The Swiss Confederation is made up of twenty-two small
states, differing from each other in nearly every point?religious,
political, social, industrial, physical and linguistic;
yet it forms a nation the patriotism of whose members is universally
acknowledged. History alone can supply us with the key
to this puzzle; but Swiss history, while thus essential if we could
thoroughly grasp the nature of the Confederation, is very
intricate and very local. A firm hold on a few guiding principles
is therefore most desirable, and of these there are three which
we must always bear in mind. (1) The first to be mentioned
is
the connexion of Swiss history with that of the Empire
. Swiss
history is largely the history of the drawing together of bits of
each of the imperial kingdoms (Germany, Italy and Burgundy)
for common defence against a common foe?the Habsburgs;
and, when this family have secured to themselves the permanent
possession of the Empire, the Swiss League little by little wins
its independence of the Empire, practically in 1499, formally
in 1648. Originally a member of the Empire, the Confederation
becomes first an ally, then merely a friend. (2) The second
is the
German origin and nature of the Confederation
. Round
a German nucleus (the three Forest districts) there gradually
gather other German districts; the Confederation is exclusively
German (save partially in the case of Fribourg, in which after
its admission in 1481 Teutonic influences gradually supplanted
the Romance speech); and it is not till 1803 and 1815 that its
French- and Italian-speaking “subjects” are raised to political
equality with their former masters, and that the Romonsch-speaking
Leagues of Raetia (Graubunden) pass from the status
of an ally to that of a member of the Confederation. (3) Swiss
history is a
study in federalism
. Based on the defensive
alliances of 1291 and 1315 between the three Forest districts,
the Confederation is enlarged by the admission of other districts
and towns, all leagued with the original three members, but not
necessarily with each other. Hence great difficulties are encountered
in looking after common interests, in maintaining
any real union; the Diet was merely an assembly of ambassadors
with powers very strictly limited by their instructions, and there
was no central executive authority. The Confederation is a
Staatenbund
, or permanent alliance of several small states.
After the break-up of the old system in 1798 we see the idea
of a
Bundesslaat
, or an organized state with a central legislative,
executive and judiciary, work its way to the front, an idea which
is gradually realized in the Constitutions of 1848 and 1874. The
whole constitutional history of the Confederation is summed up
in this transition to a federal state, which, while a single state
in its foreign relations, in home matters maintains the more or
less absolute independence of its several members.
Swiss history falls naturally into five great divisions:
(1) The
origins of the Confederation?up to 1291
(for the legendary
origin see
Tell, William
);
(2) the shaking off dependence
on the Habsburgs?up to 1394 (1474)
;
(3) the shaking off
dependence on the Empire-up to 1499 (1648)
;
(4) the period
of religious divisions and French influence?up to 1814
;
(5)
the construction of an independent state as embodied in the
Constitutions of 1848 and 1874
.
1. On the 1st of August 1291 the men of the valley of Uri
(
homines vallis Uraniae
), the free community of the valley of
Schwyz (
universitas vallis de Swilz
), and the association of the
men of the lower valley or Nidwalden (
communitas hominum
intramontanarum vallis inferioris
)?Obwalden or the upper
valley is not mentioned in the text, though it is named on the
Early History of the Three Lands.
seal appended-formed an Everlasting League for
the purpose of self-defence against all who should
attack or trouble them, a league which is expressly
stated to be a confirmation of a former one (
antiquam
confederationis formam juramenlo vallalam presentibus innovando
).
This league was the foundation of the Swiss Confederation.
What were these districts? and why at this particular moment
was it necessary for them to form a defensive league? The
legal and political conditions of each were very different. (
a
) In
853 Louis the German granted (
inter alia
) all his lands (and the
rights annexed to them) situated in the
pagellus Uraniae
to the
convent of Sts Felix and Regula in Zurich (the present Fraumunster),
of which his daughter Hildegard was the first abbess,
and gave to this district the privilege of exemption from all
jurisdiction save that of the king (
Reichsfreiheit
), so that though
locally within the Zurichgau it was not subject to its count, the
king's deputy. The abbey thus became possessed of the greater
part of the valley of the Reuss between the present Devil's
Bridge and the Lake of Lucerne, for the upper valley (Urseren)
belonged at that time to the abbey of Disentis in the Rhine
valley, and did not become permanently allied with Uri till 1410.
The privileged position of the abbey tenants gradually led the
other men of the valley to “commend” themselves to the abbey,
whether they were tenants of other lords or free men as in the
Schachenthal. The meeting of all the inhabitants of the valley,
for purposes connected with the customary cultivation of the
soil according to fixed rules and methods, served to prepare
them for the enjoyment of full political liberty in later days.
The important post of “protector” (advocates or vogt) of the
abbey was given to one family after another by the emperor
as a sign of trust; but when, on the extinction of the house
of Zaringen in 1218, the office was granted to the Habsburgs,
the protests of the abbey tenants, who feared the rapidly rising
power of that family, and perhaps also the desire of the German
king to obtain command of the St Gotthard Pass (of which
the first authentic mention occurs about 1236, when of course
it could only be traversed on foot), led to the recall of the grant
in 1231, the valley being thus restored to its original privileged
position, and depending immediately on the king. (
b
) In
Schwyz (first mentioned in 972) we must distinguish between
the districts west and east of Steinen. In the former the land
was in the hands of, many nobles, amongst whom were the
Habsburgs; in the latter there was, at the foot of the Mythen,
a free community of men governing themselves and cultivating
their land in common; both, however, were politically subject
to the king's delegates, the counts of the Zurichgau, who after
1173 were the ever-advancing Habsburgs. But in 1240 the free
community of Schwyz obtained from the emperor Frederick II.
a charter which removed them from the jurisdiction of the
counts, placing them in immediate dependence on the king, like
the abbey men of Uri. In a few years, however, the Habsburgs
contrived to dispense with this charter in practice. (
c
) In
Unterwalden things were very different. The upper valley
(Obwalden or Sarnen), like the lower (Nidwalden or Stans),
formed part of the Zurichgau, while in both the soil was owned
by many ecclesiastical and lay lords, among them being the
Habsburgs and the Alsatian abbey of Murbach. Hence in this
district there were privileged tenants, but no free community,
and no centre of unity, and this explains why Obwalden and
Nidwalden won their way upwards so much more slowly than
their neighbours in Uri and Schwyz. Thus the early history and
legal position of these three districts was very far from being the
same. In Uri the Habsburgs, save for a brief space, had absolutely
no rights; while in Schwyz, Obwalden and Nidwalden they were
also, as counts of the Zurichgau, the representatives of the king.
The Habsburgs had been steadily rising for many years from
the position of an unimportant family in the Aargau to that of
a powerful clan of large landed proprietors in Swabia and Alsace,
and had attained a certain political importance as counts of
the Zurichgau and Aargau. In one or both qualities the cadet
or Laufenburg line, to which the family estates in the Forest
districts round the Lake of Lucerne had fallen on the division
of the inheritance in 1232, seem to have exercised their legal
rights in a harsh manner. In 1240 the free men of Schwyz
obtained protection from the emperor, and in 1244 we hear of
The League of 1291.
the castle of New Habsburg, built by the Habsburgs
on a promontory jutting out into the lake not far
from Lucerne, with the object of enforcing their
real or pretended rights. It is therefore not a matter for surprise
that when, after the excommunication and deposition of
Frederick II. by Innocent IV. at the Council of Lyons in 1245,
the head of the cadet line of Habsburg sided with the pope,
some of the men of the Forest districts should rally round the
emperor. Schwyz joined Sarnen and Lucerne (though Uri
and Obwalden supported the pope); the castle of New Habsburg
was reduced to its present ruined state; and in 1247 the men of
Schwyz, Sarnen and Lucerne were threatened by the pope
with excommunication if they persisted in upholding the emperor
and defying their hereditary lords the counts of Habsburg.
The rapid decline of Frederick's cause soon enabled the Habsburgs
to regain their authority in these districts. Yet these obscure
risings have an historical interest, for they are the foundation
in fact (so far as they have any) of the legendary stories of
Habsburg oppression told of and by a later age. After this
temporary check the power of the Habsburgs continued to increase
rapidly. In 1273 the head of the cadet line sold all his lands
and rights in the Forest districts to the head of the elder or
Alsatian line, Rudolph, who a few months later was elected
to the imperial throne, in virtue of which he acquired for his
family in 1282 the duchy of Austria, which now for the first
time became connected with the Habsburgs. Rudolph recognized
the privileges of Uri but not those of Schwyz; and, as he
now united in his own person the characters of emperor, count
of the Zurichgau, and landowner in the Forest districts (a name
occurring first in the 14th century), such a union of offices might
be expected to result in a confusion of rights. On the 16th of
April 1291 Rudolph bought from the abbey of Murbach in Alsace
(of which he was “advocate”) all its rights over the town of
Lucerne and the abbey estates in Unterwalden. It thus seemed
probable that the other Forest districts would be shut off from
their natural means of communication with the outer world
by way of the lake. Rudolph’s death, on the 15th of July of
the same year, cleared the way, and a fortnight later (August 1)
the Everlasting League was made between the men of Uri,
Schwyz and Nidwalden (the words
et vallis superioris
,
i.e.
Obwalden, were inserted, perhaps between the time of the drawing
up of the document, the text of which does not mention
Obwalden, and the moment of its sealing on the original seal
of Nidwalden) for the purpose of self-defence against a common
foe. We do not know the names of the delegates of each valley
who concluded the treaty, nor the place where it was made, nor
have we any account of the deliberations of which it was the
result. The common seal?that great outward sign of the right
of a corporate body to act in its own name?appears first
in Uri in 1243, in Schwyz in 1281, in Unterwalden not till this
very document of 1291; yet, despite the great differences in
their political status, they all joined in concluding this League,
and confirmed it by their separate seals, thereby laying claim
on behalf of their union to an independent existence. Besides
promises of aid and assistance in the case of attack, they agree
to punish great criminals by their own authority, but advise
that, in minor cases and in all civil cases, each man should
recognize the “judex” to whom he owes suit, engaging that
the Confederates Will, in case of need, enforce the decisions of
the “judex.” At the same time they unanimously refuse to
recognize any “judex” who has bought his charge or is a stranger
to the valleys. All disputes between the parties to the treaty
are, as far as possible, to be settled by a reference to arbiters,
a principle which remained in force for over six hundred years.
“Judex” is a general term for any local official, especially the
chief of the community, whether named by the lord or by the
community; and, as earlier in the same year Rudolph had
promised the men of Schwyz not to force upon them a “judex”
belonging to the class of serfs, we may conjecture from this very
decided protest that the chief source of disagreement was in
the matter of the jurisdictions of the lord and the free community,
and that some recent event in Schwyz led it to insist on the
insertion of this provision. It is stipulated also that every
man shall be bound to obey his own lord “convenienter,” or
so far as is fitting and right. The
antiqua confoederatio
mentioned
in this document was probably merely an ordinary agreement
to preserve the peace in that particular district, made probably
during the interregnum (1254?1273) in the Empire.
2. In the struggle for the Empire, which extended over the
years following the conclusion of the League of 1291, we find
that the Confederates supported Without exception
anti-Habsburg candidate. On the 16th of
October 1291 Uri and Schwyz allied themselves
with Zurich, and joined the general rising in Swabia
Morgarten and the league of 1315.
against Albert, the new head of the house of Habsburg. It soon
failed, but hopes revived when in 1292 Adolf of Nassau was
chosen emperor. In 1297 he confirmed to the free men of
Schwyz their charter of 1240, and, strangely enough, confirmed
the same charter to Uri, instead of their own of 1231. It is
in his reign that we have the first recorded meeting of the
“Landsgemeinde” (or legislative assembly) of Schwyz (1294).
But in 1298 Albert of Habsburg himself was elected to the Empire.
His rule was strict and severe, though not oppressive. He did
not indeed confirm the charters of Uri or of Schwyz, but he
did not attack the ancient rights of the former, and in the
latter he exercised his rights as a landowner and did not abuse
his political rights as emperor or as count. In Unterwalden we
find that in 1304 the two valleys were joined together under a
common administrator (the local deputy of the count)?a great
step forward to permanent union. The stories of Albert’s
tyrannical actions in the Forest districts are not heard of till
two centuries later, though no doubt the union of offices in his
person was a permanent source of alarm to the Confederation.
It was in his time too that the “terrier” (or list of manors and
estates, with enumeration of all quit rents, dues, &c., payable
by the tenants to their lords) of all the Habsburg possessions
in Upper Germany was begun, and it was on the point of being
extended to Schwyz and Unterwalden when Albert was murdered
(1308) and the election of Henry of Luxemburg roused the free
men to resist the officials charged with the survey. Despite
his promise to restore to the Habsburgs all rights enjoyed by
them under his three predecessors (or maintain them in possession),
Henry confirmed, on the 3rd of June 1309, to Uri and
Schwyz their charters of 1297, and, for some unknown reason,
confirmed to Unterwalden all the liberties granted by his predecessor,
though as a matter of fact none had been granted.
This charter, and the nomination of one royal bailiff to administer
the three districts, had the 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 community 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 Habsburgs
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 Habsburgs as to the recognition of the rights
of the latter,
not
between the Habsburgs and those dependent
on them as landlords or counts.
On Henry’s death in 1313 the electors hesitated long between
Frederick the Handsome of Habsburg 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 “advocate”
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 Confederates hastily concluded alliances with Glarus,
Urseren, Arth 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 Brunig Pass.
On the 15th of November 1315, Leopold with from 15,000 to
20,000 men moved forward along the shore of the Lake of Aegeri,
intending to assail the town of Schwyz by climbing the slopes
of Morgarten above the south-eastern end of the lake. There
they were awaited by the valiant band of the Confederates
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
and drove them into the lake. Leopold fled in hot haste
to Winterthur, and the attack by the Brunig was driven back
by the men of Unterwalden. On the 9th of December 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 the 24th of
July 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 interregnum in or
disputed election to the Empire, possibly for the chance of the
election of a Habsburg.) 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 Confederates, 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 recognized and
confirmed the new league in 1316, and in 1318 a truce was
concluded between the Confederates and the Habsburgs, who
treat with them on equal terms. The lands and rights annexed
belonging to the Habsburgs in the Forest districts are fully
recognized as they existed in the days of Henry of Luxemburg,
and freedom of commerce is granted. But there is not one word
about the
political
rights of the Habsburgs as counts of the
Zurichgau and Aargau. This distinction gives the key to the
whole history of the relations between the Confederates and
Habsburgs; 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 were always contested
by the Swiss, who desired to rule themselves.
