The story of Switzerland
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Title: The story of Switzerland
Author: Lina Hug
Richard Stead
Release date: May 14, 2012 [eBook #39695]
Language: English
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[Illustration: ANCIENT SWISS LAKE DWELLINGS, ZURICH LAKE. (_From Design
by Dr. F. Keller._)]
The Story of the Nations
THE STORY OF SWITZERLAND
BY
LINA HUG
AND
RICHARD STEAD
NEW YORK
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
London: T. FISHER UNWIN
1890
COPYRIGHT, 1890
BY
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
_Entered at Stationer's Hall, London_
BY T. FISHER UNWIN
Press of
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
New York
THE STORY OF THE NATIONS
12MO, ILLUSTRATED. PER VOL., $1.50
THE EARLIER VOLUMES ARE
THE STORY OF GREECE. By Prof. JAS. A. HARRISON
THE STORY OF ROME. By ARTHUR GILMAN
THE STORY OF THE JEWS. By Prof. JAS. K. HOSMER
THE STORY OF CHALDEA. By Z. A. RAGOZIN
THE STORY OF GERMANY. By S. BARING-GOULD
THE STORY OF NORWAY. By Prof. H. H. BOYESEN
THE STORY OF SPAIN. By E. E. and SUSAN HALE
THE STORY OF HUNGARY. By Prof. A. VAMBERY
THE STORY OF CARTHAGE. By Prof. ALFRED J. CHURCH
THE STORY OF THE SARACENS. By ARTHUR GILMAN
THE STORY OF THE MOORS IN SPAIN. By STANLEY LANE-POOLE
THE STORY OF THE NORMANS. By SARAH O. JEWETT
THE STORY OF PERSIA. By S. G. W. BENJAMIN
THE STORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. By GEO. RAWLINSON
THE STORY OF ALEXANDER'S EMPIRE. By Prof. J. P. MAHAFFY
THE STORY OF ASSYRIA. By Z. A. RAGOZIN
THE STORY OF IRELAND. By Hon. EMILY LAWLESS
THE STORY OF THE GOTHS. By HENRY BRADLEY
THE STORY OF TURKEY. BY STANLEY LANE-POOLE
THE STORY OF MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA. BY Z. A. RAGOZIN
THE STORY OF MEDIAEVAL FRANCE. By GUSTAVE MASSON
THE STORY OF MEXICO. By SUSAN HALE
THE STORY OF HOLLAND. By JAMES E. THOROLD ROGERS
THE STORY OF PHOENICIA. By GEORGE RAWLINSON
THE STORY OF THE HANSA TOWNS. By HELEN ZIMMERN
THE STORY OF EARLY BRITAIN. By Prof. ALFRED J. CHURCH
THE STORY OF THE BARBARY CORSAIRS. By STANLEY LANE-POOLE
THE STORY OF RUSSIA. By W. R. MORFILL.
THE STORY OF THE JEWS UNDER ROME. By W. D. MORRISON.
THE STORY OF SCOTLAND. By JAMES MACKINTOSH.
For prospectus of the series see end of this volume
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, NEW YORK AND LONDON
RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED
TO
PROFESSOR GEORG VON WYSS
AND
PROFESSOR G. MEYER VON KNONAU
PREFACE.
For many reasons, some of which are obvious to the least thoughtful, the
history of Switzerland is peculiarly interesting, and not least so to
English-speaking peoples. In the first place, the "playground of Europe"
is every year visited by large numbers of British and Americans, some of
whom indeed are familiar with almost every corner of it. Then to the
Anglo-Saxon race the grand spectacle of a handful of freemen nobly
struggling for and maintaining their freedom, often amidst enormous
difficulties, and against appalling odds, cannot but be heart-stirring.
To the citizen of the great American republic a study of the
constitution of the little European republic should bring both interest
and profit--a constitution resembling in many points that of his own
country, and yet in many other respects so different. And few readers,
of whatever nationality, can, we think, peruse this story without a
feeling of admiration for a gallant people who have fought against
oppression as the Swiss have fought, who have loved freedom as they
have loved it, and who have performed the well-nigh incredible feats of
arms the Switzers have performed. And as Sir Francis O. Adams and Mr.
Cunningham well point out in their recently published work on the Swiss
Confederation, as a study in constitutional history, the value of the
story of the development of the Confederation can hardly be
over-estimated.
Few of the existing accounts of Swiss history which have appeared in the
English language go back beyond the year 1291 A.D., the date of the
earliest Swiss League, and of course Switzerland as a nation cannot
boast of an earlier origin. But surely some account should be given of
the previous history of the men who founded the League. For a country
which has been occupied at different periods by lakemen, Helvetians, and
Romans; where Alamanni, Burgundians, and Franks have played their parts;
where Charlemagne lived and ruled, and Charles the Bold fought; where
the great families of the Zaerings, the Kyburgs, and Savoy struggled;
and whence the now mighty house of Habsburg sprang (and domineered)--all
this before 1291--a country with such a story to tell of its earlier
times, we say, should not have that story left untold. Accordingly in
this volume the history of the period before the formation of the
Confederation has been dwelt upon at some little length. It should be
mentioned, too, that in view of the very general interest caused by the
remarkable discovery of the Swiss lake settlements a few years ago, a
chapter has been devoted to the subject.
Mindful, however, of the superior importance of the formation and
progress of the Confederation, an endeavour has been made to trace that
progress step by step, showing how men differing in race, in language,
in creed, and in mode of life, combined to resist the common enemy, and
to build up the compact little state, we now see playing its part on the
European stage. The whole teaching of the history of the country may be
summed up in Mr. Coolidge's words, in his "History of the Swiss
Confederation" (p. 65). "Swiss history teaches us, all the way through,
that Swiss liberty has been won by a close union of many small states."
And Mr. Coolidge adds an opinion that "it will be best preserved by the
same means, and not by obliterating all local peculiarities, nowhere so
striking, nowhere so historically important as in Switzerland."
It remains to add a few words as to the authorities consulted by the
writers of this little volume. The standard Swiss histories have
naturally been largely used, such as those of Dr. Carl Daendliker,
Dierauer, Vulliemin, Daguet, Strickler, Voegelin, and Weber ("Universal
History"). Amongst other histories and miscellaneous writings--essays,
pamphlets, and what not--may be mentioned those of Dr. Ferdinand Keller,
Wartmann, Heer, Heierli, Von Arx, Mommsen, Burkhardt, Morel, Marquardt,
Dahn, Buedinger, Secretan, Von Wyss, Meyer von Knonau, Schweizer,
Finsler, Roget, Baechtold, Marcmonnier, Rambert, Hettner, Scherer,
Roquette, Freytag, Pestalozzi, Schulze, and Kern. Amongst the English
works consulted are Freeman's writings, the Letters of the Parker
Society, Adams and Cunningham's "Swiss Confederation," Coolidge's
reprint from the "Encyclopaedia Britannica" of the article on the
"History of the Swiss Confederation," Bryce's "Holy Roman Empire," &c.
The authors are indebted for most kind and valuable assistance to
several eminent Swiss scholars. To Prof. Georg von Wyss and Prof. Meyer
von Knonau special thanks are due, whilst Prof. Kesselring, Herr J.
Heierli, and others, have shown much helpful interest in the progress of
the work. They also owe many thanks to Dr. Imhoof, who has most kindly
furnished them with casts from his famous collection of coins; and to
the eminent sculptors, Vela and Lanz, who have given permission to use
photographs of their latest works for illustration purposes.
ZURICH and FOLKESTONE, _July, 1890_.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
PREFACE ix
TABLE OF CANTONS xiii
TABLE SHOWING NAMES, AREAS, AND POPULATIONS OF CANTONS xxiv
I.
THE LAKE DWELLERS 1-12
Discovery of Lake Settlements--Dr. Ferdinand Keller's
explorations--Three distinct epochs--Daily life of the
Lakemen--Lake Settlements in East Yorkshire.
II.
THE HELVETIANS 13-28
Extent of their territory--Their government and mode of
life--Orgetorix--Divico beats the Roman forces--Caesar routs
Helvetians--Vercingetorix--Valisians--Rhaetians.
III.
HELVETIA UNDER THE ROMANS 29-43
Caesar's mode of dealing with Helvetia--Augustus--Helvetia
incorporated into Gaul--Vespasian--Alamanni and
Burgundians--Christianity introduced.
IV.
THE ANCESTORS OF THE SWISS NATION 44-57
The Huns and their ravages--Alamanni--Burgundians--"The
Nibelungenlied"--The Franks subdue both Alamanni and
Burgundians--Irish monks preach in Switzerland.
V.
THE CAROLINGIANS--CHARLEMAGNE 58-70
Pepin le Bref--Charlemagne--His connection with Zurich.
VI.
THE KINGDOM OF BURGUNDY; THE DUCHY OF SWABIA; AND THE GERMAN EMPIRE 71-82
Division of Charlemagne's territory into three--Rudolf the
Guelf--Swabian Dukes--Genealogical tables.
VII.
BURGUNDY AND SWABIA UNDER THE GERMAN EMPERORS 85-94
Bertha, the "Spinning Queen"--Her son Conrad--Helvetia in close
connection with Germany--Henry III.--Struggle with the Papal power.
VIII.
THE REIGN OF THE HOUSE OF ZAERINGEN 95-100
Their origin--Freiburg and other towns founded--Bern
founded--Defeated by Savoy--The Crusades.
IX.
THE HOUSES OF KYBURG, SAVOY, AND HABSBURG 101-117
Fall of the Zaerings--Kyburg dynasty--Growth of Feudalism--The
Hohenstaufen--Savoy--Rise of the Habsburgs--Rudolf.
X.
THE CONFEDERATION, OR EIDGENOSSENSCHAFT 118-130
The Forest Cantons--The Oath on the Ruetli--Rudolf oppresses the
Waldstaetten--Tell and the apple--Investigation as to the facts
relating to the foundation of the League.
XI.
THE BATTLE OF MORGARTEN 131-137
Attempt on Zurich by the Habsburgs--Albrecht--Gathering of the Wald
peoples--Austrian defeat.
XII.
THE LEAGUE OF THE EIGHT STATES 139-146
Lucerne joins the League--Zurich follows--War with Austria--Glarus
attached to the League as an inferior or protected State--Zug joins
the Union--Bern.
XIII.
ZURICH AN EXAMPLE OF A SWISS TOWN IN THE MIDDLE AGES 147-157
Abbey Church of our Lady--Influence of the Lady Abbess--Citizens in
three classes--They gradually gain freedom--Trade of the
city--Zurich a literary centre--Uprising of the working classes--A
new constitution.
XIV.
BERN CRUSHES THE NOBILITY: GREAT VICTORY OF LAUPEN 158-166
Bern of a military bent--Forms a West Swiss Union--Siege of
Solothurn--Bern opposes the Habsburgs--Acquires Laupen--Victory at
Laupen--League of the Eight States completed.
XV.
THE BATTLES OF SEMPACH AND NAEFELS 167-178
Opposition to Austria--Leopold III., Character of--His
plans--Defeat and death at Sempach--Winkelried--Battle of Naefels.
XVI.
HOW SWITZERLAND CAME TO HAVE SUBJECT LANDS 179-189
Acquisition of surrounding territories
desirable--Appenzell--Valais--Graubuenden--Aargau--Quarrels with
Milan.
XVII.
WAR BETWEEN ZURICH AND SCHWYZ 190-199
Dispute concerning Toggenburg lands--Stuessi of Zurich and Von
Reding of Schwyz--Zurich worsted--Makes alliance with
Austria--France joins the alliance--Battle of St. Jacques.
XVIII.
BURGUNDIAN WARS 200-216
Charles the Bold--Louis XI. of France--Causes which led to the
war--Policy of Bern--Commencement of hostilities--Battle of
Grandson--Morat--Siege of Nancy and death of Charles.
XIX.
MEETING AT STANZ, &C. 217-229
Prestige gained by the League--Disputes respecting the admission of
Freiburg and Solothurn--Diet at Stanz--Nicolas von der
Fluee--Covenant of Stanz--Waldmann--His execution.
XX.
THE LEAGUE OF THE THIRTEEN CANTONS COMPLETED 230-242
Maximilian--Swabian War--Separation of Switzerland from the
Empire--Basel joins the League--Schaffhausen--Appenzell--Italian
wars--Siege of Novara--Battle of Marignano--St. Gall.
XXI.
THE GREAT COUNCILS, LANDSGEMEINDE, AND DIET, &C. 243-253
Two kinds of Canton--Constitution of Bern and of
Zurich--Landsgemeinde--Tagsatzung--Intellectual and literary life.
XXII.
THE REFORMATION IN GERMAN SWITZERLAND 254-268
Zwingli--His early life--His desire for a reformation--Appointed to
Zurich--A national Reformed Church established--Spread of the new
faith--The Kappeler Milchsuppe--Disputes between Luther and
Zwingli--Second quarrel with the Forest--Zwingli killed.
XXIII.
THE REFORMATION IN WEST SWITZERLAND 269-278
Political condition of Vaud and Geneva--Charles III. and
Geneva--The "Ladle Squires"--Bonivard thrown into Chillon--Reformed
faith preached in French Switzerland by Farel--Treaty of St.
Julien--Operations in Savoy.
XXIV.
GENEVA AND CALVIN 279-290
Calvin--His "Institutes"--His Confession of Faith--Banishment from
Geneva--His return--The _Consistoire_--The "Children of
Geneva"--Servetus burnt--The Academy founded--Calvin's death.
XXV.
THE CATHOLIC REACTION 291-302
_Droit d'asile_--Pfyffer--Carlo Borromeo, Archbishop of
Milan--Borromean League--Protestants driven from
Locarno--Switzerland an asylum for religious refugees--Effect of
Swiss Reformation on England--Revival of learning--Escalade of
Geneva.
XXVI.
THE ARISTOCRATIC PERIOD 303-314
Thirty Years' War--Graubuenden and its difficulties--Massacre in
Valtellina--Rohan--Jenatsch--Peasants' Revolt--Treaty with France.
XXVII.
POLITICAL MATTERS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 315-323
Aristocracy and plebeians--French League--Massacre at
Greifensee--Davel's plot--Bern--Its three castes--Constitutional
struggles in Geneva--Affray in Neuchatel.
XXVIII.
SWITZERLAND AND THE RENAISSANCE: INFLUENCE OF VOLTAIRE AND ROUSSEAU 324-342
Voltaire--Residence at Ferney--No special influence on
Geneva--Rousseau--Madame de Stael--Swiss savants--Zurich a Poets'
Corner--Breitinger, Bodmer, Haller, Klopstock,
&c.--Pestalozzi--Lavater--The Helvetic Society.
XXIX.
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND SWITZERLAND 343-359
Swiss Guards massacred in Paris--Insurrection of Staefa--Treaty of
Campo Formio--The Paris Helvetic Club--The "Lemanic
Republic"--Surrender of Bern--Helvetic Republic
proclaimed--Opposition by Schwyz, Stanz, &c.
XXX.
THE "ONE AND UNDIVIDED HELVETIC REPUBLIC" 357-368
A levy ordered by France--Franco-Helvetic alliance--Austrian
occupation--Russian occupation--Battle of Zurich--Suwarow's
extraordinary marches--Heavy French requisitions--Rengger and
Stapfer,--Centralists and Federalists--Napoleon as mediator.
XXXI.
THE MEDIATION ACT AND NAPOLEON 369-381
Conference in Paris on Swiss matters--Mediation Act signed--The
Bockenkrieg--Six new cantons formed--Material and intellectual
progress--Extinction of Diet--The "Long Diet"--Congress of
Vienna--Completion of twenty-two cantons.
XXXII.
SWITZERLAND UNDER THE CONSTITUTION OF 1815-48 382-394
Dissatisfaction with results of Vienna Congress--The French
revolution of 1830--The "Day of Uster"--The Siebner
Concordat--Catholic League--Progress of education--Political
refugees in Switzerland--Louis Philippe--Louis
Napoleon--Disturbances in Zurich by the Anti-Nationalists--The
Sonderbund War.
XXXIII.
UNDER THE CONSTITUTION OF 1848 395-407
New Federal Constitution--Federal Assembly--Federal
Council--Federal Tribunal--Powers of the individual
cantons--Military service--Neuchatel troubles--Federal Pact
amended--The Initiative--The Referendum.
XXXIV.
INDUSTRY, COMMERCE, RAILWAYS, EDUCATION. THE "RIGHT OF ASYLUM" 408-421
Extent of trade--Exports and imports--Railways--Education--Keller the
poet--The Geneva Convention--International Postal Union--International
Labour Congress--Switzerland as a political asylum--Franco-German
War--Summary of population statistics.
GENEALOGICAL TABLES 83, 84
INDEX 423
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
LAKE DWELLINGS, ZURICH LAKE, FROM A DESIGN BY
DR. FERDINAND KELLER _Frontispiece_
MAP, SHOWING LAKE SETTLEMENTS AROUND ZURICH LAKE, BY MR. HEIERLI 2
(1) DECORATION ON SWORD HILT; (2 AND 3), STONE CELTS
FOUND IN SWISS LAKE DWELLINGS (COPIED BY PERMISSION
FROM "HARPER'S MAGAZINE") 4
(1) VESSEL; (2) SPECIMENS OF WOVEN FABRICS FOUND IN
SWISS LAKE DWELLINGS (COPIED BY PERMISSION FROM
"HARPER'S MAGAZINE") 7
SPECIMENS OF POTTERY FOUND IN SWISS LAKE DWELLINGS
(COPIED BY PERMISSION FROM "HARPER'S MAGAZINE") 10
JOHANNISSTEIN, WITH RUINS OF CASTLE OF "HOHENRHAETIA,"
NEAR THUSIS, GRAUBUeNDEN 16
HOUSE (FORMERLY CHAPEL) IN ROMAUNSH STYLE, AT
SCHULS, LOWER ENGADINE, GRAUBUeNDEN 27
SILVER COIN, VERCINGETORIX (DR. IMHOOF, WINTERTHUR) 29
GOLD COIN, VESPASIAN [VESPASIANUS IMPERATOR-AETERNITAS]
(DR. IMHOOF) 34
GOLD COIN OF SIXTEENTH CENTURY [ST. FELIX, ST.
