upheld and fought for the imperial cause in the Popish quarrels, was
invested with the Swabian duchy. Yet his power on the Swiss side of
the
[Pg 94]
Rhine was more nominal than real, and it was exerted by Bertold II. of
Zaeringen, who received in compensation for the loss of the duchy
the ducal title, and the Reichsvogtei Zürich (a kind of prefecture),
together with the royal prerogatives over the secular and religious
institutions of the city. For Zurich was then the noblest and most
conspicuous town in Swabia, as Bishop Otto von Freysingen, the
most prominent historian of the Middle Ages, asserts. This severance
of Swiss Alamannia, and particularly of the imperial prefecture of
Zurich, from the empire tended greatly to bring about the gradual
political separation. Under the Zaeringer came again a long period of
comparative peace.
[Pg 95]
VIII.
THE REIGN OF THE HOUSE OF ZAERINGEN.
(1050-1218.)
The rule of the Dukes of Zaeringen ushered in a long period of
comparative peace (1100-1218), which improved the social and
material condition of the people. Yet this time of peace was every
now and again interrupted in the west by feuds with the Burgundian
nobles. This Swabian family took their name from the ancestral
manor of Zaeringen, near Freiburg, in the Breisgau (Black Forest).
The vast estates they had derived from the House of Rheinfelden on
its extinction reached from Lake Geneva to the rivers Aare and
Emme, and gave them a dominant position in the country at the
opening of the twelfth century.
Burgundy had been slowly falling away from the empire during its
internal dissensions and its conflicts with the Papacy. But on the
death of Count William IV., who was assassinated by his own people
in 1127, the Emperor Lothair drew that province more closely
[Pg 96]
to his realm, by bestowing the regency of it on his adherent, Conrad
of Zaeringen. Conrad's position was, however, violently contested by
Rainald III., a relative of the murdered count. The Burgundian nobles
rallied round him, and made a desperate stand against German
interference, and he maintained his independence in the Franche
Comté, as the district was subsequently called. When Frederick
Barbarossa married Beatrix, the daughter and heiress of Rainald, he
claimed the Burgundian territory, and came into conflict with the
Zaeringer. Berchtold IV. obtained the position of suzerain over the
sees of Geneva, Lausanne, and Sion, and by this division Swiss
Burgundy was being lopped off from its appendage beyond Mount
Jura. The insubordinate prelates joined with secular princes to upset
the German rule. To guard against these protracted struggles, and to
increase their own influence in the country, the Zaeringer resorted to
a means which does them great credit, and which won for them the
affection of the people. They began to found towns, as they had done
in Germany, or to raise settlements into fortified cities, and granted
them extensive liberties. The lesser nobles and the common people
found shelter in these walled towns against the over-bearing amongst
the high nobility; trade and industry began to thrive, and these city
commonwealths rose to a flourishing condition, and became a source
of wealth as well as a staunch support to their founders.
Bertold or Berchtold IV. (1152-1186) planned a whole strategical line
of strongholds in the west, as a check on the nobles; and in 1177 he
founded the
[Pg 97]
free city of Freiburg on his own estates. The situation, on a high
plateau above the Saane, was on the line of demarcation between
the French and German tongues. To this new town he granted a
charter of liberties similar to that granted to its sister foundation of the
same name in the Breisgau.
Berchtold V. (1186-1218) followed in the steps of his father. He
founded and fortified Burgdorf, Moudon, Yverdon, Laupen, Murten,
Gümminen, Thun. These towns he founded to be not only places of
military strength, but also centres of industry and trade, which should
increase the prosperity of his people. But he had, however, to stand
against the heavy opposition of the Burgundian nobles. As he was
preparing to set out on a crusade with Frederick Barbarossa they
rose in arms. Hastening back, he defeated the refractory rebels, both
at Avenches and in the Grindelwald valley, in 1191, and immediately
after his victories he resumed his strategical projects. On a
promontory washed by the Aare, and on imperial crown lands, he
raised a new citadel, to which he gave the name of Bern, in memory
of Dietrich of Berne (Verona), a favourite hero of Alamannic
mediæval poetry.[21] The lesser nobles of the neighbourhood, as well as the humbler people, poured into Bern for shelter, and, receiving a
most liberal charter, these burgesses rapidly rose to wealth and
power. Being built on imperial land, Bern took from the first a higher
standing than the sister town, Freiburg.
[Pg 98]
These city foundations form a chief corner-stone in the fabric of Swiss
liberties. Attaining political independence, the towns held their own
against aggressors. To effect their deliverance from oppression, they
united with kindred communities or with powerful princes, and thus
began the system of offensive and defensive alliances.
