The germinating cell of the Swiss state was made up of small rural regions around Lake Lucerne: Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden and not throughout their present territory. Uri lacked the Urseren valley, originally independent, aggregated only from the end of the century. XIV; in Unterwalden, Engelberg. Schwyz encompassed only the territories at the foot of the Mythans, and the Muota Valley. Colonized after the plain, these mountain valleys, to which nature conferred a certain unity, had preserved ancient Germanic organizations, such as the Markgenossenschaft (ie the right of common use of certain lands). Since the Gotthard pass – previously almost left out of international traffic – had acquired greater importance, that is, from the beginning of the century at the latest. XIII, the transit trade with Italy had an increasing importance also for the political destinies of these remote countries. The Germanic emperors favored them because of their expeditions to Italy.
The son of Frederick II, Henry, repurchased the residents of Uri from Count Rudolf the Elder of Habsburg in 1231, which he had received from the Zäringer inheritance. Schwyz had a somewhat more uncertain privilege in 1240 from Frederick II himself, who then besieged Faenza. The disputes between the pope and the emperor then sparked a struggle, of which little is known, as regards Switzerland, which however, with the death of Frederick II (1250), ended to the disadvantage of the Ghibellines.
If with this the Habsburgs were able to substantially maintain their possessions, they then seemed to triumph fully with the election as king of their most conspicuous member, Rudolph I (1273). Already as count the monarch had immensely increased the private possessions of the dynasty. And now, as emperor, he seemed to be able to establish a real principality, to which the Alpine regions around Lake Lucerne had to be sacrificed. With the death of the king (1291), however, the obstinate defense of those valley dwellers began. An alliance of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden, at the beginning of August 1291, renewed and consolidated a commonality of interests, which at first did not have the purpose of founding a state, but which was increasingly affirmed and pushed towards more distant goals. from the struggle against the Habsburgs. L’ election of Albert I as king (1298) again increased the danger, as Rodolfo’s son effectively continued his father’s dynastic policy. Only his assassination (1308), followed by the election as king of the Luxembourgian Henry VII, offered the possibility of invoking imperial protection against a feudal lineage, which, having settled in Austria under Rudolf, could no longer concentrate all its efforts in enlarging his original possessions in the alpine country.
Nevertheless, the Confederates of Lake Lucerne had to resort to arms. When Duke Leopoldo, son of Albert I, tried to subjugate them in mid-November 1315, his army of knights was for the most part exterminated in Morgarten by the peasants. How their aspiration for freedom appears to be influenced by the municipal movement of Upper Italy, which had fought during the century. XIII against bishops or feudatars, so they now use, in their own defense, that military experience which they have acquired as mercenaries on the battlefields in Germany and Italy. They therefore renewed their alliance, which now manifestly turned against the Habsburgs, and perfected it with the accession of Lucerne (1332), confirming an evolution, which the Habsburgs witnessed at first perplexed.
The accession of Zurich (1351) extended the scope of the federation to the center of the country: an imperial city, due to internal upheavals, due to its transition to the guild regime, Zurich had come into conflict with the Habsburgs. A four-year war broke out, without the Habsburgs succeeding in overthrowing the city. And instead Zug, Glarus, and especially Bern (1352-53) joined the alliance, which therefore assumed an ever greater consistency.
Its stable element, its surest factor, was certainly placed in the rural masses. But the cities meant an important completion of such an association between mountain and plain. Only here were those two basic elements of the modern state associated, while elsewhere federations of peasants only and leagues of cities sooner or later regularly fell into ruin, that is, they dissolved after ephemeral successes. However, the structure of the federal alliance was still very unrelated. It lacked common laws, a capital, a mutually binding organization, a common treasure. There was not even an act, which would keep all the members together. Indeed, at certain times, some of the cities even entered into relations with Austria, since trade relations were greatly damaged by the frequent wars.
But the Four Cantons, which successfully overthrew, around 1350, aspirations to lordship that arose between them, were able to provide stability to the alliance against the Habsburgs. Soon they went from defense to attack. From the struggle of Lucerne with its ancient lady, Austria, the so-called Sempach war was born, during which Duke Leopold III himself fell on 9 July 1386 in the town of Sempach. Certainly the war planned in common, a few months earlier, by the cities of southern Germany against the most powerful princely dynasty of the empire did not take place: but with this the detachment – later carried out – of Switzerland from the general organism of the empire, to which it still belonged at that time. Since the monarchical principle triumphed north of the Rhine: the Swabian and Rhenish cities succumbed in 1388 to the counts of Württemberg and the Palatinate; their leagues were disbanded. Instead the Confederates in the same year dispersed an Austrian cavalry army near Näfels, which wanted to attack Glarus. Finally, a common order for the war, the so-called Sempacherbrief of 1393 strengthened the feeling of union: already before, in 1370, agreements had been made (the Pfaffenbrief“letter from the parish priests”) on the protection of one’s judicial competence towards the ecclesiastics as well as the laity.
