The Story of Switzerland Part 4

Another famous monastic inst.i.tution that sprung up about this time, _i.e._, under the Saxon emperor Otto, and obtained, like Loretto, European fame as a place of pilgrimage, was that of Einsiedeln, in Canton Schwyz.

In 1024 the Duchy of Swabia was vested in Ernest II., stepson of the Emperor Conrad II. of the Salic dynasty. A fierce struggle arose on the question of the succession to the Burgundian throne. Ernest claimed through his mother, and Conrad through his wife, niece to Rudolf III.

Seeing his hopes frustrated Ernest, with his friend Werner of Kyburg, and his party, fell upon the imperial troops, and b.l.o.o.d.y frays occurred.

Ernest was imprisoned, and the manor of Kyburg besieged; but both friends escaped, and again combined in new opposition to Conrad. In order to break their union, the emperor promised his son installation in Burgundy if he would deliver up his friend. But this was indignantly refused, the struggle began anew, and the gallant youths fell in a skirmish in 1030. Ernest was long a chief figure in mediaeval heroic poetry.

GENEALOGICAL TABLES.

I. THE CARLOWINGIANS (so far as they concern this history).

Charles Martel, 741.

+-----------------+--------------+ Carlomann. Pippin the Short, 768.

+-------------------------------+-------+ Charlemagne, 814. Carlomann, 771.

+------+---------+----------------------------+ Charles, 811. Pippin, 810. Louis the Pious, 840= (1) Irmengare. (2) Judith.

+---------------------+------------------+-----+ Charles the Bald, 877.

Lothair I., 855. Pippin, 838. Louis the German, 876.

+---+----------+--------------+ +----+---------+----------+ Louis II. Lothair II. Charles of Provence. Carlomann, Louis, Charles III., 875. 867. 880. 882. 888.

Irmengard=Count Boso of Burgundy. Arnulf of Kaernthur, 899 (natural son).

Louis the Child, 911.

II. DESCENT OF THE SAXON EMPERORS.

Lindolf (made Duke of part of Savoy by Louis the German).

Duke Otto, 912.

Henry I., 936 (the "Fowler").

+-------------------------------------------+ Otto I., 973. (the "Great"). Henry of Bavaria.

+----------------------------+ Henry the Quarrelsome (of Bavaria), 995.

Lindolf, Lintgarde. Otto II., Duke of Swabia. Emperor, 983. Henry II., Emperor, 1024.

Otto II., Emperor, 1002.

III. Salic (Frankish) Emperors.

Conrad II., 1038 (great grandson of Lintgarde).

Henry III., 1038-1056.

Henry IV., 1056-1106.

Henry V., 1106-1125.

(The Hohenstaufen follow.)

FOOTNOTES:

[19] It is perhaps preferable to use the word _Swabia_ instead of _Alamannia_ so often. Freeman in his essay on the Holy Empire speaks of the Swabian Emperors, the Hohenstaufen.

[20] Dierauer.

VII.

BURGUNDY AND SWABIA UNDER THE GERMAN EMPERORS.

To return to the kingdom of Burgundy. Rudolf had greatly extended his dominions; in 919 he added to them the land between the Aare and the Reuss, and in 933 Lower Burgundy, which he had obtained in exchange for the Italian crown. The kingdom now comprised West Switzerland, Provence, Dauphine, and Franche Comte. During the king's absence on military expeditions, and during the minority of Conrad, Bertha, the "Spinning Queen," held the reins of government. She is represented on the seal of the doc.u.ment founding the convent of Payerne--one of her authenticated foundations--with the spinning wheel, and the words _Bertha humilis regina_ below. This Alpine queen, called by the French Swiss the "Mother of their liberties," was a model of industry and economy. Like Charlemagne, she was an excellent housekeeper, and even knew how many eggs had been laid on her estates. Humble in bearing, yet firm and strong, this lady fortified the country against the invasions of the Hungarians and Saracens. The gap between the Alps and Mount Jura was strengthened by a line of towers still to be seen, though crumbling from age, at Neuchatel, La Moliere, Moudon, Gourze. These towers were almost inaccessible, and possessed thick walls, narrow windows, and doors which, being ten feet above the ground, could only be got at by means of ladders. At the first signal of alarm, seigneur and peasantry hurried to these strongholds carrying with them whatever they were able; when they had entered, the ladders were drawn in, and there the people remained till the wild hurricane of savagery had blown over. Gradually the Burgundians rallied as regular troops to meet the hordes in open battle.

Herself always busy, Bertha hated idleness, and wherever she went she was to be found spinning, even on the road. Who has not heard of the humble and graceful queen, riding on her palfrey, spindle in hand, going from house to house, visiting castle, convent, farm, homestead, and hut, doing deeds of piety and benevolence? Once, when the Queen of Payerne, as she was often called, was on her circuits of inspection she met with a peasant girl keeping her flocks, and spinning. Delighted with the girl's industry, she gave her a handsome present. Next day all the ladies of her suite appeared before her with spindles in their hands.

