RELIGIOUS REFORM
The death of Count Jean in the beginning of the 16th century left to his
son Jean II the task of upholding the old ideals of the Gruyere house
against the continually growing democracy in Switzerland, as well as
against the advance of religious reform. Endowed with all his father's
firmness, he possessed the chivalric ardor of his predecessors and a
full share of their personal charm. The long and intimate relation of
Gruyere and Savoy which had been interrupted by his father's maintenance
of his rights of succession against the will of Duke Philibert II, were
renewed by Count Jean II, who soon merited the title so worthily won by
his predecessors of the "greatest noble in Romand Switzerland."
When Count Philippe de Bresse, after a lifetime spent in envious
agitations against the ruling dukes at last succeeded to the throne of
Savoy, he splendidly atoned for his ill-treatment of Count Louis de
Gruyere and his brother by immediately investing Count Jean II with the
offices held by his predecessors; and when he magnificently celebrated
his reconstitution of the Order of the Annonciata in the chapel of
Chambery, he invested Count Jean with the order, and at the ensuing
fetes gave him a seat at his side. The gift of this order, bestowing
upon its possessor the privilege of diplomatic negotiations with the
thrones of Europe, brilliantly recognized the position already held by
the counts of Gruyere of arbitrators for Savoy and Romand Switzerland in
the continual differences which arose between them and the monarchs of
France and Austria. Although still only a duchy, Savoy had long been
related by marriage with all the kingdoms of Europe. It was triply
related to France through the wife and the sister of Louis XI and
through Louise de Savoie, mother of Francois I; it was doubly related to
the latter's great rival, the emperor Charles V, through Philibert's
wife, the able Marguerite d'Autriche, and again through the emperor's
sister-in-law, the Duchess Beatrix of Portugal, wife of Philibert's
successor, Charles III. Fortified and elated by this imperial alliance,
Duke Charles III began his unfortunate reign with a magnificent progress
through Piemont and Savoy, where, particularly in the Pays de Vaud, he
was cordially welcomed. At Geneva "the youth of the city were gayly
decked out in damask, velvet and cloth of gold, while a corps of the
most beautiful women, superbly dressed as amazons carrying lances and
shields, were led by a fair Spaniard in honor of the Duchesse." At
Vevey, bells rang, and a great procession of soldiers in parti-color
followed by others in pure white, with a hundred pages also in white,
carrying the white cross of Savoy, came out from the gates to meet him.
Presenting his suzerain with the donations of the Pays de Vaud at
Lausanne, Count Jean was also present with the bishops of Tarentaise,
Lausanne and de Bellay at the general assembly of the Savoy estates at
Morges, and at the chateau of Oron received the duke and his suite at a
splendid banquet.
The Swiss, divided by religious wars, and since the battles of Grandson,
Morat and Nancy the actual arbiters of Europe, were constantly solicited
for their alliance, and yielding to their cupidity and a widespread
spirit of adventure, continually divided their forces into mercenary
bands, fighting for Italy and then France in the long series of
disastrous Italian campaigns undertaken by Charles VIII and his
successors, Louis XII and Francois I. "_Point d'argent, point de
Suisse_," a saying only too well merited by the conduct of these
mercenary armies, originated from these French-Italian campaigns. In
1499 the Swiss, fighting with France, betrayed the duke of Milan to
Louis XII. At Novara, fifteen years later, they fought for the duke, and
took for themselves a large part of Piemont. At Marignan, the young
Francois I at the head of a brilliant army of the French noblesse,
furnished with all the accoutrements and artillery of modern warfare,
received his baptism of fire, and Bayard won his shining immortality.
There also the Swiss in a second battle of giants, although defeated,
won as they had at St. Jacques the admiration of their conqueror; and
just as Louis XI had tempted them by unlimited pay to join his cause,
again Francois I induced them by promises of permanent pensions to a
perpetual alliance, and to the peace called "perpetual" which afterward
was maintained between Switzerland and France.