REGULA-SANCTUS CAROLUS] (DR. IMHOOF) 42
THE EIGER 52
GREAT MINSTER AND WASSERKIRCHE, ZURICH
(APPENZELLER, ZURICH) 67
FURKA PASS 79
CATHEDRAL (EXTERIOR), LAUSANNE 92
CHATEAU DE VUFFLENS, VAUD (FOURTEENTH
CENTURY) 102
BRONZE FIGURES FROM MAXIMILIAN MONUMENT,
INNSBRUCK (ARTHUR OF THE ROUND TABLE,
BRITAIN; THEODOBERT, DUKE OF BURGUNDY;
ERNEST, DUKE OF AUSTRIA; THEODORIC, KING
OF THE OSTROGOTHS) 106
THE OLD HABSBURG CASTLE, CANTON AARGAU 112
THALER OF THE THREE CANTONS (URI, SCHWYZ,
AND UNTERWALDEN) 120
MAP OF OLD SWITZERLAND 138
UPPER FALL OF THE REICHENBACH (MEYRINGEN) 160
PORCH OF BERN MINSTER, WITH STATUE OF RUDOLF
VON ERLACH 165
WINKELRIED'S MONUMENT, STANZ 174
ARMS OF URI 189
ST. JACQUES MONUMENT, BASEL, BY SCHLOeTH 196
ARMS OF SCHWYZ 198
ELIZABETH, WIFE OF ALBERT II.; MARIA OF BURGUNDY;
ELEANOR OF PORTUGAL; KUNIGUNDE,
SISTER OF MAXIMILIAN (FROM MAXIMILIAN
MONUMENT, INNSBRUCK) 201
MAP OF GRANDSON 210
OLD WEAPONS AND ARMOUR IN ZURICH ARSENAL 214
INNER COURT OF THE ABBEY OF OUR LADY. LUTH
CHAPTER OF ZURICH 220
ARMS OF UNTERWALDEN 229
MARBLE RELIEVI, MAXIMILIAN MONUMENT, INNSBRUCK 231
CITY WALLS OF MURTEN 235
CUSTOM-HOUSE, FREIBURG 240
SARNEN, BERN 244
CITY WALLS, LUCERNE 246
ULRICH ZWINGLI 256
MINSTER, BERN 270
THALER OF 1564 (ST. GALL) 289
HIGH ALTAR, CHUR CATHEDRAL 306
ROUSSEAU 329
PESTALOZZI 330
HALLER 333
LAVATER 340
THE LION OF LUCERNE 344
LA HARPE 348
REDING 354
DILIGENCE CROSSING THE SIMPLON PASS 362
INTERLAKEN, FROM THE FELSENEGG 386
POLYTECHNIKUM AT ZURICH 397
VIEW OF SION 404
LAW COURTS AT LAUSANNE 407
"VICTIMS OF THE WORK," ST. GOTHARD TUNNEL,
FROM A BAS-RELIEF BY VELA (BY SPECIAL
PERMISSION OF SCULPTOR) 411
PORTRAIT OF GOTFRIED KELLER, THE POET 413
INTERIOR OF LAUSANNE CATHEDRAL 419
TABLE
SHOWING NAMES (GERMAN AND FRENCH), AREAS, AND POPULATIONS OF CANTONS.
----------------------------+------------------------+---------+-------------
| | Area in| Population
German Name. | French Name. | Square |(approximate)
| | Miles. |Dec. 1, 1888.
----------------------------+------------------------+---------+-------------
1. Aargau |Argovie | 543 | 193,000
2. Appenzell | Appenzell | |
{Ausser Rhoden | {Rhodes Exterieures| 100 | 54,000
{Inner Rhoden | {Rhodes Interieures| 60 | 13,000
3. Basel Stadt |Bale-Ville | 14 | 74,000
" Land | " Campagne | 163 | 62,000
4. Bern |Berne | 2,660 | 539,000
5. Freiburg |Fribourg | 644 | 119,000
6. St. Gallen |St. Gall | 779 | 229,000
7. Genf |Geneve (Geneva) | 109 | 107,000
8. Glarus |Glaris | 267 | 33,000
9. Graubuenden |Grisons | 2,774 | 96,000
10. Luzern |Lucerne | 579 | 135,000
11. Neuenburg |Neuchatel | 312 | 109,000
12. Schaffhausen |Schaffhouse | 116 | 37,000
13. Schwyz |Schwyz (Schwytz) | 351 | 50,000
14. Solothurn |Soleure | 303 | 85,000
15. Tessin |Tessin (Italian, Ticino)| 1,095 | 127,000
16. Thurgau |Thurgovie | 381 | 105,000
17. Unterwalden {Obdem Wald |Unterwalden {Le Haut | 183 | 15,000
{Mid dem " | {Le Bas | 112 | 12,000
18. Uri |Uri | 415 | 17,000
19. Wallis |Valais | 2,026 | 102,000
20. Waadt |Vaud | 1,244 | 251,000
21. Zug |Zoug | 92 | 23,000
22. Zuerich |Zurich | 665 | 332,000
----------------------------+------------------------+---------+-------------
Total | 15,987 |2,920,723[1]
+---------+-------------
FOOTNOTES:
[1] This grand total of the population, on Dec. 1, 1888, is taken from
the provisional Census Tables issued by the Swiss Government in 1889.
THE STORY OF SWITZERLAND.
I.
THE LAKE DWELLERS.
Who first lived in this country of ours? What and what manner of men
were they who first settled on its virgin soil and made it "home"? These
questions naturally present themselves every now and then to most
thoughtful people. And the man with any pretensions to culture feels an
interest in the history of other countries besides his own.
But however interesting these questions as to primary colonizations may
be, they are usually exactly the most difficult of answer that the
history of a country presents. Now and then indeed we may know tolerably
well the story of some early Greek immigration, or we may possess full
accounts of the modern settlement of a Pitcairn Island; but in far the
greater number of instances we can but dimly surmise or rashly guess who
and what were the earliest inhabitants of any given region.
MAP SHOWING THE CHIEF LAKE SETTLEMENTS IN OR NEAR LAKE ZURICH, By Prof.
T. Heierli, Zurich.
In the case of Switzerland, however, we are particularly fortunate.
"Every schoolboy" has heard of the wonderful discoveries made on the
shores of the beautiful Swiss lakes during the last few years, and the
same schoolboy even understands, if somewhat hazily, the importance
attaching to these discoveries. Nevertheless, some short account of the
earliest inhabitants of the rugged Helvetia must occupy this first
chapter. And to the general reader some little information as to what
was found, and how it was found, on the lake shores, may not come amiss.
In the winter of 1853, the waters of Zurich lake sank so low that a wide
stretch of mud was laid bare along the shores. The people of Meilen, a
large village some twelve miles from the town of Zurich, took advantage
of this unusual state of things to effect certain improvements, and
during the operations the workmen's tools struck against some obstacles,
which proved to be great wooden props, or piles. These piles, the tops
of which were but a few inches below the surface of the mud, were found
to be planted in rows and squares, and the number of them seemed to be
enormous. And then there were picked out of the mud large numbers of
bones, antlers, weapons, implements of various kinds, and what not. Dr.
Ferdinand Keller, a great authority on Helvetian antiquities, was sent
from Zurich to examine the spot, and he pronounced it to be a lake
settlement, probably of some very ancient Celtic tribe. Many marks of a
prehistoric occupation had previously been found, but hitherto no traces
of dwellings. Naturally the news of this important discovery of lake
habitations caused a great sensation, and gave a great impulse to
archaeological studies. Dr. Keller called these early settlers
_Pfahl-bauer_, or pile-builders, from their peculiar mode of building
their houses.
[Illustration: (1) DECORATION ON SWORD HILT; (2 AND 3) STONE CELTS,
FOUND IN SWISS LAKE DWELLINGS.
(_Copied by permission from "Harper's Magazine."_)]
During the course of the last thirty years, over two hundred of these
aquatic villages have been discovered--on the shores of the lakes of
Constance, Geneva, Zurich, Neuchatel, Bienne, Morat, and other smaller
lakes, and on certain rivers and swampy spots which had once been lakes
or quasi-lakes. The Alpine lakes, however, with their steep and often
inaccessible banks, show no trace of lake settlements.
The lake dwellings are mostly[2] placed on piles driven some 10 feet
into the bed of the lake, and as many as thirty or forty thousand of
these piles have been found in a single settlement. The houses
themselves were made of hurdlework, and thatched with straw or rushes.
Layers of wattles and clay alternating formed the floors, and the walls
seem to have been rendered more weather-proof by a covering of clay, or
else of bulrushes or straw. A railing of wickerwork ran round each hut,
partly no doubt to keep off the wash of the lake, and partly as a
protection to the children. Light bridges, or gangways easily moved,
connected the huts with each other and with the shore. Each house
contained two rooms at least, and some of the dwellings measured as much
as 27 feet by 22 feet. Hearthstones blackened by fire often remain to
show where the kitchens had been. Mats of bast, straw, and reeds abound
in the settlements, and show that the lakemen had their notions of
cosiness and comfort. Large crescent-shaped talismans, carved on one
side, were hung over the entrances to the huts, showing pretty clearly
that the moon-goddess was worshipped. The prehistoric collections in the
public museums at Zurich, Berne, Bienne, Neuchatel, and Geneva, not to
speak of private collections, are very extensive and very fine,
containing tools, handsome weapons, knives of most exquisite shape and
carving, women's ornaments, some of them of the most elegant kind. A
"lady of the lake" in full dress would seem to have made an imposing
show. An undergarment of fine linen was girded at the waist by a broad
belt of inlaid or embossed bronze work. Over the shoulders was thrown a
woollen cloak fastened with bronze clasps, or pins, whilst neck, arms,
and ankles were decked with a great store of trinkets--necklaces,
anklets, bracelets, rings, spangles, and so forth. The whole was set off
by a diadem of long pins with large heads beautifully chiselled, and
inlaid with beads of metal or glass, these pins being stuck through a
sort of leathern fillet which bound up the hair. So beautiful are some
of the trinkets, that imitations of them in gold are in request by the
ladies of to-day.
[Illustration: (1) VESSEL; (2) SPECIMENS OF WOVEN FABRICS FOUND IN SWISS
LAKE DWELLINGS.
(_Copied by permission from "Harper's Magazine."_)]
It is curious to find that one of the most extensive lake colonies in
Switzerland is situated in and spread over the vast marshes of
Robenhausen (Zurich) which once formed part of Lake Pfaeffikon. The
visitor who is not deterred by the inconvenience of a descent into a
damp and muddy pit some 11 feet deep, where excavations are still being
carried on, finds himself facing three successive settlements, one above
another, and all belonging to the remote stone age. Between the
successive settlements are layers of turf, some 3 feet thick, the growth
of many centuries. The turf itself is covered by a stratum of sticky
matter, 4 inches thick. In this are numbers of relics embedded, both
destructible and indestructible objects being perfectly well preserved,
the former kept from decay through having been charred by fire. The late
Professor Heer discovered and analysed remains of more than a hundred
different kinds of plants. Grains, and even whole ears of wheat and
barley, seeds of strawberries and raspberries, dried apples, textile
fabrics, implements, hatchets of nephrite--this mineral and the Oriental
cereals show clearly enough that the lakemen traded with the East,
though no doubt through the Mediterranean peoples--spinning-wheels,
corn-squeezers, floorings, fragmentary walls--all these are found in
plenty, in each of the three layers. The topmost settlement, however,
contains no destructible matters, such as corn, fruits, &c. This is to
be accounted for by the fact that the two lower settlements were
destroyed by fire, and the uppermost one by the growth of the turf, or
by the rising marshes. In the latter case there was no friendly action
of fire to preserve the various objects.
The scholar's mind is at once carried back to the account given by
Herodotus of Thrakian lake-dwellers.[3] The people of this tribe, he
tells us, built their houses over water, so as to gain facilities for
fishing. They used to let down baskets through trapdoors in the floors
of their huts, and these baskets rapidly filled with all kinds of fish
that had gathered around, tempted by the droppings of food.
Though the lakemen depended chiefly on the water for their supply of
food, yet they were hunters, and great tillers of the ground as well as
fishermen. They grew wheat and barley, and kept horses, cattle, sheep,
and goats. The women spun flax and wool, and wove them into fabrics for
clothing. Their crockery was at first of a very primitive description,
being made of black clay, and showing but little finish or artistic
design. But the children were not forgotten, for they were supplied with
tiny mugs and cups.[4]
[Illustration: SPECIMENS OF POTTERY FOUND IN SWISS LAKE DWELLINGS.
(_Copied by permission from "Harper's Magazine."_)]
With regard to the date when the immigration of lakemen began the
savants are hopelessly at variance. Nor do they agree any better as to
the dates of the stone and bronze epochs into which the history of the
lake settlements divides itself. But as in some of the marshy stations
these two epochs reach on to the age of iron, it is assumed by many
authorities that the lake dwellers lived on to historical times. This is
particularly shown in the alluvial soil and marshes between the lakes of
Neuchatel and Bienne, Prefargier being one of the chief stations, where
settlements belonging to the stone, bronze, and iron ages are found
ranged one above another in chronological order. In the topmost stratum
or colony, the lakemen's wares are found mingling pell-mell with iron
and bronze objects of Helvetian and Roman make, a fact sufficient,
probably, to show that the lake dwellers associated with historical
peoples. It would be useless as well as tedious to set forth at length
all the theories prevailing as to the origin and age of the lake
dwellings. Suffice it to say that, by some authorities, the commencement
of the stone period is placed at six thousand, and by others at three
thousand years before the Christian era, the latter being probably
nearest the truth. As to the age of bronze, we may safely assign it to
1100-1000 B.C., for Professor Heer proves conclusively that the time of
Homer--the Greek age of bronze--was contemporary with the bronze epoch
of the lakemen.[5]
The Lake period would seem to have drawn to a close about 600-700 B.C.,
when the age of bronze was superseded by that of iron. According to the
most painstaking investigations made by Mr. Heierli, of Zurich, now the
greatest authority on the subject in Switzerland, the lakemen left their
watery settlements about the date just given, and began to fix their
habitations on _terra firma_. Various tombs already found on land would
bear witness to this change. When these peculiar people had once come on
shore to live they would be gradually absorbed into neighbouring and
succeeding races, no doubt into some of the Celtic tribes, and most
likely into the Helvetian peoples. Thus they have their part, however
small it may be, in the history of the Swiss nation. It must be added
that the Pfahl-bauer are no longer held to have been a Celtic people,
but are thought to have belonged to some previous race, though which has
not as yet been ascertained.
But enough has been written on the subject, perhaps. Yet, on the other
hand, it would have been impossible to pass over the lakemen in silence,
especially now when the important discoveries of similar lake
settlements in East Yorkshire have drawn to the subject the attention of
all intelligent English-speaking people.[6]
FOOTNOTES:
[2] There are two distinct kinds of settlement, but we are here dealing
with the first or earlier kind.
[3] Herod, v. 16.
[4] The lake tribes of the bronze age, however, not only understood the
use of copper and bronze, but were far more proficient in the arts than
their predecessors. Some of the textile fabrics found are of the most
complicated weaving, and some of the bronze articles are of most
exquisite chiselling, though these were probably imported from Italy,
with which country the lake dwellers would seem to have had considerable
traffic. The earliest specimens of pottery are usually ornamented by
mere rude nail scratchings, but those of the bronze period have had
their straight lines and curves made by a graving tool. In fact, the
later tribes had become lovers of art for its own sake, and even the
smallest articles of manufacture were decorated with designs of more or
less elaboration and finish.
[5] The products of the soil seem to have been the same amongst the
lakemen as amongst Homer's people. Both knew barley and wheat, and
neither of them knew rye. In their mode of dressing and preparing barley
for food the two peoples concurred. It was not made into bread, but
roasted to bring off the husk. And roasted barley is still a favourite
article of diet in the Lower Engadine. The Greeks ate it at their
sacrifices, and always took supplies of it when starting on a journey.
So Telemachus asks his old nurse Eurykleia to fill his goat skin with
roasted barley when he sets out in search of his father. And young Greek
brides were required to complete the stock of household belongings by
providing on their marriage day a roasting vessel for barley.
[6] Those who wish to see pretty well all that can be said on the matter
should read the valuable article in _The Westminster Review_, for June,
1887.
II.
THE HELVETIANS.
The history of a country often includes the history of many peoples, for
history is a stage on which nations and peoples figure like individual
characters, playing their parts and making their exits, others stepping
into their places. And so the Swiss soil has been trodden by many
possessors--Celts, Rhaetians, Alamanni, Burgundians, Franks. These have
all made their mark upon and contributed to the history of the Swiss
nation, and must all figure in the earlier portions of our story.
Dim are the glimpses we catch of the early condition of the Helvetians,
but the mist that enshrouds this people clears, though slowly, at the
end of the second century before Christ, when they came into close
contact with the Romans who chronicled their deeds. The Helvetians
themselves, indeed, though not ignorant of the art of writing, were far
too much occupied in warfare to be painstaking annalists. At the
Celto-Roman period of which we are treating, Helvetia comprised all the
territory lying between Mount Jura, Lake Geneva, and Lake Constance,
with the exception of Basle, which included Graubuenden, and reached into
St. Gall and Glarus. It was parcelled out amongst many tribes, even as
it is in our own day. The Helvetians, who had previously occupied all
the land between the Rhine and the Main, had been driven south by the
advancing Germans, and had colonized the fertile plains and the lower
hill grounds of Switzerland, leaving to others the more difficult Alpine
regions. They split into four tribes, of which we know the names of
three--the Tigurini, Toygeni, and Verbigeni. The first named seem to
have settled about Lake Morat, with Aventicum (Avenches) as their
capital. Basle was the seat of the Rauraci; to the west of Neuchatel was
that of the Sequani; whilst Geneva belonged to the wild Allobroges. The
Valais[7] district was inhabited by four different clans, and was known
as the "Poenine valley," on account of the worship of Poeninus on
the Great St. Bernard, where was a temple to the deity. In the Ticino
were the Lepontines, a Ligurian tribe whose name still lingers in
"Lepontine Alps." The mountain fastnesses of the Grisons (Graubuenden)
were held by the hardy Rhaetians, a Tuscan tribe, who, once overcome by
the Romans, speedily adopted their speech and customs. Romansh, a
corrupt Latin, holds its own to this day in the higher and remoter
valleys of that canton.
All these tribes, except the two last mentioned, belonged to the great
and martial family of the Celts, and of them all the wealthiest, the
most valiant, and the most conspicuous were the Helvetians.[8] Of the
life and disposition of these Helvetians we know but little, but no
doubt they bore the general stamp of the Celts. They managed the javelin
more skilfully than the plough, and to their personal courage it is
rather than to their skill in tactics that they owe their reputation as
great warriors. But in course of time their character was greatly
modified, and, owing probably to their secluded position, they settled
down into more peaceful habits, and rose to wealth and honour, combining
with their great powers a certain amount of culture. They practised the
art of writing, having adopted the Greek alphabet, and gold, which was
possibly found in their rivers, circulated freely amongst them. To judge
from the relics found in Helvetian tumuli the Helvetians were fond of
luxuries in the way of ornaments and fine armour, and they excelled in
the art of working metals, especially bronze. They had made some
progress in agriculture, and in the construction of their houses, and
more especially of the walls that guarded their towns, which struck the
Romans by their neatness and practicalness. Nor would this be to be
wondered at if the old legends could be trusted, which tell us that
Hercules himself taught the Helvetians to build, and likewise gave them
their laws; an allusion, no doubt, to the fact that culture came to them
from the east, from the peoples around the Mediterranean. Besides many
hamlets, they had founded no fewer than four hundred villages and twelve
towns, and seem to have been well able to select for their settlements
the most picturesque and convenient spots. For many of their place-names
have come down to us, in some cases but little changed. Thus of colonies
we have Zuricum (Zurich), Salodurum (Soleure), Vindonissa (Windisch),
Lousonium (Lausanne), and Geneva; of rivers navigable or otherwise
useful, Rhine, Rhone, Aar, Reuss, Thur; of mountains, Jura and perhaps
Camor. Disliking the hardships of Alpine life the Helvetians left the
giant mountains to a sturdier race.
[Illustration: JOHANNISSTEIN, WITH RUINS OF CASTLE OF "HOHENRHAETIA,"
NEAR THUSIS, GRAUBUeNDEN.
(_From a Photograph._)]
The nature of their political code was republican, yet it was largely
tinctured with elements of an aristocratic kind. Their nobles were
wealthy landed proprietors, with numerous vassals, attendants, and
slaves. In case their lord was impeached these retainers would take his
part before the popular tribunal. The case of Orgetorix may be cited. He
was a dynastic leader, and head over one hundred valley settlements; his
name appears on Helvetian silver coins as Orcitrix. He was brought to
trial on a charge of aspiring to the kingship, and no fewer than a
thousand followers appeared at the court to clear him, but _vox populi
vox dei_, and the popular vote prevailed. Orgetorix was sentenced to die
by fire, a punishment awarded to all who encroached upon the popular
rights.