Smiling at the sight, she said, "My ladies, the young peasant girl, like Jacob, has been the first to receive the blessing." s.p.a.ce will not allow us to dwell longer on the memory of the "Spinning Queen" which is most dear to the French Swiss. It should be added, however, that the Burgundian traditions respecting this queen are doubtless mixed with mythological elements. In the German religious myths, Bertha (_Berchta_, _Perahta_,) means what is bright and pure and orderly: she is the G.o.ddess of Fertility, and the Mother of the Earth, and bestows rich blessings on mankind.

On the death of his father, which had left him a mere child, Bertha's son Conrad had been educated at the Court of Otho the Great. Fearing that Burgundy might become the prey of aggressive neighbours, the emperor stepped in and made himself protector of the queen, and tutor to the children, and naturally exerted much influence on the country.

Conrad, coming of age, ruled wisely, and for more than half a century (937-993), Burgundy flourished. His beautiful sister Adelheid was first Queen of Italy, but after Lothair's untimely death, became Empress of Germany, Otho I. wis.h.i.+ng to unite Italy with his own empire, making her his wife.

The reign of Rudolf III. (993-1032) was greatly harmful to the country, which was fast declining in prestige and prosperity. Better fitted for the cloister than for the throne, he lavished his wealth and estates on the clergy, with the view of enlisting their help against the encroaching feudal va.s.sals. In the end, indeed, he was so reduced that he was compelled to live on alms from his priests. His own incapacities drove him to seek protection from the empire. Having no children, he appointed his nephew, the Emperor Henry II., heir to his kingdom, and even during his own lifetime he arranged to give up the reigns of government to Henry. The opposition of the Burgundian n.o.bles and the emperor's death prevented this shameful arrangement from actually coming into force. The next emperor, Conrad II., prosecuted the claim against his stepson, Ernest II., as has been told above, and was crowned king at the Cluniacensian convent, founded by Bertha at Payerne, (1033). His elevation to the Burgundian throne was confirmed in the following year by a brilliant a.s.sembly of Burgundian, German, and Italian bishops and n.o.bles, at Geneva. Shortly before his death in 1038, he had his son Henry installed in the kingdom, and the oath of fealty to him was taken by the Burgundian n.o.bles at the Diet of Solothurn. Switzerland was thus very closely allied with the empire; Henry III. holding the reins of government as King of Burgundy and Duke of Alamannia or Swabia. This third amalgamation with the empire told more lastingly and influentially on the country than either the Roman or the Frankish rule had done; to a great extent it stamped on the people the German character and spirit.

These external changes, these s.h.i.+fting scenes, these various masters and systems of government, naturally affected the internal condition of the country as well. Of the social life of the country, however, we know very little. The chroniclers of the period are monks, or n.o.ble ecclesiastics who wrote of, and for their own cla.s.s, and the people did not enter into their concerns. But the political changes were very great. The Frankish county administrations fell into disuse through the increase of immunities granted to royal and ecclesiastical foundations, by which they were exempted from obedience to the county officers. The counts themselves, who had formerly held office at the sovereign's pleasure, gradually made their dignities into hereditary fiefs, which became family property in wealthy and powerful houses. Thus, at the close of the ninth and the beginning of the tenth century we already find in Switzerland a number of counts, such as the Nellenburger, in Zurichgau; the Lenzburger, in Aargau; the Burkharde, in Chur-Rhaetia; the Kyburger, at Winterthur, near Zurich. The greatest changes, however, were effected by the growth of feudalism, which had arisen indeed under Charlemagne, but had to some extent been checked by him. Feudalism outgrew all other systems, and entirely disarranged the social scale.

The free peasantry shrank to a small number, and there sprang up a martial n.o.bility of high functionaries, who held offices in the army or courts of justice, and exerted much influence. On the native soil, on the very meeting-places where the old German people had a.s.sembled to deal with civil and judicial matters, eminent men founded families which grew into reigning houses. These men, combining political discernment with military ability and experience, rose above their fellows, and a.s.sumed the highest offices. The distresses, the dissensions, the intestine wars, and particularly the invasions by savage hordes, drove people to seek the protection of powerful lords, even at the risk of losing their own independence. In most cases the people became "unfree,"

or serfs. Society thus was divided into distinct cla.s.ses; the old German democracy gave place to a highly aristocratic order, the n.o.bility ruling over the people. Thus, we find Switzerland, like other European countries, struggling through her age of feudalism, and centuries must yet pa.s.s before she succeeds in establis.h.i.+ng a system of government which alone will suit her peculiar character.