A new enemy arose in the West, and Berchtold V. was defeated by
Count Thomas of Savoy (1211), who encroached on Vaud, and
seized Moudon. Yet the Zaeringer steadily and successfully
strengthened their hold over the country, and obtained the most
complete independence. And, indeed, the moment seemed drawing
near when Switzerland was to be shaped into a durable monarchical
state. However, she was spared that fate—from which no patriotic act
of any national hero could probably have rescued her—by a natural,
yet providential, event, the extinction of the ducal family. For in 1218
Berchtold V. died, leaving no issue.
This century is eminently an age of religious movements. And,
although our space will not permit us to enter into full details, yet it is
impossible to pass over the great religious revival which centred in
the Crusades, that is, so far as that movement touches Switzerland.
On the 10th of December, in the year 1146, a most touching scene
might have been witnessed in the minster of Schaffhausen. The
Alamannic people were thronging the church to listen to a glowing
sermon from a French Cistercian monk, Bernard de Clairvaux. Vividly
depicting the distress
[Pg 99]
of the Christians in Palestine, he invited his hearers to join the second
crusade. France was ready, he said, but the House of Hohenstaufen
was still wavering. His captivating manner, his noble earnestness,
and the elegance and flow of his language—though it was but half
understood by the masses—stirred the audience to bursts of
enthusiasm. "Your land is fertile," were the concluding words of the
monk, "and the world is filled with the reputation of your valour. Ye
soldiers of Christ, arise! and hurl down the enemies of the Cross!"
Laying his hands on the blind and lame, says the half-legendary
story, he restored to them eyesight or the use of limbs, and, strewing
crosses amongst the crowds, left the church. The people, in a state of
ecstatic fervour, beat their breasts, and, shedding tears, broke into a
shout of "Kyrie eleison, the saints are with us! "[22] On the 15th of the same month Bernard preached at Zurich, and on Christmas Day at
Speyer, before Conrad III., whom he won for the crusade. His fervent
exhortations seem to have found willing ears, too, in the country.
Schaffhausen and Einsiedeln took an active share in the work. We
hear of almost countless numbers of spiritual and secular princes,
nobles, knights, and lesser people who joined in the crusade. The
counts of Montfort, Kyburg, Habsburg, Zaeringen, and Neuchâtel,
and bishops and abbots started for the East. Contemporary writers
bewail the loss of so many of the best and bravest of South Germany
who died in Palestine. The holy orders of the Knights of St. John, of
the Teutonic order, and
[Pg 100]
the Knights-Templars raised their aristocratic institutions in this
country; new orders of monastic foundations sprang up, which we
cannot here dwell upon. Amongst these new orders were that of
Mendicant Friars, though it is worthy of note that these played no
such part in Switzerland as they did in England.
Yet the Burgundian or western portion of the country plunged more
deeply into the movement than did the eastern part. German
enthusiasm was but slowly won by French religious ecstasy, which
had to a great extent started the Crusades. Still the age was filled
with religious and romantic frenzy. Not the mere practical aims of
conquest or gain it was that stirred men's minds, but the mystical
elements of the movement, and the grand, novel, and indeed
fabulous sights that were to be witnessed; and the old love of
wandering and adventure revived, and drove men to the East. By a
happy coincidence the effect of Bernard's sermons was lessened to
some extent in this country by the previous teachings of another
enthusiast of a far different stamp. The intrepid Italian reformer,
Arnold of Brescia, had for some time preached at Zurich and
Constance, sowing the seeds of heresy. Boldly attacking the abuses
of the Church, and advocating the return to the simplicity of the
apostolic teaching, he invited people to no longer lavish wealth on
Church institutions. Arnold fell a victim to his advanced religious and
political views, but his teachings took hold of the people of the Alpine
districts. To his influence may safely be attributed the staunch
resistance to Papal aggressiveness shown in the thirteenth century
by the people of Zurich and of the Forest Cantons.
FOOTNOTES:
See Nibelungen.
Prof. Bächtold, "Sermon Literature in Switzerland."
[Pg 101]
IX.
THE HOUSES OF KYBURG, SAVOY, AND HABSBURG.
(1218-1273.)