With the strictest historical justice this alliance, based on cupidity,
was by the same ignoble motive made void of result. When the great
Emperor Charles V, allied with the pope and England, threatened the
French possessions in Italy, the Swiss soldiers compelled the French
general to engage the imperial forces under the most unfavorable
conditions, and in the disastrous battle of the Bicoque brought about
the defeat of their allies, the loss of Milan and the evacuation of
Italy. Among the 16,000 Swiss who here demonstrated the worst of their
national qualities, was a force of 400 men from Gruyere under the
command of Count Jean, who fought with his natural son Jean, his
brother Jacques and his cousin of Blonay in the thick of the battle. The
French were hopelessly outnumbered by the combined imperial and Italian
armies and suffered a crushing defeat, and the Swiss soldiers whose pay
had been stolen by the mother of Francois I returned to their own
country after the battle. Confessing in truth that they were "_mal
payes, mal dotes_," Count Jean also declared that the Milanese duchy
would never be recovered by the French king unless he came himself to
Italy to conduct the campaign. He, therefore, returned to his estates
after this disheartening experience where he found the long smouldering
resentment against the predatory bishop of Lausanne at the point of
explosion. By threat of arms, he exacted payment for his despoiled
rights from the bishop, and before a great assemblage of his nobles,
communes and people solemnly enacted the cessation of all trade with the
bishop's market at Bulle in favor of Fribourg, with whose authorities he
also established new commercial relations. But Count Jean, who had great
reason to pursue these wise measures for the rehabilitation of his
already impoverished and mortgaged estates, was soon drawn into the
contest which arose between the democratic and Savoyard parties of
Geneva, when the former, making an alliance with the republics of Berne
and Fribourg, essayed to shake off the control of Savoy. The severance
of the alliance of those cities with Savoy, announced a formidable
alignment of the adherents of liberty in Romand Switzerland against the
ruling duchy. But before this new combination had become sufficiently
consolidated to accomplish its end, there were many efforts at
pacification and compromise, and the count of Gruyere most reluctantly
was forced to accept the office of arbiter between Savoy and the free
cities.
Again as so often had happened before, the ruler of Gruyere was faced
with a choice between his suzerain and the republics of Switzerland.
Count Jean unhesitatingly chose the former, and announced in his
capacity of arbitrator the dissolution of the alliance of the free
cities with Geneva. The result of this exceedingly courageous action was
his own arraignment by Fribourg for conduct which they announced as
unjustifiable and actionable. But the duke of Savoy was determined to
reward Count Jean for his fidelity, and prevailed upon Berne and Soleure
to renew their alliances but released Fribourg from all relations with
his house, thus delivering Count Jean from its threatened revenge. This
treaty, regulating the relations of Savoy with the cities of Berne and
Soleure, did not, however, finish the contest between the Genevan
democrats and the duke of Savoy, for the duke within a month sent an
army within sight of the city to reduce it to submission. The feudal
powers in Switzerland were now arrayed with Savoy against the rebels of
Geneva in a league of young nobles, who assembled in force at Coppet to
attack the city of Geneva. But now, although the heir of Gruyere was
among the nobles, the people joined the army of Berne and Fribourg which
marched to the aid of the rebellious city. Resorting to their old
pastime of devastation, the army of liberty burned chateau after chateau
in their march to Geneva, and uniting their forces with the rebels they
summoned the duke of Savoy to account for his responsibility in the
threatened attack. In an assemblage of the ambassadors of the ten
confederated cantons, the duke of Savoy secured his continued control of
Geneva, but paid dearly for it in the hypothecation to the greedy cities
of Berne and Fribourg of the whole of the Pays de Vaud. Following this
important concession, the victorious cities solemnly ratified their
treaties with Geneva, and with the establishment of religious reform,
which had developed simultaneously with the struggle for political
independence, Geneva finally succeeded in freeing itself from the rule
of Savoy. Catholic among the Catholics, Count Jean vigorously supported
the duke in the defence of their religion, and converted his chateau of
Oron into a refuge for the fugitives from the Lutheran persecution.