As early as 1320 we find the name “Switzerland” (
Sweicz
)
(derived from Schwyz, which had always been the leader in the
struggle) applied to the three Forest cantons, and in
1352 extended to the Confederation as a whole.
But it was not till after Sempach (1386) that it
The League of
Eight Members.
came into popular use, the historian J. von Muller (1785) fixing
the distinction between “Schweiz” (for the country) and
“Schwyz” (for the Canton), and it did not form the official name
of the Confederation till 1803. (Officially in the middle ages and
later the Confederation was named “les Ligues de la Haute
Allemagne,” or, as Commines, late in the 15th century, puts it,
“les vieilles Ligues d'Allemagne qu'on appelle Suisses,” while
from
c
. 1452 onwards the people were called “Swiss”). 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 or Leger (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 Habsburgs. This act of Lucerne was
opposed by the house of Austria, but, despite the decision of
certain chosen arbitrators in favour of the Habsburg 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
association of the Forest districts, which now surrounded the
entire Lake of Lucerne. Next, in 1351, came the ancient town 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
Fraumunster (the lady of Uri) had great influence, while in 1336
there had been a great civic revolution, headed by Rudolph Brun,
which had raised the members of the craft gilds to a position in
the municipal government of equal power with that of the
patricians, who, however, did not cease intriguing to regain their
lost privileges, so that Brun, after long hesitation, decided to
throw in the lot of the town 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 Habsburgs were
“advocates,” claiming therefore many rights over the valley,
which refused to admit them, and joyfully received the Confederates
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 Habsburg 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
Austrian duke against Zurich, which was ended by the Brandenburg
peace of 1352, by which Glarus and Zug were to be restored
to the Habsburgs, who also regained their rights over Lucerne.
Zug was won for good by a bold stroke of the men of Schwyz in
1364, but it was not till the day of Nafels (1388) that Glarus
recovered its lost freedom. These temporary losses and the
treaty made by Brun of Zurich with Austria in 1356 were, however,
far outweighed by the entrance into the League in 1353 of
the famous town of Bern, which, founded in 1191 by Berthold V.
of Zaringen, and endowed with great privileges, had become a
free imperial city in 1218 on the extinction of the Zaringen
dynasty. Founded for the purpose of bridling the turbulent
feudal nobles around, many of whom had become citizens, Bern
beat them back at Dornbuhl (1298), and made a treaty with the
Forest districts as early as 1323. In 1339, at the bloody fight of
Laupen, she had broken the power of the nobles for ever, and in
1352 had been forced by a treaty with Austria to take part in the
war against Zurich, but soon after the conclusion of peace entered
the League as the ally of the three Forest districts, being thus
only indirectly joined to Lucerne and Zurich. The special
importance of the accession of Bern was that the League now
began to spread to the west, and was thus brought into Connexion
for the first time with the French-speaking land of Savoy. The
League thus numbered eight members, the fruits of Morgarten,
and no further members were admitted till 1481, after the
Burgundian War. But, in order thoroughly to understand the
nature of the League, it must be remembered that, while each of
the five new members was allied with the original nucleus-the
three Forest districts?these five were not directly allied to
one another: Lucerne was allied with Zurich and Zug; Zurich
with Lucerne, Zug and Glarus; Glarus with Zurich; Zug with
Lucerne and Zurich; Bern with no one except the three original
members. The circumstances under which each entered the
League can alone explain these very intricate relations.
After a short interval of peace the quarrels with Austria broke
out afresh; all the members of the League, save the three Forest
districts and Glarus, joined (1385) the great union
of the south German cities; but their attention was
soon called to events nearer home. Lucerne fretted much under
Sempach.
the Austrian rule, received many Austrian subjects among her
citizens, and refused to pay custom duties to the Austrian bailiff
at Rothenburg, on the ground that she had the right of free
traffic. An attack on the custom-house at Rothenburg, and the
gift of the privileges of burgher ship to the discontented inhabitants
of the little town of Sempach a short way off, so irritated
Leopold III. (who then held all the possessions of his house outside
Austria) that he collected an army, with the intention of
crushing his rebellious town. Lucerne meanwhile had summoned
the other members of the League to her aid, and, though Leopold’s
feint of attacking Zurich caused the troops of the League to
march at first in that direction, they discovered their mistake in
time to turn back and check his advance on Lucerne. From
1500 to 1600 men of Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, and Lucerne
opposed the 6000 which made up the Austrian army. The
decisive fight took place on the 9th of July 1386, near Sempach,
on a bit of sloping meadow-land, cut up by streams and hedges,
which forced the Austrian knights to dismount. The great heat
of the day, which rendered it impossible to fight in armour, and
the furious attacks of the Confederates, finally broke the Austrian
line after more than one repulse and turned the day (see
Winkelried
).
Leopold, with a large number of his followers, was slain,
and the Habsburg power within the borders of the Confederation
finally broken. Glarus at once rose in arms against Austria,
but it was not till the expiration of the truce made after Sempach
that Leopold's brother, Albert of Austria, brought an army
against Glarus, and was defeated at Nafels (not far from Glarus)
on the 9th of April 1388, by a handful of Glarus and Schwyz
men.
In 1389 a peace for seven years was made, the Confederates
being secured in all their conquests; an attempt made in 1393 by
Austria by means of Schono, the chief magistrate of Zurich
and leader of the patrician party, to stir up a fresh attack
failed owing to a rising of the burghers, who sympathized with
Freedom from the Political Claims of the Habsburgs.
the Confederates, and on the 16th of July 1394 the
peace was prolonged for twenty years (and again in
1412 for fifty years), various stipulations being made
by which the long struggle of the League against the
Habsburgs was finally crowned with success.
By the peace of 1394 Glarus was freed on payment of £200
annually (in 1395 it bought up all the rights of Sackingen);
Zug too was released from Austrian rule. Schwyz was given
the advocatia of the great abbey of Einsiedeln; Lucerne
got the Entlebuch (finally in 1405), Sempach and Rothenburg,
Bern and Soleure were confirmed in their conquests. Above all,
the Confederation as a whole was relieved from the overlordship
of the Habsburgs, to whom, however, all their rights and dues
as landed proprietors were expressly reserved; Bern, Zurich
and Soleure guaranteeing the maintenance of these rights and
dues, with power in case of need to call on the other Confederates
to support them by arms. Though the house of Habsburg
entertained hopes of recovering its former rights, so that technically
the treaties of 1389, 1394 and 1412 were but truces, it finally
and for ever renounced all its feudal rights and privileges within
the Confederation by the “Everlasting Compact” of 1474.
It is probable that Bern did not take any active share in the
Sempach War because she was bound by the treaty of peace made
with the Austrians in 1368; and Soleure, allied with Bern, was
doubtless a party to the treaty of 1394 (though not yet in the
League), because of its sufferings in 1382 at the hands of the
Kyburg line of the Habsburgs, whose possessions (Thun,
Burgdorf, &c.) in 1384 fell into the hands of the two allies.
We may mention here the foray (known as the English or
Gugler War) made in 1375 by Enguerrand de Coucy (husband of
Isabella, daughter of Edward III. of England) and his freebooters
(many of them Englishmen and Welshmen), called “Gugler”
from their pointed steel caps, with the object of obtaining
possession of certain towns in the Aargau (including Sempach),
which he claimed as the dowry of his mother Catherine,
daughter of the Leopold who was defeated at Morgarten. He
was put to rout in the Entlebuch by the men of Bern, Lucerne,
Schwyz and Unterwalden in December 1375. This victory was
commemorated with great rejoicings in 1875.
3. The great victory at Sempach not merely vastly increased
the fame of the Everlasting League but also enabled it to extend
both its influence and its territory. The 15th
century is the period when both the League and
its several members took the aggressive, and the
expansion of their power and lands cannot be better
Struggles in Appenzell, St Gall and Valsis.
seen than by comparing the state of things at the beginning
and at the end of this century. The pastoral highlands of
Appenzell (Abbatis Cella) and the town of St Gall had long been
trying to throw off the rights exercised over them by the great
abbey of St Gall. The Appenzellers, especially, had offered a
stubborn resistance, and the abbot’s troops had been beaten back
by them in 1403 on the heights of Vogelinseck, and again in 1405
in the great fight on the Stoss Pass (which leads up into the highlands),
in which the abbot was backed by the duke of Austria.
The tales of the heroic defence of Uri Rotach of Appenzell, and
of the appearance of a company of Appenzell women disguised as
warriors which turned the battle, are told in connexion with this
light, but do not appear till the 17th and 18th centuries, being
thus quite unhistorical, so far as our genuine evidence goes.
Schwyz had given them some help, and in 1411 Appenzell was
placed under the protection of the League (save Bern), with
which in the next year the city of St Gall made a similar treaty
to last ten years. So too in 1416?1417 several of the “tithings”
of the Upper Valais (
i.e.
the upper stretch of the Rhone valley),
which in 1388 had beaten the bishop and the nobles in a great
tight at Visp, became closely associated with Lucerne, Uri and
Unterwalden. It required aid in its final struggle (1418?19)
against the great house of Raron, the count-bishop of Sitten (or
Sion), and the house of Savoy, which held the Lower Valais?the
Forest districts, on the other hand, wishing to secure themselves
against Raron and Savoy in their attempt to conquer
permanently the Val d’Ossola on the south side of the Simplon
Pass. Bern, however, supported its burgher, the lord of Raron,
and peace was made in 1420. Such were the first links which
bound these lands with the League; but they did not become
full members for a long time?Appenzell in 1513, St Gall in 1803,
the Valais in 1815.
Space will not allow us to enumerate all the small conquests
made in the first half of the 15th century by every member of
the League; suffice it to say that each increased and rounded
off its territory, but did not give the conquered lands any political
rights, governing them as “subject lands,” often very harshly.
The same phenomenon of lands which had won their own freedom
playing the part of tyrant over other lands which joined them
more or less by their voluntary action is seen on a larger scale in
the case of the conquest of the Aargau, and in the first attempts
to secure a footing south of the Alps.
In 1412 the treaty of 1394 between the League and the Habsburgs
had been renewed for fifty years; but when in 1415 Duke
Frederick of Austria helped Pope John XXII. to escape from
Constance, where the great ecumenical council was then sitting,
and the emperor Sigismund placed the duke under the ban of the
Empire, summoning all members of the Empire to arm against
him, the League hesitated, because of their treaty of 1412, till
the emperor declared that all the rights and lands of Austria in
the League were forfeited, and that their compact did not release
them from their obligations to the Empire. In the name, therefore,
of the emperor, and by his special command, the different
members of the League overran the extensive Habsburg possessions
in the Aargau. The chief share fell to Bern, but certain
districts (known as the Freie Aemter) were joined together and
governed as bailiwicks held in common by all the members of the
League (save Uri, busied in the south, and Bern, who had already
secured the lion’s share of the spoil for herself). This is the first
case in which the League as a whole took up the position of rulers
over districts which, though guaranteed in the enjoyment of
their old rights, were nevertheless politically unfree. As an
encouragement and a reward, Sigismund had granted in advance
to the League the right of criminal jurisdiction (haute justice
or
Blutbann
), which points to the fact that they were soon
to become independent of the Empire, as they were of Austria.
As the natural policy of Bern was to seek to enlarge its borders
at the expense of Austria, and later of Savoy, so we find that Uri,
shut off by physical causes from extension in other directions,
as steadily turned its eyes towards the south. In 1410 the
valley of Urseren was finally joined to Uri; though
communications were difficult, and carried on only by Italian
First Italian Conquest
means of the “Stiebende Brucke,” a wooden bridge
suspended by chains over the Reuss, along the side of a great
rocky buttress (pierced in 1707 by the tunnel known as the
Urnerloch), yet this enlargement of the territory of Uri gave it
complete command over the St Gotthard Pass, long commercially
important, and now to serve for purposes of war and conquest.
Already in 1403 Uri and Obwalden had taken advantage of a
quarrel with the duke of Milan as to custom dues at the market
of Varese to occupy the long narrow upper Ticino valley on the
south of the pass called the Val Leventina; in 1411 the men of
the same two lands, exasperated by the insults of the local lords,
called on the other members of the League, and all jointly (except
Bern) occupied the Val d’Ossola, on the south side of the Simplon
Pass. But in 1414 they lost this to Savoy, and, with the object
of getting it back, obtained in 1416?1417 the alliance of the men
of the Upper Valais, then fighting for freedom, and thus regained
(1416) the valley, despite the exertions of the great Milanese
general Carmagnola. In 1419 Uri and Obwalden bought from
its lord the town and district of Bellinzona. This rapid advance,
however, did not approve itself to the duke of Milan, and Carmagnola
reoccupied both valleys; the Confederates were not at
one with regard to these southern conquests; a small body pressed
on in front of the rest, but was cut to pieces at Arbedo near
Bellinzona in 1422. A bold attempt in 1425 by a Schwyzer,
Peter Rissi by name, to recover the Val d’Ossola caused the
Confederates to send a force to rescue these adventurers; but
the duke of Milan intrigued with the divided Confederates, and
finally in 1426, by a payment of a large sum of money and the
grant of certain commercial privileges, the Val Leventina, the
Val d'Ossola and Bellinzona were formally restored to him.
Thus the first attempt of Uri to acquire a footing south of the
Alps failed; but a later attempt was successful, leading to the
inclusion in the Confederation of what has been called “Italian
Switzerland.”
The original contrasts between the social condition of the
different members of the League became more marked when the
The First Civil War.
period of conquest began, and led to quarrels and ill-feeling
in the matter of the Aargau and the Italian
conquests which a few years later ripened into a civil
war, brought about by the dispute as to the succession to the
lands of Frederick, count of Toggenburg, the last male representative
of his house. Count F rederick's predecessors had greatly
extended their domains, so that they took in not only the Toggenburg
or upper valley of the Thur, but Uznach, Sargans, the Rhine
valley between Feldkirch and Sargans, the Priittigau and the
Davos valley. He himself, the last great feudal lord on the left
bank of the Rhine, had managed to secure his vast possessions
by making treaties with several members of the League, particularly
Zurich (1400) and Schwyz (1417)?from 1428 inclining
more and more to Schwyz (then ruled by Ital Riding), as he was
disgusted with the arrogant behaviour of Stussi, the burgomaster
of Zurich. His death (April 30, 1436) was the signal for the
breaking out of strife. The Prattigau and Davos valley formed
the League of the Ten Iurisdictions in Raetia (see below), while
F rederick'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 “Hofe”) to Schwyz, the general feeling
of the Confederates being opposed to Zurich, so that several of
them went so far as to send men and arms to Schwyz. Zurich,
however, was bitterly disappointed at these defeats, and had
recourse to the 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 according 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 Habsburg 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, Stussi 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 Ecorcheurs), 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 lakob
on the Birs (Aug. 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 engagements
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 by means of Zurich, which
used its position as an imperial free city to the harm of the
League, and caused the first civil war by which it was distracted.
