save the battle of St. Jacques on the Birse, the war brought forth no
great military exploits, and as it effected no material changes it may
be very briefly passed over. It splits naturally into three periods. The
first of these (1436-1442) is simply a series of wasteful feuds waged by
the Confederates alone. Schwyz had taken for itself the whole heritage
in question, with the exception of one fragmentary portion left to its
rival. Zurich, thus deprived of her portion, and disappointed in her
scheme of planning a direct commercial road to Italy through Graubuenden,
retaliated by shutting her market against Schwyz and Glarus, causing a
famine in the two districts. The Confederates did not act with
impartiality in the matter, but, laying all blame on Zurich, drove her
to arms. She was, however, again a loser, for her territory to the east
of the lake, which was the theatre of war, was terribly wasted. This
portion of the land Schwyz wished to annex, but was prevented by order
of the federal Diet. Nevertheless Zurich lost to Schwyz and Glarus three
villages on the upper lake, and the island Ufenau which she had governed
for half a century, and she was compelled to re-open her roads and
market.
Deeply wounded by the position of the Confederates in the opposition
ranks, and still more by the humiliation inflicted on her by the rustics
of Schwyz, the proud, free city of Zurich thirsted for revenge. Thus the
second period of conflict began, and in June, 1442, Zurich sought a
foreign alliance. Stuessi, or his secretary, who was his right hand,
taking advantage of her old leanings towards Austria, conceived the
Machiavelian plan of joining in union with the deadly foe of the
Confederates. Despite the firm opposition of a strong party of noble and
eminent patriots, the coalition was arranged. The plea was put forward
that the "imperial city," by virtue of her exceptional position, and the
treaty concluded under the auspices of Brun, in 1351, was allowed to
make any alliances she chose. Disloyalty was thus coloured by a show of
truth. The Emperor Frederick III. and his brother, Albrecht of Austria,
proceeded to Zurich to receive the homage and allegiance of the
enthusiastic population. The Confederates guessing the meaning of this
move tried to convince the renegade member of her perfidy. But their
efforts failing, all, Bern included--though she took no prominent or
active part, being chiefly occupied by her Burgundian politics--sent
their challenge to Austria and Zurich. The war, though fiercer and
bloodier than the first, was just as luckless, owing to dissensions
arising amongst the allies, the men of Zurich being unwilling to submit
to a many-headed Austrian lordship. The struggle was carried on by fits
and starts, the Confederates returning home on one occasion for the
annual haymaking. Having laid waste the Zurich territory the
Confederates proceeded to attack the capital itself. During a sally to
St. Jacques on the Sihl, Stuessi fell in defence of the bridge over that
river, whilst endeavouring to keep back the foe and stay the flight of
the fugitives. His heroic death makes one almost forget his ambitious
and misguided policy. At last the Zurich forces drew up their guns on
the Lindenhof, an eminence within the town. A single ball worked
wonders, for, piercing the walls of a barn, it upset the table at which
were sitting a party of Glarner, and carried off the head of the topmost
man at the table. Greatly impressed by this result the besiegers rushed
from the premises, stopped the siege, and began negotiations for a
truce. But the Austrians objected to the truce, fearing a reconciliation
between Zurich and the Confederates, and they incited the mob to make a
set against the patriotic councillors who were believed to be the prime
movers in the peace negotiations. A state of terrorism set in, five of
the leading men were demanded by the populace, and were publicly
beheaded; and ten more suffered the same fate. Thus powerless had Zurich
grown in the hands of Austria. The truce being thus prevented the
Eidgenossen proceeded to besiege Greifensee, a strong fortress in the
Zurich midlands. For four weeks the garrison of eighty men held out,
but, being at last betrayed by a peasant, were compelled to surrender at
discretion. Sentence of death was passed on the brave defenders by a
majority of the Confederates, and the cruel sentence was carried out in
a meadow at hand. Ital von Reding stood by to see that the imperial
custom of passing over every tenth man should not be followed in this
case. However when sixty had fallen he turned away, and the rest were
spared. Strange stories attach to that bloody spot, and indeed Nemesis
soon avenged the cruel deed. A second siege of the capital was
undertaken by the Confederates, but proved a failure like the first. The
men of Zurich, in fact, made light of the siege, and a band of young men
even sallied forth and captured wine and other provisions.