We are nearing the period of their history most dear to the Swiss, the
period when the Eidgenossenschaft is forming, but before reaching it
we have still to make our way as best we can through a short era of
chaotic feudalism and political confusion generally, preceding the
great struggle for Swiss independence. On the extinction of the
House of Zaeringen Switzerland fell a prey to the designs of vassal
princes who had started into eminence on her soil, and now
contended for supremacy over her. The realm of the Zaeringen
sovereigns fell to pieces, the Swiss portions with Freiburg, Burgdorf,
Thun, going to a native prince, Ulrich, Count of Kyburg, brother-in-law
of Berchtold V.; the Swabian portions to a German relative. Thus
Switzerland was cut off from Swabia. The crown lands he had held in
Swiss Burgundy, and likewise the royal prerogative, fell to the empire,
and the Vice-regency, being vested by Frederick II. in his younger
son, Henry, became gradually nominal and at length died out. In this
way all vassal princes in the west, and all the territorial lordships and
free cities, such as Bern, Solothurn, Morat, Laupen, Gümminen,
which were built on crown lands, and had been subjected to the
Zaerings, were now held directly from the emperor. Zurich was
likewise restored to the empire. By this time most of these places had
become virtually independent.
[Pg 102]
CHÂTEAU DE VUFFLENS, VAUD. (Fourteenth Century.)
[Pg 103]
Switzerland reflects most faithfully the feudal and political condition of
the empire at large. It was torn into an almost countless number of
spiritual and secular territorial sovereignties. Taking advantage of the
state of distraction prevailing throughout the realm, Church prelates,
religious foundations, the greater and lesser nobles, and even the
thriving burgesses of great city commonwealths, all strove to erect
their lands into petty independent dominions. The bishops assumed
temporal power in their own dioceses; the religious-houses, owing to
their "rich immunities," enjoyed almost perfect freedom. The
peasantry had dwindled into small bodies of men, and in the place of
the Frankish county-officers (counts) a martial nobility had sprung up,
and, grasping the public functions and dignities, had turned these
offices into freeholds independent of the sovereign. Henceforward
they assumed the names of the feudal manors they held, and began
to raise chateaux-forts on commanding or picturesque spots. As
many as two hundred territorial rulers held their feudal sway in
Switzerland. To give even the names of these would be not only
useless but absurd, yet they had their share in the political
development of the country.
[Pg 104]
In the Low Valais the counts of Savoy had obtained a footing, and
were moreover advancing into Vaud. Vaud was at that time governed
by a host of more or less important nobles, such as the barons of
Grandson, Cossonay, Blonay, &c., and was contended for by the
bishops of Lausanne and Geneva, and the counts of the latter town,
whilst the counts of Greyerz governed in the districts of the Saane,
and those of Neuchâtel in the lake districts of the Jura. Little
Burgundy, with Solothurn as capital, fell to the counts of Buchegg.
One of the wealthiest and most ancient of the native families was that
of Lenzburg, whose counts held sway in Aargau, Zurichgau, and the
Forest Cantons, and were governors of famous religious-houses.
One of the counts of Lenzburg, Ulrich IX., was an intimate friend and
a minister of Frederick Barbarossa, and on the extinction of the rule
of these counts, their heritage fell to the Habsburgs, and gave that
family a great lift in the early days of their rise. In the east we meet
with the famous House of Kyburg, to which belonged young Werner,
the friend of Ernest II. of Swabia. Their ancestral manor house near
Winterthur is still in good condition. They had numerous vassals and
followers. In Zurichgau the barons of Regensberg and others, and the
counts of Rapperswyl were harassing the people. The most powerful
nobles in the east were the abbots of St. Gall, who governed part of
St. Gall and Appenzell, and the counts of Toggenburg, and in Chur-
Rhætia and the Rhine districts the counts of Montfort and
Werdenberg. This sufficiently shows how feudalism had grown apace
in Switzerland, and what a hard
[Pg 105]
struggle the people had to hold their own against the impositions of
princes and nobles. How feudalism had arisen has been already
shown in the previous chapter.
To find some explanation of this rapid growth and the distracted state
that followed in its train we must turn for a moment to the empire.
Owing no doubt to the loftiness of the imperial dignity—for the
emperors were indisputably the greatest of the civilized monarchs—
the vassal princes rose to far greater independence in the empire
than in other countries. Yet the possession of the imperial crown was
in the end the weakening of royalty. Henry III. had raised the empire
to its pinnacle of greatness, and the imperial dignity increased the
prestige of the German name, and surrounded the German monarch
with a halo of glory and even reverence. But the engagements
abroad, the campaigns in Italy, the struggles with the Pontiffs, and the
close attention required to be paid to Italian affairs, kept the emperors
away from duties and cares nearer home. The Italian claims and
titles, in fact, proved in the long run injurious to German interests.
Frederick I., Barbarossa, had indeed, by his just and powerful rule,
forced his insubordinate vassals into submission, but it was far
different with his grandson, the brilliant Frederick II. (1215-50). Born
in Italy and brought up to love the land of his birth, Naples and Sicily,
more than his fatherland, Frederick II. was more Southerner than
Teuton. He gave Southern Italy a model administration, but allowed
Germany to be weakened by a divided internal government. And
though we cannot but admire the unflinching spirit with which this
"wonder of the world" carried on his unequal struggle with the
Papacy, yet it is clear that the conflict which sealed the doom of his
own family was equally ruinous to the empire.