These fresh proofs of the valour of the Confederates, and of
the growing importance of the League, did not fail to produce
Constitution of the League,
c.
1450
important results. In 1452 the “Confederates of
the the 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 influence on their history. -Round 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 the Valais (1416-1417),
Schaffhausen (1454), Rottweil (1463), Muhlhausen (1466), (to
the class of confoederati belonged in later times Neuchatel
1406-1501), the Three Leagues of Raetia (1497-1498), Geneva
(1519-1536), and the bishop of Basel (1579). Appenzell, 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
abbey of Engelberg (c. 1421), and the town of Rapperswil (1464).
The relation of the “associates” to the League may be compared
with the ancient practice of “Commendation”: they were
bound to obey orders in declaring war, making alliances, &c.
In 1439 Sigismund succeeded his father Frederick in the
Habsburg lands in Alsace, the Thurgau, and Tirol and, being
much irritated by the constant encroachments of the Confederates,
in particular by the loss of Rapperswil (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 Wintherthur to Zurich.
Thus the whole line of the Rhine was lost to the Habsburgs, who
retained (till 1801) in the territories of the Confederates the
F rickthal only. The Thurgovian bailiwicks 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 eagerness with which in 1468 its members took up arms
against certain small feudal nobles who were carrying on a
harassing guerrilla warfare with their allies Schaffhausen and
Muhlha usen. They laid siege to Waldshut, and to buy them off
Sigismund in August 1468 engaged to pay 10,000 gulden as
damages by the 24th of June 1469; in default of payment the
Confederates were to keep for ever the Black Forest, and Waldshut,
one of the 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 feeling, enormously
raised its military reputation, and brought about the close
connexion with certain parts of Savoy, which finally (1803-1815)
were admitted into the League.
Sigismund did not know where to obtain the sum he had
promised to pay. In this strait he turned to Charles the Bold
(properly the Rash), duke of Burgundy, who 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,
The Burgundian War.
son of the emperor, and first cousin of Sigismund, in order that
the emperor might be induced to give him the Burgundian crown.
Hence he was ready to meet Sigismund's advances. On the 9th
of May 1469 Charles promised to give Sigismund 50,000 florins,
receiving as security for repayment Upper Alsace, the Breisgau,
the Sundgau, the Black Forest, and the four Black Forest towns
on the Rhine (Rheinfelden, Sackingen, Laufenburg and Waldshut),
and agreed to give Sigismund aid against the Swiss, 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
committed the mortgaged lands to Peter von Hagenbach, who
proceeded to try to establish his master's power there by such
harsh measures as to cause the people to 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. Sigismund 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 their neutrality in case of his war with Charles,
he made a treaty with them on the 13th of August 1470 to this
eHect. All the evidence goes to show that Sigismund was not a
tool in the hands of Louis, and that Louis, at least at that time,
had no definite intention of involving Charles and the Swiss in a
war, but wished only to secure his own flank.
Sigismund in the next few years tried hard to get from Charles
the promised aid against the Swiss (the money was paid punctually
enough by Charles on his behalf), who put him off with various
excuses. Charles on his side, in 1471?1472, tried to make an
alliance with the Swiss, his efforts being supported by a party in
Bern headed by Adrian von Bubenberg. Probably Charles wished
to use both Sigismund and the Swiss to further his own interests,
but his shifty policy had the effect of alienating both from him.
Sigismund, disgusted with Charles, now inclined towards Louis,
whose ally he formally became in the summer of 1473?a change
which was the real cause of the emperor’s flight from Treves in
November 1473, when he had come there expressly to crown
Charles. The Confederates on their side were greatly moved by
the oppression of their friends and allies in Alsace by Hagenbach,
and tried in vain (January 1474) to obtain some redress from his
master. Charles’s too astute policy had thus lost him both
Sigismund and the Swiss. They now looked upon Louis, who,
thoroughly aware of Charles’s ambition, and fearing that his
disappointment at Treves would soon lead to open war, aimed
at a master stroke?no less than the reconciliation of Sigismund
and the Swiss. This on the face of it seemed impracticable, but
common need and Louis’s dexterous management brought it to
pass, so that on the 30th of March 1474 the Everlasting Compact
was signed at Constance, by which Sigismund finally renounced
all Austrian claims on the lands of the Confederates, and guaranteed
them in quiet enjoyment to them; they, on the other hand
agreed to support him if Charles did not give up the mortgaged
lands when the money was paid down. The next day the Swiss
joined the league of the Alsatian and Rhine cities, as also
did Sigismund. Charles was called on to receive the money
contributed by the Alsatian cities, and to restore his lands to
Sigismund. He, however, took no steps. Within a week the
oppressive bailiff Hagenbach was captured, and a month later
(May 9, 1474) he was put to death, Bern alone of the Confederates
being represented. On the 9th of October the emperor, acting
of course at the instance of Sigismund, ordered them to declare
war against Charles, which took place on the 25th of October.
Next day Louis formally ratified his alliance with the Confederates,
promising money and pensions, the latter to be increased
if he did not send men. Throughout these negotiations and later
Bern directs Swiss policy, though all the Confederates are not
quite agreed. She was specially exposed to attack from Charles
and Charles’s ally (since 1468) Savoy, and her best chance of
extending her territory lay towards the west and south. A
forward policy was thus distinctly the best for Bern, and this
was the line supported by the French party under Nicholas von
Diesbach, Adrian von Bubenberg opposing it, though not with
any idea of handing over Bern to Charles. The Forest districts,
however, were very suspicious of this movement to the west, by
which Bern alone could profit, though the League as a whole
might lose; then, too, Uri had in 1440 finally won the Val
Leventina, and she and her neighbours favoured a southerly
policy?a policy which was crowned with success after the gallant
victory won at Giornico in 1478 by a handful of men from Zurich,
Lucerne, Uri and Schwyz over 12,000 Milanese troops. Thus
Uri first gained a permanent footing south of the Alps, not
long before Bern won its first conquests from Savoy.
The war in the west was begun by Bern and her allies (Fribourg,
Soleure, &c.) by marauding expeditions across the ]ura, in which
Hericourt (November 1474) and Blarnont (August 1475) were
taken, both towns being held of Charles by the “sires” de
Neuchatel, a cadet line of the counts of Montbeliard. It is said
that in the former expedition the white cross was borne (for the
first time) as the ensign of the Confederates, but not in the other.
Meanwhile Yolande, the duchess of Savoy, had, through fear
of her brother Louis XI. and hatred of Bern, finally joined
Charles and Milan (January 1475), the immediate result of
which was the capture, by the Bernese and friends (on the
way back from a foray on Pontarlier in the free county of Burgundy
or Franche-Comte), of several places in Vaud, notably
Grandson and Echallens, both held of Savoy by a member of
the house of Chalon, princes of Orange (April 1475), as well
as of Orbe and Jougne, held by the same, but under the
count of Burgundy. In the summer Bern seized on the
Savoyard district of Aigle. Soon after (October?November
1475) the same energetic policy won for her the Savoyard
towns of Morat, Avenches, Estavayer and Yverdon; while
(September) the Upper Valais, which had conquered all
Lower or Savoyard Valais, entered into alliance with Bern
for the purpose of opposing Savoy by preventing the arrival of
Milanese troops. Alarmed at their success, the emperor and
Louis deserted (June?September) the Confederates, who thus,
by the influence of Louis and Bernese ambition, saw themselves
led on and then abandoned to the wrath of Charles, and very
likely to lose their new conquests. They had entered on the
war as “helpers” of the emperor, and now became principals
in the war against Charles, who raised the siege of Neuss, made
an alliance with Edward IV. of England, received the surrender
of Lorraine, and hastened across the Jura (February 1476)
to the aid of his ally Yolande. On the 21st of February Charles
laid siege to the castle of Grandson, and after a week’s siege the
garrison of Bernese and Fribourgers had to surrender (Oct.
28), while, by way of retaliation for the massacre of the garrison
of Estavayer in 1475, of the 412 men two only were spared in
order to act as executioners of their comrades. This hideous
news met a large body of the Confederates gathered together
in great haste to relieve the garrison, and going to their
rendezvous at Neuchatel, where both the count and town
had become allies of Bern in 1406. An advance body of
Bernese, Fribourgers and Schwyzers, in order to avoid the
castle of Vauxmarcus (seized by Charles), on the shore of
the Lake of Neuchatel, and on the direct road from Neuchatel
to Grandson, climbed over a wooded spur to the north, and
attacked (March 2) the Burgundian outposts. Charles drew
back his force in order to bring down the Swiss to the more
level ground where his cavalry could act, but his rear misinterpreted
the order, and when the main Swiss force appeared
over the spur the Burgundian army was seized with a panic
and fled in disorder. The Swiss had gained a glorious
victory, and regained their conquest of Grandson, besides
capturing very rich spoil in Charles’s camp, parts of which are
preserved to the present day in various Swiss armouries. Such
was the famous battle of Grandson. Charles at once retired to
Lausanne, and set about reorganizing his army. He resolved
to advance on Bern by way of Morat (or Murten), which was
occupied by a Bernese garrison under Adrian von Bubenburg,
and laid siege to it on the 9th of June. The Confederates had
now put away all jealousy of Bern, and collected a large army.
The decisive battle took place on the afternoon of the 22nd of
June, after the arrival of the Zurich contingent under Hans
Waldmann. English archers were in Charles’s army, while with
the Swiss was Rene, the dispossessed duke of Lorraine. After
facing each other many hours in the driving rain, a body of Swiss,
by out flanking Charles’s van, stormed his palisaded camp,
and the Burgundians were soon hopelessly beaten, the losses on
both sides (a contrast to Grandson) being exceedingly heavy.
Vaud was reoccupied by the Swiss (Savoy having overrun
it on Charles’s advance); but Louis now stepped in and procured
the restoration of; that region to Savoy, save Grandson,
Morat, Orbe and Echallens, which were to be held by
the Bernese jointly with the Fribourgers, Aigle by Bern alone?Savoy
at the same time renouncing all its claims over Fribourg.
Thus French-speaking districts first became permanently
connected with the Confederation, hitherto purely German,
and the war had been one for the maintenance of recent
conquests, rather than purely in defence of Swiss freedom.
Charles tried in vain to raise a third army; Rene recovered
Lorraine, and on the 5th of January 1477, under the walls of
Nancy, Charles's wide-reaching plans were ended by his defeat
and death, many Swiss being with Rene's troops. The wish of
the Bernese to overrun Franche-Comte was opposed by the older
members of the Confederation, and finally, in 1479, Louis, by
very large payments, secured the abandonment of all claims on
that province, which was annexed to the French crown.
These glorious victories really laid the foundation of Swiss
nationality; but soon after them the long-standing jealousy
Internal Disputes in the League.
between the civic and rural elements in the Con-Disputesln
federation nearly broke it up. This had always
hindered common action save in the case of certain
pressing questions. In 1370, by the “Parsons' ordinance”
(Pfaifenbrief), agreed on by all the Confederates except Bern
and Glarus, all residents whether clerics or laymen, in the
Confederation who were bound by oath to the duke of
Austria were to swear faith to the Confederation, and this
oath was to rank before any other; no appeal was to lie to
any court spiritual or lay (except in matrimonial and purely
spiritual questions) outside the limits of the Confederation,
and many regulations were laid down as to the suppression
of private wars and keeping of the peace on the high roads.
Further, in 1393, the “Sempach ordinance” was accepted
by all the Confederates and Soleure; this was an attempt
to enforce police regulations and to lay down “articles of
war” for the organization and discipline of the army of the
Confederates, minute regulations being made against plundering?women, monasteries and churches being in particular
protected and secured. But save these two documents common
action was limited to the meeting of two envoys from each
member of the Confederation and one from each of the “socii”
in the Diet, the powers of which were greatly limited by the
instructions brought by each envoy, thus entailing frequent
reference to his government, and included foreign relations,
war and peace, and common arrangements as to police, pestilence,
customs duties, coinage, &c. The decisions of the majority did
not bind the minority save in the case of the affairs of the bailiwicks
ruled in common. Thus everything depended on common
agreement and good will. But disputes as to the divisions of
the lands conquered in the Burgundian War, and the proposal
to admit into the League the towns of Fribourg and Soleure,
which had rendered such good help in the war, caused the two
parties to form separate unions, for by the latter proposal the
number of towns would have been made the same as that of the
“Lander,” which these did not at all approve. Suspended a
moment by the campaign in the Val Leventina, these quarrels
broke out after the victory of Giornico; and at the Diet of Stans
(December 1481), when it seemed probable that the failure of
all attempts to come to an understanding would result in the
disruption of the League, the mediation of Nicholas von der
Flue (or Bruder Klaus), a holy hermit of Sachseln in Obwalden
though he did not appear at the Diet in person, succeeded in
bringing both sides to reason, and the third great ordinance of
the League-the “compact of Stans”-was agreed on. By
this the promise of mutual aid and assistance was renewed,
especially when one member attacked another, and stress was
laid on the duty of the several governments to maintain the
peace, and not to help the subjects of any other member in case
of a rising. The treasure and movables captured in the war
were to be equally divided amongst the combatants, but the
territories and towns amongst the members of the League. As
a practical proof of the reconciliation, on the same day the towns
of Fribourg and Soleure were received as full members of the
Confederation, united with all the other members, though on
less favourable terms than usual, for they were forbidden to make
alliances, save with the consent of all or of the greater part of
the other members. Both towns had long been allied with
Bern, whose influence was greatly increased by their admission.
Fribourg, founded in 1178 by Berthold IV. of Zaringen, had on
the extinction of that great dynasty (1218) passed successively
by inheritance to Kyburg (1218), by purchase to Austria (1277),
and by commendation to Savoy (1452); when Savoy gave up its
claims in 1477 Fribourg once more became a free imperial city.
