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Swiss Confederation - Formation

Charlemagne, whose hand extended over the entire West, incorporated all these seigniories and townships of Switzerland with his single empire: the master of Germany became the sovereign of Helvetia. The cities placed themselves under his protection to escape from new invasions of barbarous nations, particularly the Hungarians, who encroached upon their valleys. They constructed ramparts and citadels, and compelled the inhabitants to become at the same time citizens and warriors. Thus they erected themselves into independent communities, rivaling the great lords and abbots, who had hitherto domineered over the people with exclusive supremacy. The German emperor maintained a viceroy in Switzerland under the title of bailiff, who administered justice upon all, and in the name of his master exercised equal tyranny over the towns, the convents, and the castles.

The Counts of Hapsburg, a powerful family of the canton of Aargau, the Counts of Rapperschwyl, rulers of the Lake of Zurich, the Counts of Toggenburg, rivals of both these houses, in their impregnable stronghold of Fischingen, and several other influential chieftains, disputed among themselves the dominion of these groups of mountains, lakes, and forests. Their nominal subordination to the empire of Germany was regulated exclusively by their interest.

The Swiss Confederation owed its rise to the dissensions of the emperors and the Hapsburg family, as well as to the native spirit of independence cherished by these sturdy mountaineers. Even rural communities within the Empire, had proved their power to throw off the yoke of feudal vassalage. Bordering upon the Lake of Lucerne, - or "Lake of the Four Cantons," - were the three "Forest Cantons," - Schwyz, Uri, and Unterwalden, - comprised in the imperial Duchy of Suabia. The population of these cantons had been subject to various local jurisdictions, but the extinction of the Suabian dukes left them a prey to the encroachments of their neighbors, and they fell under the nominal rule of the counts of Hapsburg.

In the controversy between Frederick II and the Pope, the three Forest Cantons united in a league to support the Emperor, and were rewarded by him with charters exempting them from feudal dependence and uniting them directly with the Empire. When Rudolf of Hapsburg became emperor, the cantons were again subject to the Hapsburg power, but were generously treated by him. Count Rudolph of Hapsburg, who had ascended the Imperial throne by election, remembered that he was by birth a native of Switzerland, and for a time protected his countrymen from oppression.

Upon his death, in August, 1291, the inhabitants of Schwytz, Uri, and Unterwalden, confederated together in a mutual league to preserve their customs, laws, and liberties. They formed a new confederation and bound themselves by a solemn oath to aid and defend one another against every enemy who might molest them, either singly or collectively. Rudolf's son, Albert of Austria, jealous of the remnant of independence which the snows and rocks had left to the inhabitants of Upper Helvetia, undertook to subjugate them, and to reduce even these humble villages to the level of the common slavery.

But the new confederation was more than a league, it was the first sketch of a federal constitution. It is true that the compact created no organs of government, yet it contained the elements of legislation; for it decreed the death penalty against murderers, ordained a law of restitution in case of robbery, and applied the principle of enforced arbitration of private differences. It was not only the establishment of a new political community founded upon natural justice, it was the enunciation of a new political conception whose authority was based upon the will of the people.

The League of 1291 was not, however, a declaration of independence, for it expressly enjoined, " Whoever hath a lord let him obey him according to his bounden duty." It was, rather, a bill of rights, with a pledge to unite the forces of the people in the effort to maintain them. Without the rivalries of the houses of Luxemburg and Bavaria with that of Hapsburg, the Confederation might, perhaps, have failed to maintain its existence; but one of the first public acts of Henry VII was the confirmation of the dependence of the League upon the Empire alone, and its' exemption from feudal jurisdiction. In the subsequent struggles between the emperors and the House of Hapsburg, the members of the Swiss Confederation were, therefore, always against the supremacy of their ancient masters.

When Duke Leopold of Austria endeavored to punish the confederates for their opposition, the Swiss proved their invincibility in the battle of Morgarten, fought on November 15, 1315, in which thirteen hundred Swiss are said to have defeated twenty thousand Austrians. The victory was celebrated by a renewal of the former compact; and, in 1318, a treaty was signed by the Hapsburgs in which they abandoned all jurisdiction within the Forest Cantons. The accession of Lucerne in 1332, Zurich in 1351, Glarus in 1352, and Berne in 1353, enabled the League to resist the Austrian aggressions of later years, and thus to become a permanent political community.