While the Bernois were breaking the sacred images and wrecking the
churches and chapels, Count Jean regularly maintained the celebration
of mass at Oron, and threatened to wreak vengeance upon the Lutheran
heretics who fell into his hands. Therefore, the Bernois, with
evangelical pronunciamentos, commanded him to desist, and under threat
of depriving him of the chateau and seigneurie of Oron, forced the
adoption in this Catholic stronghold of the Lutheran faith. At Gruyere
all the people were faithful, and in large numbers journeyed to
Fribourg, declaring they would die rather than abandon their religion.
At the warning that a band of Bernese Lutherans was preparing to invade
Gruyere, the Fribourgeois summoned the people to be ready at the sound
of the tocsin to take arms to repel them. Epidemics succeeded to these
alarms, the restless people continually demanded new concessions, and
finally the Bernois, openly declaring war upon Savoy, rapidly conquered
the long coveted Pays de Vaud and summoned the count of Gruyere to
acknowledge their sovereignty. When Count Jean stoutly rejected the
demands of the Bernois, they immediately threatened the invasion of his
estates; but their watchful rivals of Fribourg energetically protested,
and when an ambassador of Charles V arrived on the scene to lend the
Imperial support to the threatened principality, the Bernois consented
to recognize the independence of Gruyere but exacted and at last
obtained Count Jean's acceptance of their sovereignty over his
possessions in the Pays de Vaud. Berne's demands were no sooner
satisfied than Fribourg with an army prepared to take Corbieres, but at
this Count Jean's loyal subjects rose in a body, and the Fribourgeois,
threatened by the people of Berne, consented to arbitrate their claims
at the very moment when the valiant Count Jean was seized with sudden
illness and ended his greatly tormented existence.
"Towards the end of the month of November," a contemporary chronicler
relates, "died at Gruyere, the noble and powerful lord Jean, Count of
the said Gruyere, who before his death had suffered great troubles and
pains, as much from the change in the overlordship and government of his
country as from that of religion."
The change of overlordship had been a desolating disaster to the loyal
vassal of the good Duke Charles of Savoy, who, when Francois I despoiled
him of all but a remnant of his duchy, was sent into a poverty-stricken
exile. A less firm resistance on the part of Count Jean against the
encroaching powers of the confederated cities would have brought a like
fate on Gruyere. In an epoch of transition, when the old feudal order
was giving place to the increasingly triumphant democracy in
Switzerland, in a period embittered by cruel religious persecutions,
involved in the wars and events which altered the political and moral
aspect of Europe, he preserved to the last the integrity of his domain
and its fidelity to its ancient faith. Personifying all the virtues of
the old order of chivalry, greatly honored by his suzerain, loved and
respected at home, it cannot be denied that he was at the same time the
exemplar of its faults, and of these a great and practically licensed
immorality was the chief. From the earliest period in the history of
Gruyere, many of the illegitimate sons of its rulers were dedicated to
the church, and often rising to high places among its prelates shared in
the prevailing laxity and were naturally forced to condone and finally
to recognize the continuance of this state of affairs. With even less
attempt at concealment than had been observed by his ancestors in the
pursuance of these irregular relations Count Jean openly installed his
mistress the famous Luce d'Alberguex, at the chateau. An ideal Gruyere
beauty was la Belle Luce, with the vigorous perfection of her race and a
smile of such naive sweetness and charm as still lingers in the popular
tradition. Count Jean gave her his fairest mountain as a gage of his
affection and villages and rich pasture lands to her brave son, his
namesake, who had fought by his side at the Bicoque. The gallant count
was, according to tradition, very prodigal in his favors, and a certain
road, leading to the neighboring village of Charmey where the unhappy
Countess Marguerite could watch her faithless lord as he rode away on
his various adventures, is still known as the "_Charriere de
Creve-Coeur_."
Married for reasons of family policy to the daughter of the de Vergys,
who resided for the most part in the chateau of Oron, Count Jean passed
his happiest days with la Belle Luce at Gruyere. After the death of his
countess, and the passing of his youthful loves, he married Catherine de
Monteynard, with whom he honorably passed the last decade of his life.