She had become allied with Bern as early as 1243, but in the
14th and I5ll'1 centuries became Romance-speaking, though from
1483 onwards German gained in strength and was the official
language till 1798. Soleure (or Solothurn) had been associated
with Bern from 1295, but had in vain sought admission into
the League in 1411. Both the new members had done much for
Bern in the Burgundian War, and it was for their good service
that she now procured them this splendid reward, in hopes
perhaps of aid on other important and critical occasions.
The compact of Stans strengthened the bonds which joined
the members of the Confederation; and the same centralizing tendency
is well seen in the attempt (1483-1489) of Hans Waldmann,
the burgomaster of Zurich, to assert the rule of his city over the
neighbouring country districts, to place all power in the hands
of the gilds (whereas by Brun's constitution the patricians had
an equal share), to suppress all minor jurisdictions, and to raise
a uniform tax. But this idea of concentrating all powers in the
hands of the government aroused great resistance, and led to
his overthrow and execution. Peter Kistler succeeded (1470)
better at Bern in a reform on the same lines, but less sweeping.
The early history of each member of the Confederation, and
of the Confederation itself, shows that they always professed to
belong to the Empire, trying to become immediately dependent
on the emperor in order to prevent oppression by middle
lords, and to enjoy practical liberty. The Empire itself had
now become very much of a shadow; cities and princes
were gradually asserting their own independence, sometimes
breaking away from it altogether. Now, by the
Practical Freedom from the Empire.
time of the Burgundian War, the Confederation
stood in a position analogous to that of a powerful
free imperial city. As long as the emperor's nominal
rights were not enforced, all went well; but, when Maximilian,
in his attempt to reorganize the Empire, erected in 1495 at
Worms an imperial chamber which had jurisdiction in all
disputes between members of the Empire, the Confederates were
very unwilling to obey it?partly because they could maintain
peace at home by their own authority, and partly because it
interfered with their practical independence. Again, their
refusal to join the “Swabian League,” formed in 1488 by the
lords and cities of South Germany to keep the public peace,
gave further offence, as well as their fresh alliances with France.
Hence a struggle was inevitable, and the occasion by reason
of which it broke out was the seizure by the Tyrolese authorities
in 1499 of the Munsterthal, which belonged to the “Gotteshausbund,”
one of the three leagues which had gradually arisen
in Raetia. These were the “Gotteshausbund” in 1367 (taking
in all the dependents of the cathedral church at Chur living
in the Oberhalbstein and Engadine); the “Ober” or “Grauer
Bund” in 1395 and 1424 (taking in the abbey of Disentis and
many counts and lords in the Vorder Rhein valley, though its
name is not derived, as often stated, from the “grey coats”
of the first members, but from “grawen” or “grafen,” as
so many counts formed part of it); and the “league of the Ten
jurisdictions” (
Zehngerichtenbund
), which arose in the Prattigau
and Davos valley (1436) on the death of Count Frederick
of Toggenburg, but which, owing to certain Austrian claims in
it, was not quite so free as its neighbours. The first and third
of these became allied in 1450, but the formal union of the three
dates only from 1524, as documentary proof is wanting of the
alleged meeting at Vazerol in 1471, though practically before
1524 they had very much in common. In 1497 the Ober Bund,
in 1498 the Gotteshausbund, made a treaty of alliance with the
Everlasting League or Swiss Confederation, the Ten Jurisdictions
being unable to do more than show sympathy, owing to
Austrian claims, which were not bought up till 1649 and 1652.
Hence this attack on the Munsterthal was an attack on an
“associate” member of the Swiss Confederation, Maximilian
being supported by the Swabian League; but its real historical
importance is the influence it had on the relations of the Swiss
to the Empire. The struggle lasted several months, the chief
nght being that in the Calven gorge (above Mals; May 22, 1499),
in which Benedict Fontana, a leader of the Gotteshausbund
men, performed many heroic deeds before his death. But, both
sides being exhausted, peace was made at Basel on the 22nd of
September 1499. By this the matters in dispute were referred
to arbitration, and the emperor annulled all the decisions of the
imperial chamber against the Confederation; but nothing was
laid down as to its future relations with the Empire. No further
real attempt, however, was made to enforce the rights of the
emperor, and the Confederation became a state allied with the
Empire, enjoying practical independence, though not formally
freed till 1648. Thus, 208 years after the origin of the Confederation
in 1291, it had got rid of all Austrian claims (1394 and 1474),
as well as all practical subjection to the emperor. But its further
advance towards the position of an independent state was long
checked by religious divisions within, and by the enormous
influence of the French king on its foreign relations.
With the object of strengthening the northern border of the
Confederation, two more full members were admitted in 1501?Basel
and Schaffhausen?on the same terms as Fribourg and
Soleure. The city of Basel had originally been ruled by its
bishop, but early in the 14th century it became a free imperial
city; before 1501 it had made no permanent alliance with the
Confederation, though it had been in continual relations with
it. Schaffhausen had grown up round the Benedictine monastery
of All Saints, and became in the early 13th century a free
imperial city, but was mortgaged to Austria from 1330 to 1415,
in which last year the emperor Sigismund declared all Duke
Frederick's rights forfeited in consequence of his abetting
the flight of Pope John XXII. It bought its' freedom in 1418
and became an “associate” of the Confederation in 1454.
A few years later, in 1513, Appenzell, which in 1411 had
become a “ protected” district, and in 1452 an “associate”
member of the Confederation, was admitted as the
thirteenth full member; and this remained the
number till the fall of the old Confederation in 1798.
Round the three original members had gathered
The League enlarged to Thirteen Members.
first five others, united with the three, but not necessarily with
each other; and then gradually there grew up an outer circle,
consisting of five more, allied with all the eight old members,
but tied down by certain stringent conditions. Constance, which
seemed called by nature to enter the League, kept aloof, owing
to a quarrel as to criminal jurisdiction in the Thurgau, pledged
to it before the district was conquered by the Confederates.
In the first years of the 16th century the influence of the
Confederates south of the Alps was largely extended. The
conquests system of giving pensions, in order to secure the
right of enlisting men within the Confederation, and
of capitulations, by which the different members
supplied troops, was originated by Louis XI. in 1474, and later
followed by many other princes. Though a tribute to Swiss valour
and courage, this practice had very evil results, of which the first fruits
were seen in the Milanese troubles (1500?1516), of which the
following is a summary. Both Charles VIII. (1484) and Louis XII.
(1499 for ten years) renewed Louis XI.'s treaty. The French attempts
to gain Milan were largely carried on by the help of Swiss
mercenaries, some of whom were on the opposite side; and, as
brotherly feeling was still too strong to make it possible for them
to fight against one another, Lodovico Sforza's Swiss troops
shamefully betrayed him to the French at Novara (1500). In
1500, too, the three Forest districts occupied Bellinzona (with
the Val Blenio) at the request of its inhabitants, and in 1503
Louis XII. was forced to cede it to them. He, however, often
held back the pay of his Swiss troops, and treated them as
mere hirelings, so that when the ten years' treaty came to an
end Matthew Schinner, bishop of Sitten (or Sion), induced them
to join (1510) the pope, Julius II., then engaged in forming the
Holy League to expel the French from Italy. But when, after
the battle of Ravenna, Louis XII. became all-powerful in
Lombardy, 20,000 Swiss poured down into the Milanese and
occupied it, Felix Schmid, the burgomaster of Zurich, naming
Maximilian (Lodovico's son) duke of Milan, in return for which
he ceded to the Confederates Locarno, Val Maggia, Mendrisio
and Lugano (1512), while the Raetian Leagues seized Chiavenna,
Bormio and the Valtellina. (The former districts, with Bellinzona,
the Val Blenio and the Val Leventina, were in 1803 made
into the canton of Ticino, the latter were held by Raetia till
1797.) In 1513 the Swiss completely defeated the French at
Novara, and in 1515 Pace was sent by Henry VIII. of England
to give pensions and get soldiers. Francis I. at once on his
accession (1515) began to prepare to win back the Milanese,
and, successfully evading the Swiss awaiting his descent from
the Alps, beat them in a pitched battle at Marignano near
Milan (Sept. 13, 1515), which broke the Swiss power in north
Italy, so that in 1516 a peace was made with France-the
Valais, the Three Raetian Leagues and both the abbot and town
of St Gall being included on the side of the Confederates. Provision
was made for the neutrality of either party in case the
other became involved in war, and large pensions were promised.
This treaty was extended by another in 1521 (to which Zurich,
then under Zwingli's influence, would not agree, holding aloof
from the French alliance till 1614), by which the French king
might, with the consent of the Confederation, enlist any number
of men between 6000 and 16,000, paying them fit wages, and the
pensions were raised to 3000 francs annually to each member
of the Confederation. These two treaties were the starting point
of later French interference with Swiss affairs.
4. In 1499 the Swiss had practically renounced their allegiance
to the emperor, the temporal chief of the world according
to medieval theory; and in the 16th century a great
number of them did the same by the world's spiritual
chief, the pope. The scene of the revolt was Zurich,
and the leader Ulrich Zwingli (Who settled in Zurich at the very
The Reformation.
end of 1518). But we cannot understand Zwingli's career unless
we remember that he was almost more a political reformer than
a religious one. In his former character his policy was threefold.
He bitterly opposed the French alliance and the pension-and
mercenary system, for he had seen its evils with his own eyes
when serving as chaplain with the troops in the Milanese in
1512 and 1515. Hence in 1521 his influence kept Zurich back
from joining in the treaty with Francis I. Then, too, at the
time of the Peasant Revolt (1 52 5), he did what he could to lighten
the harsh rule of the city over the neighbouring rural districts,
and succeeded in getting serfage abolished. Again he had it
greatly at heart to secure for Zurich and Bern the chief power
in the Confederation, because of their importance and size; he
wished to give them extra votes in the Diet, and would have
given them two-thirds of the “common bailiwicks ” when these
were divided. In his character as a religious reformer we must
remember that he was a humanist, and deeply read in classical
literature, which accounts for his turning the canonries of the
Grossmunster into professorships, reviving the old school of the
Carolinum, and relying on the arm of the state to carry out
religious changes (see
Zwingli
). After succeeding at two public
disputations (both held in 1523) his views rapidly gained ground
at Zurich, which long, however, stood quite alone, the other
Confederates issuing an appeal to await the decision of the
asked-for general council, and proposing to carry out by the arm
of the state certain small reforms, while clinging to the old
doctrines. Zwingli had to put down the extreme wing of the
Reformers?the Anabaptists?by force (1525?1526). Quarrels
soon arose as to allowing the new views in the “common bailiwicks.”
The disputation at Baden (1526) was in favour of the
maintainers of the old faith; but that at Bern (1528) resulted
in securing for the new views the support of that great town,
and so matters began to take another aspect. In 1528 Bern
joined the union formed in December 1527 in favour of religious
freedom by Zurich and Constance (
Christliches Burgrecht
), and
her example was followed by Schaffhausen, St Gall, Basel,
Bienne and Muhlhausen (1528?1529). This attempt virtually to
break up the League was met in February 1529 by the offensive
and defensive alliance made with King Ferdinand of Hungary
(brother of the emperor) by the three Forest districts, with
Lucerne and Zug, followed (April 1529) by the “Christliche
Vereinigung,” or union between these five members of the
League. Zurich was greatly moved by this, and, as Zwingli
held that for the honour of God war was as necessary as iconoclasm,
hostilities seemed imminent; but Bern held back; and the
first peace of Kappel was concluded (June 1529), by which the
Hungarian alliance was annulled and the principle of “religious
parity” (or freedom) was admitted in the case of each member
of the League, while in the “common bailiwicks” the majority
in each parish was to decide the religion of that parish. This was
at once a victory and a check for Zwingli. He tried to make
an alliance with the Protestants in Germany, but failed at the
meeting at Marburg (October 1529) to come to an agreement
with Luther on the subject of the Eucharist, and the division
between the Swiss and the German Reformations was stereotyped.
Zwingli now developed his views as to the greater
weight which Zurich and Bern ought to have in the League.
Quarrels, too, went on in the “common bailiwicks,” for the
members of the League who clung to the old faith had a majority
of votes in matters relating to these districts. Zurich tried to
cut off supplies of food from reaching the Romanist members
(contrary to the wishes of Zwingli), and, on the death of the
abbot of St Gall, disregarding the rights of Lucerne, Schwyz and
Glarus, who shared with her since 1451 the office of protectors
of the abbey, suppressed the monastery, giving the rule of the
land and the people to her own officers. Bern in vain tried to
moderate this aggressive policy, and the Romanist members
of the League indignantly advanced from Zug towards Zurich.
Near Kappel, on the 11th of October 1531, the Zurich vanguard
under Guldli was (perhaps owing to his treachery) surprised, and
despite reinforcements the men of Zurich were beaten, among the
slain being Zwingli himself. Another defeat completed the
discomfiture of Zurich, and by the second peace of Kappel
(November 1531) the principle of “parity” was recognized, not
merely in the case of each member of the League and of the
“common bailiwicks,” but in the latter Romanist minorities
in every parish were to have a right to celebrate their own worship.
Thus everywhere the rights of a minority were protected
from the encroachments of the majority. The “Christliches
Burgrecht” was abolished, and Zurich was condemned to pay
heavy damages. Bullinger succeeded Zwingli, but this treaty
meant that neither side could now try to convert the other
wholesale. The League was permanently split into two religious
camps: the Romanists, who met at Lucerne, numbered, besides
the five already mentioned, Fribourg, Soleure, Appenzell
(Inner Rhoden) and the abbot of St Gall (with the Valais and
the bishop of Basel), thus commanding sixteen votes (out of
twenty-nine) in the Diet; the Evangelicals were Zurich, Bern,
Schaffhausen, Appenzell (Ausser Rhoden), Glarus and the towns
of St Gall, Basel and Bienne (with Graubunden), who met at
Aarau.
Bern had her eyes always fixed upon the Savoyard lands to
the south-west, in which she had got a footing in 1475, and now
made zeal for religious reforms the excuse for resuming
her advance policy. In 1526 Guillaume Farel,
a preacher from Dauphine, had been sent to reform
Consquest of
Vaud by Bern.
Aigle, Morat and Neuchatel. In 1532 he came to Geneva, an
ancient city of which the rule had long been disputed by the
prince-bishop, the burgesses and the house of Savoy, the latter
holding the neighbouring districts. She had become in 1519 the
ally of Fribourg, in 1526 that of Bern also; and in 1530, by their
influence, a peace was made between the contending parties.