Their form of religion was most probably that common to all the Celts,
Druidical worship. Invested with power, civil and spiritual, the Druids
held absolute sway over the superstitious Celtic tribes. Proud as the
Celts were of their independence, they yet were incapable of governing
themselves because of the perpetual dissensions amongst the tribes; and
they were overawed by the intellectual superiority of a priesthood that
professed all the sciences of the age--medicine, astrology, soothsaying,
necromancy--and had taken into its hands the education of the young. The
common people were mere blind devotees, and rendered unquestioning
obedience to the decrees of the Druids. Druidism was, in fact, the only
power which could move the whole Celtic race, and could knit together
the Celts of the Thames and those of the Garonne and Rhone, when they
met at the great yearly convocation at Chartres, then the "Metropolis of
the Earth." Human sacrifice was one of the most cruel and revolting
features of the Druidical religion.
The Celts were a peculiarly gifted people, though differing greatly from
the contemporary Greeks and Romans. They had been a governing race
before the Romans appeared on the stage, and wrested from them the
leading part. They had overrun the whole world, so to speak, casting
about for a fixed home, and spread as far as the British Isles, making
Gaul their religious and political centre, and settled down into more
peaceful habits. Driven by excess of population, or their unquenchable
thirst for war, or simply their nomadic habits--one cannot otherwise
account for their retrogression--they migrated eastwards whence they
came--to Italy, Greece, and Asia Minor--demanding territory, and
striking terror into every nation they approached by their warlike
habits. They knocked at the gates of Rome, and the Galatians were
conspicuous by their atrocities.[9] Brilliant qualities and great
national faults had been their peculiar characteristics. Quick-witted
they were, highly intelligent, ingenious, frank, versatile; attaching
much value to _gloire_, and _esprit_; susceptible of and accessible to
every impression, skilled handicraftsmen; but inclined to be vain,
boastful, and fickle-minded, averse to order and discipline, and lacking
in perseverance and moral energy. This, according to both ancient and
modern writers, was their character. They failed to create a united
empire, and to resist their deadly enemy, Rome.
What they did excel in was fighting. Dressed in gaudy costume--wide
tunic, bright plaid, and toga embroidered with silver and gold--the
Celtic noble would fight by preference in single combat, to show off to
personal advantage, but in the brunt of battle he threw away his
clothing to fight unimpeded. Bituitus, king of the Arverni, attired in
magnificent style, mounts his silver chariot, and, preceded by a harper
and a pack of hounds, goes to meet Caesar in battle, and win his respect
and admiration.
The Helvetians were peaceful neighbours to Italy so long as they did not
come into direct contact with the Romans, but on the Rhine they were
engaged in daily feuds with the German tribes, who had driven them from
their settlements in the Black Forest, and had continued their raids
beyond the river. For the sake of plunder, or from mere restless habits,
the Germans had left their northern homes on the Baltic and North Seas,
the Cimbri, and their brethren, the Teutons and others, and were slowly
moving southward, repelling or being in turn repelled. The most daring
crossed the Rhine, and made their way straight through the lands of the
Belgians and Helvetians towards the South, thereby anticipating the
great dislocation of peoples which was to take place but five hundred
years later, when the Roman Empire, sapped at the root, crumbled to
pieces, unable longer to resist the tide of barbarian invasion.
On one of these expeditions the Cimbri, giving a glowing account of
sunny Gaul, and the booty to be obtained there, were joined by the
Helvetian Tigurini, whose leader was the young and fiery Divico (B.C.
107). They started with the intention of founding a new home in the
province of the Nitiobroges in Southern Gaul; but when they had reached
that territory they were suddenly stopped on the banks of the Garonne by
a Roman army under the consul Cassius and his lieutenant Piso. But,
little impressed by the military fame of the Romans, the Tigurini, lying
in ambush, gave battle to the forces of great Rome, and utterly routed
them at Agen, on the Garonne, between Bordeaux and Toulouse. It was a
brilliant victory; both the Roman leaders and the greater part of their
men were slain, and the rest begged for their lives. The proud Romans
were under the humiliating necessity of giving hostages and passing
under the yoke--a stain on the Roman honour not to be forgotten; but the
victors, being anything but diplomats, knew no better use to make of
their splendid victory than to wander about for a time and then go home
again.
A few years later (102 and 101 B.C.) the Tigurini, Toygeni, Cimbri, and
Teutons joined their forces on a last expedition southwards. The
expedition ended in the destruction of these German tribes. The Toygeni
perished in the fearful carnage at Aquae Sextiae, and the Cimbri later on
at Vercellae. When the Tigurini heard of this last-mentioned disaster
they returned home.
Caesar had been appointed governor of the Province (Provence) which
extended to Geneva, the very door of Helvetia; on the Rhine the Germans
continued to make their terrible inroads. Thus there was but little
scope for the stirring Helvetians, and the soil afforded but a scanty
supply of food; so they turned their eyes wistfully in the direction of
fair Gaul. Meeting in council they decided on a general migration,
leaving their country to whoever might like to take it. Then rose up
Orgetorix, one of their wealthiest nobles, and supported the plan,
volunteering to secure a free passage through the neighbouring provinces
of the Allobroges and AEdui. The 28th of March, B.C. 58, was the day
fixed for the departure, and Geneva was to be the meeting-place; thence
they were to proceed through the territory of the Allobroges. For two
years previously they were to get ready their provisions, and to collect
carts, horses, and oxen, but before the period had expired Orgetorix was
accused of treason, and being unable to clear himself, put an end to his
own life to escape public obloquy. This episode made no difference in
the general plan. The Helvetians, indeed, insisted on its being carried
out. Setting fire to their towns and villages to prevent men from
returning, they started on their adventurous journey on that spring morn
of 58 B.C. Caesar's figures seem very large, but, if he is to be
trusted, the tribes numbered some 368,000 men, of which 263,000 were
Helvetians, the rest being neighbours of theirs. But 93,000 were capable
of bearing arms.
A curious yet thrilling sight must have been that motley caravan of
prodigious proportions--ten thousand carts drawn by forty thousand oxen,
carrying women, children, and the old men; riders and armour-bearers
alongside, toiling painfully through woods and fords, and up and down
rugged hills; behind the emigrants the smoking and smouldering ruins of
the homes they were leaving with but little regret. Yet they were no
mere adventurers, but looked forward with swelling hearts to a brighter
time and a more prosperous home. Arriving at Geneva they found the
bridge over the Rhone broken up by Caesar's order. Caesar was, in truth, a
factor they had not reckoned upon, and, after useless attempts to make
headway, they turned their steps towards Mount Jura, and whilst they
were toiling over the steep and rugged Pas de l'Ecluse, Caesar returned
to Italy to gather together his legions. Returning to Gaul he arrived
just in time to see the Helvetians cross the Arar (Saone) with the
utmost difficulty. The Tigurini were the last to cross. And on them
Caesar fell and cut them down, thus avenging the death of Piso--the
great-grandfather of Caesar's wife--and wiping out the stain on the
honour of the Roman arms. His legions crossed the Saone in twenty-four
hours, and this performance so excited the admiration of the Helvetians,
who had themselves taken twenty days to cross, that they condescended
to send legates to treat with Caesar for a free passage. They promised
him that they would do no harm to any one if he would comply with the
request, but threatened that if he should intercept them he might have
to see something of their ancient bravery. No threats or entreaties were
of avail, however, with such a man as Caesar, who, smiling at their naive
simplicity, asked them to gives hostages as a sign of confirmation of
their promise. "Hostages!" cried Divico, the hero of of Agen, in a rage,
"the Helvetians are not accustomed to give hostages; they have been
taught by their fathers to receive hostages, and this the Romans must
well remember." So saying he walked away.
The Helvetians continued their march, Caesar following at a distance,
watching for an opportunity of attacking them. At Bibracte, an important
city of Gaul (now Mont Beuvray), west of Autun in Burgundy, the
opportunity offered itself. Caesar seized a hill and posted his troops
there, and charged the enemy with his cavalry. The Helvetians fiercely
repulsed the attack, and poured on the Roman front, but were quite
unable to stand against the showers of the Roman pila, which often
penetrated several shields at once, and thus fastened them together so
that they could not be disentangled. Disconcerted by this unexpected
result, the Helvetians were soon discomfited by the sharp attack with
swords which instantly followed. Retiring for a while to a hill close
by, the barbarians again drew up in battle order, and again descended to
combat. Long and fierce was the struggle which followed; the Helvetians
fighting like lions till the evening, never once turning their backs on
the enemy. This is Caesar's own report. But barbarian heroism was no
match for the regular, well-organized, and highly-trained Roman army,
and once more driven back, they withdrew to the hill where had been left
their wives and children with the baggage. From this place they ventured
to make a last resistance, and they drew up their carts in the form of a
deep square, leaving room in the middle for the non-combatants and the
baggage. Then mounting their extemporized fort--the so-called
Wagenburg--the Helvetian men commenced the fray, even their women and
children hurling javelins at the enemy. Not till midnight did the Romans
seize and enter on the rude rampart, and when they did the clashing of
arms had ceased. All the valiant defenders lay slain at their feet, and
the spirit of bold independence of the Helvetians was crushed for ever.
After this fearful disaster the rest of the emigrants, to the number of
110,000, continued their march through Gaul, but lacking both food and
capable leaders, and being moreover ill-used by the Gauls, they sent to
Caesar for help. He demanded hostages, and ordered them to return home
and rebuild their towns and villages. And, further, he supplied them
with food for the journey, and requested the Allobroges to do the same
when the Helvetians should arrive in their province. Caesar admits that
this apparent generosity on his part was dictated not by compassion, but
by policy. It was to his interest that these barbarians should re-occupy
Helvetia, because they would keep watch on the Rhine, and prevent the
irruption of the Germans into the country. In their condition now, he
calls the Helvetians ASSOCIATES (_foederati_), and not SUBJECTS, and
leaves them their own constitution, and, to some extent, their freedom.
But they did not relish this forced friendship, which was indeed more
like bondage; and when the Celts of Gaul rose in revolt under the noble
and beloved Vercingetorix, who had been a friend of Caesar, they joined
their brethren (52 B.C.), and were again vanquished. On the defeat of
the Helvetians at Bibracte followed that of the Valisians, in 57 B.C. To
establish a direct communication between Central Gaul and Italy, Caesar
took those same measures which Napoleon I. employed long afterwards; he
conquered the Valais (by his lieutenant Galba), that he might secure the
passage of the Great St. Bernard. A splendid road was formed over Mount
Poeninus, and a temple erected to Jupiter Poeninus, where the
traveller left votive tablets as a thanksgiving offering after a
fortunate ascent.
The subjugation of Rhaetia was delayed for more than a generation. To
guard the empire against the Eastern hordes; against the mountain
robbers of Graubuenden and the Tyrol, who descended into the valleys of
the Po, ravaging the country as far as Milan, and no doubt liberally
paying back in their own coin, the Romans who had made from time to time
such havoc in the Alpine homes--to guard against these, and the wild
Vindelicians of Bavaria, Augustus sent the two imperial princes to
reduce them to subjection. Drusus marched into the Tyrol, whilst
Tiberius advanced on Lake Constance, where even the Rhaetian women
engaged in the conflict, and, in default of missiles, hurled their
sucking children into the face of the conquerors, through sheer
exasperation. Their savage courage availed them nothing, however; the
incursions from the East were repressed; and once the Rhaetians were
overcome, they became the most useful of auxiliaries to the Roman army.
Horace's ode to Drusus alludes to the Rhaetian campaign.
The Rhaeto-Roman inhabitants of Graubuenden--for they still occupy the
high valleys of the Engadine and of the Vorder-Rhine--present much
interest in point of language and antiquities. The sturdy Rhaetians
belonged to the art-loving Etruscan race, whose proficiency in the
_amphora-technic_ we so highly value. An old legend calls their ancestor
Raetus a Tuscan. And not without show of reason, says Mommsen, for the
early dwellers of Graubuenden and the Tyrol were Tuscans, and spoke a
dialect agreeing with that of the district of Mantua, a Tuscan colony in
the time of Livy. In Graubuenden and Ticino were found, some thirty years
ago, stones bearing inscriptions in that dialect. The Rhaetians may have
dropped behind in these Alpine regions on the immigration of Etruscans
into the valleys of the Po; or, they may just as likely have fled there
on the advent of the Celts, when that warlike race seized on the fertile
plains of the river, and drove the Etruscans from their home southward
and northward. Be that as it may, however, it is certain that the
Rhaetians, once blended with the Romans, have preserved the Latin tongue
and customs to this day, for Romaunsh a corrupt Latin, with no doubt
some admixture of Tuscan, is still spoken by more than one-third of the
population of the Grisons.
[Illustration: HOUSE (FORMERLY CHAPLE) IN THE ROMAUNSH STYLE, AT SCHULS,
LOWER ENGADINE, GRAUBUeNDEN.
(_After a Photograph by Guler_.)]
FOOTNOTES:
[7] Valais (German, _Wallis_) means valley, and is so called from its
being a long narrow dale or vale hemmed in by lofty mountains.
[8] Mommsen, "Roman History," vol. ii. p. 166.
[9] "Story of Alexander's Empire," by Mahaffy, p. 79.
III.
HELVETIA UNDER THE ROMANS.
[Illustration: SILVER COIN, VERCINGETORIX.
(_Dr. Imhoof, Winterthur._)]
On the surrender of the noble Vercingetorix, a valiant knight, but no
statesman--he delivered himself up to Caesar, trusting in his generosity
on the plea of former friendship, and died a prisoner of Rome--the war
with Gaul was virtually at an end. The sporadic risings that followed
lacked the spirit of union, and led to no results of any consequence.
During the seven years of his governorship in Gaul (58-51 B.C.), Caesar
had completed the subjection of the entire country, with the exception
of the province of Narbonensis, whose conquest was of more ancient date.
He followed up his victories, and secured their results by organizing a
line of secure defences on the northern boundary of Gaul, along the
Rhine, creating thereby a new system of open defences--defences
offensive, so to speak--which he sketched out with full details, and
made Gaul herself a bulwark against the inroads of the aggressive
Germans. To secure peace and voluntary submission, he also regulated the
internal affairs of the new province, leaving her, however, most of her
old national institutions, hoping by conciliatory measures to gradually
bring her under Roman influences, and win her to side with Rome. But it
was left to others to carry out his plans, the Emperor Augustus being
the first to put them into practice; for civil war was again threatening
Italy, and Caesar returned home to carry on his great contest with Pompey
for supremacy in the State.
Although Caesar's plans were but a sketch they were faithfully carried
out, and the Gallic conquest proved to be more, and aimed higher, than
the mere subjection of the Celts. Caesar was not only a great general,
but also a far-seeing politician. He had clearly understood that the
barbarian Germans might well prove more than a match for the Greek-Latin
world if they came into close contact with it. His defeat of Ariovistus,
who was on the point of forming a German kingdom in Gaul, and his wise
measures of defence, kept the barbarian hordes at bay for centuries, and
thus there was ample time given for the Greek-Latin culture to take root
throughout the West. It happened consequently that when Rome could no
longer offer any serious resistance, and the Germans poured into her
lands, the people of the West were already Romanized, and those of
Gaul, Britain, and Spain, became the medium of transmitting to the
Germans the spirit of classicism, by which they would otherwise have
hardly been affected; and those nations became the connecting link
between the classical age and the German era which absorbed its
high-wrought culture. If Alexander may be said to have spread Hellenism
over the East; Caesar may be taken to have done as much, and indeed
vastly more for the West, for it is owing to him, though we can scarcely
realize the fact in our day, that the German race is imbued with the
spirit of classical antiquity.
The fall of Caesar, and the state of anarchy that followed again, delayed
the work of pacification, and Helvetia was left to take care of herself.
But when Augustus was firmly seated on the imperial throne, he resumed
the task which had been bequeathed to him. The organization of Gaul was
chiefly his work, and it required an energetic yet moderate policy. The
old Narbonensis district, which had long been moulded into a Roman
province, was placed under senatorial control. New Gaul, or Gallia
Comata (_Gaule Chevelue_), as the whole territory was called which Caesar
had conquered, was submitted to imperial authority, and treated more
adequately in accordance with the ancient constitutions of the various
tribes. To facilitate taxation and administration New Gaul was divided
into three provinces, each ruled by a Roman governor. Of these three
provinces, one was Belgica, extending from the Seine and the mouth of
the Rhine to Lake Constance, thus including Helvetia proper. Belgica, on
account of its size, was subdivided into three commands, in one of
which, that of Upper Germany, Helvetia found itself placed. Thus we
find Helvetia incorporated with Gaul.
The political capital of the Tres Galliae, or Three Gauls, was Lugdunum
(Lyons), owing to its central position, and it seems to have been a very
important city. Here Drusus had raised an altar to his imperial father,
Augustus, and the Genius of the City. Here met the representatives of
the sixty-four Gallic states (including those of the Helvetians and the
Rauraci) on the anniversary of the emperor. Here, too, was the seat of
the Gallic Diet; and here, in the amphitheatre, took place rhetorical
contests, the Celts holding eloquence in high honour.
Eastern Switzerland, that is, Graubuenden, and the land around Lake
Wallenstatt, as far as Lake Constance, was joined with Rhaetia, which
likewise included, amongst other districts, the Tyrol and Southern
Bavaria. The whole of this territory was ruled by a governor residing at
Augusta Vindelicorum (Augsburg). The Valais district was joined to some
part of Savoy, and ruled by the procurator of the Poenine Alps. Ticino
does not concern us here, as it remained a portion of Italy down to the
sixteenth century.
Yet though thus arbitrarily made a part of Gaul, Helvetia formed a
province of itself, and had its own history and kept its own
constitution, thanks to Caesar's wise and generous policy, by which he
provided that the Celts should not be interfered with in their method of
governing by tribes (_pagi_ or _civitates_), nor in their constitution,
so long as it did not clash with the Roman laws. When Caesar had defeated
the Helvetians he sent them back to rebuild their old homes, and they
re-occupied their ancient territory, with the exception of that portion
which stretches from Fort l'Ecluse to Geneva and Aubonne, and borders on
Mount Jura. This portion was wrenched away and given to the Equestrian
Julian colony settled at Noviodunum (Nyon) on Geneva lake, to keep the
passes of the mountain (43 B.C.). The Jura range separated Helvetia from
the territory of the Rauraci, where another veteran colony was about the
same time established as a safeguard for the Rhine, to check the
incursions of the Germans. The Colonia Rauracorum was afterwards called
Augusta Rauracorum in honour of the emperor. The colonists of these two
settlements were mostly Romans, or had been admitted to Roman
citizenship, and occupied a different position from the inhabitants of
the country generally, for they were allowed Roman privileges and
favours--exemption from taxation most likely amongst others--but, on the
other hand, they were entirely dependent on the Roman Government.