[Illustration: St. Jacques Monument, Basel, by Schloeth. (_From
Photograph by Appenzeller, Zurich._)]
[Illustration: Arms of Schwyz.]
Wishful to bring matters to an issue, Austria turned to France for
assistance, well knowing that she herself was no match for the
Eidgenossen in open field. She was, besides, tired of the profitless and
resultless kind of war which had hitherto been carried on. Charles VII.
was anxious to get rid of his mercenary troops, the savage Armagnacs,
which he had led against England, and was glad to launch them on Swiss
lands. This combination of Austrian and French arms--the Zurcher
remained at home to defend their still beleaguered city--introduces the
third and last portion of the war. The Dauphin (Louis XI.), with an army
of thirty thousand men, marched against Basel, and the Eidgenossen,
unacquainted with the numbers of the enemy, set out to meet them. When
they came within sight of the foe, they crossed the river Birse in the
most exuberant spirits. Soon, however, they were split into two
divisions by the heavy fire of the French, and one of these being
surrounded on an island in the river was completely annihilated by the
overwhelming numbers, though fighting with marvellous bravery. The other
division took up a position behind the garden walls of the infirmary of
St. Jacques, on the river (August 26, 1444). Here for six hours a small
body of some five or six hundred men held their ground. Twice they
withstood the assault of a foe twenty or thirty times their number, and
twice themselves rushed on in attack. But at last the walls gave way,
pierced through and through, and the foe rushed through the breach. A
hand-to-hand fight followed, till the hospital being fired the Swiss
were compelled to succumb. Yet, though failing, each man died a hero.
Some drew arrows from their wounds, and hurled them at the enemy; others
who had lost one hand swung their halberts with the other. The
Armagnacs, who had fought in many a bloody battle, confessed that never
before had they met with a foe so dauntless, so regardless of death. The
Austrians, however, denied the Swiss such testimony. On the day
following the battle a German knight was riding over the field wading in
blood, and boasted to his comrades, "To-day we seem to be bathing in
roses." "There, eat thy roses!" yelled a dying Uri soldier, flinging at
his head a large stone which struck him dead from his horse. Louis, who
had lost some four thousand men in the fight, was greatly impressed by
such show of bravery on the part of the Swiss, and concluded an
honourable peace with them at Ensisheim, on the 28th of October, 1444.
St. Jacques is a second Swiss Thermopylae, and sheds immortal honour on
the combatants. Though beaten the Confederates were not dishonoured.
Like the brave Spartans under Leonidas they preferred death to servitude
and dishonour. This battle was also the turning-point of the federal
war; it rendered the Confederates more pliant. And though desultory
feuds still showed themselves, peace was at last concluded, in 1450, by
which Zurich was forced to give up her Austrian alliance. The federal
league was knit more closely together than ever before; old injuries
were soon forgotten, and the Eidgenossen accepted an invitation to
Zurich to join in the carnival festivities got up to celebrate the
reconciliation, 1454. A deplorable incident took place during the
festivities, the seizure by the Eidgenossen, at the minster, of the
famous savant, Felix Malleolus, a canon of the Church. Born of an
ancient family at Zurich, he was educated first at the Carolinum in his
native city, and afterwards at the university of Bologna, which was the
glory of the Middle Ages. Bold, and of an unbending will, early
acquainted with the corruptions of the Church and clergy, he hurled
bitter invectives against the guilty, and raised for himself a host of
enemies amongst the priesthood. And during the early years of the war he
had likewise attacked the Eidgenossen as enemies of his native town, and
called them an illiterate, uncouth, and belligerent race. His own
chapter had objected to so stern a man as provost, and he had
consequently contented himself with the position of canon, a position
which left him ample time for study, and the composition of learned
pamphlets. When the Eidgenossen seized him he was bending over his
beloved books. He was hurried to Constance, and was there, by the
bishop, thrown into the same prison as that occupied by the martyr Huss.
The higher clergy as a rule connived at the deed, and, though promised
release, he was handed over a prisoner to the monks at Lucerne. Here the
lofty words of Cellano, _"Dies irae, dies illa,"_ so well known from
their use in Mozart's Requiem Mass, seem to have been a great
consolation to the unfortunate canon. It is not known exactly when he
died.
XVIII.
BURGUNDIAN WARS.
(1474-1477.)