The religious changes introduced by Farel greatly displeased
Fribourg, which abandoned the alliance (1534), and in 1535 the
Reformation was firmly planted in the city. The duke of
Savoy, however, took up arms against Bern (1536), who overran
Gex, Vaud and the independent bishopric of Lausanne, as well
as the Chablais to the south of the lake. Geneva was only
saved by the unwillingness of the citizens. Bern thus ruled
north and south of the lake, and carried matters with a high
hand. Shortly after this John Calvin, a refugee from Picardy,
was, when passing through Geneva, detained by Farel to aid him,
and, after an exile from 1538?1541, owing to opposition of the
papal party and of the burghers, who objected to Bernese rule,
he was recalled (1541) and set up his wonderful theocratic
government in the city, in 1553 burning Servetus, the Unitarian
(see
Calvin
and
Servetus
), and in 1555 expelling many who
upheld municipal liberty, replacing them by≫French, English,
Italians and Spaniards as new burghers, whose names are still
frequent in Geneva (
e.g.
Candolle, Mallet, Diodati). His theological
views led to disputes with the Zurich Reformers, which
were partly settled by the
Consensus Tigurinus
of 1549, and
more completely by the
Helvetic Confession
of 1562?1566, which
formed the basis of union between the two parties.
By the time of Calvin’s death (1564) the old faith had begun
to take the offensive; the reforms made by the Council of Trent
urged on the Romanists to make an attempt to recover lost
ground. Emmanuel Philibert, duke of Savoy, the hero of St
Quentin (1557), and one of the greatest generals of the day, with
the support of the Romanist members of the League, demanded
the restoration of the districts seized by Bern in 1536, and on the
30th of October 1564 the Treaty of Lausanne confirmed the
decision of the other Confederates sitting as arbitrators (according
to the old constitutional custom). By this treaty Gex, the
Genevois and the Chablais were to be given back, while Lausanne,
Vevey, Chillon, Villeneuve, Nyon, Avenches and Yverdon were
to be kept by Bern, who engaged to maintain the old rights and
liberties of Vaud. Thus Bern lost the lands south of the lake,
in which St Francis of Sales, the exiled prince-bishop of Geneva
(1602?1622), at once proceeded to carry out the restoration of
the old faith. In 1555 Bern and Fribourg, as creditors of the
debt-laden count, divided the county of Gruyere, thus getting
French-speaking subjects. In 1558 Geneva renewed her alliance
with Bern, and in 1584 she made one with Zurich. The duke
of Savoy made several vain attempts to get hold of Geneva, the
last (in 1602) being known as the “escalade.”
The decrees of the Council of Trent had been accepted fully
by the Romanist members of the League, so far as relates to
dogma, but not as regards discipline or the relations
of church and state, the sovereign rights and jurisdiction
of each state being always carefully reserved.
The Counter-Reformation.
The counter-Reformation, however, or reaction in favour of
the old faith, was making rapid progress in the Confederation,
mainly through the indefatigable exertions of Charles Borromeo,
from 1560 to 1584 archbishop of Milan (in which diocese
the Italian bailiwicks were included), and nephew of Pius IV.,
supported at Lucerne by Ludwig Pfyffer, who, having
been (1562?1570) the chief of the Swiss mercenaries in the
French wars of religion, did so much till his death (1594) to
further the religious reaction at home that he was popularly
known as the “Swiss king.” In 1574 the Jesuits, the great
order of the reaction, were established at Lucerne; in 1579 a
papal nuncio came to Lucerne; Charles Borromeo founded the
“Collegium Helveticum” at Milan for the education of fortytwo
young Swiss, and the Catholic members of the League made
an alliance with the bishop of Basel; in 1581 the Capuchins were
introduced to influence the more ignorant classes. Most important
of all was the Golden or Borromean League, concluded
(Oct. 5, 1586) between the seven Romanist members of the
Confederation (Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Lucerne, Zug,
Fribourg and Soleure) for the maintenance of the true faith in
their territories, each engaging to punish backsliding members
and to help each other if attacked by external enemies, notwithstanding
any other leagues, old or new. This league marks
the final breaking up of the Confederation into two great parties,
which greatly hindered its progress. The Romanist members
had a majority in the Diet, and were therefore able to refuse
admittance to Geneva, Strassburg and Muhlhausen. Another
result of these religious differences was the breaking up of
Appenzell into two parts (1597), each sending one representative
to the Diet-“Inner Rhoden” remaining Romanist, “Ausser
Rhoden” adopting the new views. We may compare with this
the action of Zurich in 1555, when she received the Protestant
exiles (bringing with them the silk-weaving industry) from
Locarno and the Italian bailiwicks into her burgher ship, and
Italian names are found there to this day (
e.g.
Orelli, Muralt).
In the Thirty Years’ War the Confederation remained neutral,
being bound both to Austria (1474) and to France (1516), and
neither religious party wishing to give the other an excuse for
calling in foreign armies. But the troubles in Raetia threatened
entanglements. Austria wished to secure the Munsterthal
(belonging to the League of the Ten Jurisdictions), and Spain
wanted the command of the passes leading from the Valtellina
(conquered by the leagues of Raetia in 1512), the object being
to connect the Habsburg lands of Tirol and Milan. In the
Valtellina the rule of the Three Raetian Leagues was very harsh,
and Spanish intrigues easily brought about the massacre of
1620, by which the valley was won, the Romanist members of
the Confederation stopping the troops of Zurich and Bern. In
1622 the Austrians conquered the Prattigau, over which they
still had certain feudal rights. French troops regained the
Valtellina in 1624, but it was occupied once more in 1629 by
the imperial troops, and it was not till 1635 that the French,
under Rohan, finally succeeded in holding it. The French,
however, wished to keep it permanently; hence new troubles
arose, and in 1637 the natives, under George Jenatsch, with
Spanish aid drove them out, the Spaniards themselves being
forced to resign it in 163Q. It was only in 1649 and 1652 that
the Austrian rights in the Priittigau were finally bought up by the
League of the Ten jurisdictions, which thus gained its freedom.
In consequence of Ferdinand II.'s edict of restitution (1629),
by which the
status quo
of 1552 was re-established?the high water
mark of the counter-Reformation?the abbot of St Gall
tried to make some religious changes in his territories, but the
protest of Zurich led to the Baden compromise of 1632, by which,
in the case of disputes on religious matters arising in the. “common
bailiwicks,” die decision was to be, not by a majority of
the cantons, but by means of friendly discussion-a logical
application of the doctrine of religious parity-or by arbitration.
But by far the most important event in Swiss history in this
age is the formal freeing of the Confederation from the empire.
Formal Freedom from the Empire.
Basel had been admitted a member of the League
in 1501, two years after the Confederation had been
practically freed from the jurisdiction of the imperial
chamber, though the city was included in the new
division of the empire into “circles” (1521), which did not take
in the older members of the Confederation. Basel, however,
refused to admit this jurisdiction; the question was taken up by
France and Sweden at the congress of Munster, and formed the
subject of a special clause in both the treaties of Westphalia,
by which the city of Basel and the other “Helvetiorum cantones”
were declared to be “in the possession, or almost in the possession,
of entire liberty and exemption from the empire, and
nullatenus
subject to the imperial tribunals.” This was intended
to mean formal exemption from all obligations to the empire
(with which the Confederation was connected hereafter simply
as a friend), and to be a definitive settlement of the question.
Thus by the events of 1499 and 1648 the Confederation had
become an independent European state, which, by the treaty of
1516, stood as regards France in a relation of neutrality.
In 1668, in consequence of Louis XIV.'s temporary occupation
of the Franche Comte, an old scheme for settling the number
of men to be sent by each member of the Confederation to the
joint army, and the appointment of a council of war in war
time, that is, an attempt to create a common military organization,
was accepted by the Diet, which was to send two deputies
to the council, armed with full political powers. This agreement,
known as the
Defensionale
, is the only instance of joint and
unanimous action in this miserable period of Swiss history, when
religious divisions crippled the energy of the Confederation.
Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries the Confederation
was practically a dependency of France. In 1614 Zurich for
French influence, Religious Divisions, and ise of an Aristocracy.
first time joined in the treaty, which was renewed
in 1663 with special provisions as regards the
Protestant Swiss mercenaries in the king's pay and
of a promise of French neutrality in case of civil war
in the League. The Swiss had to stand by while
Louis XIV. won Alsace (1648), Franche Comte
(1678) and Strassburg (1681). But, as Louis inclined more
and more to an anti-Protestant policy, the Protestant members
of the League favoured the Dutch military service; and it was
through their influence that in 1707 the “states” of the principality
of Neuchatel, on the extinction of the Longueville line
of these princes, decided in favour of the king of Prussia (representing
the overlords-the house of Chalon-Orange) as against
the various French pretenders claiming from the Longueville
dynasty by descent or by will. In 1715 the Romanist members
of the League, in hopes of retrieving their defeat of 1712 (see
below), agreed, while renewing the treaty and capitulations,
to put France in the position of the guarantor of their freedom,
with rights of interfering in case of attack from within or from
without, whether by counsel or arms, while she promised to
procure restitution of the lands lost by them in 1712. This
last clause was simply the surrender of Swiss independence, and
was strongly objected to by the Protestant members of the
Confederation, so that in 1777 it was dropped, when all the
Confederates made a fresh defensive alliance, wherein their
sovereignty and independence were expressly set forth. Thus
France had succeeded to the position of the empire with
regard to the Confederation, save that her claims were practically
asserted and voluntarily admitted.
Between 1648 and 1798 the Confederation was distracted
by religious divisions and feelings ran very high. A scheme
to set up a central administration fell through in 1655, through
jealousy of Bern and Zurich, the proposers. In 1656 a question
as to certain religious refugees, who were driven from Schwyz
and took refuge at Zurich, brought about the first Villemergen
War, in which the Romanists were successful, and procured a.
Clause in the treaty asserting very strongly the-absolute sovereignty,
in religious as well as in political matters, of each member
of the League within its own territories, while in the “common
bailiwicks” the Baden arrangement (1632) was to prevail.
Later, the attempt of the abbot of St Gall to enforce his rights
in the Toggenburg swelled into the second Villemergen War
(1712), which turned out very ill for the defeated Romanists.
Zurich and Bern were henceforth to hold in severally Baden,
Rapperswil, and part of the “common bailiwicks ”of the
Aargau, both towns being given a share in the government
of the rest, and Bern in that of Thurgau and Rheinthal, from
which, as well as from that part of Aargau, she had been carefully
excluded in 1415 and 1460. The only thing that prospered
was the principle of “religious parity,” which was established
completely, as regards
both
religions, within each parish in the
“common bailiwick.”
The Diet had few powers; the Romanists had-the majority
there; the sovereign rights of each member of the League and
the limited mandate of the envoys effectually checked all progress.
Zurich, as the leader of the League, managed matters
when the Diet was not sitting, but could not enforce her orders.
The Confederation was little more than a collection of separate
atoms, and it is really marvellous that it did not break up
through its own weakness.
In these same two centuries, the chief feature in domestic
Swiss politics is the growth of an aristocracy: the power of
voting and the power of ruling are placed in the hands of a
small class. This is chiefly seen in Bern, Lucerne, Fribourg
and Soleure, where there were not the primitive democracies
of the Forest districts nor the government by gilds as at
Zurich, Basel and Schaffhausen. It was effected by refusing
to admit any new burghers, a practice which dates from the
middle of the 16th century, and is connected (like the similar
movement in the smaller local units of the “communes” in
the rural districts) with the question of poor relief after the
suppression of the monasteries. Outsiders (Hintersasse
or Niedergelassene) had no political rights, however long they
might have resided, while the privileges of burgher ship were
strictly hereditary. Further, within the burghers, a small
class succeeded in securing the monopoly of all public offices,
which was kept up by the practice of co-opting, and was known
as the “patriciate.” So in Bern, out of 360 burgher families
69 only towards the close of the 18th century formed the ruling
oligarchy?and, though to foreigners the government seemed
admirably managed, yet the last thing that could be said of
it was that it was democratic. In 1749 Samuel Henzi (disgusted
at being refused the post of town librarian) made a
fruitless attempt to overthrow this oligarchy, like the lawyer,
Pierre Fatio at Geneva in 1707. The harsh character of Bernese
rule (and the same holds good with reference to Uri and the
Val Leventina) was shown in the great strictness with which
its subject land Vaud was kept in hand: it was ruled as a
conquered land by a benevolent despot, and we can feel no
surprise that Major J. D. A. Davel in 1723 tried to free his
native land, or that it was in Vaud that the principles of the
French Revolution were most eagerly welcomed. Another
result of this aristocratic tendency was the way in which the
cities despised the neighbouring country districts, and managed
gradually to deprive them of their equal political rights and to
levy heavy taxes upon them. These and other grievances
(the fall in the price of food after the close of the Thirty Years
War, the lowering of the value of the coin, &c.), combined with
the presence of many soldiers discharged after the great war,
led to the great Peasant Revolt (1653) in the territories of
Bern, Soleure, Lucerne and Basel, interesting historically as
being the first popular rising since the old days of the 13th and
14th centuries, and because reminiscences of legends connected
with those times led to the appearance of the “three Tells,”
who greatly stirred up the people. The rising was put down at
the cost of much bloodshed, but the demands of the peasants
were not granted. Yet during this period of political powerlessness
a Swiss literature first arises: Conrad Gesner and Giles
Tschudi in the 16th century are succeeded by J. J. Scheuchzer,
A. von Haller, J. C. Lavater, I. J. Bodmer, H. B. de Saussure,
J. J. Rousseau, J. von Muller; the taste for Swiss travel is
stimulated by the publication (1793) of the first real Swiss
guide-book by ].
G. Ebel
(
q.v.
), based on the old
Deliciae
;
industry throve greatly. The residence of such brilliant foreign
writers as Gibbon, and Voltaire within or close to the territories
of the Confederation helped on this remarkable intellectual
revival. Political aspirations were not, however, wholly
crushed, and found their centre in the Helvetic Society,
founded in 1762 by F. U. Balthasar and others.