From a military-historical point of view, the successes of the Swiss infantry follow the victories of the Flemish infantry over the French nobility near Courtray (1302) and those of the residents of Dithmarschen in northern Holstein, near Oldenwohrden (1319). But while these successes remained without political effect, the Confederates, after the conclusion of a peace of twenty years with the Habsburgs (1394), extended their relations with regions beyond the mountains. In fact, around 1400 closer relations began with the upper Valais, with the Grisons: that is, with regions in which democratic forces were operating, following the Swiss example. The residents of the canton of Uri instead went beyond the Gotthard after having already succeeded, during the century. XIV, to place the Urseren valley under their protection. Schwyz organized a war for the freedom of the men of Appenzell against their lord, the abbot of St. Gallen (circa 1401-1405). With this further, future alliance relations begin; because the residents of Leventina took advantage of the death of the Duke of Milan, Gian Galeazzo Visconti (1402), to escape – with the help of their neighbors from beyond the mountains – from the dependence of the Visconti. The entire Alpine country thus came into mutual contact: the northern and southern slopes of the Alps, the east and the west. to escape – with the help of the neighbors from beyond the mountains – the dependence of the Visconti. The entire Alpine country thus came into mutual contact: the northern and southern slopes of the Alps, the east and the west. to escape – with the help of the neighbors from beyond the mountains – the dependence of the Visconti. The entire Alpine country thus came into mutual contact: the northern and southern slopes of the Alps, the east and the west.
The conquest of the Aargau (1415) – in connection with the Council of Constance – showed how the contrast with Austria prevailed over any other conflict. The homeland of this dynasty was lost to its ancient lords, despite the fact that three years earlier the Twenty Years’ Peace had been renewed for half a century. By modifying the alliance policy followed up to now, the eastern part of the conquered region was organized as a common federal jurisdiction, that is, as a subject country of the victors; Bern took possession of the western Aargau, Lucerne and Zurich occupied other parts of the territory of greater or lesser extent. The territorial communication between the Aare republic, Bern, and the other members of the confederation was thereby established; the northern belt of the possessions of the Habsburgs, which stretched from Freiburg to Lake Constance, was broken through; the border of the Rhine had been reached; and land suitable for the cultivation of cereals was also purchased.
Such a bold policy of expansion certainly did not go without significant repercussions. Uri’s policy, aimed at taking over the Ossola Valley, together with Domodossola, the Maggia and Verzasca valleys and Bellinzona, ended in 1422 with a major failure, after a defeat at Arbedo, in front of the troops of Duke Filippo Maria Visconti from Milan. The entire subalpine region was again lost up to the Gotthard pass: attempts at revenge failed. The fact that there was no general policy, that the expansion attempts of the individual cantons only found insufficient support from the Confederates, caused the temporary failure of those efforts, which a few decades later had to be renewed.
If the fact that the confederation was composed of both citizens and peasants was its strength, differences of opinion between these two fundamental elements were to threaten the violent dissolution of the confederation then made up of eight cantons. After some symptoms of disunion had already revealed themselves at the beginning of the century. XV, they worsened between 1436-50 up to lead to the civil war. Due to the legacy of the most powerful dynast in eastern Switzerland, Count Frederick VII of Toggenburg, a struggle broke out between the village of Schwyz, which had always effectively asserted its political interests towards Lake Constance, and the free city of Zurich, which sought to compensate for its diminished commercial and industrial importance with territorial extension, according to the example of Bern or Lucerne. When Zurich’s efforts to peacefully procure Toggenburg’s legacy failed, the city in 1442 forged an alliance with the Confederate’s mortal enemy, Emperor Frederick III, who pursued the dynastic policy of the House of Habsburg with endless energy. bigger than it had been in a long time. The consequence was the outbreak of a fratricidal struggle, which tended to mutual destruction. Then when the emperor was unable to provide sufficient help in Zurich, he turned to Charles VII, King of France, who, due to the armaments carried out in the last phase of the Hundred Years War, had a surplus of unemployed mercenaries. These Armagnacchi were sent, under the command of the king’s son, the future Louis XI, against Alsace and Switzerland, with the order to take over Basel, which at that time did not yet belong to the confederation. But a heroic attack of about 1500 Swiss, sent only to make a reconnaissance, near St. James on the Birs, in the immediate vicinity of Basel, made that project unsuccessful. The impression of the battle – later celebrated by Enea Silvio Piccolomini – was such on the dolphin, that he made a pact with the cantons, which ensured both they and Basel from any further danger. Austria, however, continued the struggle until 1446; but with the intercession of the mayor of Augusta, Peter von Argun, it was possible to conclude the peace in 1450. The conquests made during the war were generally returned; the alliance of Zurich with the Habsburgs was however declared invalid. Frederick III’s attempt against the confederation had failed: instead a profound distrust of the emperor’s further intentions remained. With this the detachment of the Swiss from the empire was largely prepared; instead, the conflict that had arisen between the Confederates was resolved.
