"and Basel). The nucleus of the Old Swiss Confederacy was an alliance among the valley communities of the central Alps to facilitate management of common interests (such as trade) and ensure peace along trade routes through the mountains. The foundation of the Confederacy is marked by the Rütlischwur (dated to 1307 by Aegidius Tschudi) or the 1315 Pact of Brunnen. Since 1889, the Federal Charter of 1291 among the rural communes of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden has been considered the founding document of the confederacy. The initial pact was augmented by pacts with the cities of Lucerne, Zürich, and Berne."
"them extending their territory to the eastern Swiss plateau. The Old Swiss Confederacy was an alliance among the valley communities of the central Alps. The Confederacy, governed by nobles and patricians of various cantons, facilitated management of common interests and ensured peace on the important mountain trade routes. The Federal Charter of 1291 agreed between the rural communes of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden is considered the confederacy's founding document, even though similar alliances are likely to have existed decades earlier. By 1353, the three original cantons had joined with the cantons of Glarus and Zug and the Lucerne, Zürich and"
"the (initially eleven, after a merger only ten) villages founded the ""Zehngerichtebund"" (""League of the Ten Jurisdictions""). By 1471, the three leagues, together with the city of Chur, had formed a close federation, based on military assistance and free trade pacts between the partners and including a common federal diet: the ""Drei Bünde"" (""Three Leagues"") was born, even though the alliance would be officially concluded in a written contract only in 1524. In the second half of the 15th century, the confederation expanded its territory further. In the north, the formerly Habsburg cities of Schaffhausen and Stein am Rhein had"
"concluded between the people of the alpine areas of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden (). The participants are referred to as ""conspirati"" and (synonymously) ""coniurati"", traditionally translated in German as ""Eidgenossen"" (and in English as ""Confederates""). The charter was set up as a canon for judicature and defence purposes (only two of seven paragraphs address foreign dangers), probably prompted by the death of Rudolf I of Habsburg on 15 July 1291 to ensure legal certainty. The authenticity of the letter used to be disputed as a supposed modern forgery but modern historians now agree that it is certainly a product of"
"Pact of Brunnen The Pact of Brunnen (""Bund von Brunnen"") is a historical treaty between the cantons of Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, concluded in Brunnen on 9 December 1315. Representatives of the four territories (Unterwalden was composed of Obwalden and Nidwalden) met in Brunnen after the success of the Battle of Morgarten in the previous month to renew the promise of mutual military assistance. In 1318, Leopold I, Duke of Austria concluded a truce with the confederates. According to Aegidius Tschudi, the pact of Brunnen marks the decision to make what had been a pragmatic alliance a permanent, sworn confederacy, initiating"
"started in 1291 when Rudolph bought all the rights over the town of Lucerne and the abbey estates in Unterwalden from Murbach Abbey in Alsace. The ""Waldstätten"" saw their trade route over Lake Lucerne cut off and feared losing their independence. When Rudolph died on July 15, 1291 the Communities prepared to defend themselves. On August 1, 1291 an Everlasting League was made between the Forest Communities for mutual defense against a common enemy. Uri and Schwyz got their status reconfirmed by Adolf of Nassau in 1297, but to no avail, for Albert finally won the power struggle and became"
"Norimbergense"" claims the people of Schwyz as descendants of the Huns, with a leader called ""Swifter"" ruling the valley, while his brother ""Senner"" ruled the high pastures. Records from the early 16th century confirm that the tradition was in fact part of local folklore (and not the result of learned etymological speculation); in an ""Urner Tellenspiel"" performed between 1511 and 1525, the identification of Gothic and Hunnic ancestry of Uri, Roman ancestry of Unterwalden and Swedish ancestry of Schwyz, and for the Landsgemeinde of Schwyz in 1531 we have the record of a performance of an ""Andacht der Altvorderen"" (remembrance"