[Pg 106]
BRONZE FIGURES FROM THE MAXIMILIAN MONUMENT AT
INNSBRUCK.
[Pg 107]
During the interregnum (1254-73) Germany was without an actual
ruler, although two foreign princes had been elected as its
sovereigns. One of these never even showed his face in Germany,
and the other, Richard of Cornwall, could not make sure his
ascendency in the country, notwithstanding all the money he lavished
in the attempt. This was the unhappy time of the Faustrecht—the
name indicates its character—when the right of the strong hand (fist)
alone was of avail. The empire lost its prestige, and it slowly
dissolved into a loose confederacy of some five thousand larger or
smaller states and fragments of states, each struggling for
independence.
Most eminent amongst the crowd of nobles on Swiss soil aiming at
their personal exaltation were the counts of the great Houses of
Kyburg, Savoy, and Habsburg. Taking advantage of the general state
of misgovernment or want of government, they systematically
planned the aggrandisement of their own families, whether by
conquest, purchase, or unjust encroachment. Yet there was
opposition from the city burgesses, who, seeing their liberties in
danger, felt the love of freedom roused in their breasts.
The powerful Kyburger, the mightiest Swiss nobles, were the first to
threaten the liberties of the
[Pg 108]
people. Count Ulrich was reckoned one of the wealthiest princes
throughout Swabia. By clever policy he had arranged the union of his
son Hartmann (the elder) with Margaretha of Savoy. Ulrich's
daughter, too, was married to Albrecht of Habsburg, and became the
mother of Rudolf, the German king. He upheld the cause of Frederick
II., and his elder son, Werner, went with him on his crusade where he
was carried off by the plague, leaving one son, Hartmann the
Younger. Their territories, after they had inherited the Zaeringen
estates, reached from Lake Constance to Swiss Burgundy. Both the
elder and the younger Hartmann encroached without scruple on the
crown lands adjoining their estates, whilst Frederick II. was engaged
in his struggle with the Church. In this emergency Bern and Murten,
whose independence was at stake, followed suit, and resorted to
means which would be a precedent in the future struggles for Swiss
freedom. They joined in an offensive and defensive union with the
Kyburg city, Freiburg, with Lucerne and the Bishop of Sion (1243).
Bern had always adhered closely to the Hohenstaufen, and when
Hartmann ventured on an open attack in 1255, that city applied to the
empire for help. Unable to obtain support, however, both Bern and
Murten placed themselves under the patronage of Count Peter of
Savoy, who was already at variance with Kyburg, and a peace was
arranged.
Peter of Savoy, "the second Charlemagne" as he was styled, was a
most remarkable man, and a striking figure amongst the Savoy
princes. Being the fourth of seven brothers he had been placed in the
Church
[Pg 109]
by his father, Count Thomas. However, on the death of the father
Peter doffed his priestly robes, married the heiress of Faucigny, and
added that province and Chablais to his territories, and set up as
guardian of his brothers. Like his father he had constantly his mind on
Vaud, and the daily feuds amongst its leaderless swarm of nobles
facilitated the conquest. Castles were erected to further his object;
and Chillon, which to-day gives us an excellent idea of what a fine
feudal castle was in mediæval days, became his princely residence,
having indeed been, to a great extent, built by him. Invited to the
Court of England by his niece Eleanor, he spent the greater part of
his life abroad, gathering in the service of Henry III. men and money.
These he used to achieve the acquisition of Vaud, to which he every
now and then returned to overthrow his enemies. In England he
occupied a high position in the Council, was knighted, and had titles
and honours lavished on him; the palace of the Savoy in the Strand
bears witness to his magnificence. Many of the nobles in his train,
such as De la Porte, Grandson, Flechère, married Englishwomen,
and hence arose the family names of Porter, Grandison, Fletcher.
Possessing an iron will, and thoroughly versed in diplomacy, Peter of
Savoy finally annexed Vaud, partly by conquest and partly by
agreement. In truth, the whole nobility lay at his feet ready to do him
homage and acknowledge him as lord paramount. The German
government sanctioned his protectorate of Bern and Morat, and
Richard of Cornwall his conquests in the Bernese Highlands. Thus
West Switzerland became the
[Pg 110]
portion of a Savoy prince, and in the place of the ancient kingdom of
Upper Burgundy arose a feudal sovereignty. However, order,
discipline, and wise organization were the fruits of Peter's rule. And
his generous nature, his chivalrous spirit, and his love of justice and