The economic conditions appeared very shaken by the long wars: production as well as assets had decreased. But with the complete defeat of Zurich the disease that had threatened the internal health of the confederation was eliminated. In 1460, the most important province that still remained south of the Rhine, the Thurgau, was snatched from the Habsburg dynasty. Indeed, the lord of the provinces of anterior Austria, Duke Sigismund of Tyrol, also seemed to lose the crossing points on the Upper Rhine: the four so-called “cities of the Black Forest”: Rheinfelden, Säckingen, Laufenburg, Waldshut, together with the Selva Black itself. And since, foreseeing this danger, he turned to the Duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold, for both financial and military grants, to the Magna liga altae Alemanniae, as the confederation was then called. Louis XI of France, who hated the mortal enemy of his royal power and his person in the Duke of Burgundy, was able to win over Bern, which was worried about its future possibilities of expansion. The Schultheiss Nikolaus von Diesbach shook the necessary arrangements with the French monarch. By these two men, the reconciliation between the Swiss and the House of Habsburg was achieved in 1474: it was the precondition for a very promising struggle against the Burgundian power.
At the beginning, if the Bernese were the first to advance both against Savoy – allied with Burgundy – and beyond the Jura, the other cities intended to participate only as auxiliaries in a struggle, which basically concerned the house of Austria more directly. than themselves. But the political game, into which Diesbach had drawn the confederation, immediately showed its irresistible force. After a Burgundian army had already been defeated at Héricourt on the Lisaine in mid-November 1474, Charles the Bold turned against Bern, who had taken the canton of Vaud from Charles’s ally, the Duchess Iolanda of Savoy. The conquest of the only castle still defended, Grandson (late February), looked promising for the start of the campaign. But the Federal Relief Army, arrived too late to free the garrison, on 2 March 1476 he easily dispersed the army of Burgundian mercenaries, well equipped and guided according to the previously dominant military technique. At the beginning of June the duke still concentrated his troops, as soon as he got back on their feet, in front of the town of Morat, the only obstacle to his march on Bern: but on 22 June his army was almost destroyed. All the artillery was lost: moreover a very valuable loot of other warlike materials, of jewels, gold and silver, fell into the hands of the victorious Confederates. The power of the most feared ruler of Central Europe had received a fatal blow from the despised Swiss infantry – a blow from which he could never recover. army of Burgundian mercenaries, well equipped and guided according to the hitherto dominant military technique. At the beginning of June the duke still concentrated his troops, as soon as he got back on their feet, in front of the town of Morat, the only obstacle to his march on Bern: but on 22 June his army was almost destroyed. All the artillery was lost: moreover a very valuable loot of other warlike materials, of jewels, gold and silver, fell into the hands of the victorious Confederates. The power of the most feared ruler of Central Europe had received a fatal blow from the despised Swiss infantry – a blow from which he could never recover. army of Burgundian mercenaries, well equipped and guided according to the hitherto dominant military technique. At the beginning of June the duke still concentrated his troops, as soon as he got back on their feet, in front of the town of Morat, the only obstacle to his march on Bern: but on 22 June his army was almost destroyed. All the artillery was lost: moreover a very valuable loot of other warlike materials, of jewels, gold and silver, fell into the hands of the victorious Confederates. The power of the most feared ruler of Central Europe had received a fatal blow from the despised Swiss infantry – a blow from which he could never recover. in front of the town of Morat, the only obstacle to his march on Bern: but his army was almost destroyed on 22 June. All the artillery was lost: moreover a very valuable loot of other warlike materials, of jewels, gold and silver, fell into the hands of the victorious Confederates. The power of the most feared ruler of Central Europe had received a fatal blow from the despised Swiss infantry – a blow from which he could never recover. in front of the town of Morat, the only obstacle to his march on Bern: but his army was almost destroyed on 22 June. All the artillery was lost: moreover a very valuable loot of other warlike materials, of jewels, gold and silver, fell into the hands of the victorious Confederates. The power of the most feared ruler of Central Europe had received a fatal blow from the despised Swiss infantry – a blow from which he could never recover.
