Wars

In 1389 a peace for seven years was made, the Confederates being secured in all their conquests; and on July 16, 1394, the peace was prolonged for 20 years (and again in for 5o 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 annu ally; Zug too was released from Habsburg 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 Confed eration as a whole was relieved from the overlordship of the Habs burgs, to whom, however, all their rights and dues as landed pro prietors were expressly reserved, Bern, ZUrich And Soleure guar anteeing 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 recov ering its former rights, so that technically the treaties of 1389, 1394 and were but truces, it finally and forever renounced all its feudal rights and privileges within the Confederation by the "Everlasting Compact" of The victory at Sempach enabled the League to extend both its influence and its territory. Both the League and its individual members were now able to take the offensive. In the 15th century each member increased and rounded off its territory, though it usually withheld political rights from the men of the newly acquired lands. It was in the same century that Appenzell, St. Gall and the Upper Valais first became associated with the League, though they did not become full members for a long time—Appen zell in 1513, St. Gall in 1803, the Valais in 1815. Above all, the 15th century saw the first attempt of the Confederation to secure a footing south of the Alps.

In 1412 the treaty of 1394 between the League and the Habs burgs had been renewed for 5o years ; but when in 1415 the emperor Sigismund placed Duke Frederick of Austria under the ban of the empire (see CONSTANCE) , the League hesitated, because of their treaty of 1412, till the emperor declared that this treaty 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.

First Italian Conquests.—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, an acquisition which gave to Uri 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 occupied 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) occu pied 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 1416-17 the alliance of the men of the Upper Valais, then fighting for freedom, and thus regained the valley (1416). 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; the Confederates were not at one with regard to these southern conquests; the duke of Milan intrigued with them, 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.

The First Civil War.

The original contrasts between the social condition of the different members of the League became more marked when the period of conquest began, and led to quar rels and ill-feeling in the matter of the Aargau and the Italian con quests 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 Frederick'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 Prattigau 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 mem bers of the League. 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 Jurisdictions in Raetia, while Frederick's widow took sides with Ziirich 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 to Schwyz, the general feeling of the Confeder ates 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 (con cluded 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. In 1443 the Zurich troops were com pletely defeated at St. Jakob on the Sihl, close under the walls of the city. 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, 30,00o strong, under the dauphin Louis, plundering and harrying the land, till at the very gates of the free imperial city of Basle, the desperate resistance of a small body of Confederates (1,20o to 1,5oo), till cut to pieces, checked the advance of the free booters, who 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.