The Confederation and France had been closely connected
for so long that the outbreak of the French Revolution could
not fail to affect the Swiss. The Helvetian Club,
founded at Paris in 1790 by several exiled Vaudois
Effects of the French Revolution on the Confederation.
and Fribourgers, was the centre from which the new
ideas were spread ir. the western part of the Confederation,
and risings directed or stirred up. In 1790 the
Lower Valais rose against the oppressive rule Jf the upper
districts; in 1791 Porrentruy defied the prince-bishop of Basel,
despite the imperial troops he summoned, and proclaimed
(November 1792) the “Rauracian republic,” which three
months later (1793) became the French department of the
Mont Terrible; Geneva was only saved (1792) from France by
a force sent from Zurich and Bern; while the massacre of the
Swiss guard at the Tuileries on the 10th of August 1792 aroused
intense indignation. The rulers, however, unable to enter
into the new ideas, contented themselves with suppressing
them by force,
e.g.
Zurich in the case of Stafa (1795). St Gall
managed to free itself from its prince-abbot (1795?1797), but the
Leagues of Raetia so oppressed their subjects in the Valtellina
that in 1797 Bonaparte (after conquering the Milanese from the
Austrians) joined them to the Cisalpine republic. The Diet
was distracted by party struggles and the fall of the old Confederation
was not far distant. The rumours of the vast
treasures stored up at Bern, and the desire of securing a bulwark
against Austrian attack, specially turned the attention of the
directory towards the Confederation; and this was utilized
by the heads of the Reform party in the Confederation?Peter
Ochs (1752?1821), the burgomaster of Basel, and Frederic
Cesar Laharpe (1754?1838; tutor, 1783?1794, to the later
tsar Alexander I.), who had left his home in Vaud through
disgust at Bernese oppression, both now wishing for aid from
Antside in order to free their land from the rule of the oligarchy.
Hence, when Laharpe, at the head of some twenty exiles from
Vaud and Fribourg, called (Dec. 9, 1797) on the Directory
to protect the liberties of Vaud, which, so he said (by a bit of
purely apocryphal history), France by the treaty of 1565 was
bound to guarantee, his appeal found a ready answer. In
February 1798 French troops occupied Miihlhausen and Bienne
(Biel), as well as those parts of the lands of the prince-bishop
of Basel (St Imier and the Munsterthal) as regards which he
had been since 1579 the ally of the Catholic members of the
Confederation. Another army entered Vaud (February 1798),
when the “Lemanic republic” was proclaimed, and the Diet
broke up in dismay without taking any steps to avert the coming
storm. Brune and his army occupied Fribourg and Soleure,
and, after fierce fighting at Neuenegg, entered (March 5)
Bern, deserted by her allies and distracted by quarrels within.
With Bern, the stronghold of the aristocratic party, fell the
old Confederation. The revolution triumphed throughout
the country. Brune (March 16?19) put forth a wonderful
scheme by which the Confederation with its “associates”
and “subjects” was to be split into three republics?the Tellgau
(i.e. the Forest districts), the Rhodanic (
i.e.
Vaud, the Valais,
the Bernese Oberland and the Italian bailiwicks), and the
Helvetic (i.e. the northern and eastern portions); but the directory
disapproved of this (March 23), and on the 29th of March
The Helvetic Republic.
the “Helvetic republic, one and indivisible,” was
proclaimed. This was accepted by ten cantons
only as well as (April 12) the constitution drafted
by Ochs. By the new scheme the territories of the Everlasting
League were split up into twenty-three (later nineteen, Raetia
only coming in in 1799) administrative districts, called “cantons,” a name now officially used in Switzerland for the first
time, though it may be found employed by foreigners in the
French treaty of 1452, in Commynes and Machiavelli, and in
the treaties of Westphalia (1648). A central government was
set up, with its seat at Lucerne, comprising a senate and a' great
council, together forming the legislature, and named by electors
chosen by the people in the proportion of 1 to every 100 citizens,
with an executive of five directors chosen by the legislature,
and having four ministers as subordinates or “chief secretaries.”
A supreme court of justice was set up; a status of Swiss citizenship
was recognized; and absolute freedom to settle in any
canton was given, the political “communes” being now composed
of all residents, and not merely of the burghers. For the
first time an attempt was made to organize the Confederation
as a single state, but the change was too sweeping to last, for
it largely ignored the local patriotism which had done so much
to create the Confederation, though more recently it had made
it politically powerless. The three Forest districts rose in
rebellion against the invaders and the new constitutions which
destroyed their ancient prerogatives; but the valiant resistance
of the Schwyzers, under Alois Reding, on the heights of
Morgarten (April and May), and that of the Unterwaldners
(August and September), were put down by French armies. The
proceedings of the French, however, soon turned into disgust
and hatred the joyful feelings with which they had been hailed
as liberators. Geneva was annexed to France (April 1798);
Gersau, after an independent existence of over 400 years, was
made a mere district of Schwyz; immense fines were levied and
the treasury at Bern pillaged; the land was treated as if it had
been conquered. The new republic was compelled to make a
very close offensive and defensive alliance with France, and
its director's were practically nominated from Paris. In June?October
1799 Zurich, the Forest cantons and Raetia became
the scene of the struggles of the Austrians (welcomed with joy)
against the French and Russians. The manner, too, in which
the reforms were carried out alienated many, and, soon after the
directory gave way to the consulate in Paris (18 Brumaire or
Nov. 10, 1799), the Helvetic directory (January 1800) was
replaced by an executive committee.
The scheme of the Helvetic republic had gone too far in the
direction of centralization; but it was not easy to find the happy
mean, and violent discussions went on between the “Unitary”
(headed by Ochs and Laharpe) and “Federalist” parties.
Many drafts were put forward and one actually submitted to
but rejected by a popular vote (June 1802). In July 1802 the
French troops were withdrawn from Switzerland by Bonaparte,
ostensibly to comply with the treaty of Amiens, really to show
the Swiss that their best hopes lay in appealing to him. The
Helvetic government was gradually driven back by armed
force, and the Federalists seemed getting the best of it, when
(Oct. 4) Bonaparte offered himself as mediator, and summoned
The Act of Mediation.
ten of the chief Swiss statesmen to Paris to discuss
matters with him (the “Consulta”?December 1802).
He had long taken a very special interest in Swiss
matters, and in 1802 had given to the Helvetic republic the
Frickthal (ceded to France in 1801 by Austria), the last Austrian
possession within the borders of the Confederation. On the
other hand, he had made (August 1802) the Valais into an
independent republic. In the discussions he pointed out that
Swiss needs required a federal constitution and a neutral position
guaranteed by France. Finally (Feb. 19, 1803) he laid
before the Consulta the Act of Mediation which he had elaborated
and which they had perforce to accept?a document which
formed a new departure in Swiss history, and the influence of
which is visible in the present constitution.
Throughout, “Switzerland” is used for the first time as the
official name of the Confederation. The thirteen members
of the old Confederation before 1798 are set up again, and to
them are added six new cantons?two (St Gall and Graubunden
or Grisons) having been formerly “associates,” and the four
others being made up of the subject lands conquered at different
times?Aargau (1415), Thurgau (1460), Ticino or Tessin (1440,
1500, 1512), and Vaud (1536). In the Diet, six cantons which
had a population of more than 100,000 (viz. Bern, Zurich,
Vaud, St Gall, Graubunden and Aargau) were given two
votes, the others having but one apiece, and the deputies were
to vote freely within limits, though not against their instructions.
Meetings of the Diet were to be held alternately at Fribourg,
Bern, Soleure, Basel, Zurich and Lucerne?the chief magistrate
of each of these cantons being named for that year the
“landamman of Switzerland.” The “landsgemeinden,” or
popular assemblies, were restored in the democratic cantons,
the cantonal governments in other cases being in the hands
of a “great council ” (legislative) and the “small council”
(executive)?a property qualification being required both for
voters and candidates. No canton was to form any political
alliances abroad or at home. The “communes” were given
larger political rights, the burghers who owned and used the
common lands became more and more private associations.
There was no Swiss burgher ship, as in 1798, but perfect liberty
of settlement in any canton. There were to be no privileged
classes or subject lands. A very close alliance with France
(on the basis of that of 1516) was concluded (Sept. 27,
1803). The whole constitution and organization were far
better suited for the Swiss than the more symmetrical system
of the Helvetic republic; but, as it was guaranteed by Bonaparte,
and his influence was predominant, the whole fabric was closely
bound up with him, and fell with him. Excellent in itself,
the constitution set forth in the Act of Mediation failed by reason
of its setting.
For ten years Switzerland enjoyed peace and prosperity
under the new constitution. Pestalozzi and Fellenberg worked
out their educational theories; K. Escher of Zurich
embanked the Linth, and his family was thence
called “von der Linth”; the central government
The pact of 1815.
prepared many schemes for the common welfare. On the other
hand, the mediator (who became emperor in 1804) lavishly
expended his Swiss troops, the number of which could only be
kept up by a regular blood tax, while the “Berlin decrees”
raised the price of many articles. In 1806 the principality
of Neuchatel was given to Marshal Berthier; Tessin was occupied
by French troops from 1810 to 1813, and in 1810 the Valais
was made into the department of the Simplon, so as to secure
that pass. At home, the liberty of moving from one canton to
another (though given by the constitution) was, by the Diet
in 1805, restricted by requiring ten years’ residence, and then
not granting political rights in the canton or a right of profiting
by the communal property. As soon as Napoleon’s power
began to wane (1812?1813), the position of Switzerland became
endangered. Despite the personal wishes of the tsar (a pupil of
Laharpe’s), the Austrians, supported by the reactionary party
in Switzerland, and without any real resistance on the part of
the Diet, as well as the Russians troops, crossed the frontier
on the 21st of December 1813, and on the 29th of December
the Diet was induced to declare the abolition of the 1803 constitution,
guaranteed, like Swiss neutrality, by Napoleon. Bern
headed the party which wished to restore the old state of things,
but Zurich and the majority stood out for the nineteen cantons.
The powers exercised great pressure to bring about a meeting
of deputies from all the nineteen cantons at Zurich (April 6,
1814, “the long Diet”); party strife was very bitter, but on the
12th of September it decided that the Valais, Neuchatel and
Geneva should be raised from the rank of “associates” to that
of full members of the Confederation (thus making up the
familiar twenty-two). As compensation the congress of Vienna
(March 20, 1815) gave Bern the town of Bienne (Biel), and all (save
a small part which went to Basel) of the territories of the prince bishop
of Basel (“the Bernese Jura”); but the Valtellina was
granted to Austria, and Muhlhausen was not freed from France.
On the 7th of August 1815 the new constitution was sworn
to by all the cantons save Nidwalden, the consent of which was
only obtained (Aug. 30) by armed force, a delay
for which she paid by seeing Engelberg and the
valley above (acquired by Nidwalden in 1798) given
The Pact of 1815.
to Obwalden. By the new constitution the sovereign rights of
each canton were fully recognized, and a return made to the
lines of the old constitution, though there were to be no subject
lands, and political rights were not to be the exclusive privilege
of any class of citizens. Each canton had one vote in the Diet,
where an absolute majority was to decide all matters save
foreign affairs, when a majority of three-fourths was required.
The management of current business, &c., shifted every two
years between the governments of Zurich, Bern and Lucerne
(the three “Vororte”). The monasteries were guaranteed in
their rights and privileges; and no canton was to make any
alliance contrary to the rights of the Confederation or of any
other canton. Provision was made for a Federal army.
Finally, the Congress, on the 20th of November 1815,
placed Switzerland and parts of North Savoy (Chablais, Faucigny
and part of the Genevois) under the guarantee of the Great
Powers, who engaged to maintain their neutrality, thus freeing
Switzerland from her 300 years’ subservience to France, and
compensating in some degree for the reactionary nature of the
new Swiss constitution when compared with that of 1803.
5. The cities at once secured for themselves in the cantonal
great councils an overwhelming representation over the neighbouring
country districts, and the agreement of
1805 as to migration from one canton to another was
renewed (1819) by twelve cantons. For some time
Attempts at Reform.
there was little talk of reforms, but in 1819 the Helvetic Society
definitely became a political society, and the foundation in 1824
of the Marksmen’s Association enabled men from all cantons to
meet together. A few cantons (notably Tessin) were beginning
to make reforms, when the influence of the July revolution (1830)
in Paris and the sweeping changes in Zurich led the Diet to declare
(Dec. 27) that it would not interfere with any reforms of cantonal
constitutions provided they were in agreement with the pact
of 1815. Hence for the next few years great activity in this
direction was displayed, and most of the cantons reformed
themselves, save the most conservative (
e.g.
Uri, Glarus) and
the advanced who needed no changes (
e.g.
Geneva, Graubunden).
Provision was always made for revising these constitutions at
fixed intervals, for the changes were not felt to be final, and seven
cantons?Zurich, Bern, Lucerne, Soleure, St Gall, Aargau and
Thurgau?joined together to guarantee their new free constitutions
(Siebener Concordat of March 17, 1832). Soon after, the
question of revising the Federal pact was brought forward by a
large majority of cantons in the Diet (July 17), whereon, by the
league of Sarnen (Nov. 14), the three Forest cantons, with
Neuchatel, the city of Basel, and the Valais, agreed to maintain
the pact of 1815 and to protest against the separation of Basel
in two halves (for in the reform struggle Schwyz and Basel had
been split up, though the split was permanent only in the latter
case). A draft constitution providing for a Federal administration
distinct from the cantons could not secure a majority in
its favour; a reaction against reform set in, and the Diet was
forced to sanction (1833) the division of Basel into the “city”
and “country” divisions (each with half a vote in the Diet),
though fortunately in Schwyz the quarrel was healed. Religious
quarrels further stirred up strife in Connexion with Aargau,
which was a Canton where religious parity prevailed, later in
others. In Zurich the extreme pretensions of the Radicals
and freethinkers (illustrated by offering a chair of theology in
the university to D. F. Strauss of Ttibingen because of his
Life of
Jesus
, then recently published) brought about a great reaction in
1839, when Zurich was the “Vorort” In Aargau the parties were
very evenly balanced, and, when in 1840, on occasion of the revision
of the constitution, the Radicals had a popular majority the
aggrieved clerics stirred up a revolt (1840), which was put
down, but which gave their opponents, headed by Augustine
Keller, an excuse for carrying a vote in the great council to
suppress the eight monasteries in the Canton (Jan. 1841). This
was flatly opposed to the pact of 1815, which the Diet by a small
majority decided must be upheld (April 1841), though after
many discussions it determined (Aug. 31, 1843) to accept the
compromise by which the men's convents only were to
be suppressed, and declared that the matter was now settled.