Charles the Bold’s plan to create a central kingdom extending from the English Channel to Italy was broken. The whole European political system was deeply affected.
An energetically organized community, after such sensational political-military successes, could have decided on the race, which was unleashed between France and the son-in-law of Charles the Bold, Maximilian of Austria, with regard to the Burgundian inheritance, on the death of Duke Charles which took place in Nancy, January 5, 1477. But the lack of internal cohesion of the confederation was unable to assert its interests jointly. Rather, elements of dissolution, indeed of anarchy, seemed to erupt. Contrasts between the eastern and western parts, social antagonisms between mercenaries and pensioners sitting in councils; ancient rivalry of the cities towards the rural cantons, created deep crises. Since a superior statesman was missing until the death of Nicholas of Diesbach (1475), the decision ended up being left to chance.
From campaigns, which had a European resonance, which indeed fundamentally changed the forces of international life at the time, Switzerland thus emerged with insignificant enlargements. Even when the residents of the canton of Uri embarked on a campaign against the Duchy of Milan in 1478, for no real reason – because it had given help to Burgundy during the previous struggles – it was brought back to the end of December, near Giornico in the Leventina, a brilliant victory against forces almost twenty times higher, but territorial enlargements were not achieved, except for the definitive purchase of the Leventina, because the Confederates opposed it.
However, despite all the turmoil, the Confederates, becoming aware of their military strength, continued to act further. When Maximilian, who in the meantime had been elected king of the Romans, to the diet of the empire in Worms, in 1495, wanted to force the confederates to recognize effective sovereign rights, pay taxes, supply auxiliary troops and subsidies, to the recognition of the supreme tribunal of the empire, they refused without hesitation. Indeed, they formed an alliance with the monarch’s most bitter enemy, King Charles VIII of France, and with the Grisons, whom the Habsburgs were trying to subdue. The struggle that began in February 1499 – the so-called Swabian War – caused the aggressor Massimiliano serious defeats one after the other: in the Lake Constance region, near Basel, in front of Feldkirch, in southern Graubünden, in the Jura. Even the intervention of Lodovico il Moro could not prevent the king of the Romans from failing his vast projects. The peace of Basel, concluded through the Milanese Galeazzo Visconti on 22 September 1499, did not even deal with those differences, which had caused the struggle: the claims of sovereignty of the empire could not now be translated into action in any way. The confederation, which had welcomed Freiburg and Solothurn as members in 1481, which was to increase in 1501 by the two bridgeheads, Basel and Schaffhausen, which in 1513 again joined, as the last full member, Appenzell, had effectively become independent of the Germanic Empire. intervention of Lodovico il Moro, he could not prevent the king of the Romans from failing his vast projects. The peace of Basel, concluded through the Milanese Galeazzo Visconti on 22 September 1499, did not even deal with those differences, which had caused the struggle: the claims of sovereignty of the empire could not now be translated into action in any way. The confederation, which had welcomed Freiburg and Solothurn as members in 1481, which was to increase in 1501 by the two bridgeheads, Basel and Schaffhausen, which in 1513 again joined, as the last full member, Appenzell, had effectively become independent of the Germanic Empire. intervention of Lodovico il Moro, he could not prevent the king of the Romans from failing his vast projects. The peace of Basel, concluded through the Milanese Galeazzo Visconti on 22 September 1499, did not even deal with those differences, which had caused the struggle: the claims of sovereignty of the empire could not now be translated into action in any way. The confederation, which had welcomed Freiburg and Solothurn as members in 1481, which was to increase in 1501 by the two bridgeheads, Basel and Schaffhausen, which in 1513 again joined, as the last full member, Appenzell, had effectively become independent of the Germanic Empire. he did not even deal with those differences which had caused the struggle: the claims of sovereignty of the empire could not now be translated into action in any way. The confederation, which had welcomed Freiburg and Solothurn as members in 1481, which was to increase in 1501 by the two bridgeheads, Basel and Schaffhausen, which in 1513 again joined, as the last full member, Appenzell, had effectively become independent of the Germanic Empire. he did not even deal with those differences which had caused the struggle: the claims of sovereignty of the empire could not now be translated into action in any way. The confederation, which had welcomed Freiburg and Solothurn as members in 1481, which was to increase in 1501 by the two bridgeheads, Basel and Schaffhausen, which in 1513 again joined, as the last full member, Appenzell, had effectively become independent of the Germanic Empire.