The laborious investigations of the learned Mommsen and Charles Morel go
to show that the Helvetians were mildly treated by their masters. They
had been received into the Roman pale as friends (_foederati_), and as
such lived on favourable terms with these, and enjoyed as high a degree
of liberty and autonomy as was compatible with their position as Roman
subjects. The Rhaetians had been taken from their country; the Helvetii,
on the contrary, had been sent back home and entrusted with the
guardianship of the Rhine, merely being required to furnish a
contingent for service abroad. They were allowed to maintain garrisons
of their own--that of Tenedo on the Rhine, for instance--to build forts,
to raise militia in case of war. And, as has before been mentioned,
their religious worship was not interfered with, nor their traditional
division into _pagi_, or tribes, and they were allowed a national
representative at the Gallic capital, Lyons. Helvetia took the rank of a
state (_Civitas Helvetiorum_), its chief seat (_chef-lieu_) being
Aventicum, which was also the centre of government. So long as Helvetia
conformed to the regulations imposed by the imperial government she was
allowed to manage her own local affairs. Latin was made the official
language, though the native tongue was not prohibited.
[Illustration: GOLD COIN, VESPASIAN (VESPASIANUS IMPERATOR-AETERNITAS).
(_By Dr. Imhoof, Winterthur._)]
A.D. 69-79. Under Vespasian, however, a great change took place. Thanks
to the munificence of that emperor, who had a great liking for
Aventicum, this city lost its Celtic character, and was made a splendid
city after the Italian type. He had sent there his befriended and
faithful Flavian colony of the Helvetians to live, giving her the
lengthy title of Colonia Pia Flavia Constans Emerita Helvetiorum
Foederata in return for services, for she had staunchly supported his
party against Vitellius when the latter contended with Galba for the
imperial throne. The inhabitants most likely received the Latin Right
(_Droit Latin_), or were considered Roman citizens, and as such were
more intimately connected with Rome, and had to submit to closer
control. Her institutions were assimilated to those of Italian towns.
She had a senate, a council of decuriones, city magistrates, a
_praefectus operum publicorum_ (or special officer to attend to the
construction of public buildings), Augustan flamens, or priests, and so
forth.
Notwithstanding the overwhelming importance of Aventicum, a certain
amount of self-government was left to the country districts, towns, and
villages (_vici_). The inhabitants of Vindonissa (Windisch), Aquae
(Baden), Eburodunum (Yverdon), Salodurum (Soleure), erected public
buildings of their own accord. The towns of the Valais, Octodurum
(Martigny), Sedunum (Sion), &c., had their own city council and
municipal officers, and received the Latin Right. In the case of the
Helvetians, those of the capital and those of the provinces equally
enjoyed that Right; whereas, with Augusta Rauracorum, the case was
different, only the colonists within the walled cities being granted the
like standing and liberties. On the whole it may be said that, though
Helvetia kept many of her own peculiarities, and some of her ancient
liberties, she submitted to Rome, and was greatly influenced by the
advanced civilization of the empire. The Helvetians, indeed, underwent
that change of speech and character, which split them into two nations,
French and Germans.
One of the chief factors contributing to the Roman colonization of
Helvetia was the military occupation of its northern frontier, though
this occupation weighed heavily on the country. The great object of Rome
was to keep back the Germans, who were for ever threatening to break
into the empire. Vindonissa was one of the military headquarters, and
its selection for the purpose was justified by its excellent position,
situated as it was on an elevated neck of land, washed by three
navigable rivers, the Aare, Reuss, and Limmat, and at the junction of
the two great roads connecting East and West Helvetia with Italy. A
capital system of roads, too, was planned all over the country.
There would no doubt often be but little love lost between the
Helvetians and the soldiery in occupation. Tacitus ("Annals") tells of
one bloody episode. After the death of the madman hero, the twenty-first
legion, surnamed _Rapax_, or Rapacious, no doubt for good reasons, was
quartered at Vindonissa. Caecina, a violent man, lieutenant of Vitellius,
then commander of the Rhine army, marched into Helvetia to proclaim
Vitellius emperor. But the Helvetians supported his opponent Galba, not
knowing that he had just been murdered, and fell upon the messengers of
Caecina, and put them in prison, after first seizing their letters. The
lieutenant enraged at this affront laid waste the neighbouring Aquae
(Baden near Zurich), a flourishing watering-place much frequented for
its amusements, Tacitus tells us. Calling in the Rhaetian cohorts, he
drove them to the Boetzberg, and cut them down by thousands in the
woods and fastnesses of Mount Jura; then, ravaging the country as he
went, Caecina marched on to Aventicum, which at once surrendered.
Alpinus, a notable leader, was put to death, and the rest were left to
the clemency of Vitellius. However, the Roman soldiery demanded the
destruction of the nation, but Claudius Cossus, a Helvetian of great
eloquence, moving them to tears by his touching words, they changed
their minds, and begged that the Helvetians might be set at liberty.
However this military occupation was, after sixty years of duration,
drawing to a close. Under Domitian and Trajan all the land between
Strasburg and Augsburg, as far as the Main, was conquered and annexed to
the Roman Empire. An artificial rampart was formed across country from
the mouth of the Main to Regensburg on the Danube, and the military
cordon was removed from the Swiss frontier to the new boundary line.
Helvetia, now no longer the rendezvous of the Roman legionaries, quietly
settled into a Roman province, where the language, customs, art, and
learning of Rome were soon to be adopted.
If the military stations were starting-points of the new culture, it was
the more peaceful immigrants who introduced agriculture, commerce, and
wealth, or, at any rate, caused it to make progress. Gradually the
Helvetians amalgamated with the Romans, adopting even their religion.
Horticulture and vine-culture were introduced. A Roman farmer grew vines
on a patch of ground near Cully, on Lake Geneva, and on an inscribed
stone (dug up at St. Prex) begs Bacchus (_Liber Pater Cocliensis_) to
bless the vintage. He little anticipated that his plantation would be
the ancestor, as it were, of the famous La Cote, now so highly valued.
Wherever the art-loving Roman fixed his abode he built his house, with
the wonderful Roman masonry, and furnished it with all the luxury and
art his refined taste suggested. Thus the country gradually assumed a
Roman aspect. Many towns and _vici_, or village settlements, sprang up
or increased in importance under Roman influence--Zurich, Aquae (Baden
near Zurich), Kloten, Vindonissa, and others.[10] Yet the eastern
portion of the country could not compete in the matter of fine buildings
with the western cantons. Indeed, in the eastern districts the Helvetian
influence was never predominated over by the Latin influence, and the
Helvetians clung to their native speech despite the Latin tongue being
the official language.
But it was the mild and sunny west which most attracted the foreigner,
as it still does. Wealthy Romans settled in great numbers between Mount
Jura and the Pennine ranges. Every nook and corner of the Canton Vaud
bears even down to our days the stamp of Roman civilization. The shores
and sunny slopes of Geneva lake were strewn with villas, and the woody
strip of land between Villeneuve and Lausanne and Geneva was almost as
much in request for country seats by the great amongst the Romans as
that delightful stretch of coast on the Bay of Naples, from Posilippo
to Pozzuoli and Baiae, where Cicero and Virgil, and many Romans of lesser
mark, had their _villegiatures_.
But the most remarkable place, whether for art, learning, or opulence,
was Aventicum, the Helvetian capital. Of this town some mention has been
made above, and, did space permit, a full description might well be
given of this truly magnificent and truly Roman city. Its theatre,
academy, senate-house, courts, palaces, baths, triumphal arches, and
private buildings were wonderful. Am. Marcellinus, the Roman writer, who
saw Aventicum shortly after its partial destruction by the Alamanni,
greatly admired its palace's and temples, even in their semi-ruinous
condition. The city next in beauty and size was Augusta Rauracorum
(Basel Augst), where the ruins of a vast amphitheatre still command our
wondering admiration.
But this period of grandeur was followed by the gradual downfall of the
empire, which was already rotten at the core. The degenerate Romans of
the later times were unable to stand against the attacks of the more
vigorous Germans. The story is too long to tell in detail, but a few
points may be briefly noted. In 264 A.D. the Alamanni swept through the
country on their way to Gaul, levelling Augusta Rauracorum with the
ground, and considerably injuring Aventicum. At the end of the third
century the Romans relinquished their rampart between the Rhine and the
Danube, and fell back upon the old military frontier of the first
century. Helvetia thus underwent a second military occupation. Yet the
prestige of Rome was gone. In 305 A.D. the Alamanni again overran
Helvetia, and completed the ruin of Aventicum. Weaker and weaker grew
the Roman power, and when the Goths pressed into Italy the imperial
troops were entirely withdrawn from Helvetia. As for the Helvetians
themselves, they were quite unable to offer any resistance, and when the
Alamanni once more burst into the land (406 A.D.), they were able to
secure entire possession of the eastern portions. The Burgundians,
another German tribe, followed suit, and in 443 A.D. fixed themselves in
West Helvetia. The inaccessible fastnesses of Graubuenden alone remained
untouched by the tide of German invasion, which effected such changes in
the neighbouring districts.
At this period of worldly grandeur and internal decay, occurs another
historical event of the greatest importance, the rise of Christianity,
containing the vital elements necessary for bringing about the spiritual
regeneration of the world. The social and political decomposition
throughout the empire, the cruel tyranny of the sovereigns, the
decrepitude of the state and its institutions, the growing indifference
to the national religion, which showed itself in the facile adoption of,
or rather adaptation to, the Eastern forms of worship--the adoption of
the deities Isis and Mithra, for example--all these and many other
things unnecessary to mention, were unmistakable signs that Roman rule
was drawing to its close, and they also prepared the way for the
reception of the new doctrine. The belief in one God of mercy and love;
of one Saviour, the Redeemer of the world; of a future life,--were
startling but good tidings to the poor and oppressed, and made their
influence felt also on the rich and cultivated, who saw in Christianity
a tolerance, benevolence, human love, loftiness of principle and moral
perfection which had not been attained by the creeds of antiquity. The
passionate ardour and force of conviction amongst the Christians was
such that they faced suffering and death rather than abjure their tenets
or desist from preaching them to others.
The accounts of the introduction of Christianity into Switzerland are
mostly legendary, yet it is generally believed that it was not the work
of special missionaries. It is more likely that the new faith came to
the land as part and parcel of the Roman culture. Indeed this is now the
opinion most generally received. The military operations of the empire
required continual changes of locality on the part of the troops; thus
we find Egyptian, Numidian, and Spanish soldiers quartered on the Rhine
and the Danube, and such as they would most probably be the first to
bring in the new faith.
At first the Roman authorities looked upon Christians as state rebels,
and fierce persecutions followed. The oldest Christian legend of this
country tells of such a conflict between the state officials and the
Christians, and no doubt contains some admixture of truth, as many of
these stories do. A legion levied at Thebes in Egypt--hence called the
_Thebaide_--was sent to Cologne to take the place of troops required to
quell a rising in Britain. Coming to the Valais, they were required by
the Emperor Maximian to sacrifice to the heathen gods (A.D. 280-300),
but being mostly Christians they refused, and were massacred with their
chief, Mauritius. Some, however, escaped for the time, but were called
upon to receive the martyr's crown later on, and in other places. Two
such, Ursus and Victor, came to Soleure with sixty-six companions, and
were put to death by order of Hirtaeus, the Roman governor. Two others,
Felix and his sister Regula, reached Zurich, where their successful
conversions irritated Decius, who put them to the rack, and then
beheaded them. Yet, wonderful to tell, the legend goes on, they seized
their heads that had fallen, and, walking with them to the top of a hill
close by, buried themselves, bodies and heads too. This wonderful feat
was an exact counterpart of that reported to have been performed also by
Ursus and Victor at Soleure. Felix and Regula became the patron saints
of Zurich, and play a conspicuous part in its local history. Tradition
says that Charlemagne himself in later days erected a minster on their
burial spot. Thus, as ever, the blood of martyrs became the seed of the
Church.
[Illustration: GOLD COIN OF SIXTEENTH CENTURY (ST. FELIX, ST.
REGULA-SANCTUS CAROLUS). (_By Dr. Imhoof, Winterthur._)]
The Roman towns Geneva, St Maurice, Augusta Rauracorum, Aventicum,
Vindonissa, and Curia had been episcopal sees since the third century,
though some of these sees were in process of time removed to other
places. Thus, Augusta, Vindonissa, and St. Maurice were removed to
Basel, Constance, and Sion respectively.
FOOTNOTES:
[10] We know little of them, most likely they were but _vici_ (village
settlements). Aquae alone we know from Tacitus was a city-like
watering-place; Kloten had handsome villas, but what it was we do not
know.
IV.
THE ANCESTORS OF THE SWISS NATION.
_THE ALAMANNI; BURGUNDIANS; FRANKS; MEROVINGIANS._
The fifth century was remarkable for what may be called the dislocation
of the peoples of Europe--the migrations of the Germans into the Roman
Empire, and, mightiest movement of all, the irruption of the Huns under
their terrible king Attila, the "Scourge of God." The mere sight of the
hideous Asiatics filled men with horror. Never afoot, but ever on their
ill-shaped but rapid steeds, to whose backs they seemed as if they were
glued, and on which they lived well-nigh day and night, it seemed as if
man and horse had grown into one being. Their large heads ill-matched
their meagre bodies; their tawny faces with deep-set eyes and high,
protruding cheek-bones made them resemble rough-cut figures in stone
rather than human beings. The Goths regarded them as the offspring of
spirits of the desert and of witches. These masses of Asiatic barbarism,
which had burst into Europe, stayed for awhile in Hungary, but soon
rolled towards the West, dislodging all the peoples with whom they came
in contact. Marching to the Rhine, they drove the Burgundians from their
settlements in the district of Worms, a land so rich in song and saga,
and entered Gaul to found a new kingdom. But the doom of the Huns was at
hand, for Aetius the Roman general, and the last defender of the empire,
defeated them, A.D. 451, in a truly gigantic battle on the Catalaunian
Plain, in the Champagne country. The slaughter was so terrible that the
saying went abroad that the river ran high with the blood of 300,000
men.
But it was clear that the tottering empire could not defend itself
against a whole world in commotion. The time had come when Rome was to
leave the stage of history. The great German nation was forming. It
would be tedious and profitless to mention all the German tribes beyond
the Rhine and Danube, a well-nigh endless list of names, impossible to
remember. Besides, the petty tribes and clans gradually formed alliances
with each other for greater security, and, dropping their ancient names,
took collective ones more familiar to our ears--Saxons, Franks,
Thuringi, Burgundians, Alamanni, and Bavarians.
Of these the Alamanni and the Burgundians are those from whom the Swiss
are descended, and thus Switzerland, like England, has to look back to
Germany as its ancestral home. The tall, fair-haired, true-hearted
Alamanni for whom Caracalla had such an admiration that to be like them
he wore a red wig, are said to have been descendants of the Semnones,
who had migrated from Lusatia on the Spree (in Silesia) to the Main. The
name Alamanni is generally held by the learned to be derived from
_alah_, a temple-grove, and implies a combination of various tribes,
"the people of the Divine grove." The Suevi, of whom the Semnones were
the most conspicuous tribe, had a sacred grove in the district of the
Spree, where they met for worship. In the fifth century we find the
Alamanni occupying the district from the Main to the Black Forest, East
Helvetia, and Alsatia as far as the Vosges.
When this formidable horde took possession of Eastern Helvetia they
found but little trouble from the Celto-Roman population, who, thinned
by previous invasions, and unaccustomed to fighting, could offer no
serious resistance, and sank into slaves and servants. The towns were
laid in ruins, the country ravaged, and all culture trodden under foot.
It seemed as if "the hand on the dial of history had been put back by
centuries,"[11] and civilization had once more to begin her work. They
outnumbered the natives, and were not absorbed by them, but on the
contrary on the half-decayed stock of the Roman province the Alamanni
were grafted as a true German people, retaining their old language,
institutions, and mode of living.
The Alamanni did not at once develop into a civilized and cultivated
people, but retained their fondness for war and hunting, and other
characteristics of their ancient life. Their grand and majestic woods
had stamped themselves on the intrepid, dauntless spirits, whose deep
subjectiveness and truthful natures contrasts strongly with the polished
artfulness of the Romans. For the mighty aspects of nature--forest,
mountain, sea--play their part in moulding the character of a nation.
And their impenetrable woods had influenced the destinies of the Germans
in the early periods of their history--had saved them from the Roman
yoke, the labyrinths of swamp and river, defying even the forces of the
well-nigh all-powerful empire. Then, too, when hard fighting was afoot,
and men had burnt their homesteads before the advance of the foe, the
vast forest formed a safe retreat for women and children. The original
house, by the way, was a mere wooden tent on four posts, and could be
carried off on carts that fitted underneath. The next stage was a hut in
the style of the Swiss mountain-shed, but it was still movable--was, in
fact, a chattel the more to be taken along on their wanderings.[12]
Their mode of settling in their new country was curious enough, though
the early settlement of England was very similar in character. Disliking
walled towns of the Roman fashion, the Germans felt their freedom of
movement impeded and their minds oppressed by living within the
prison-like fortifications of strong cities. But loving seclusion and
independence, nevertheless, they built extensive farmsteads, where each
man was his own master. To the homestead were added fields, meadows, and
an extensive farmyard; the whole hedged about so as to keep the owner
aloof from his neighbours. Each farmer pitched his tent wherever "spring
or mead, or sylvan wood tempted him," reports Tacitus. This liking for
seclusion on the part of the Germans is well shown in the case of
Zurich, for at one time the canton had three thousand farm homesteads,
as against a hundred hamlets and twelve villages.
The mode of partitioning the land shows democratic features. It was
divided amongst the community according to the size of families and
herds of cattle, but one large plot was left for the common use. The
large _Allmend_, or common, supplied wood for the community, and there,
too, might feed every man's flocks and herds. The nobleman as such had
no domains specially set apart for him, his position and privileges were
honorary. He might be chosen as a high officer of a district, or even a
duke, or leader of the army, in time of war. Payment for such services
was unknown. Money was scarce, and indeed its use was mainly taught them
by the Romans. Not only did flocks and herds form their chief wealth,
but were the standard of value, each article being estimated as worth so
much in cattle.
Society was from the very first sharply and clearly divided into two
great classes--the landowners and the bondsmen--the "free and the
unfree." The former class was again split into "lesser men," "middle
men," and "first men," or Athelinge (Adelige), these last named being of
noble blood, and owners of most land and the greatest number of slaves
and cattle. The "unfree" were either _Hoerige_ that belonged to the
estate they tilled, and might be sold with it, or slaves who could call
nothing their own, for whatever they saved fell to their lord at their
death, if he so willed. A shire or large district was subdivided into
hundreds. The whole of the free men met on some hallowed spot, under
some sacred tree, with their priests and leaders. Here, besides
performing religious exercises, they discussed war and peace, dispensed
justice, chose their officers of state, and their leader if war was
imminent. War and jurisdiction were the whole, or well-nigh the whole,
of public life at that early stage. The popular assemblies, done away
with by the feudal system, revived later on in the form of the famous
"Landsgemeinde" of the forest district, which are still in use in some
of the cantons. Blood money, or _wergild_, was exacted from wrong-doers
as in Saxon times in England. The tariff drawn up for bodily injuries
reveals the mercenary and brawling temper of a semi-civilized people.