On this the seven Romanist cantons?Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden,
Lucerne, Zug, Fribourg and the Valais?formed (Sept.
13, 1843) a “Sonderbund” or separate league, which (February
1844) issued a manifesto demanding the reopening of
the question and the restoration of
all
the monasteries.
Like the Radicals in former years the Romanists went
too far and too fast, for in October 1844 the clerical party
in Lucerne (in the majority since 1841, and favouring the
reaction in the Valais) officially invited in the Jesuits and
gave them high posts, an act which created all the more sensation
because Lucerne was the “Vorort.” Twice (December
1844 and March 1845) parties of free lances tried to capture
the city. In December 1845 the Sonderbund turned itself into
an armed confederation, ready to appeal to war in defence of
the rights of each canton. The Radicals carried Zurich in
April 1845 and Bern in February 1846, but a majority could
not be secured in the Diet till Geneva (Oct. 1846) and St Gall (May
1847) were won by the same party. On the 20th of July 1847,
the Diet, by a small majority, declared that the Sonderbund was
contrary to the Federal pact, which on the 16th of August it was
resolved to revise, while on the 3rd of September it was decided
to invite each Canton to expel the Jesuits. Most of the Great
Powers favoured the Sonderbund, but England took the Contrary
view, and the attempt of Metternich, supported by Louis
Philippe, to bring about European intervention, on the plea of
upholding the treaties of Vienna, was frustrated by the policy
of masterly inactivity pursued by Lord Palmerston, who delayed
giving an answer till the forces of the Sonderbund had been
defeated, a friendly act that is still gratefully remembered in
the country. On the 29th of October the deputies of the
unyielding cantons left the Diet, which ordered on the 4th of
November that its decree should be enforced by arms. The
war was short (Nov. 10?29), mainly owing to the ability of the
general, G. H. Dufour (1787?1875), and the loss of life trifling.
One after another the rebellious cantons were forced to surrender,
and, as the Paris revolution of February 1848, entailing the
retirement of Guizot (followed three weeks later by that of
Metternich), occupied all the attention of the Great Powers
(who by the constitution of 1815 should have been consulted
in the revision of the pact), the Swiss were enabled to settle
their own affairs quietly. Schwyz and Zug abolished their
“landsgemeinden,” and the seven were Condemned to pay the
costs of the war (ultimately defrayed by subscription), which
had been waged rather on religious than on strict particularist
or states-rights grounds. The Diet meanwhile debated the
draft constitution drawn up by Johann Conrad Kern (1808?1888)
of Thurgau and Henri Druey (1799?1855) of Vaud, which
in the summer of 1848 was accepted by fifteen and a half cantons,
the minority consisting of the three Forest cantons, the Valais,
Zug, Tessin and Appenzell (Inner Rhoden), and it was proclaimed
on the 12th of September.
The new Constitution inclined rather to the Act of Mediation
than to the system which prevailed before 1798. A status of
“Swiss citizenship” Was set up, closely joined to
cantonal Citizenship, a man settling in a Canton not
being his birthplace got cantonal citizenship after
a residence of at most two years, but was excluded from all local
Constitution of 1848.
rights in the “commune” where he might reside. A Federal
or central government was set up, to which the cantons gave up
a certain part of their sovereign rights, retaining the rest. The
Federal Legislature (or assembly) was made up of two houses?the
Council of States (
Standerat
), composed of two deputies
from each Canton, whether small or great (44 in all), and the
National Council (
Nationalrat
), made up of deputies elected
for three years, in the proportion of one for every 20,000 souls
or fraction over 10,000, the electors being all Swiss citizens.
The Federal council or executive (
Bundesrat
) consisted of
seven members elected by the Federal Assembly sitting as a
Congress; they were jointly responsible for all business, though
for sake of convenience there were various departments, and their
chairman was called the president of the Confederation. The
Federal judiciary (
Bundesgericht
) was made up of eleven
members elected for three years by the Federal Assembly
sitting in congress; its jurisdiction was chiefly confined to civil
Cases, in which the Confederation was a party (if a Canton, the
Federal council may refer the case to the Federal tribunal), but
took in also great political crimes-all constitutional questions,
however, being reserved for the Federal Assembly. A Federal
university and a polytechnic school were to be founded. All
military Capitulations were forbidden in the future. Every
Canton must treat Swiss citizens who belong to one of the
Christian confessions like their own citizens, for the right of
free settlement is given to all such, though they acquired no
rights in the “Commune.” All Christians were guaranteed the
exercise of their religion, but the Jesuits and similar religious
orders were not to be received in any canton. German, French
and Italian were recognized as national languages.
The constitution as a whole marked a great step forward;
though very many rights were still reserved to the cantons,
yet there was a fully organized central government. Almost
the first act of the Federal Assembly was to exercise the power
given them of determining the home of the Federal authorities,
and on the 28th of November 1848 Bern was chosen, though
Zurich still ranks as the first canton in the Confederation.
Soon after 1848 a beginning was made of organizing the different
public services, which had now been brought within the jurisdiction
of the central Federal authority. Thus in 1849 a uniform
letter post service was established, in 1850 a single coinage
replaced the intricate cantonal Currencies, While all customs
duties between cantons were abolished, in 1851 the telegraph
service was organized, while all weights and measures were
unified (in 1868 the metrical system was allowed, and in 1875
declared obligatory and universal), in 1854 roads and canals
were taken in hand, While finally in 1855 the Federal Polytechnic
School at Zurich was opened, though the Federal university
authorized by the new constitution has not yet been set up.
These were some of the non-political benefits of the creation of
a Federal central executive. But in 1852 the Federal Assembly
decided to leave the construction of railways to private
enterprise and so had to buy them up in 1903 at a vastly
enhanced price.
By this early settlement of disputes Switzerland was protected
from the general revolutionary movement of 1848, and in later
years her political history has been uneventful, though she has
felt the weight of the great European crises in industrial and
social matters.
The position of Neuchatel, as a member of the Confederation
(as regards its government only) and as a principality ruled by
the king of Prussia, whose rights had been expressly recognized
by the congress of Vienna, was uncertain. She had not sent
troops in 1847, and, though in 1848 there was a republican
revolution there, the prince did not recognize the changes.
Finally, a royalist conspiracy in September 1856 to undo the
work of 1848 caused great excitement and anger in Switzerland,
and it was only by the mediation of Napoleon III. and the other
powers that the prince renounced (1857) all his rights, save his
title, which his successor (the German emperor) has also dropped.
Since that time Neuchatel has been an ordinary member of
the Confederation. In 1859?1860 the cession of Savoy (part of
it neutralized in 1815) to France aroused considerable indignation,
and in 1862 the long-standing question of frontiers in the
Vallee des Dappes was finally arranged with France. In 1871
many French refugees, especially Bourbaki’s army, were most
hospitably received and sheltered. The growth of the Old
Catholics after the Vatican Council (1870) caused many disturbances
in western Switzerland, especially in the Bernese Jura.
The attack was led by Bishop Eugene Lachat (1819?1886) of
Basel, whose see was suppressed by several cantons in 1873,
but was set up again in 1884 though still not recognized by Bern.
The appointment by the pope of the abbe Gaspard Mermillod
(1824?1892) as “apostolic vicar” of Geneva, which was separated
from the diocese of Fribourg, led to Monseigneur Mermillod’s
banishment from Switzerland (1873), but in 1883 he was raised
to the vacant see of Lausanne and Geneva and allowed by the
Federal authorities to return, but Geneva refused to recognize
him, though he was created a cardinal in 1890. An event of
great importance to Switzerland was the opening of the St
Gotthard tunnel, which was begun in 1871 and opened in 1882;
by it the Forest cantons seem likely to regain the importance
which was theirs in the early days of the Confederation.
From 1848 onwards the cantons continually revised their
constitutions, always in a democratic sense, though after the
Sonderbund War Schwyz and Zug abolished their “landsgemeinden”
(1848). The chief point was the introduction of
the
referendum
, by which laws made by the cantonal legislature
may (facultative referendum) or must (obligatory referendum) be
submitted to the people for their approval, and this has obtained
such general acceptance that Fribourg alone does not possess
the referendum in either of its two forms. It was therefore
only natural that attempts should be made to revise the federal
constitution of 1848 in a democratic and centralizing sense,
for it had been provided that the Federal Assembly, on its own
initiative or on the written request of 50,000 Swiss electors,
could submit the question of revision to a. popular vote. In
1866 the restriction of certain rights (mentioned above) to
Christians only was swept away; but the attempt at final
revision in 1872 was defeated by a small majority, owing to
the efforts of the anti-centralizing party. Finally, however,
another draft was better liked, and on the 19th of April 1874 the
Revised Constitution of 1874.
new constitution was accepted by the people?14
1
/
2
against 7
1
/
2
(those of 1848 without Tessin,
but with Fribourg and Lucerne) and 340,199 votes
as against 198,013. This constitution is still in force, and
is mainly a revised edition of that of 1848, the Federal power
being still further strengthened. Among the more important
novelties three points may be mentioned. A system of free
elementary education was set up, under the superintendence
of the Confederation, but managed by the cantons. A man
settling in another canton was, after a residence of three months
only, given all cantonal and. communal rights, save a share in
the common property (an arrangement which as far as possible
kept up the old principle that the “commune” is the true
unit out of which cantons and the Confederation are built), and
the membership of the commune carries with it cantonal and
federal rights. The “Referendum” was introduced in its
“facultative” form;
i.e.
all federal laws must be submitted
to popular vote on the demand of 30,000 Swiss citizens or of
eight cantons. But the “Initiative” (
i.e.
the right of compelling
the legislature to consider a certain subject or bill) was
not introduced into the Federal Constitution till 1891 (when it
was given to 50,000 Swiss citizens) and then only as to a partial
(not a total) revision of that constitution. By the constitutions
of 1848 and 1874 Switzerland has ceased to be a mere union of
independent states jointed by a treaty, and has become a single
state with a well-organized central government, to which have
been given certain of the rights of the independent cantons,
but increased centralization would destroy the whole character
of the Confederation, in which the cantons are not administrative
divisions but living political communities. Swiss history
teaches us, all the way through, that Swiss liberty has been won
by a close union of many small states, and we cannot doubt
that it will be best preserved by the same means, and not by
obliterating all local peculiarities, nowhere so striking and
nowhere so historically important as in Switzerland.
M. Numa Droz (who was for seventeen years?1876 to 1892?a
member of the Federal executive, and twice, in 1881 and in
1887, president of the Swiss Confederation) expressed the opinion
shortly before his death in December 1899 (he was born in 1844)
that while the dominant note of Swiss politics from 1848 to
1874 was the establishment of a Federal state, that of the period
extending from 1874 to 1899 (and this is true of a later period)
was the direct rule of the people, as distinguished from government
by elected representatives. Whether this distinction be
just or not, it is certain that this advance towards democracy
in its true sense is due indirectly to the monopoly of political
power in the Federal government enjoyed by the Radical party
from 1848 onwards: many were willing to go with it some part
of the way, but its success in maintaining its close monopoly
has provoked a reaction against it on the part of those who
desire to see the Confederation remain a Confederation, and not
become a strongly centralized state, contrary to its past history
and genius. Hence after 1874 we find that democratic measures
are not advocated as we should expect by the Radicals, but by
all the other political parties with a view of breaking down this
Radical monopoly, for it is a strange fact that the people elect
and retain Radical representatives, though they reject the
measures laid before them for their approval by the said Radical
representatives. For these reasons the struggle between Federalists
and Centralists (the two permanent political parties
in Switzerland), which up to 1874 resulted in favour of the
Centralists, has been turning gradually in favour of the Federalists,
and that because of the adoption of such democratic
institutions as the Referendum and the Initiative.
The general lines on which Swiss politics have run since 1874
may be most conveniently summarized under three headings the
working of the political machinery, the principal political
events, and then the chief economical and financial features of
the period. But it must be always borne in mind that all the
following remarks relate only to
Federal
politics, those of the
several cantons being much more intricate, and of course turning
more on purely local differences of opinion.
1.
Political Machinery
.?The Federal Constitution of 1848
set up a permanent Federal executive, legislature and tribunal,
each and all quite distinct from and independent of any cantonal
government. This system was a modified revival of the state
of things that had prevailed from 1798 to 1803, and was an
imitation of the political changes that had taken place in the
cantonal constitutions after 1830. Both were victories of the
Centralist or Radical party, and it was therefore but natural
that this party should be called upon to undertake the Federal
government under the new constitution, a supremacy that it
has kept ever since. To the Centralists the
Council of States
(two members from each canton, however large or small) has
always been a stumbling-block, and they have mockingly nicknamed
it “the fifth wheel of the coach.” In the other house
of the Federal legislature, the
National Council
(one member per
20,000, or fraction of over 10,000 of the entire population), the
Radicals have always since its creation in 1848 had a majority.
Hence, in the Congress formed by both houses sitting together,
the Radicals have had it all their own way. This is particularly
important as regards the election of the seven members of the
Federal executive which is made by such a Congress. Now the
Federal executive (Federal Council) is in no sense a cabinet,
i.e.
a committee of the party in the majority in the legislature for
the time being. In the Swiss Federal Constitution the cabinet
has no place at all. Each member of the Federal executive is
elected by a separate ballot, and holds office for the fixed term
of three years, during which he cannot be turned out of office,
while as yet but a single instance has occurred of the rejection
of a Federal councillor who offered himself for re-election.
Further, none of the members of the Federal executive can hold
a seat in either house of the Federal legislature, though they may
appear and speak (but not vote) in either, while the Federal
Council as such has not necessarily any common policy, and never
expresses its views on the general situation (though it does as
regards particular legislative and administrative measures) in
anything resembling the “speech from the Throne” in England.
Thus it seems clear that the Federal executive was intended by
the Federal Constitution of 1848 (and in this respect that of
1874 made no change) to be a standing committee of the legislature
as a whole, but not of a single party in the legislature, or
a “cabinet,” even though it had the majority. Yet this rule
of a single political party is just what has taken place. Between
1848 and the end of 1908, 38 Federal councillors were elected
(24 from German-speaking, 12 from French-speaking and 2 from
Italian-speaking Switzerland, the canton of Vaud heading the
list with 7). Now of these 38 three only were not Radicals,
viz. M Paul Ceresole (1870?1875) of Vaud, who was a Protestant
Liberal-Conservative, Herren Josef Zemp (1891?1908) and
Josef Anton Schobinger (elected 1908), both of Lucerne and
Romanist Conservatives, yet the Conservative minority is a
large one, while the Romanists form about two-fifths of the
population of Switzerland. But despite this predominance of
a single party in the Federal Council, no true cabinet system
has come into existence in Switzerland, as members of the council
do not resign even when their personal policy is condemned
by a popular vote, so that the resignation of Herr Welti (a
member of the Federal Council from 1867 to 1891), in consequence
of the rejection by the people of his railway policy,
caused the greatest amazement and consternation in Switzerland.