"regions of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden (the ""Waldstätten"" or ""forest communities"") gained imperial immediacy under the Hohenstaufen emperors still in the first half of the 13th century. An important aspect of the early confederacy, expressed in the ""Pfaffenbrief"" of 1370, was the guarantee of peace along the road from Zürich to the Gotthard Pass. The Swiss also had an interest in extending their influence south of the Alps to secure the trade route across the pass to Milan. Beginning in 1331, they initially exerted their influence through peaceful trade agreements, but in the 15th century, their involvement turned military. 1403"
"of Schmalkalden, which is located in modern Thuringia. The League was officially established on 27 February 1531, by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, and John Frederick I, Elector of Saxony, the two most powerful Protestant rulers in the Holy Roman Empire at the time. It originated as a defensive religious alliance, with the members pledging to defend each other should their territories be attacked by Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor. At the insistence of the Elector of Saxony, membership was conditional on agreement to the Lutheran Augsburg or Tetrapolitan Confessions. This solidified the dominance of Lutheranism in Germany to"
"1618, Untercalven was separated from the League as the last part of the Vinschgau. With its capital in Chur, the League was composed of the following districts: The Grey League () was founded in 1395 in the Upper Rhine valley, as a reaction to various feuds between the Barony of Belmont, the Lordship of Sax, the Barony of Rhäzüns, the Barony of Vaz, County of Werdenberg, Disentis Abbey and the Bishopric of Chur. The capital of the League was Ilanz. The name ""Grey League"" is derived from the homespun grey clothes worn by the people; the name of this league"
"footing with Uri and Schwyz. In 1314, Duke Louis IV of Bavaria (who would become Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor) and Frederick the Handsome, a Habsburg prince, each claimed the crown of the Holy Roman Emperor. The Confederates supported Louis IV because they feared the Habsburgs would annex their countries as Habsburg property. War broke out over a dispute between the Confederates of Schwyz and the Habsburg-protected monastery of Einsiedeln regarding some pastures, and eventually the Confederates of Schwyz conducted a raid on the monastery. In support of their allies, Unterwalden joined the Confederates in the Battle of Morgarten and"
"Confederates of Schwyz conducted a raid on the monastery. The Habsburg response to the raid, led to the Battle of Morgarten in 1315 where the Confederate army, including some troops from Uri, destroyed the Habsburg army. A few months after the victory at Morgarten, the three Forest Cantons met at Brunnen to reaffirm their alliance in the Pact of Brunnen. In the following forty years, the alliance expanded as other cantons (Lucerne in 1332 and Zürich in 1351, Glarus and Zug in 1352 and Bern in 1353) joined the alliance. In 1386 Uri participated in the victory over the Austrians"
"in the lake rather than face the brutality of the Swiss. In an article in the ""Encyclopædia Britannica"" called ""Military technology § The infantry revolution, c. 1200–1500"", John Guilmartin states that: Within a month of the battle, in December 1315, the Confederates renewed the oath of alliance made in 1291, initiating a period of growth within the Confederacy. In March 1316 Emperor Louis IV confirmed the rights and privileges of the Forest Cantons. However, Leopold prepared another attack against the Confederacy. In response, Schwyz attacked some of the Habsburg lands and Unterwalden marched into the Bernese Oberland. Neither side was"
"others either fled or were expelled from Zürich. On 8 April 1524, five cantons, Lucerne, Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, and Zug, formed an alliance, ""die fünf Orte"" (the Five States) to defend themselves from Zwingli's Reformation. They contacted the opponents of Martin Luther including John Eck, who had debated Luther in the Leipzig Disputation of 1519. Eck offered to dispute Zwingli and he accepted. However, they could not agree on the selection of the judging authority, the location of the debate, and the use of the Swiss Diet as a court. Because of the disagreements, Zwingli decided to boycott the disputation."