At the time they settled in Switzerland the Alamanni were heathens, and
worshipped nature-deities--in groves, near springs, or mountains--the
names of some of which we still trace in the names of the days of the
week. Their religion, which was that common to all Germany, reveals the
German mind--full of reverie, deep thoughtfulness, and wild romantic
fancy that leads to a tragical issue. Like most heathen people the
Alamanni clothed their gods in their own flesh and blood. Woden and his
attendant deities, shield-maidens--Freyr and Freya, the king and queen
of the elves--dwarfs, giants, spirits--all these are well known to us,
and are indeed the charm of the fairy tales of our youth. The bright
spirits, the _Asen_, war against the spirit of darkness, the giants, and
lose ground, for they have broken the treaties made with them. The Asen
are the benevolent powers of nature, spring sunshine, and fertilizing
rain, and live in bright palaces, in Walhalla, and receive the dead; the
evil spirits are the sterile rock, the icy winter, the raging sea, the
destructive fire. Thor destroys the rocks with his Hammer, pounding them
to earth that man may grow corn. The giants scale the sky to defy the
gods for assisting mankind, but Heimdallr stands watching on the
rainbow-bridge that leads to Asgard--the garden of the _Asen_--and
prevents their entrance. But the gods themselves are stained with guilt,
and in a fight with the Giants before the gates of Walhalla, they
utterly destroy each other. The columns of heaven and the rainbow-bridge
break down, the universe is destroyed and the downfall of the gods is
complete. But the heathen Germans could not bear the notion of entire
annihilation, so in a sort of epilogue the great tragedy is followed by
the dawn of brighter and better times, the gods recover their former
innocence, when they used to play with golden dice without knowing the
value of gold.[13] The _Goetterdaemmerung_, the Divine Dawn, has broken,
and a new epoch has set in for gods and men. One of Wagner's musical
dramas is, as is well known, founded on these myths. . To turn to the
Burgundians. They became the neighbours of the Alamanni in Helvetia
about 443 A.D., after a severe defeat by the Huns. This great battle is
pictured with great power in the "Nibelungenlied." The Burgundians play
a conspicuous part in that grand old epic. A wonderful blending it is of
heroic myth, beautiful romance, and historic sagas attaching to the
great heroes of the early Middle Ages--Theodoric the Great, Gunther of
Burgundy, Attila, King of the Huns. If space permitted, the whole story
might well be told, but in this place let one feat be cited as an
example. Siegfried, the Dragon-slayer, a demigod, invulnerable, like
Achilles, except in one place, and who could make himself invisible,
woos the sweet and lovely maid of Worms. As "invisible champion," he
assists her brother Gunther in his combat with the warlike Brunhilde,
Queen of the North, whom Gunther wishes to obtain to wife. After years
of happy married life the Queen of Worms fell to a quarrel with the
Queen of Xanten on a question of precedence, and the gallant Siegfried
falls a victim to Brunhilde's hatred, and her intrigue with Hagen. To
avenge his death, the disconsolate widow marries the powerful Attila,
and engages in a terrible battle with the Burgundians. In this battle
she and her own kindred were slain. Attila and Dietrich of Verona
(Theodoric the Great) are saved, however.
Aetius gave to the Burgundians as a settlement Sabaudia (Savoy), on
condition that they should protect Gaul and Italy from the incursions of
the Alamanni. One-third of the lands and homesteads were made over to
them by the Romans, and later two-thirds were yielded. Gradually the
Burgundians advanced in the interior of Helvetia, Vaud, Valais, and
Fribourg, and into Southern Gaul. They occupied indeed all the territory
from the Vosges to the Alps and the Mediterranean. They lived on
friendly terms with the previous settlers, differing considerably in
character from the Alamanni. Less numerous, less vigorous, and more
pliant, they were unable to Germanize the West, as the Alamanni did the
East, yet were strong enough to infuse new vital force into the
enervated Roman populations. A readily cultivable race the Burgundians
availed themselves of the Roman civilization and advancement, and
gradually blended with the previous settlers--chiefly of Latin
origin--to form a new people. Thus through Roman influence and German
grafting--with two distinct German grafts--two nationalities sprang up
in Switzerland, and we find, as in our own day, the Germans in the
north-east, and the French in the south-west.
[Illustration: EIGER IN THE BERNESE OBERLAND.]
The Roman influence over the Burgundians was greatly increased by the
policy of King Gundobad (A.D. 500). He had visited Italy, and had been
greatly taken with Roman institutions. There is still extant a letter of
his in which he begs of Theodoric the Great a sun- or water-dial which
he had seen at his Court. Gundobad's code of laws was a blending of
Roman legislation with German jurisdiction. He introduced the Latin
speech and chronology officially, and gave the Romans equal rights and
an equal standing with the German population. Religious differences
arising--the Burgundians were Arians--and conflicts ensuing between king
and people, the Franks took advantage of the turmoils to bring the
subjects of Gundobad under their sway.
There was no love lost between the Alamanni and their neighbours, the
Burgundians; indeed the national antipathy for each other was great, but
the Frankish domination did more than anything else towards bringing
about a union between the hostile peoples. The reports they have left as
to the character of the Franks are not flattering. They said that the
Franks were capable of breaking an oath with a smiling face, and a
saying ran, "Take a Frank for a friend, but never for a neighbour."
Clovis, the Frankish king, had waded to the throne through the blood of
his own kin. He was, however, the first to take more extended views in
politics, and planned a united German kingdom after the type of the
Roman Empire. To his vast scheme the Alamanni fell the first victims. A
great battle was fought in which they suffered defeat. Clovis had vowed
that he would embrace Christianity if he should prevail against the
Alamannic Odin. Victory falling to his side, Clovis and his nobles were
baptized. His conversion was a great triumph for the Church, and
furnished the Merovingian kings with a pretext for the conquest of the
Arian Germans, who had been led astray from the orthodox faith. To crown
the work and enhance his greatness in the eyes of his Roman and German
subjects, the imperial purple, and the title of Roman Patricius was
bestowed on Clovis by the Greek emperor.
The subjection of Burgundy was brought about in the following reign,
under Sigismund, who had been guilty of the murder of his son by the
desire of the stepmother. He fled to St. Maurice, which he endowed so
richly that it gave shelter to upwards of five hundred monks. However,
his piety did not bring him victory, for the Burgundians were defeated
by the Franks at Autun in 532, and Sigismund and his family were hurled
down a well.
In the same year Chur-Rhaetia was yielded to the Franks by the Goths, who
required their help against the East. Rhaetia, which had escaped the
German invasion, had fallen to the share of the Goths of Italy, and had
enjoyed the protection and munificence of their glorious king, Theodoric
the Great. He defended her against her neighbours as a forepost of
Italy, but left intact the Roman institutions.
Thus had Helvetia been formed into a Frankish dependency; not a vestige
was left of the very name Helvetia. Yet the Frankish rule was more
nominal than real. Counts were appointed to govern shires and hundreds,
and, being royal governors, were elected by, and dependent on, the
Frankish kings. Jurisdiction, military command, summoning to war,
raising of taxes--fishing, hunting, coinage, had become royal
prerogatives--and the farmers kicked against the impositions--these were
the functions of the governing counts. None the less the Burgundians
retained their king or patricius, and the Alamanni remained under the
sway of their own duke, to whom alone they gave allegiance. Chur-Rhaetia
was particularly privileged. It was ruled by a royal governor, who was
supreme judge, count, and _praeses_, and the dignity remained for one
hundred and fifty years in one powerful and wealthy native family called
the Victoriden, who held likewise the ecclesiastical livings. On its
extinction in 766, Bishop Tello, the last of the family, bestowed the
immense wealth on the religious-houses of Disentis and Chur.
The promotion of Christianity, and the staunch support given by the
Merovingian kings to the Church, were perhaps the greatest benefits
resulting from the Frankish rule. Knowing the Church to be the sole
means by which in that benighted age culture could be spread and
civilization extended, those monarchs availed themselves of her
services, and bestowed upon her in return great wealth and high
prerogatives. Churches and religious-houses sprang up one could hardly
tell how. In French Switzerland there were founded the bishoprics of
Geneva, Lausanne, and Sion; and in the eastern half of the country those
of Basel, Vindonissa (removed to Constance in the sixth century), and
Chur. St. Maurice, benefited, as we have seen, by Sigismund, was a
flourishing abbey town. Yet many of the Alamanni held tenaciously to
their old gods, and their holy shrines and idols stood side by side with
the Cross; even Christians invoked Woden, for fear he should be offended
by their neglect.
The further amalgamation of heathenism and Christianity was most
effectually stopped by--curious to say--a caravan of Irish monks. In
fact, later tradition attributed to these monks the foundation of
religious-houses, to a number which modern investigation has shown to
have been greatly exaggerated. Ireland, which had so far escaped the
struggle with the great Teutonic race, had given all her energies to the
promotion of the new faith, and ever since the fourth century
Christianity had wonderfully flourished in the island. Filled with
missionary ardour, the Irish Columban conceived an intense desire to
conquer Gaul and Germany, and in 610 set out on his wanderings with a
staff of twelve companions. Equipped with "knotty sticks," a leather
vial, a travelling pouch, a relic case, and with a spare pair of boots
hung round the neck, "tatooed," wearing long waving hair,[14] the
adventurous band arrived in Gaul, and founded monasteries in the Vosges
district. However, they offended Queen Brunhilde by their frankness, and
had to depart. Proceeding to Eastern Helvetia, they arrived at Zurich,
but at length finding nothing more to do there, as we may suppose, they
proceeded to Tuggen, on the Upper Zurich lake. Here they saw people
engaged in an oblation of beer to the national gods. Moved with holy
anger, the monks upset the vessel, and flung the idols into the lake,
and won many to Christianity. We cannot here follow them in their
devoted labours. Columban passed on into Italy, but left his disciple
Gallus in the neighbourhood of Lake Constance. Hence sprang up the
famous monastery bearing his name.
FOOTNOTES:
[11] Green's "Smaller History of England," p. 42.
[12] Dahn, "Urgeschichte der Roemanish-germanischen Voelker."
[13] Dahn
[14] Professor Rahn.
V.
THE CAROLINGIANS--CHARLEMAGNE.
Under the last Merovingian kings, whose character is sufficiently
attested by the name of _Faineants_--sluggards--Alamannia and Burgundy
struggled to shake off the Frankish yoke. Now the wealth and power of
those weak kings were passing from them to their "Mayors of the Palace."
Charles Martel, one of these "Mayors," defeated the Alamanni in a great
battle (A.D. 730), and Carlomann, Charlemagne's brother, had a number of
Alamannic grandees put to the sword, and their lands confiscated (A.D.
746).
Charles Martel remained simple "Mayor of the Palace," but Pepin le Bref
had himself crowned king, at St. Denis, by Stephen II., in 751,
rewarding the Pope for this great service by the gift of a tract of land
around the Holy City. By this _coup d'etat_ were established both the
Carolingian dynasty and the temporal power of the Pope--well-nigh
convertible terms. The new dynasty greatly fostered religion, and
furthered the work begun by the Irish and Anglo-Saxon monks. St. Gall's
cell became an abbey church and monastic school; St. Leodegar's at
Lucerne was incorporated with the abbey of Murbach in Alsatia; and on
the bank of the Limmat at Zurich arose a college of prebends.
Pepin le Bref was succeeded by his son, Charles the Great, or
Charlemagne, as he is usually called (768-814). For nearly half a
century this talented, powerful, and lofty-minded sovereign swayed the
destinies of Europe with unflagging zeal, ever bearing in mind the
responsibilities of his exalted position. He ruled over a vast domain,
stretching from the Ebro in Spain to the Theiss in Hungary, and from
Denmark to the Tiber. Saxons, Sclavonians, Avars, Lombards, and Arabs,
were subject to his rule. His Court was a great intellectual centre,
whence enlightenment spread to every part of his dominions. Charlemagne
was great as a general, as a statesman, as a politician; he was a
painstaking economist, and his humanity, and his other virtues secured
for him the noble title of "Father of Europe." A brilliant figure in a
benighted age, which shed its light on after times. No wonder mediaeval
fancy lingered fondly on his memory; and around his name gathered song
and saga and legend. Charlemagne is a special favourite with the Swiss;
indeed, of all the German rulers who have held sway over them, he is the
one whose memory is most dear; and Switzerland has done at least her
share in helping to swell the mass of legend and fiction respecting him.
The impulse he gave to education in this country was alone sufficient to
endear his memory to the Swiss. Basel, Geneva, Chur, and Sion, benefited
by his wise administration, and Zurich quite particularly exalts him,
calling him the "Fountain of her intellectual life," during the Middle
Ages. It is impossible as it is unnecessary to give at length in this
volume, the history of this long and brilliant reign. A few points may
suffice to indicate the character of Charlemagne, and to throw some
light on the times, and the condition of the country.
The ambition of the Franks to found an empire after the fashion of Rome
was practically realized when Charlemagne was crowned Emperor of the
West by Hadrian in A.D. 800. Yet Charles aimed less at mere outward
grandeur than at the establishment of a spiritual kingdom on earth, and
a kingdom that should embrace all his people in one Christian Church,
upheld by a strong and well-organized state-commonwealth. The union of
Church and State, yet giving the preponderance to the latter, was
Charlemagne's leading idea, and well-nigh summed up his religious and
political creed. The strong religious bent of this "priestly king" was
revealed at the very beginning of his reign, when he took upon himself
the mission of "Defender of the Holy Church, and _Coadjutor of the
Apostolic See_"[15] thus claiming, with the concurrence of the Primate,
the spiritual guidance of his realm. Hadrian's congenial nature and
tendencies helped to bring about this union. Yet in this matter Charles
but conformed to the policy of his ancestors, and to the spirit of the
age, an age remarkable for acts of piety and devotion. And the history
of Switzerland is for that period rather a history of the religious
movements of the time than a political chronicle. For in those early
stages the Church was proportionally far more important than in our own
times. _Then_ she was the sole, or almost the sole, centre of intellect,
of art, of letters, and represented the ideal side of life in an
illiterate age. Despite her defects the Church was a blessing to
mankind.
Helvetian lands had entirely lost their political independence. During
this reign, the vigorous government of the monarch frustrated every
attempt at insurrection, and in the end both Alamanni and Burgundians
began to feel the benefits arising from the existence of a wise and firm
administration. To curb their power the sovereign abolished the
dignities of the mighty dukes, and parcelled out the land into smaller
shires (than the old county divisions), and placed over these counts as
royal governors with judicial power. The people no longer appeared _in
corpore_ at the shire-motes, but were represented at the lesser court by
_Schoeffen_, or reeves. These reeves had to bring in the verdict; if
they could not agree, trial-by-ordeal was resorted to. Twice a year
Charles assembled his nobles and bishops to receive their reports, and
to frame laws, which were, however, submitted to the people, that is,
the "freeholders" at the "real thing," when they met in May. For the
control of the shire administration, and to give the people a means of
appealing more directly to the king's justice, he appointed a special
commission of spiritual and temporal officers (_missi dominici_).
Charlemagne's legislation, it hardly needs to be said, was highly
favourable to the Church, and tended to increase her wealth largely. He
allotted to her tithes of the produce of the soil, and the people of
their own free will overwhelmed the ecclesiastical and monastic
institutions with offerings of lands and money. In the eighth century
the monastery of St. Gall already possessed 160,000 acres of land, which
had been bestowed by pious donors, whilst the twelve hundred
deeds-of-gift found amongst the old abbey documents testify to the zeal
of the givers. Religious establishments became the largest landowners in
the country, and vassalage and the feudal system sprang up.
Under the territorial subdivision Switzerland fell into the shires of
Thurgau, Aargau, Genevagau, Waldgau (Vaud), &c., far larger than at
present, whence are derived the names of various cantons as we have them
now. Some of the Swiss would seem to have shared in Charlemagne's
military glory. The "Monk of St. Gall,"[16] recently identified with
Notker Balbulus (the Stammerer), the popular biographer of Charlemagne,
tells in bombastic style the feats of an Alamannic hero from Thurgau.
This mediaeval Hercules--Eishere the Giant by name--had accompanied the
emperor against the Avars, and after his return, reported that they had
"mowed down the enemy like grass," and that he himself had "strung on
his lance some six or eight pigmy toads of Bohemians as if they were
larks, then carried them hither and thither, not knowing what they were
grumbling out"! Notker, the chronicler, had in his youth heard the story
of the military exploits of Charlemagne, from an old Thurgau soldier who
had followed the emperor in his wars. And when Charles III. was on a
visit to St. Gall in 883, he was so delighted with the monk's lively
chat about the matchless emperor, that he requested him to write down
his recollections of his illustrious ancestor. To this monkish
chronicler we owe so many of the pleasant stories of Charlemagne current
among us.[17]
Interesting and touching are the traits we constantly meet with in the
glimpses we get of the Court and private life of the emperor. His
daughters were not allowed to marry because he could not bear separation
from them. Hatto of Basel, the most illustrious of his elder bishops,
often inveighed against the monarch's weaknesses, yet Charlemagne not
only bore the bishop's censures, but sent him on a highly honourable
mission to the Court of Constantinople, and chose him as one of the
witnesses to his last will. The emperor's friendship with Pope Hadrian
was quite remarkable, and, in spite of many differences, was deep and
lasting. On hearing the news of Hadrian's death, Charlemagne burst into
tears, and eulogized him in the most flattering terms. The emperor's
management of his royal estates was in the highest degree prudent,
skilful, energetic, and in every way admirable. To his property he gave
the closest and most constant inspection, down to the very eggs
produced on his farms.
He gathered round him scholars, artists, and teachers, from Italy and
Greece, and a Court school was opened by Alcuin, the Anglo-Saxon
scholar--the English were then the most cultured of the German
peoples--and a body of English pupils followed him to France. Alcuin
became the friend, and in matters educational the counsellor, of
Charlemagne, by whom he was entrusted with the revision of the Bible.
Warnfried Paulus Diaconus, the famous Lombard writer, was ordered to
compile a collection of homilies from the Fathers. Copies of both these
remarkable manuscripts--Bible and Homilies--were presented to the church
of Zurich, and one, the beautiful Alcuin Bible, is still extant and
among its literary treasures. Thronging the learned circle whose poetic
centre was Charles himself, with his wife and daughters, and two
sisters, were Einhard the German, the confidant and biographer of the
emperor; Augilhard, the knightly poet; the Goth Theobald, Bishop of
Orleans, a scholar and man of the world; as well as many another
illustrious man. Charlemagne's two sisters were nuns, and one of them,
Gisela, was the great friend of Alcuin.[18]
Charlemagne was fond of visiting and occasionally teaching in his Court
school. He took great interest in the progress of his scholars, praising
the diligent and admonishing the indolent. The "Monk" informs us that on
one occasion finding the compositions of the poorer boys praiseworthy,
whilst those of the young nobles were unsatisfactory, the emperor rose
up in anger and warned these latter youths that their high birth and
fine manners should not screen them from punishment if they did not get
rid of their laziness. Then, turning to the poor but meritorious youths,
he highly commended them, and exhorted them to be always thus diligent,
promising them rewards and preferment if they continued in their good
course. Charlemagne indeed gained imperishable glory by his educational
efforts, through which a foundation was laid for after ages. Full of the
conviction that religion and learning were essential to happiness, he
yearned to spread education amongst his people, and made it the chief
object of his later years. All parents ought, he says, "to send their
boys to school, and let them abide there till they are well informed," a
principle only imperfectly understood and acted upon even in our own
day. This ideal side of his complex activity lifts him far above the
other rulers of the Middle Ages. To our mind there is but one who bears
comparison with him for greatness of character and lofty aims--Alfred
the Great, of Wessex. Clerical colleges, and secular schools attached to
them, sprang up all over the country, and the knowledge of the
Scriptures, hitherto confined to the clergy, was freely placed before
the people.
The bishops were charged by the emperor to take care that the priests
were "well qualified as religious teachers." Theobald enjoins his clergy
to open schools and "teach the children with love, and to accept no fees
but what the parents choose to give." Such was the emperor's
educational zeal, that he ordains whipping and deprivation of food even
for men and women if they do not know by heart the Confession of Faith
and the Lord's Prayer, and are not able to repeat them in Latin to the
priests. Yet he makes allowances for the dunces who are permitted to
learn and repeat these exercises in their own illiterate language. He
admonishes the monks to learn better grammar, and get rid of their
uncouth modes of speech. He strongly reprimands a choirboy whose wrong
notes grate on his delicate ear.