The chief political parties in the Federal legislature are the
Right, or Conservatives (whether Romanists or Protestants),
the Centre (now often called “Liberals,” but rather answering
to the Whigs of English political language, the Left (or Radicals)
and the Extreme Left (or the Socialists of varying shades).
In the Council of States there is always a Federalist majority,
since in this house the smaller cantons are on an equality with
the greater ones, each indifferently having two members. But
in the National Council (167 elected members) there has always
(since 1848) been a considerable Radical majority over all other
parties. The Socialists long worked under the wing of the
Radicals, but now in every canton (save Geneva) the two parties
have quarrelled, the Socialist vote having largely increased,
especially in the town of Zurich. In the country the anti-Radical
opposition is made up of the Conservatives, who are
strongest in the Romanist, and especially the Forest, cantons,
and of the “Federalists” of French-speaking Switzerland.
There is no doubt that the people are really anti-Radical,
though occasionally led away by the experiments made recently
in the domain of State socialism: they elect, indeed, a Radical
majority, but very frequently reject the bills laid before them
by their elected representatives.
2.
Politics
.?The cantons had led the way before 1848, and
they continued to do so after that date, gradually introducing
reforms all of which tended to give the direct rule to the people.
The Confederation was bound to follow this example, though it
adopted a far more leisurely pace. Hence, in 1872 a new
Federal Constitution was drafted, but was rejected on a popular
vote by a small majority, as it was thought to go too far in a
centralizing direction, and so encountered the combined opposition
of the Conservatives and of the Federalists of French-speaking
Switzerland. The last-named party was won over by
means of concessions as to military matters and the proposed
unification of cantonal laws, civil and criminal, and especially
by strong provisions as to religious freedom, since the “Kulturkampf”
was then raging in French-speaking Switzerland.
Hence a revised draft was accepted in 1874 by a considerable
popular majority, and this is the existing Federal Constitution.
But it bears marks of its origin as a compromise, and no one
party has ever been very eager to support it as a whole. At
first all went smoothly, and various very useful laws carrying
out in detail the new provisions of the constitution were drafted
and accepted. But divisions of opinion arose when it was
proposed to reform the military system at a very great expenditure,
and also as to the question of the limitation of the right
to issue bank-notes, while (as will be seen under 3 below) just
at this time grave financial difficulties arose with regard to the
Swiss railways, and in consequence of Prince Bismarck's anti-free
trade policy, which threatened the prosperity of Switzerland
as an exporting country. Further, the disturbed political state
of the canton of Ticino (or Tessin) became more or less acute
from 1873 onwards. There the Radicals and the Conservatives
are nearly equally balanced. In 1872 the Conservatives obtained
the majority in this canton, and tried to assure it by some
certainly questionable means. The Radicals repeatedly appealed
to the Federal government to obtain its armed intervention,
but in vain. In 1876 the Conservatives at a rifle match
at Stabio fired on the Radicals, but in 1880 the accused persons
were acquitted. The long-desired detachment of Ticino from
the jurisdiction of the foreign dioceses of Como and Milan was
effected in 1888 by the erection of a see at Lugano, but this
event caused the Radicals to fear an increase of clerical influence.
Growing impatient, they finally took matters in their own
hands, and in September 1890 brought about a bloody revolution.
The partial conduct of the Radical Federal commissioner
was much blamed, but after a state trial at Zurich in 1891 the
revolutionists were acquitted, although they loudly boasted of
their share in this use of force in political matters.
From 1885 onwards Switzerland had some troubles with
foreign powers owing to her defence of the right of asylum for
fugitive German Socialists, despite the threats of Prince Bismarck,
who maintained a secret police in Switzerland, one
member of which, Wohlgemuth, was expelled in 1889, to the
prince's huge but useless indignation. From about 1890, as
the above troubles within and without gradually subsided, the
agitation in the country against the centralizing policy of the
Radicals became more and more strongly marked. By the united
exertions of all the opposition parties, and against the steady
resistance of the Radicals, an amendment was introduced in
1891 into the Federal Constitution, by which 50,000 Swiss citizens
can by the “Initiative”
compel
the Federal legislature and executive
to take into consideration some point in the Federal Constitution
which, in the opinion of the petitioners, requires reform,
and to prepare a bill dealing with it which must be submitted
to a popular vote. Great hopes and fears were entertained at
the time as to the working of this new institution, but both have
been falsified, for the Initiative has as yet only succeeded in
inserting (in 1893) in the Federal Constitution a provision by
which the Jewish method of killing animals is forbidden, and
another (in 1908) prohibiting the manufacture or sale of absinthe
in the country. On the other hand, it has failed (in 1894) to
secure the adoption of a Socialist scheme by which the state was
bound to provide work for every able-bodied man in the country,
and (also in 1894) to carry a proposal to give to the cantons a
bonus of two francs per head of the population out of the rapidly
growing returns of the customs duties, similarly in 1900 an
attempt to introduce the election of the Federal executive by a
popular vote and proportional representation in the
Nationalrat
failed, as in 1903 did a proposal to make the elections to the
Nationalrat
depend on the Swiss population only, instead of the
total population of the country.
The great rise in the productiveness of the customs duties
(see 3 below) has tempted the Swiss people of late years to
embark on a course of state socialism, which may be also
described as a series of measures tending to give more and more
power to the central Federal government at the expense of the
cantons. So in 1890 the principle of compulsory universal insurance
against sickness and accidents was accepted by a popular
vote, in 1891 likewise that of a state or Federal bank, and in 1898
that of the unification of the cantonal laws, civil and criminal,
into a set of Federal codes. In each case the Federal government
and legislature were charged with the preparation of laws carrying
out in detail these general principles. But in 1897 their proposals
as to a Federal bank were rejected by the people, though another
draft was accepted in 1905, so that the bank (with a monopoly
of note issue, a provision accepted by a popular vote in 1891)
was actually opened in 1907. At the beginning of 1900 the
suspicion felt as to the insurance proposals elaborated by the
Federal authorities was so keen that a popular demand for a
popular vote was signed by 117,000 Swiss citizens, the legal
minimum being only 30,000: they were rejected (May 20, 1900)
on a popular vote by a nearly two to one majority. The preparation
of the Federal civil and criminal codes has progressed
quietly, drafts being framed by experts and then submitted for
criticism to special commissions and public opinion, but finally
the civil code was adopted by the Federal Assembly in December
1907. By a popular vote in 1887 the Federal authorities were
given a monopoly of alcohol, but a proposal to deal similarly
with tobacco has been very ill received (though such a monopoly
would undoubtedly produce a large amount), and would pretty
certainly be refused by the people if a popular vote were ever
taken upon it. In 1895 the people declined to sanction a state
monopoly of matches, even though the unhealthy nature of the
works was strongly urged, and have also resolutely refused on
several occasions to accept any projects for the centralizing of
the various branches of military administration, &c., though in
1897 the forests high up on the mountains were placed under
Federal supervision, while in 1902 large Federal grants in aid were
made to the cantons towards the expenses of primary education,
and in 1908 the supervision of the employment of the power
derived from rivers and streams was given to the Confederation.
Among other reforms which have recently been much discussed in
Switzerland are the introduction of the obligatory referendum
(which hitherto has applied only to amendments to the Federal
Constitution) and the extension of the initiative (now limited to
piecemeal revision of the Federal Constitution) to all Federal
laws, &c. The first-named scheme is an attempt to restrain
important centralizing measures from being presented as laws
(and as such exempt from the compulsory referendum), and not
as amendments to the Federal Constitution.
Besides the insurance project mentioned above, two great
political questions have engaged the attention of the Swiss.
a
.
State Purchase of the Railways
.?In 1891 the purchase of
the Central railway was rejected by a popular vote, but in 1898,
by the aid of various baits thrown out, the people were induced
to accept the principle of the purchase by the Confederation
of the five great Swiss railway lines?three in 1901, viz. the
Central, the North-Eastern, and the United Swiss lines; one (the
Jura-Simplon) in 1903, and one (the St Gotthard line) in 1909,
this delay being due to international conventions that still
have some years to run. Further, very important economical
consequences,
e.g.
as to strikes, may be expected to result from
the transformation of all railway officials of whatever grade into
state servants, who may naturally be expected to vote (as in other
cases) for their employers, and so greatly increase the strength
of the Centralist political party.
b. The
“
Double Initiative
.”?This phrase denotes two purely
political reforms that have been coupled together, though in
reality they are by no means inseparable. One is the introduction
of proportional representation (within the several cantons) into
the elections for the National Council of the Federal parliament,
the object being thus to secure for several large minorities
a number of M.P.’s more in accordance with the size of those
minorities in the country than is now possible under the regime
of pure majorities: naturally these minorities would then receive
a proper share of political power in the senate house, instead
of merely exerting great political influence in the country, while
if they were thus strengthened in the legislature they would
soon be able to claim the right of naming several members of
the Federal executive, thus making both legislature and executive
a mirror of the actual political situation of the country, instead
of the preserve of one political party. The other reform is the
election of the members of the Federal executive by popular
vote, the whole body of voters voting, not by cantons, but as
a single electoral constituency. This would put an end to the
“lobbying” that goes on previously to the election of a
member of the executive by the two houses of the Federal
parliament sitting jointly in Congress; but, on the other hand,
it might stereotype the present system of electing members of
the executive by the majority system, and so reduce large
minorities to political impotence. The “double initiative”
scheme was launched in the beginning of 1899, and by the
beginning of the following July secured more than the requisite
number of signatures (50,000), the first-named item having been
supported by nearly 65,000 citizens, and the second item by
56,000. Hence the Federal parliament was
bound
to take these
two reforms into formal consideration, but in June 1900 it
rejected both, and this decision was confirmed by a popular
vote taken in the following November.
3.
Economics and Finance
.?Soon after the adoption of the
Federal Constitution of 1874 the economical and financial state
of the Confederation became very unsatisfactory. The great
financial crisis in Vienna in 1873 was a severe blow to Swiss
commerce, which had taken a very great start after the Franco-German
War of 1870?71. In the later ’seventies, too, the
financial position of some of the great Swiss railway lines was
very unfavourable: the bankruptcy of the National line ruined for
the time (till a Federal loan at a very low rate of interest was
forced upon them) the four Swiss towns which were its guarantors;
the North-Eastern line had to beg for a “moratorium” (a legal
delay of the period at which it had to pay its debts) from the
Federal government; the Bern-Lucerne line was actually put up
to auction, and was bought by the canton of Bern. Further, the
expenses of constructing the St Gotthard railway vastly exceeded
all estimates, and in 1876 over 100,000,000 francs more were
required. Hence the subventions already granted had to be
increased. Germany (which gave originally 20,000,000 francs)
and Italy (original contribution 45,000,000 francs) each promised
10,000,000 francs more; the St Gotthard company itself gave
12,000,000, and the two Swiss railway lines interested (Central
and North-Eastern) added 1,500,000 to the 20,000,000 they had
already agreed to give jointly with the cantons interested in
the completion of this great undertaking. But these latter
refused to add anything to their previous contributions, so that
finally the Federal government proposed that it should itself
pay the 6,500,000 francs most urgently required. This proposal
aroused great anger in east and west Switzerland, but the matter
was ultimately settled by the Confederation paying 4,500,000
francs and the interested cantons 2,000,000, the latter gift being
made dependent on a grant of 4,500,000 francs by the Federal
government for new tunnels through the Alps in east and west
Switzerland, and of 2,000,000 more for the Monte Cenere tunnel
between Bellinzona and Lugano. This solution of a most
thorny question was approved by a popular vote in 1879,
and the St Gotthard line was successfully completed in 1882.
Gradually, too, the other Swiss railway lines, attained a state
of financial equilibrium, owing to the more careful management
of new directors and managers. The completion of the Simplon
tunnel (1906), the commencement (1906) of that beneath the
Lotschen Pass
(
q.v.
), and the rival claims of projected tunnels
under the
Splugen Pass
(
q.v.
), besides the struggle for or against
a tunnel under the Faucille (supported by Geneva almost alone),
show that railway politics play a very prominent part in Swiss
national life. They are, too, complicated by many local
rivalries, which in this country are of greater importance than
elsewhere because of the considerable share of power still legally
belonging to the cantons. Another kindred question (owing
to the rapid development of electric traction in Switzerland)
is the equitable proposal (accepted in 1908) that the utilization
of the immense force supplied by the many rivers and torrents
in Switzerland should become a Federal monopoly, so as to
secure to the Confederation the control over such important
sources of revenue as otherwise might easily be unscrupulously
exploited by private companies and firms.
Switzerland, by reason of natural conditions, is properly
a free trade country, for it exports far more than it imports,
in order to supply the demand for objects that it cannot itself
produce. But Prince Bismarck's protectionist policy in 1879
was imitated by France, Austria and Italy, so that Switzerland
was gradually shut in by a high wall of tariffs. Hence in 1891
the Swiss people approved, in sheer self-defence, a great increase
of the customs duties, and in 1903 sanctioned a further very considerable
advance in these duties, so that it is now a thoroughly
Protectionist country, despite its obvious natural disadvantages.
The huge increase in revenue naturally led to increased expenditure,
which took the form of lavish subventions to all sorts of
cantonal objects, magnificent Federal buildings, most useful
improvements in the post and telegraph services, and extensive
and Iamentable construction of military fortifications in Uri
and the Valais against some unknown foe. In 1894 it was proposed
to distribute part of this new wealth in giving a bonus to
the cantons at the rate of 2 francs per head of the population, but
this extravagant proposal (nicknamed the “Beutezug”) was
rejected, owing to the cool common sense of the Swiss people, by
a majority of over two to one. These prosperous circumstances,
however, contributed mainly to the adoption or suggestion
of various measures of state socialism, e.g. compulsory sick
insurance, Federal subvention to primary schools, purchase
of the five great Swiss railway lines, giving a right to every able bodied
man to have work at the expense of the state, subventions
to many objects, &c.
(
W. A. B. C.
)