"Confederation and forced them to cancel their treaty with the Austrians. After the war, Schwyz acquired the villages of Wollerau and Pfäffikon (now in Freienbach) and shared control of Uznach and Gaster (both now in St. Gallen) with Glarus. The war also showed that the confederation had grown into a political alliance so close that it no longer tolerated separatist tendencies of a single member. In the 15th century, Schwyz joined Uri and Nidwalden in attempting to expand south of the Gotthard Pass to gain the revenue from trade over the pass. By the 16th century they controlled, as a"
"History of Uri Uri is a Swiss ""Talschaft"" and canton in the upper Reuss valley. First mentioned in the 8th century, it gained strategic importance with the opening of the Gotthard Pass in the 13th century and was a founding member of the Old Swiss Confederacy in the late medieval period. The oldest traces of humans in the Canton of Uri are from around 2200 BC and include a quartz production site and flint arrowheads at Hospental-Rossplatten and Gotthardmätteli. There are Bronze Age graves at Bürglen and possibly also some at Jagdmatt that are from 1300–900 BC. The earliest traces"
"in the 17th century with a 1672 play by Johann Caspar Weissenbach. Switzerland has existed as a state in its present form since the adoption of the Swiss Federal Constitution in 1848. The precursors of Switzerland established a protective alliance at the end of the 13th century (1291), forming a loose confederation of states which persisted for centuries. The oldest traces of hominid existence in Switzerland date back about 150,000 years. The oldest known farming settlements in Switzerland, which were found at Gächlingen, have been dated to around 5300 BC. The earliest known cultural tribes of the area were members"
"the event is thus unverifiable, but it is not implausible, as the 1307 date given by Tschudi falls within a period of similar treaties between the cantons, including the Federal Charter of 1291, the pact of Brunnen of 1315, and the pact of Uri and Urseren of 1317. The traditional date of 1307 for the first ""conspiracy"" between the three founding cantons is made plausible by the suggestion due to Roger Sablonier (2008) that the Federal Charter of ""1291"" may have been slightly pre-dated, and should be placed in the context of the inheritance of territories in Schwyz by Wernher"
"Lusatian League The Lusatian League (; ; ) was a historical alliance of six towns in the Bohemian (1346–1635), later Saxon (1635–1815) region of Upper Lusatia, that existed from 1346 until 1815. The member towns were Bautzen (), Görlitz ('), Kamenz ('), Lauban ('), Löbau (') and Zittau (""""). Five of the towns are located in present-day Germany, while former Lauban today belongs to Poland and is known as Lubań. In order to protect peace and order in Upper Lusatia, the six towns of Bautzen, Görlitz, Kamenz, Lauban, Löbau, and Zittau joined into a contract of protection on August 21,"
"Confederacy. The League would remain an associate to the Swiss until the Napoleonic Wars, when it was absorbed into the Helvetic Republic. After the Napoleonic Act of Mediation, the Three Leagues became the canton of Graubünden. Grey League The Grey League (, , or ), sometimes called ""Oberbund"", formed in 1395 in the ""Vorderrhein"" and ""Hinterrhein"" valleys, Raetia. The name Grey League is derived from the homespun grey clothes worn by the people. The league became part of the canton of Graubünden. The Grey League allied itself to the two other powers of Raetia in 1471, forming the Three Leagues."
"state in the modern sense. The Three Leagues worked together as a federation of three states and virtually all affairs of the League were settled by referendum. The Three Leagues were also unique in early modern Europe in that it was the only territory were all decisions were made by communalism, with the Leagues founded, governed and defended by cooperative decisions. The Three Leagues were normally allied with the Old Swiss Confederacy. Initially this was a response to the expansion of the Habsburgs. The Musso war against the Duchy of Milan in 1520 pushed the League closer to the Swiss"
"Three Leagues The Three Leagues was the alliance of 1471 of the League of God's House, the League of the Ten Jurisdictions and the Grey League, leading eventually to the formation of the Swiss canton of Graubünden. Most of the lands of Graubünden were part of the Roman province Raetia in 15 BC. The area later was part of the lands of the Bishopric of Chur. On January 29, 1367, the League of God's House (, , ), was founded to resist the rising power of the Bishopric of Chur and the House of Habsburg. Bishop Peter Gelyto reacted by"
"In 1309, Emperor Henry VII combined Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden into the ""Waldstätte"" or ""Forest Cantons"". In 1314, Duke Louis IV of Bavaria (who would become Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor) and Frederick the Handsome, a Habsburg prince, each claimed the crown of the Holy Roman Emperor. The Confederates supported Louis IV because they feared the Habsburgs would annex their countries as Habsburg property — as they already had tried to do in the late 13th century. War broke out over a dispute between the Confederates of Schwyz and the Habsburg-protected monastery of Einsiedeln regarding some pastures, and eventually the"
"the neighboring cities and monasteries. Conflicts over grazing rights and ownership of the alpine meadows led to several wars within what is now Switzerland, including the pivotal Battle of Morgarten (1315), which started due to a long-simmering feud between Schwyz and Einsiedeln Abbey. In 2011, the UNESCO declared Alpine transhumance in the Bregenz Forest as intangible cultural heritage. In the valleys along the edge of the Alps, cattle production with associated transhumance was generally the rule. However, in the inner alpine valleys the climate was drier which allowed farming even at higher elevations. These areas tended to be mixed between"