Amongst the bishops of Switzerland, Hatto of Basel, and Remedius of
Chur-Rhaetia, were Charlemagne's chief supporters and lawgivers in their
own dioceses. The latter prelate was a great friend of Alcuin, and held
a brilliant Court with many vassals. The power of these theocratic
governors was very great. It may be mentioned, as an example of this,
that Remedius decreed that persons guilty of sacrilege should be covered
with hot tar and made to ride thus on a donkey through the villages. The
emperor's protection to church and school foundations was exercised in
many cases in Switzerland. According to tradition, Sion was enriched
with landed property; and to St. Maurice was presented a fine onyx cup
adorned with beautiful Greek _relievi_, still amongst the treasures of
that church. Zurich attributes her oldest churches and schools to the
emperor's bounty. To him she is said to owe her minster, bearing his
name and statue; the Chorherrenstift, or College of Canons, and the
Carolinum, a clerical school for prebends or canons, which developed in
1832 into the University and Gymnasium respectively, and finally the
Wasserkirche, a chapel by the riverside, on the spot where the martyrs
Felix and Regula once suffered.
[Illustration: GREAT MINSTER AND WASSERKIRCHE, ZURICH.
(_Appenzeller, Zurich._)]
Zurich was indeed, according to tradition, a favourite residence of the
great monarch, and his mansion is said to have been the Haus zum Loch
(hole or cavern), standing on a steep incline near the minster.
Connected with this is a charming legend which reflects the character
for justice he had gained amongst the people. This story may also serve
as an example, the only one our space will permit us to give, of the
abundant store of legend collected around the memory of Charlemagne.
There was a chapel on the riverside where he had placed a bell for
people to ring if they wished to appeal to justice. One day as he was at
dinner with his queen this bell began to ring. None of the servants
could inform him what was the matter. The bell rang a second time, and
then a third. On this the emperor rose from the table, saying, "I am
sure there is some poor man you don't wish me to see." So saying, he
walked down the hill to the chapel, where, hanging to the bell rope, he
found a large snake. The reptile crept down, moved towards him, and
wagged her tail to pay her respects. Then going on in front she led
Charlemagne to a tuft of nettles, and his servants examining the spot
found a large toad sitting on the eggs in the serpent's nest. At once,
grasping the meaning of this appeal, he sat him down in his chair of
justice and passed sentence that the toad should be killed and
quartered. The next day at dinner time the snake appeared in the
passage, frightening the attendants grievously. However, Charles quieted
them, and said, "God is wonderful, and we cannot know the meaning of
this." The snake entered the hall, climbed on the table, and, beckoning
the emperor to remove the lid of his golden goblet, dropped into it a
beautiful jewel. Then, descending from the table, she bowed to the royal
couple, and disappeared. Charles held this to be a good omen, and
resolved never to part with the jewel. The moral is obvious. Charlemagne
was so just, and his reputation for equity so widespread, that even the
lower animals appealed to him, and not in vain.
According to another version, the stone exerted attraction like a
loadstone, for where it was dropped the emperor could not leave the
place. But Archbishop Turpin had dropped it into the springs of Aachen,
and hence Charlemagne no more quitted that royal residence.
It would be impossible in our space, even if it were interesting to the
general reader, to enter into the discussions respecting Charlemagne's
foundations in and visits to Zurich. Two things, however, come out
clearly; first (thanks to the labours of the learned historian,
Professor Georg von Wyss), that tradition is not entirely unworthy of
trust, as there is documentary evidence still extant to prove that
Charlemagne reformed the College (Chorherrenstift); second, that he kept
up a close connection with the city, whether he actually resided there
or not.
No doubt this exaltation of Charlemagne's merits is an expression of the
attachment felt for his person, and of the admiration for his
marvellous educational efforts. His grandson, Louis the German, founded
the Abbey of our Lady, in 853, on the site of an old convent erected to
the memory of the patron saints of Zurich. Louis erected this new abbey
in order to give a more brilliant church preferment to his daughter,
Hildgard, Lady Principal of a small convent at Wurzburg. This Princess
Abbess received the sole right of jurisdiction, and the convent rose
rapidly, and with it extended the city commonwealth. (We shall show in a
later chapter how this female government checked the growth of political
power in that city, and yet was the making of her.)
FOOTNOTES:
[15] See Buedinger, "Von den Anfangen des Schulzwanges," Zurich, 1865, p.
10.
[16] Professor Baechtold, "History of German Literature in Switzerland,"
Frauenfeld, 1887.
[17] Professor Baechtold, "History of German Literature in Switzerland,"
Frauenfeld, 1887.
[18] See Gustav Freytag's charming "Pictures of the Middle Ages."
VI.
THE KINGDOM OF BURGUNDY; THE DUCHY OF SWABIA; AND THE GERMAN EMPIRE.
(843-1100.)
The death of the great emperor brought this realm into utter confusion,
the whole fabric of his wise and firm administration falling to pieces.
All the heterogeneous and often refractory elements which his stern rule
had kept in check burst their bounds and gained full play during the
reigns of his descendants, who grew weaker and weaker, though with here
and there an exception. The pretensions of the Church, which
Charlemagne's own protection and fostering care had, so to speak,
ushered in and strengthened; the struggles of eminent families and
dynastic houses for sovereignty in the absence of one central and
undisputed power; the increase of the immunities and the growth of
feudalism--all these were serious difficulties for the coming rulers to
cope with.
Louis the Pious, the only surviving son of Charlemagne, and heir to his
crown, was clearly quite unfit to cope with these difficulties
satisfactorily. The untimely distribution of the crown lands insisted on
by the imperious Judith, his second wife, in favour of her own son, and
the protracted struggles between the imperial princes, steeped the realm
in intestine wars, and in the end led to its dissolution. It is
impossible in this short sketch to follow to his tragical end this
unworthy son of a great father. The treaty of Verdun (843) settled the
bloody conflicts, but split the empire into three new dominions; the
East Frankish realm devolving on Louis the German: the West Frankish
kingdom falling to Charles the Bald; and the middle district, including
Italy and the strip of land between the two first divisions just
mentioned, and comprising Provence, Burgundy, Lorraine, and the
Netherlands. This last realm fell to Lothair.
The treaty of Verdun, to which the French and German States trace their
origin, also effected the most sweeping changes in Helvetia, and altered
greatly its political aspect. The country was rent into two halves, East
Switzerland, forming the Aare, with Chur-Rhaetia, being incorporated with
the East Frankish kingdom; and West Helvetia and the Valais with
Lorraine or the middle kingdom. This naturally tended to revive the
national antagonism between the two Helvetias.
Freed from the iron hand which had crushed all attempts at insurrection,
the peoples began again their struggles for the recovery of national
independence and separate rule, and thence came the restoration of the
kingdom of Burgundy and the Duchy of Alamannia, or Swabia.[19] Burgundy
was the first to make sure of her national freedom. On the death of
Lothair in 855 his kingdom fell to pieces. Count Boso, of Vienna, his
relative, founded the kingdom of Burgundy _without_ Helvetia, 879
(Provence or Arles--_Arelatisches Reich_). After fruitless attempts by
various Burgundian nobles to establish their sovereignty _within_
Helvetia, a renowned nobleman, Rudolf, of the illustrious house of the
Guelfs, set up as a pretender to Swiss Burgundy, after the precedent of
Count Boso. Rudolf possessed vast estates in Swabia, on Lake Constance.
He had sworn allegiance to Charles III. (the "Stout"), who, weak as he
was, had, strange to say, once more united the Empire under his sceptre.
On his death, in 888, Rudolf the Guelf was crowned king at St. Maurice,
the venerable abbey-town in the Low-Valais, by a large assembly of
Burgundian bishops and nobles. Thus was established the Helvetian
kingdom of Upper or New Burgundy (_Burgundia transjurans_), which seems
to have extended into Lorraine and Savoy. In 933 both Burgundies were
united.
Rudolf not only maintained his independence against the aggressive
spirit of intruding neighbours, but carried his victories into East
Helvetia, as far as Lake Zurich, and on his death in 912 his crown
passed without opposition to his son Rudolf II. This king had inherited
his father's great abilities and restless habits, which engaged him in
numerous wars. His greatest martial achievement was the defeat of the
Hungarians, who were making their fearful inroads into Europe. In East
Helvetia, however, his advance was checked by Burkhard I., Duke of
Alamannia, who routed him at Winterthur, near Zurich, in 919. Led no
doubt by their mutual admiration for each other's prowess, and by common
political interests, they made peace and contracted a lasting
friendship. To seal the union between the two Helvetias, Burkhard gave
his lovely daughter, Bertha, in marriage to the Burgundian king, and
gave her as dowry the land between the Aare and the Reuss, the district
for which he had been contending. He even followed Rudolf on his
expedition to Italy, and fell in a skirmish whilst succouring his
son-in-law. But Rudolf was unable to maintain the authority of his
Italian crown, and exchanged his claim to Lombardy for the kingdom of
Lower Burgundy (Provence) in 933; this arrangement was, however, much
contested.
When not engaged in wars he assisted his queen in her good works. The
Burgundian kings as yet had no fixed residence, and moved from place to
place on their royal estates--to Lausanne, Payerne, Yverdon, Solothurn,
or Lake Thun. When making these rounds Rudolf loved to do as the judges
of Israel of old--to seat himself under the shade of a fine oak and deal
out justice to whoever might come near and appeal to him. Yet the memory
of this good king is almost eclipsed by the glory of his wife, the
famous "Spinning Queen," and her wisdom and ministry amongst the poor.
Things went less pleasantly with the Alamanni. Their efforts to restore
separate or self-government--the passionate yearning for national
independence innate in the German tribes has done much to bring about
the division of the German Empire into its many kingdoms,
principalities, and duchies--met with far steadier and more violent
opposition than was the case with the Burgundians.
Under the pacific rule of Louis the German (843-876) the Alamanni
enjoyed the benefits of his peaceful tendencies, and we hear of no
attempts at insurrection. This sensible and practical monarch left to
East Helvetia the "remembrance of him in good works." Two things brought
him into close relations with this country--his founding of the Abbey of
our Lady at Zurich, where he installed his daughters Hildegard and
Bertha, as has been stated before; and his benefactions to St. Gall,
which he freed from the overlordship of Constance. Indeed, the
chronicler of this latter institution, Notker, _Monachus S. Gallensis_,
would seem to have been fascinated by his personal charms and affable
manners. Promoted to the position of an independent abbey, owing
allegiance to none but the king himself, and enriched by continual
grants of land on the part of pious donors, St. Gall developed into a
flourishing monastic commonwealth. The peaceful colony of thrifty and
studious monks--Benedictines they were--who, like their Irish founder,
combined manual labour with learned contemplation, earnest study, and
literary skill--form a society quite unique in its way. The holy men
"conjure into their cells the departed spirits of classical
antiquity,"[20] and hold free intercourse with them; given to
ecclesiastical learning, whilst not neglectful of profane studies, these
learned and high-bred scholars constitute a truly mediaeval university.
Their life and character is vividly set before us by their chroniclers.
Arnulf of Kaernthen (887-899), grandson of Louis, kept up a close
connection with St. Gall, through his chaplain, Solomon III., its abbot.
He governed the East Frankish kingdom with firmness and great ability.
The military glory of the Carolingians seemed to be restored when he
defeated the Normans brilliantly at Loewen on the river Dyle.
Unfortunately this vigorous ruler died after a short reign, leaving his
crown to his only son, Louis "the Child," then only six years of age.
Through the reign of this sickly prince (900-911) the country was torn
by party struggles, and the invasions of the Hungarians increased the
distresses of the time. Contemporary writers seem hardly able to express
the horror they felt at the very sight of the Asiatics, who appeared
even loathsome to them. Arnulf was reproached with having launched them
upon Europe when he led them against his enemies, the Maehren; whilst
Charlemagne's policy had been altogether opposed to this, he having shut
them in by raising gigantic walls on the Danube against the Avars. These
were followers of the Huns of the fifth century, and resembled them by
their savage warfare and indescribable habits.
"Woe to the realm whose king is a child," writes Solomon III. to a
befriended bishop; "all are at variance, count and vassals, shire and
boundary neighbours; the towns rise in rebellion, the laws are trampled
under foot, and we are at the mercy of the savage hordes." Such was the
condition of the country at the opening of the tenth century. Solomon,
who wrote these lamentations, was himself a powerful political ruler no
less than a Church potentate. Next to Archbishop Hatto, of Mayence, who
governed during the minority of Louis, Solomon was the most influential
man at the German Court, and wielded its destinies after Hatto's death.
This high-born Churchman, educated as a secular priest at St. Gall,
became secretary, chaplain, and chancellor, at the German Court, and
enjoyed the friendship of four successive monarchs. Promoted by Arnulf
to the Abbey of St. Gall in 890, and shortly afterwards to the see of
Constance, he thus combined the dignities of the two rival institutions.
Subtle, versatile, and indefatigable, this high ecclesiastic was the
most consummate courtier and man of the world. Handsome and magnificent,
he captivated his hearers in the council by the clearness of his
argument and his ready wit; and melted the people to tears by his
eloquence in the pulpit. His leadership at St. Gall promoted the
magnificence of the abbey, and formed it into a prominent literary and
political centre. It was, however, robbed of its ascetic character,
Solomon being wanting in genuine piety, for one thing.
The absolute rule of this powerful prelate greatly checked the national
risings of the Swabian leaders, for he strenuously maintained the
oneness of Church and State. Conrad I. (911-919), the last of the East
Frankish kings, gave all his energies to the one aim of strengthening
and solidifying his rule by the suppression or abolition of the
dukedoms, which he saw undermined the power of the sovereign. Relying on
the support of the clergy, he was strongly influenced by Solomon's
insinuations when he put forth his bloody measures against the Swabian
pretenders.
During the reign of Louis the Child the state of anarchy had begotten
numerous national risings, which led to the establishment of the
Bavarian, Frankish, and Saxon duchies. At its very close a similar
attempt was ventured upon in Alamannia. Burkhard, Marquis of
Chur-Rhaetia, afterwards Graubuenden, one of the most eminent of the
Swabian grandees, put forward claims to the duchy. His sons were
banished, and, it was whispered, by Solomon's machinations (911). Yet
all this was no check on the aspirations of the two brothers, Erchanger
and Bertold, brothers-in-law to the king, who aspired to the Duchy of
Swabia. They, too, fell victims to the policy of the prelate, whose
hatred was intensified when they laid hands on his person to arrest him.
Conrad called a Synod to assist him, and heavy punishment was awarded
the pretenders. However, the king had them beheaded, no doubt to please
his chancellor.
[Illustration: THE FURKA PASS.]
The cruel fate of the two made a deep impression on the people. Next
year, when Burkhard, son of the unfortunate marquis, returned to his
country whence he had fled--for he had joined in the rising of the two
brothers, and had been summoned before the Synod--he was unanimously
elected by the nobility and people (917). It was no small mortification
to both king and bishop to have their designs thus thwarted, the
principle they had so vigorously opposed being carried out. The annals
of St. Gall bear witness to the fact that Solomon was implicated in the
murders, for though usually exalting his merits, they report that the
mighty prelate repented of his cruel actions, since he wandered as a
pilgrim to Rome, contrite, weeping and lamenting, to do penance for his
sins.
Conrad I., at the close of his reign, acknowledged that his policy had
been a mistaken one by giving the crown to his most powerful antagonist,
the Saxon leader, Duke Henry, whose power he had striven to abrogate.
Henry I., called "the Fowler" and the "City Founder" (919-936), was the
first German ruler who erected a true German kingdom. With quick
discernment he founded the authority of the Crown on the union of the
tribes, by reconciling their leaders and enforcing their submission
through the ascendency of his own powerful Saxon tribe. Binding them by
oath of fealty without detracting from their honour, he met with no
opposition. His son, Otho I., the "Great," obtained the imperial crown
in Rome, and increased the greatness of his new kingdom. Thus we find
East Helvetia with Chur-Rhaetia forming part of Alamannia, and presently
the whole country was absorbed into, and its destinies bound up with,
the vast empire.
Burkhard I., assuming the title of "Duke of Alamannia by Divine Right,"
bent to Henry's royal supremacy with little objection, no doubt feeling
it a safeguard to his own position. His successors likewise held to
Germany, and were faithful adherents of the emperors, who in their turn
strove to knit Swabia more closely with the empire. This alliance was
highly valued by them; they had to pass through Chur-Rhaetia on their
expeditions to Italy; the Alamanni were famous for their prowess; and
their religious institutions, St. Gall, Rheinau, and Reichenau, were
famous centres of culture. Swabia became a highly valuable fief to be
granted at the pleasure of the emperors. On the death of Burkhard, who
fell in a skirmish whilst accompanying his son-in-law, Rudolf of
Burgundy, to the south, as we have seen above, the duchy devolved on the
son of Otho I., and then on Burkhard II. of Chur-Rhaetia. He never
swerved from his policy of holding to the empire, and his marriage with
Otho's niece, whose beauty and courage and literary skill were
celebrated in ballad and chronicle, drew the union still closer. On her
husband's death, Hadwig inherited the title and his estates, but the
duchy was granted to a friend of Otho II. She retired to her favourite
residence, her manor on Mount Hohentwiel, near Lake Constance, where she
lived in deep seclusion till her death in 994. A good Greek scholar and
fond of learning, she invited young Ekkehard II. of St. Gall to her
castle, and made him her chaplain and her tutor in classical studies.
Hadwig is the central figure in Scheffel's brilliant novel "Ekkehard,"
which glows with life and sparkling humour, and is a fanciful rendering
of the amusing narratives contained in the St. Gall annals. The
chronicler and the poet combining have produced an immortal work, and
shed a lasting glory on the cloisters of St. Gall.
Another famous monastic institution 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 bloody 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 document 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." Space 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
Goddess 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. wishing 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 vassals. 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 nobles 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 assembly of Burgundian, German, and Italian bishops and
nobles, 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 nobles 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 shifting 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 noble
ecclesiastics who wrote of, and for their own class, 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 nobility 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 assembled 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
assumed 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 classes; the old
German democracy gave place to a highly aristocratic order, the nobility
ruling over the people. Thus, we find Switzerland, like other European
countries, struggling through her age of feudalism, and centuries must
yet pass before she succeeds in establishing 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 assigning 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 nobility 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.
[Illustration: 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
(Pfaffenkoenig); 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 Godefroi
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 illustrious
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 title, and the _Reichsvogtei Zuerich_ (a kind of prefecture),
together with the royal prerogatives over the secular and religious
institutions of the city. For Zurich was then the noblest and most
conspicuous town in Swabia, as Bishop Otto von Freysingen, the most
prominent historian of the Middle Ages, asserts. 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 nobles. 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 assassinated 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 nobles 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 nobles and the common
people found shelter in these walled towns against the over-bearing
amongst the high nobility; trade and industry began to thrive, and these
city commonwealths rose to a flourishing 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 nobles; 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, Guemminen, 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 nobles. 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 nobles 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.
These city foundations form a chief corner-stone in the fabric of Swiss
liberties. Attaining political independence, the towns held their own
against aggressors. To effect their deliverance from oppression, they
united with kindred communities or with powerful princes, and thus began
the system of offensive and defensive alliances.