At that stage of history the welfare of the country depended to a great extent on the personal character of the imperial sovereigns. They visited Swabia and Burgundy, enforcing order and discipline, holding diets at important places, and a.s.signing prerogatives to secular and religious foundations. In truth, these imperial visits promoted greatly the development of rising cities. Of the German emperors none came so often to Switzerland as the powerful Salic ruler, Henry III. When he left Burgundy--he was often at Basel and Solothurn--the people felt, says a contemporary writer, as if the sun had gone down. Henry II. and Henry III. held imperial diets at Zurich, and the latter used to reside there for weeks together, and lavished privileges and gifts on her religious foundations. He promoted festivals in the royal palace (Pfalz), in the Lindencourt; and Zurich was the meeting-place for his Burgundian and Italian subjects, the capital of Swabia, and residence of the Swabian dukes, where they here established their mint. His wise administration tended greatly to destroy all political difference and hostile feeling between the two Helvetias.

This national concord (1057-77) was still further strengthened by the rule of Rudolf of Rheinfelden, who for twenty years swayed the destinies of the country as "Rector of Burgundy" and Duke of Alamannia. The regal and ducal power had been bestowed upon him by the Empress Agnes, on the death of Henry III., whose son-in-law he was. Rudolf was from the manor of Rheinfelden, near Basel, and was a distant connection of the Burgundian royal family. He held vast estates on Geneva lake, and in Swabia, and thus met with no opposition on the part of the n.o.bility of Burgundy. But this long period of peace was suddenly and sadly interrupted by a terrible catastrophe which fell upon the empire; the fierce antagonism which arose between Gregory VII. and Henry IV. The emperor was unwilling to submit to the excessive encroachments of the Church, or, rather the Pontiff, on his prerogatives, and like William I.

of England, entirely repudiated the Pope's claims, and tried to check his encroachments. The "Conqueror" indeed had gained so much power that the Pope could not issue excommunications against English subjects except by William's permission, but Henry IV. fell a victim to the Interdict. Never was sovereign more humiliated by the Papal power, nor more humiliated himself to escape the terrible punishment, for interdicts were fearful weapons in the hands of the Pontiffs of the Middle Ages. The story of this long struggle--how the emperor failed to carry his point--his wanderings across the Alps in the depth of winter--his submission at Canossa--for all this, full of thrilling interest as it is, the reader must be referred to the history of Germany.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CATHEDRAL OF LAUSANNE.]

On the deposition of Henry, our Rudolf of Rheinfelden was elected king by the opposing party, and was thence called the Popish king (Pfaffenkonig); thus Switzerland, it is almost needless to say, was drawn into the struggle and convulsed by intestine wars. The bishops of Lausanne, Geneva, and Basel; the seigneurs of Grandson and Neuchatel, clung to the emperor; the counts of Geneva and Toggenburg, the houses of Habsburg, Kyburg, and Savoy, and the clergy of Alamannia and Chur-Rhaetia sided with the new king. St. Gall rallied round its valiant abbot, Ulrich III., to uphold the cause of Henry. The wars were continued with alternate successes and reverses on each side, till the death of Rudolf in 1080 on the Grona, near Leipzig, it was said by the hand of G.o.defroi de Bouillon, the famous crusader, who fought on the side of Henry. The intensity of bitter feeling gradually abated. Henry even tried to establish his royal authority in Burgundy, but in Alamannia new quarrels broke out on the question of the succession to the duchy. Two native Swabian dukes contended for the duchy, Frederick von Staufen, grandfather of Frederick Barbarossa, the ancestor of the ill.u.s.trious dynasty, and Duke Bertold von Zaeringen, brother-in-law and heir to the estates of the son of the late Rudolf of Rheinfelden, who died shortly after his father. The differences were settled by a diet at Mayence, in 1097, and Frederick von Staufen, son-in-law to Henry, who had staunchly 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 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 t.i.tle, and the _Reichsvogtei Zurich_ (a kind of prefecture), together with the royal prerogatives over the secular and religious inst.i.tutions of the city. For Zurich was then the n.o.blest and most conspicuous town in Swabia, as Bishop Otto von Freysingen, the most prominent historian of the Middle Ages, a.s.serts. 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.

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 n.o.bles. 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 a.s.sa.s.sinated by his own people in 1127, the Emperor Lothair drew that province more closely 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 n.o.bles rallied round him, and made a desperate stand against German interference, and he maintained his independence in the Franche Comte, 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 n.o.bles and the common people found shelter in these walled towns against the over-bearing amongst the high n.o.bility; trade and industry began to thrive, and these city commonwealths rose to a flouris.h.i.+ng 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 n.o.bles; and in 1177 he founded the 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, Gumminen, 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 n.o.bles. 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 mediaeval poetry.[21] The lesser n.o.bles 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.