"of Sarnen"" (1470), Werner Stauffacher for Schwyz, Walter Fürst for Uri and Arnold of Melchtal for Unterwalden. The figures of the three oath takers or ""Eidgenossen"" during the 16th century merged with the legend of William Tell and became known as ""the Three Tells"". Impersonations of the Three Tells in historical costume played a role during the Swiss peasant war of 1653. Tschudi dates the event to 8 November 1307. In Friedrich Schiller's play ""William Tell"", written in 1804, this oath of the mentioned three men takes place in Walter Fürst's house in Altdorf and basically consists of a promise"
"the right to High Justice over Schwyz, Einsiedeln, Küssnacht and March in 1415 as a reward for their military support against Frederick IV of Habsburg. The gradual expansion of Schwyz meant that each village entered the canton under different agreements and not all the provinces were granted the same degree of autonomy. One unique case was the town of Gersau which, while located near Schwyz, became a protectorate of the Confederacy and a semi-independent state in 1359. Gersau remained a free city-state and republic until 1817 when it was merged into Schwyz. In 1385, Zürich, Zug and Lucerne attacked several"
"moment of the foundation of the Confederacy, when Werner Stauffacher representing Schwyz, Walter Fürst of Uri and Arnold of Melchtal for Unterwalden meet at the Rutli, a meadow above Lake Lucerne, and take an oath to defend Swiss freedom. Tschudi’s influential text dates that event to 8 November 1307. Down to the latter part of the 19th century Swiss historical writers had largely based their works on his investigations and manuscripts. The historical reputation of Tschudi has suffered after later research. His statements and documents relating to Roman times and the early history of Glarus and his own family had"
"from the 13th to the 16th century in central Europe, persisted until 1798 and then evolved into a federal state in the 19th century. When used in this sense, the eternal nature of the pact is necessary—the members of the ""Dreizehn Orte"" (Thirteen Cantons), frequently made time-limited alliances sworn by oath with other partners, but such pacts were not considered an ""Eidgenossenschaft"". The members of an ""Eidgenossenschaft"" are called ""Eidgenossen"" (singular ""Eidgenosse""). This term is documented in an alliance from 1351 between the communal, countrified lieus of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden and the civic city lieus of Lucerne and Zürich,"
"France and Switzerland following the League's conquest of Württemberg. Württemberg was then sold by the League to Emperor Charles V, who then granted it to his brother, Ferdinand I, thus beginning the 12 year ownership of the county by the Habsburgs. When the peasants Ulrich had crushed before rose once again in the German Peasants' War, Stuttgart was occupied by the peasant armies for a few days in the Spring of 1525. Ulrich, with the help of Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, seized the chance to restore himself to power (albeit as an Austrian vassal) in the turmoil of the"
"Wolfsmund The story of ""Wolfsmund"" is a retelling of the rebellion started by the legendary William Tell. The story revolves around the oppression that took place in the Middle Ages in the middle cantons (states) of Switzerland. During this time, three cantons (the Schwyz, Uri, and Unterwalden) formed an ""Eternal Alliance"" that promised a military alliance for defense between the three cantons. The main source of fear for the cantons came from the feudal lords of Austria, the Habsburg. The three cantons had their own independent states surrounding the St. Gottard Pass, an important mountain pass that created an efficient"
"Luther's criticism snowballed into a massive schism in the church, and from there into a split among the states of the empire. In 1527, John, Elector of Saxony, the elector of Saxony, established a Lutheran state church in Saxony with the elector as chief bishop. On February 27, 1531, John joined Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, the landgrave of Hesse, in establishing the Schmalkaldic League, a defensive military alliance of Lutheran principalities in which each pledged to support the other in the event of an attack by the forces of the Holy Roman Empire. In time Anhalt, Württemberg, Pomerania, Augsburg,"
"of the nearby Habsburg County of Tyrol, decreased, in 1464 the citizens wrote a constitution which was adopted as the rule for the peoples of the local guilds and political positions. The medieval county of Vaduz was formed in 1342 as a small subdivision of the Werdenberg county of the dynasty of Montfort of Vorarlberg. In 1367 the League of God's House (Cadi, Gottes Haus, Ca' di Dio) was founded to resist the rising power of the Bishop of Chur. This was followed by the establishment of the Grey League (Grauer Bund), sometimes called Oberbund, in 1395 in the Upper"
"secure the trade route across the St. Gotthard Pass to Milan. Beginning in 1331, they initially exerted their influence through peaceful trade agreements, but in the 15th century, their involvement turned military. 1403 the upper Leventina, as the valley south of the pass is called, became a protectorate of Uri. Throughout the 15th century, a changeful struggle between the Swiss and the Duchy of Milan ensued. In 1439, Uri assumed full control of the upper Leventina; the Duchy of Milan gave up its claims there two years later, and so did the chapter of Milan in 1477. Twice the Swiss"