A new enemy arose in the West, and Berchtold V. was defeated by Count
Thomas of Savoy (1211), who encroached on Vaud, and seized Moudon. Yet
the Zaeringer steadily and successfully strengthened their hold over the
country, and obtained the most complete independence. And, indeed, the
moment seemed drawing near when Switzerland was to be shaped into a
durable monarchical state. However, she was spared that fate--from which
no patriotic act of any national hero could probably have rescued
her--by a natural, yet providential, event, the extinction of the ducal
family. For in 1218 Berchtold V. died, leaving no issue.
This century is eminently an age of religious movements. And, although
our space will not permit us to enter into full details, yet it is
impossible to pass over the great religious revival which centred in the
Crusades, that is, so far as that movement touches Switzerland.
On the 10th of December, in the year 1146, a most touching scene might
have been witnessed in the minster of Schaffhausen. The Alamannic people
were thronging the church to listen to a glowing sermon from a French
Cistercian monk, Bernard de Clairvaux. Vividly depicting the distress
of the Christians in Palestine, he invited his hearers to join the
second crusade. France was ready, he said, but the House of Hohenstaufen
was still wavering. His captivating manner, his noble earnestness, and
the elegance and flow of his language--though it was but half understood
by the masses--stirred the audience to bursts of enthusiasm. "Your land
is fertile," were the concluding words of the monk, "and the world is
filled with the reputation of your valour. Ye soldiers of Christ, arise!
and hurl down the enemies of the Cross!" Laying his hands on the blind
and lame, says the half-legendary story, he restored to them eyesight or
the use of limbs, and, strewing crosses amongst the crowds, left the
church. The people, in a state of ecstatic fervour, beat their breasts,
and, shedding tears, broke into a shout of "Kyrie eleison, the saints
are with us!"[22] On the 15th of the same month Bernard preached at
Zurich, and on Christmas Day at Speyer, before Conrad III., whom he won
for the crusade. His fervent exhortations seem to have found willing
ears, too, in the country. Schaffhausen and Einsiedeln took an active
share in the work. We hear of almost countless numbers of spiritual and
secular princes, nobles, knights, and lesser people who joined in the
crusade. The counts of Montfort, Kyburg, Habsburg, Zaeringen, and
Neuchatel, and bishops and abbots started for the East. Contemporary
writers bewail the loss of so many of the best and bravest of South
Germany who died in Palestine. The holy orders of the Knights of St.
John, of the Teutonic order, and the Knights-Templars raised their
aristocratic institutions in this country; new orders of monastic
foundations sprang up, which we cannot here dwell upon. Amongst these
new orders were that of Mendicant Friars, though it is worthy of note
that these played no such part in Switzerland as they did in England.
Yet the Burgundian or western portion of the country plunged more deeply
into the movement than did the eastern part. German enthusiasm was but
slowly won by French religious ecstasy, which had to a great extent
started the Crusades. Still the age was filled with religious and
romantic frenzy. Not the mere practical aims of conquest or gain it was
that stirred men's minds, but the mystical elements of the movement, and
the grand, novel, and indeed fabulous sights that were to be witnessed;
and the old love of wandering and adventure revived, and drove men to
the East. By a happy coincidence the effect of Bernard's sermons was
lessened to some extent in this country by the previous teachings of
another enthusiast of a far different stamp. The intrepid Italian
reformer, Arnold of Brescia, had for some time preached at Zurich and
Constance, sowing the seeds of heresy. Boldly attacking the abuses of
the Church, and advocating the return to the simplicity of the apostolic
teaching, he invited people to no longer lavish wealth on Church
institutions. Arnold fell a victim to his advanced religious and
political views, but his teachings took hold of the people of the Alpine
districts. To his influence may safely be attributed the staunch
resistance to Papal aggressiveness shown in the thirteenth century by
the people of Zurich and of the Forest Cantons.
FOOTNOTES:
[21] See Nibelungen.
[22] Prof. Baechtold, "Sermon Literature in Switzerland."
IX.
THE HOUSES OF KYBURG, SAVOY, AND HABSBURG.
(1218-1273.)
We are nearing the period of their history most dear to the Swiss, the
period when the Eidgenossenschaft is forming, but before reaching it we
have still to make our way as best we can through a short era of chaotic
feudalism and political confusion generally, preceding the great
struggle for Swiss independence. On the extinction of the House of
Zaeringen Switzerland fell a prey to the designs of vassal princes who
had started into eminence on her soil, and now contended for supremacy
over her. The realm of the Zaeringen sovereigns fell to pieces, the
Swiss portions with Freiburg, Burgdorf, Thun, going to a native prince,
Ulrich, Count of Kyburg, brother-in-law of Berchtold V.; the Swabian
portions to a German relative. Thus Switzerland was cut off from Swabia.
The crown lands he had held in Swiss Burgundy, and likewise the royal
prerogative, fell to the empire, and the Vice-regency, being vested by
Frederick II. in his younger son, Henry, became gradually nominal and at
length died out. In this way all vassal princes in the west, and all the
territorial lordships and free cities, such as Bern, Solothurn, Morat,
Laupen, Guemminen, which were built on crown lands, and had been
subjected to the Zaerings, were now held directly from the emperor.
Zurich was likewise restored to the empire. By this time most of these
places had become virtually independent.
[Illustration: CHATEAU DE VUFFLENS, VAUD. (_Fourteenth Century._)]
Switzerland reflects most faithfully the feudal and political condition
of the empire at large. It was torn into an almost countless number of
spiritual and secular territorial sovereignties. Taking advantage of the
state of distraction prevailing throughout the realm, Church prelates,
religious foundations, the greater and lesser nobles, and even the
thriving burgesses of great city commonwealths, all strove to erect
their lands into petty independent dominions. The bishops assumed
temporal power in their own dioceses; the religious-houses, owing to
their "rich immunities," enjoyed almost perfect freedom. The peasantry
had dwindled into small bodies of men, and in the place of the Frankish
county-officers (counts) a martial nobility had sprung up, and, grasping
the public functions and dignities, had turned these offices into
freeholds independent of the sovereign. Henceforward they assumed the
names of the feudal manors they held, and began to raise
_chateaux-forts_ on commanding or picturesque spots. As many as two
hundred territorial rulers held their feudal sway in Switzerland. To
give even the names of these would be not only useless but absurd, yet
they had their share in the political development of the country.
In the Low Valais the counts of Savoy had obtained a footing, and were
moreover advancing into Vaud. Vaud was at that time governed by a host
of more or less important nobles, such as the barons of Grandson,
Cossonay, Blonay, &c., and was contended for by the bishops of Lausanne
and Geneva, and the counts of the latter town, whilst the counts of
Greyerz governed in the districts of the Saane, and those of Neuchatel
in the lake districts of the Jura. Little Burgundy, with Solothurn as
capital, fell to the counts of Buchegg. One of the wealthiest and most
ancient of the native families was that of Lenzburg, whose counts held
sway in Aargau, Zurichgau, and the Forest Cantons, and were governors of
famous religious-houses. One of the counts of Lenzburg, Ulrich IX., was
an intimate friend and a minister of Frederick Barbarossa, and on the
extinction of the rule of these counts, their heritage fell to the
Habsburgs, and gave that family a great lift in the early days of their
rise. In the east we meet with the famous House of Kyburg, to which
belonged young Werner, the friend of Ernest II. of Swabia. Their
ancestral manor house near Winterthur is still in good condition. They
had numerous vassals and followers. In Zurichgau the barons of
Regensberg and others, and the counts of Rapperswyl were harassing the
people. The most powerful nobles in the east were the abbots of St.
Gall, who governed part of St. Gall and Appenzell, and the counts of
Toggenburg, and in Chur-Rhaetia and the Rhine districts the counts of
Montfort and Werdenberg. This sufficiently shows how feudalism had grown
apace in Switzerland, and what a hard struggle the people had to hold
their own against the impositions of princes and nobles. How feudalism
had arisen has been already shown in the previous chapter.
To find some explanation of this rapid growth and the distracted state
that followed in its train we must turn for a moment to the empire.
Owing no doubt to the loftiness of the imperial dignity--for the
emperors were indisputably the greatest of the civilized monarchs--the
vassal princes rose to far greater independence in the empire than in
other countries. Yet the possession of the imperial crown was in the end
the weakening of royalty. Henry III. had raised the empire to its
pinnacle of greatness, and the imperial dignity increased the prestige
of the German name, and surrounded the German monarch with a halo of
glory and even reverence. But the engagements abroad, the campaigns in
Italy, the struggles with the Pontiffs, and the close attention required
to be paid to Italian affairs, kept the emperors away from duties and
cares nearer home. The Italian claims and titles, in fact, proved in the
long run injurious to German interests. Frederick I., Barbarossa, had
indeed, by his just and powerful rule, forced his insubordinate vassals
into submission, but it was far different with his grandson, the
brilliant Frederick II. (1215-50). Born in Italy and brought up to love
the land of his birth, Naples and Sicily, more than his fatherland,
Frederick II. was more Southerner than Teuton. He gave Southern Italy a
model administration, but allowed Germany to be weakened by a divided
internal government. And though we cannot but admire the unflinching
spirit with which this "wonder of the world" carried on his unequal
struggle with the Papacy, yet it is clear that the conflict which sealed
the doom of his own family was equally ruinous to the empire.[23]
[Illustration: BRONZE FIGURES FROM THE MAXIMILIAN MONUMENT AT
INNSBRUCK.]
During the interregnum (1254-73) Germany was without an actual ruler,
although two foreign princes had been elected as its sovereigns. One of
these never even showed his face in Germany, and the other, Richard of
Cornwall, could not make sure his ascendency in the country,
notwithstanding all the money he lavished in the attempt. This was the
unhappy time of the _Faustrecht_--the name indicates its character--when
the right of the strong hand (fist) alone was of avail. The empire lost
its prestige, and it slowly dissolved into a loose confederacy of some
five thousand larger or smaller states and fragments of states, each
struggling for independence.
Most eminent amongst the crowd of nobles on Swiss soil aiming at their
personal exaltation were the counts of the great Houses of Kyburg,
Savoy, and Habsburg. Taking advantage of the general state of
misgovernment or want of government, they systematically planned the
aggrandisement of their own families, whether by conquest, purchase, or
unjust encroachment. Yet there was opposition from the city burgesses,
who, seeing their liberties in danger, felt the love of freedom roused
in their breasts.
The powerful Kyburger, the mightiest Swiss nobles, were the first to
threaten the liberties of the people. Count Ulrich was reckoned one of
the wealthiest princes throughout Swabia. By clever policy he had
arranged the union of his son Hartmann (the elder) with Margaretha of
Savoy. Ulrich's daughter, too, was married to Albrecht of Habsburg, and
became the mother of Rudolf, the German king. He upheld the cause of
Frederick II., and his elder son, Werner, went with him on his crusade
where he was carried off by the plague, leaving one son, Hartmann the
Younger. Their territories, after they had inherited the Zaeringen
estates, reached from Lake Constance to Swiss Burgundy. Both the elder
and the younger Hartmann encroached without scruple on the crown lands
adjoining their estates, whilst Frederick II. was engaged in his
struggle with the Church. In this emergency Bern and Murten, whose
independence was at stake, followed suit, and resorted to means which
would be a precedent in the future struggles for Swiss freedom. They
joined in an offensive and defensive union with the Kyburg city,
Freiburg, with Lucerne and the Bishop of Sion (1243). Bern had always
adhered closely to the Hohenstaufen, and when Hartmann ventured on an
open attack in 1255, that city applied to the empire for help. Unable to
obtain support, however, both Bern and Murten placed themselves under
the patronage of Count Peter of Savoy, who was already at variance with
Kyburg, and a peace was arranged.
Peter of Savoy, "the second Charlemagne" as he was styled, was a most
remarkable man, and a striking figure amongst the Savoy princes. Being
the fourth of seven brothers he had been placed in the Church by his
father, Count Thomas. However, on the death of the father Peter doffed
his priestly robes, married the heiress of Faucigny, and added that
province and Chablais to his territories, and set up as guardian of his
brothers. Like his father he had constantly his mind on Vaud, and the
daily feuds amongst its leaderless swarm of nobles facilitated the
conquest. Castles were erected to further his object; and Chillon, which
to-day gives us an excellent idea of what a fine feudal castle was in
mediaeval days, became his princely residence, having indeed been, to a
great extent, built by him. Invited to the Court of England by his niece
Eleanor, he spent the greater part of his life abroad, gathering in the
service of Henry III. men and money. These he used to achieve the
acquisition of Vaud, to which he every now and then returned to
overthrow his enemies. In England he occupied a high position in the
Council, was knighted, and had titles and honours lavished on him; the
palace of the Savoy in the Strand bears witness to his magnificence.
Many of the nobles in his train, such as De la Porte, Grandson,
Flechere, married Englishwomen, and hence arose the family names of
Porter, Grandison, Fletcher. Possessing an iron will, and thoroughly
versed in diplomacy, Peter of Savoy finally annexed Vaud, partly by
conquest and partly by agreement. In truth, the whole nobility lay at
his feet ready to do him homage and acknowledge him as lord paramount.
The German government sanctioned his protectorate of Bern and Morat, and
Richard of Cornwall his conquests in the Bernese Highlands. Thus West
Switzerland became the portion of a Savoy prince, and in the place of
the ancient kingdom of Upper Burgundy arose a feudal sovereignty.
However, order, discipline, and wise organization were the fruits of
Peter's rule. And his generous nature, his chivalrous spirit, and his
love of justice and good government, won for him the affection of his
people, and the title of Le Petit, or Le Second, Charlemagne.
Presently the Kyburg domains in Eastern Switzerland devolved on him, the
male line having died out in 1264--the elder Hartmann leaving no
children, and the younger but one daughter, Anna, a minor. But when
Peter attempted to take possession of the inheritance in the name of his
sister, Margaretha of Savoy, he found himself in conflict with a rival
claimant of superior strength, Rudolf, of Habsburg. This prince
confiscated the whole of the lands of Hartmann the Elder, regardless of
the claims of the widow, Margaretha. There was no mistaking the meaning
of this, and war broke out between Savoy and Habsburg. Rudolf invited
the whole of the nobles of the west to rise against Count Peter. He was
engaged in East Switzerland when the Burgundian lords proceeded to
besiege Chillon, in 1266. Peter himself was at war in the Valais. He
suddenly returned, and at dead of night fell upon the enemy. He found
them asleep, and some eighty nobles, barons, counts, seigneurs, and
followers fell into his hands. These he conducted into the castle of
Chillon, but instead of treating them as prisoners, entertained them at
a banquet. Thus Peter became once more master of the west. Bern by a
"writ of submission" regained from the House of Savoy the freedom it
had forfeited on a previous occasion.[24] Rudolf signed a peace at
Morat, and obtained the Kyburg heritage with the exception of the lands
settled on the Dowager Countess. On the death of the "Conqueror of
Vaud," which occurred soon after, the sovereignty passed to his brother
Philip, a man of far inferior stamp. French Switzerland, save Geneva,
gradually became a loose confederation of petty states, and their
languishing political life led to their gradual amalgamation with the
Eastern Republics.
The most dangerous champion enters the lists when the great Habsburg
prince seizes on the reins of government in Switzerland. In its early
stages the rule of the Habsburger is closely linked with, and is indeed
the incitement to, the national movement or rising, if such a word may
be applied in the case of a people just forming. The famous Habsburg
family was of right noble and ancient lineage. Whether they sprang from
Swiss soil (Aargau), or had their origin in Alsacia, is not quite
settled. As a matter of fact, they were a Swabian family who possessed
vast estates in both those countries. Their estates, ("Eigen," allods or
freeholds) with Windisch, Brugg Nurri, lay at the junction of the Aare
and Reuss, in Aargau. Originally they dwelt in the castle of Altenburg,
near Brugg, and subsequently in their manor of Habsburg, on the
Wuelpelsberg,[25] a little hill overlooking the ancient Vindonissa.
Numerous other castles they held as time went on.
[Illustration: THE OLD HABSBURG CASTLE (CANTON AARGAU).]
Rudolf der Alte (the Old) is the first of the ancestors of whom we know
much. He accompanied Frederick II. on his campaigns, and that great
emperor stood godfather to his son Rudolf, who was later on to wear his
royal crown. On his death the dynasty split into two branches,
Habsburg-Austria (senior), and Habsburg-Laufenburg Aargau (junior), the
heads being respectively Albrecht the Wise and Rudolf the Silent, his
sons. Each of these branches followed its own separate policy, the
junior holding to the Papacy. Albrecht cleverly contrived to marry
Heilwig of Kyburg, hoping thus to inherit the estates of her childless
brother, Hartmann the elder. He died, it was rumoured, whilst engaged in
one of the crusades, and his estates passed to his sons, of whom,
however, but one survived, our Rudolf of Habsburg. This man within the
space of thirty years made his family one of the mightiest in the
empire. Rudolf inherited from his father the family estate on the Aare,
with Habsburg Castle. Besides this, he succeeded to various titles and
lands, to the lordship of several towns in the Aargau, to the prefecture
(_Vogtei_) over the religious-houses of Saeckingen and Muri, to the
landgraviate of Alsacia, and so forth.
Though but one-and-twenty when his father died, Rudolf at once
displayed great energy, as well as firmness and caution. In the struggle
with the Papacy he held to the Staufen. It mattered little to him that
his estates were under an interdict, and himself excommunicated. He held
faithfully to the illustrious dynasty, and accompanied its last
representative, Conradin, across the Alps, to Verona, in 1267. On the
death of Conradin on the scaffold at Naples, and the consequent
extinction of the Staufen line, Rudolf veered gradually round to the
side of the Pope.
Rudolf was highly popular with the peasantry, winning their hearts by
his affability, simple habits, and kindly good-nature. His tall and
slender person, thin face, and aquiline nose, were striking features,
and not easily forgotten when once seen. He had been known to mend with
his own hands, after a campaign, the old grey coat he usually wore, and
this was but a typical act of his. And the proud opposition he offered
to a plundering nobility quite won for him the confidence of the people.
The great cities stood on good terms with him, and sought his friendship
and aid. Thus did the Alsacian towns seek his help against the bishops
of Strasburg; Zurich against the barons of Regensberg and Toggenburg. On
many an occasion did he render remarkable service in this way, of which
one instance must suffice. The barons of Regensberg had a castle on the
Uto, a mountain towering above Zurich, and from thence often sent men to
waylay and rob the citizens who chanced to pass that way. Rudolf hit on
a crafty device. Riding up the Uetliberg with thirty men of Zurich, he
placed behind each man a companion, and so came to the gate of the
castle. The garrison despising a band apparently so small, rushed out of
the gates upon them. But great was their terror when suddenly the men
riding behind appeared in sight, and, taking to flight, they left the
castle at the mercy of the strange attacking party. The place was
levelled with the ground. Rudolf was asked by a body of free men of Uri
to be their umpire in a dispute, and he actually sat in judgment on the
matter, under the linden at Altorf, a fact which bears witness to his
popularity amongst the people. Yet, with many amiable qualities, Rudolf
was covetous, ambitious, and violent. Bent on raising his family to
greatness, he reveals a most mercenary spirit, and shows himself
unscrupulous in the pursuit of gain. It has been shown above, how he had
seized the Kyburg lands; he also made himself guardian of Anna of
Kyburg, and when she came of age, united her to his cousin, Eberhard of
Habsburg. Thus was founded the new House of Kyburg-Burgdorf. He obtained
from them Anna's heritage in the Aargau, besides Zug, Art, Willisan,
Sempach, &c., as well as lands in the Forest Cantons. He was one of
those chieftains who profited immensely by the distraction during the
interregnum.