The force amassed in the cantons, which did not find sufficient outlet within limited boundaries, flowed instead, at the beginning of the century. XVI, in the resumption of that tendency to external expansion which had been wrecked three generations earlier. If around 1460-90 the center of gravity of European politics was in the West, from the Neapolitan campaign of Charles VIII it had moved towards the South. Already in the campaign of Charles VIII, thousands of Swiss mercenaries had participated, who played a decisive part in the rescue of the French artillery during the passage of the Apennines, before the battle of Fornovo. During the siege of Novara, by Luigi d’Orléans (1495) 20-25,000 Swiss passed the Alps to rush to the French camp. During the struggle for the domination of Lombardy, between Ludovico il Moro and Louis XII of France, the Swiss appear in the two fields. Partly because of them, at the beginning of April 1500, the unhappy son of Francesco Sforza fell into French captivity. At the same time, however, the expansionist tendency of Uri was renewed, who, after having ensured the definitive purchase of the Leventina, already towards the middle of the 15th century, was now able to take possession of Bellinzona, a fervent partisan of the Sforza and hostile to the French (April 1500). Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden after a long conflict in 1503 obtained the transfer from Louis XII, who then hoped in the conquest of Naples. At the same time, however, the expansionist tendency of Uri was renewed, who, after having ensured the definitive purchase of the Leventina, already towards the middle of the 15th century, was now able to take possession of Bellinzona, a fervent partisan of the Sforza and hostile to the French (April 1500). Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden after a long conflict in 1503 obtained the transfer from Louis XII, who then hoped in the conquest of Naples. At the same time, however, the expansionist tendency of Uri was renewed, who, after having ensured the definitive purchase of the Leventina, already towards the middle of the 15th century, was now able to take possession of Bellinzona, a fervent partisan of the Sforza and hostile to the French (April 1500). Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden after a long conflict in 1503 obtained the transfer from Louis XII, who then hoped in the conquest of Naples.
However, living as good neighbors with the French in Lombardy was not possible. When Pope Julius II tried to drive the French out of Italy, his trusted man, Bishop Matthew Schiner of Sion, managed to conclude an alliance of the Swiss with the curia (1509-10), after it had expired. formerly made alliance by the cantons with Charles VIII and Louis XII. Two attempts made to expel the king of France from Lombardy (1510 and 1511), did not reach the goal.
But in 1512 12,000 Swiss, gathered in Verona with the authorization of Emperor Maximilian, since the beginning of May, in a few weeks managed to repel the enemy – almost without a shot being fired – from his possessions in northern Italy. They conquered Pavia and took possession of Milan, together with Venetian troops, without however waiting for the papal and Spanish troops who also participated in the struggle against France. At the same time they occupied Locarno, Lugano, Mendrisio, Balerna together with the Ossola Valley – that is, all the provinces lost after the battle of Arbedo in 1422 – while the residents of the Grisons took possession of Bormio and Chiavenna as well as of the Valtellina, and while Bern, Freiburg and Solothurn together with Lucerne occupied the county of Neuchâtel,
Unfortunately, it was impossible to keep alive the independent duchy of Milan, which was reconstituted at the end of December 1512, under the eldest son of Ludovico il Moro, Massimiliano Sforza. The Confederates defeated an army sent to reconquer Lombardy under Luigi de la Tremouille and Gian Giacomo Trivulzio at the beginning of June 1513 near Novara; indeed, a few weeks later they even went on to attack Burgundy (siege of Dijon, September 1513). But they could not then hold up in the face of the united forces of France, under its young king Francis I. After having strategically lost the campaign of the summer of 1515, the battle of Marignano on 13 and 14 September also resulted in a serious defeat, with great losses of men. Regaining Lombardy was now impossible. Eternal peace with France, which was only validated at the end of November 1516, meant the Swiss renunciation of maintaining the Sforza duchy of Milan, rebuilt with Swiss help. In exchange, the Confederates were able to keep possession of today’s Canton Ticino, while the Ossola Valley was lost in 1515.
The tenacity of the primitive cantons, which refused any other alliance with France, thus ensured the confederation of the Alpine country also territories and subjects of the Italian language. But an independent, great-power policy vis-à-vis France, as attempted from 1512 to 1515, was inconceivable thereafter. Most were happy to be able to fight in the service of the king of France, as mercenaries.
