On Henry's death in 1313 the men of Schwyz seized the oppor tunity for making a wanton attack on the great abbey of Einsie deln, with which they had a long-standing quarrel as to rights of pasture. The abbot caused them to be excommunicated and Fred erick of Habsburg (the choice of the minority of the electors), who was the hereditary "advocate" of the abbey, placed them under the ban of the empire. His rival, Louis of Bavaria, 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 con cluded alliances with Glarus, Urseren, Arth and Interlaken to pro tect 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 Nov. 15, 1315, Leopold 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 who utterly defeated them. Leo pold fled in hot haste to Winterthur, and the attack by the Briinig was driven back by the men of Unterwalden. On Dec. 9, 1315 rep resentatives of the victorious highlanders met at Brunnen, on the Lake of Lucerne 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 July 24, 1291. None of the three districts or their dependents is to recognize a new lord without the consent and counsel of the rest. Strict obedience in all lawful matters is to be rendered to the right ful lord in each case, unless he attacks or wrongs any of the Con federates, 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 dis tricts 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.
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, 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, of which the Habsburgs were "advocates," claiming there fore 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 its civic and rural members. The immediate occa sion of the union of these two districts was the war begun by the Austrian duke against Zurich, which was ended by the peace of 1352, by which Glarus and Zug were to be restored to the Habs burgs, 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 were, however, far outweighed by the entrance into the League in 1353 of the famous town of Berne, founded in 1191 by Berthold V. of Zaringen, which had become a free imperial city in 1218 on the extinction of the Zaringen dynasty, and made a treaty with the Forest districts as early as 1323. In 1352 she had been forced 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 cf Bern was that the League now began to spread to the west, and was thus brought into connection for the first time with the French-speaking land of Savoy. The League thus num bered 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.
Sempach.—After a short interval of peace the quarrels with Austria broke out afresh. Lucerne fretted much under the Aus trian rule, received many Austrian subjects among her citizens, and refused to pay custom duties to the Austrian bailiff at Rothen burg, 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 burghership 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, approximately 1,600 men of Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden and Lucerne opposed the 6,000 which made up the Austrian army. The decisive fight took place on July 9, 1386, near Sempach. Leopold, with a large number of his followers, was slain, and the Habsburg power within the borders of the Confed eration finally broken. Glarus at once rose in arms, 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 April 9, 1388, by a handful of Glarus and Schwyz men.