Whilst engaged in storming Basel, whose bishop had encroached on the
Alsacian territories, the news was brought to Rudolf (October 1, 1273)
that he had been elected King of Germany, at Frankfort, and, raising the
siege, he at once proceeded to his coronation at Aix-la-Chapelle.
Rudolf's influence greatly altered the policy of Germany. He made his
peace with Gregory X. at Lausanne in 1275, and entered into a close
alliance with him. Thus an end was put to the unfortunate quarrels with
the Papal power, and the German king was set at liberty to follow his
own ambitions, aims, and plans. He resigned all claim to Italy, and so
far also to the imperial dignity, which had once been of such splendour,
and had indeed been almost equivalent to the government of the whole
world. Sober, cautious, and matter-of-fact as he was, Rudolf cared not
for merely ideal greatness, and devoted himself to following more
practical aims. The empire had been impoverished by the late crisis, and
by the different calamities which had befallen it; and the German
princes had risen to positions of defiant independence. Seeing
beforehand that the authority of the crown must be founded on the wealth
and hereditary possessions of the sovereign, Rudolf made the
aggrandisement of his family the chief object of his career. Fortune's
favourite he seemed indeed to be, and gained a great victory over his
opponent to the throne, Ottokar of Bohemia (1278), and secured from him
the Duchy of Austria, with Steyermark. This he vested as a new
possession in his own family.
Notwithstanding the extension of his power eastward, he likewise
continued his aggressive policy in Switzerland. He forced from Philip of
Savoy the cession of Payerne, Murten, &c., and waged war with Bern,
which held to Savoy, refusing to pay the royal taxes (1279). Making
ample use of his exalted position and unlimited power, he lost no
opportunity of buying up princes and religious-houses in pecuniary
difficulties. He compelled the Abbots of St. Gall, Alrich of Guettingen,
and William of Montfort, to cede to him lands and farms, forcing on them
as steward a worthless fellow who was a devoted adherent of the
Habsburgs. When the male line of Rapperswyl died out, the fiefs which
should have passed to the Abbey of St. Gall, he gave to his own sons.
And, taking advantage of the pecuniary straits of the monastery of
Nurbach, he obtained by one means or another Lucerne, which belonged to
the abbey, as well as numerous farms reaching into the Forest Cantons.
The stewardship of Einsiedeln and Pfaeffers likewise fell to his share.
Many more instances might be given to show how Rudolf's clever and
unscrupulous scheming extended his power all over the midlands and the
eastern districts, and how grievously his heavy hand was felt throughout
the country. Yet the famous Habsburgs, able, warlike, and energetic as
they were, met with one obstacle to their progress which they were
unable to remove, and against which all their plans came to nought---the
love of freedom innate in the Swiss peoples.
FOOTNOTES:
[23] For more complete account of the Hohenstaufen see Freeman's "Holy
Roman Empire," Frederick I., II.
[24] The story runs that Peter allowed the town to ask a favour in
return for past services, and the witty men of Bern at once begged for
the restitution of their lost liberty. Henceforth Peter was regarded as
the benefactor and second founder of the city.
[25] Tradition says that one of their ancestors, Radbot, hunting in the
Aargau, lost his favourite hawk, and found it sitting on the ridge of
the Wuelpelsberg. Being delighted with the view, Radbot built a castle
there, and called it _Hawk Castle_, Habichtsburg, or Habsburg.
X.
THE CONFEDERATION, OR EIDGENOSSENSCHAFT.
(1231-1291.)
In the present chapter we have to attempt the task of separating truth
from fiction, at all times, perhaps, a difficult, and often an
impossible, undertaking, in matters of history. This chapter indeed
splits itself naturally into _Wahrheit_ and _Dichtung_. Fortunately the
stories of Tell and the three Eidgenossen are everywhere well known, and
will need but little description at our hands.
A lake of exquisite beauty extends between the Forest Cantons, and, so
to speak, links them together, the whole forming a singularly
picturesque stretch of country. Separated from the sister cantons and
from the outside world, each of these little states formed a world of
its own. The lake was the common outlet, and the rallying-point for the
peoples of the secluded valleys. The various armlets into which it
branches, like the districts which lie about them, have each their
peculiar charm. Of these cantons Unterwalden has a pastoral character,
and attracts attention by its beautiful verdure--velvety slopes, green
meads, clusters of nut-trees in the lower parts, orchards of fruit
trees, the country dotted everywhere with sunburnt huts, forming a _tout
ensemble_ truly idyllic. Schwyz is a canton of similar natural
appearance, with green pastures and somewhat gentler slopes, but broad
terraces with their red cottages line the valley. Above the chief town
of the same name, which nestles at the head of the dale it commands,
shining, dazzlingly white with its snug whitewashed houses, rise to the
sky the torn but imposing pyramids of the two Myten. Uri is _par
excellence_ the highland district amongst the three little states.
Towering mountains and inaccessible rocks hem in a strip of water, and
give that wondrous hue which makes the charm of Uri lake.
The inhabitants are of the Alpine mould. Sinewy, robust, quick, shrewd,
they are persevering, fearless, bold, and self-reliant; they are yet
simple in their habits, artless in manner, pious, and strongly
conservative, each people having however its own characteristic points
of difference. Ever exposed to danger, their struggles with nature for
the supply of their daily wants have increased their strength of body,
brought out their mettle, and quickened their natural intelligence. Thus
it was not the love of innovation, or even of reform, that led them to
form their "League of Perpetual Alliance," in 1291. They entered into
the Confederation but to check the aggressions of the Habsburgers.
Such is the district and such the race from which arose the three famed
Eidgenossen, Walter Fuerst von Attinghausen, Werner Staufacher, and
Arnold von Melchthal, who, on the "Ruetli," swore a solemn oath to save
their country from rulers shameless as they were cruel.
[Illustration: THALER OF THREE CANTONS--URI, SCHWYZ, AND UNTERWALDEN
[SANCTUS MARTINUS EPISCOPUS].
(_By Dr. Imhoof._)]
Tradition reports that King Albrecht, son of Rudolf (1298-1308), greatly
oppressed the three Waldstaetten, doing his best to reduce the people to
the condition of bondmen. To the various stewards or bailiffs whom he
set over them, he gave strict orders to keep well in check the people of
the Forest Cantons. These overseers grew into covetous and cruel
tyrants, who taxed, fined, imprisoned, and reviled the unfortunate
inhabitants. To complain to the monarch was useless, as he refused to
listen. One of these stewards, or lieutenant-governors, was Gessler, and
a particularly haughty and spiteful governor he was. Passing on one
occasion through Steinen (Schwyz), he was struck by the sight of a fine
stone-built house, and filled with envy he inquired of Werner
Staufacher, who happened to be the owner, whose it was. Fearing the
governor's anger the wealthy proprietor replied cautiously, "The holding
is the king's, your grace's, and mine." "Can we suffer the peasantry to
live in such fine houses?" exclaimed Gessler, scornfully, as he rode
away. Landenberg, another of these "unjust stewards," at Sarnen, being
informed that a rich farmer in the Melchi (Unterwalden), had a fine pair
of oxen, sent his man for them. Young Arnold, of Melchthal, the son of
the farmer, was standing by when the animals were being unyoked, and,
enraged at the sight, raised his stick, and struck the governor's
servant a blow, breaking one of his fingers. But being afraid of the
governor's wrath, young Arnold fled. So Landenberg seized the old
father, brought him to his castle, and had his eyes put out.
Werner Staufacher was consumed by secret grief, and his wife, guessing
what was on his mind, gave him such counsel that, nerving himself to
action, he went over to Uri and Unterwalden to look for kindred spirits
and fellow-sufferers. At the house of Walter Fuerst, of Attinghausen
(Uri), he met with the young man from the Melchi, to whom he was able to
tell the sad news that the old father had been blinded by Landenberg.
Here the three patriots unburdened to each other their sorrowing hearts,
and vowed a vow to free their country from oppressors, and restore its
ancient liberties. Gradually opening their plans to their kindred and
friends, they arranged nightly meetings on the Ruetli, a secluded Alpine
mead above the Mytenstein, on Uri lake. Meeting in small bands so as
not to excite suspicion, they deliberated as to how best their
deliverance might be effected. On the night of the 17th of November,
1307, Walter Fuerst, Arnold of Melchthal, and Werner Staufacher, met on
the Ruetli, each taking with him ten intimate associates. Their hearts
swelling with love for their country and hatred against tyranny, these
three-and-thirty men solemnly pledged their lives for each other and for
their fatherland.
Raising their right hands towards heaven the three leaders took God and
the saints to witness that their solemn alliance was made in the
spirit--"One for all, and all for one." At that moment the sun shot his
first rays across the mountain-tops, kindling in the hearts of these
earnest men the hopes of success.
In the meantime a very remarkable event had happened at the town of
Altorf in Uri. Gessler had placed a hat on a pole in the market-place,
with strict orders that passers-by should do it reverence, for he wished
to test their obedience. William Tell scorned this piece of over-bearing
tyranny, and proudly marched past without making obeisance to the hat.
He was seized, and Gessler riding up, demanded why he had disobeyed the
order. "From thoughtlessness," he replied, "for if I were witty my name
were not Tell." The governor, in a fury, ordered Tell to shoot an apple
from the head of his son, for Gessler knew Tell to be a most skilful
archer, and, moreover, to have fine children. Tell's entreaties that
some other form of punishment should be substituted, for this were of no
avail. Pierced to the heart the archer took two arrows, and, placing
one in his quiver, took aim with the other, and cleft the apple. Foiled
in his design, Gessler inquired the meaning of the second arrow. Tell
hesitated, but on being assured that his life would be spared, instantly
replied, "Had I injured my child, this second shaft should not have
missed thy heart." "Good!" exclaimed the enraged governor, "I have
promised thee thy life, but I will throw thee into a dungeon where
neither sun nor moon shall shine on thee." Tell was chained, and placed
in a barge, his bow and arrow being put at his back. As they rowed
towards Axenstein, suddenly their arose a fearful storm, and the crew
fearing they would be lost, suggested that Tell, an expert boatman,
should save them. Gessler had him unbound, and he steered towards
Axenberg, where there was a natural landing-stage formed by a flat
rock--_Tellenplatte_. Seizing his bow and arrows he flung the boat
against the rock, and leapt ashore, leaving its occupants to their fate.
Woe betide him, however, should the governor escape death on the lake!
Tell hurried on to Schwyz, and thence to the "hollow way" near Kusnach,
through which Gessler must come if he returned to his castle. Hiding in
the thicket lining the road, Tell waited, and presently seeing the
tyrant riding past, took aim, and shot him through the heart. Gessler's
last words were, "This is Tell's shaft."
Thus runs the old story. The question naturally arises, What of all this
is truth, and what fiction? just as it will in the case of Winkelried
and others. The question is easier to ask than to answer, at least in
the very limited space at our disposal. The truth is, this question has
been for half a century the subject of controversy always lively, often
passionate and violent. Some authorities are for making a clean sweep of
all traditional annals, and all semi-mythical national heroes. Others,
no less able and conscientious, and no less learned, have re-admitted
tradition to investigation, and have made it their special care to pick
out the historical grain from the chaff of fiction. It is impossible
within the limits of our space to discuss the merits of the numerous
chronicles, and popular songs and plays, in which the traditions of the
Tell period are preserved. Suffice it to say, that the "White Book of
Sarnen" (1470), naive and artless as is its tone, is the most
trustworthy; that of the "Swiss Herodotus," the patriotic Tschudi
(1570), the most fascinating and most skilfully penned. The work of the
latter is mainly a series of gleanings from the "White Book," together
with additional pictures from Tschudi's own pencil. He combined and
supplied dates and minor details, and cast the whole in a mould
apparently so historical that it became an authority for Joh von Mueller,
the great Swiss historian of the eighteenth century. And the immortal
Schiller deeply stirred by the grand epic, produced his magnificent
drama, "William Tell."
It hardly needs to be said in these days that whilst no one thinks of
taking these beautiful old-world stories literally, yet few of us would
care to toss them contemptuously and entirely on one side. Truly they
have a meaning, if not exactly that which was once accepted. In the
present instance they represent and illustrate a long epoch during
which a high-spirited people were engaged in establishing a
confederation, and maintaining it against a powerful enemy--one long
effort to secure emancipation from Habsburg tyranny--an epoch which
opened with the acquisition of a charter of liberties for Uri in 1231,
and closed with the brilliant victory of Morgarten in 1315.
It remains now to show briefly what may be considered the authentic
history of the period, that is, the history as found in authentic
documents.
And first, it is clearly absurd to suppose that the three Forest Cantons
sprang suddenly into existence as democracies. Feudalism had spread its
net over the Waldstaetten as elsewhere in Switzerland and Europe
generally. But the inborn love of freedom amongst the "freemen" of the
three cantons was intensified by two things, the secluded Alpine life
and the tyranny and aggressiveness of the Habsburgs. The inhabitants of
the Forest were Alamanni, who, in the seventh century, had moved into
the higher Alpine regions, the immigration into those regions being
greatly promoted by a decree of Charlemagne, that whoever should
cultivate land there with his own hands should be the owner thereof. But
besides these farmer freemen, land was taken up by religious-houses, and
by the secular grandees, who claimed the soil cultivated by their serfs,
bondsmen, and dependants of all kinds. By the bounty of Louis the
German, the "Gotteshausleute" (God's-house-people), had become of great
importance in Uri; in 853 that monarch had bestowed his royal lands in
Uri, with everything appertaining thereto, on the Abbey of our Lady at
Zurich, an abbey founded for his daughters. Beneath the mild rule of
these royal ladies the inhabitants had acquired great independence, and
had shared with their mistress the high privilege of the
"Reichsfreiheit," which saved their lands from being mortgaged, or from
falling under the power of vassal princes. Besides the Lady Abbess,
there were other proprietors in Uri--the Maison Dieu of Wettingen, the
barons of Rapperswyl, and other high-born or noble families, and,
lastly, a body of "freemen."
This scattered and various society was knit into one close
boundary-association by the possession of the "Almend," a stretch of
land common to all, according to the old German custom--to free and
unfree, rich and poor, noble and serf, who were brought together in
council for deliberation. These assemblies gave rise to the political
gatherings of the "Landsgemeinde."
Now by a decree of the Emperor Frederick II., Uri was severed from the
jurisdiction of Zurich Abbey in 1218, and placed under the control of
Habsburg, who had succeeded to the governorship of Zurichgau, a district
which then included the three Forest states. "Reichsfreiheit" was lost,
and the inhabitants, fearing their state would fall into the hands of
the Habsburgs, applied for protection from Henry, son of Frederick II.,
then at variance with the Habsburg family. He complied with their
request, and on the 26th of May, 1231, granted them a charter of
liberties, restored "Reichsfreiheit," and received them into the pale of
the empire. Uri was now under the direct control of the monarch, and the
local authority was vested in an _Ammann_ chosen from the native
families. An imperial representative appeared twice a year in the
country to hold his half-yearly sessions, and to collect the imperial
taxes. When Rudolf of Habsburg rose to the imperial throne, he
recognized fully the validity of the Uri charter. However a charter was
but little check on the monarchical tyranny, and we find the country
exasperated by Rudolf's grinding taxation.
The inhabitants of Schwyz were no less bold, resolute, and energetic,
than those of Uri, and no less averse to falling into the hands of the
Habsburgs. Here the freemen predominated, and owned the largest portion
of the country. There is not space to tell of their long quarrel with
the monks of Einsiedeln respecting some forest lands. Suffice it to say
that, after a stout stand for their rights, they were ordered to share
the _corpus delicti_, the forest, with their opponents. During the
quarrels between Rome and the Hohenstaufen, Schwyz staunchly upheld the
cause of Frederick II., but the wavering policy of Rudolf of the junior
line, Habsburg-Laufenburg, was a strong temptation to separate
themselves from him (1239). They sent letters, messengers, and most
likely auxiliaries, to Frederick, when he was besieging Faenza with the
view of recovering the Lombard cities, and begged for the protection of
the empire. Frederick expressed his gratification that the freemen of
Schwyz should voluntarily place themselves under his protection, and
sent them a charter similar to that of Uri (1240)--to "his faithful
men"--by which they obtained the "Reichsfreiheit," and an assurance that
they should not be severed from the empire.
A very few years later we hear of the first federal union of which we
have any certain knowledge. The great quarrel between the emperor and
the Pope, and the flight of the latter to Lyons, had set Europe on fire.
Schwyz took up arms to defend the founder of its liberties, and entered
into an alliance with Uri and Unterwalden--and even Lucerne--to throw
off the yoke of the younger Habsburg line. War raged fiercely in the
valleys of the Forest and by Lake Lucerne, till the Popish party was
brought to bay, and the overseer driven from the Habsburg castle. We do
not know the result of this insurrection; it closed no doubt with the
death of Rudolf and Frederick in 1249-50.
It is to this period of the insurrection doubtless that the stories of
Tell, the oath on the Ruetli, &c., apply most clearly. They are
reminiscences probably of some forgotten episodes of the campaigns. Had
the annalists connected the stories with these times instead of with the
reign of Albrecht, their validity could hardly have been contested.
When Rudolf III. of Habsburg-Austria became emperor, and had bought from
the younger branch of his house the estates and titles in the
Waldstaetten, he drew Schwyz most closely to his family. He refused to
confirm Frederick's charter on the plea that that monarch had been
excommunicated. The magistrates were officers of his own; he gathered
the taxes in his own name, and, in 1278, assigned them as dowry to the
English bride of his favourite son, Hartmann. Schwyz did not feel
comfortable under all this, and stood on its guard.
Unterwalden[26], the lowland district of the Forest, was politically
quite behind the times. It was exceedingly fertile, and was much in
request, and in the thirteenth century was parcelled out amongst
religious-houses, great nobles, and lesser freemen. The Habsburgs being
not only the greatest proprietors, but also stewards of the
religious-houses, naturally held sovereign sway. It was only by the aid
of friendly neighbours indeed that Unterwalden could hold its own
against such powerful masters, and of all its neighbours the men of
Schwyz were not only the best organized, politically, but the most
energetic and far-seeing. That the Schwyzers took the lead in the
emancipation of the district is pretty clear from the name that was
given to the newly-formed state by surrounding lands, and by the
Austrians after the battle of Morgarten.
The death of Rudolf in 1291 was good news to the men of the Forest, and
all their pent-up hopes of the recovery of their ancient rights once
more burst forth. Yet dreading new dangers from new governors, they took
measures of precaution. Within a fortnight of Rudolf's death the three
districts of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden had entered into a perpetual
league or defensive alliance (_Ewiger Bund_), a renewal no doubt of a
previous pact, probably that of 1246. They may have met on the Ruetli to
swear the solemn oath which was to bind them into a confederation, _a
perpetuite_. The various acts of agreement were drawn up in Latin, and
the document--the Magna Charta of the Eidgenossenschaft--treasured up at
Schwyz, is held in veneration by the whole Swiss nation. It bears an
essentially conservative character, and witnesses to the thought and
consideration given to the matter, no less than to the strong sense of
equity and clear judgment of the contracting parties. Amongst other
things it enjoins that every one shall obey and serve his master
according to his standing; that no judge shall be appointed who has
bought his office with gold, nor unless he be a native; that if quarrels
shall arise between the Eidgenossen (_inter aliquos conspiratos_), the
more sensible shall settle the differences, and if the one party does
not submit, the opposition shall decide in the matter
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