1291-1513
When the Habsburg rulers in the central Swiss areas failed to maintain peace and protect the roads, three rural communities took action and formed a peace alliance in 1291.
These alliances were relatively common in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, reflecting the interests of local elites, whether rural, urban, or noble.
The alliance covered a (rural or urban) territory or a network of towns and communes. The allies agreed to help each other against aggressors, maintain peace, and settle (trade, business, territorial) disputes.
The short-lived Swabian-, Rhenish- and Lombard leagues are a few other examples. The successful Hanseatic League of trading cities existed for more than four centuries but ultimately disappeared.
The alliance of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden gradually led to the formation of the Swiss Eidgenossenschaft and ultimately to the establishment of the sovereign nation-state, which endured for centuries.
The oath was a common symbol for ratifying treaties and alliances, and “Eidgenossenschaft” means a confederation by oath. No one wanted to separate from the (divine) Habsburg lords or the Habsburgs, but it is a fact that these communities established an Alliance.
Rudolf I of Habsburg (1217-1291) became German King in 1273, but he was also the lord of the valleys of Uri, Schwytz, and Unterwalden, as well as other territories and cities in present-day Switzerland.
The extinction of the former lords (the dukes of Zähringen) led to the Habsburg jurisdiction over these valleys, which controlled the St. Gotthard Pass, which opened in 1230.
Rudolf developed new structures by establishing jurisdictions called “Landvogtei” to rule over towns and rural communities. The bailiff (Vogt) was selected from the loyal aristocracy and charged with safeguarding royal (tax) prerogatives and upholding peace within their jurisdictions.
The famous story of William Tell (Wilhelm Tell), who refused to greet the bailiff’s hat and became a national hero, took place during this period. It is not relevant whether this event happened: it is a lovely story and describes the context.
Alliances
Two alternatives for organising local political life emerged across Europe around 1350 and in Switzerland. The bottom-down approach was characterised by the administration of lords who employed new bureaucratic methods to establish effective peace-keeping, judicial, and tax systems.
The Swiss grassroots or bottom-up approach was a network of semi-autonomous rural and urban communities linked by alliances, while each ally managed its internal affairs.
The Confederation, or Eidgenossenschaft, was considered an independent nation after the Swabian War (Schwabe—orr Schweizerkrieg) in 1499, regardless of its internal struggles, divisions, and lack of central institutions or a confederal Constitution.
The thirteen cantons were still part of the Holy Roman Empire in 1513. However, they were exempt from imperial law, and the judiciary of the Reichskammergericht in Speyer/Wetzlar and the Reichshofrat in Vienna were the supreme imperial courts.
1648
The Peace of Westphalia of 1648 (24 October) was silent about the sovereignty issue, not explicitly mentioning it. The (Latin) text (Art VI) just mentioned “Völlige Freiheit und Exempt”, i.e., complete freedom and exemption (from taxes and jurisdiction).
Many cities continued to use imperial symbolism until late into the eighteenth century. The coats of arms (featuring a double-headed eagle) were not removed from the buildings.
Six cities—Basel, Zurich, Bern, Schaffhausen, Solothurn, and Luzern—formally announced their sovereignty, however, in the seventeenth century ( “ein freyer souveräner Stand zu “ein”).
A contemporary theoretical approach to sovereignty and the acts of a sovereign state is only relevant from the protocol’s perspective. Contrary to the formally sovereign Dutch Republic of the (Seven) United Provinces (1648), the Swiss did not have a Prince-Stadholder, a united standing arm, or a States-General with real powers.
The Confederation was de facto sovereign and formally exempted from imperial jurisdiction and taxes. Still, it would take another 150 years (after the Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna) for its sovereignty (and neutrality) to be recognised.
A continuing and challenging development of nation-building, begun at the time of William Tell as an open-ended story, reached its zenith with the Constitution in 1848
(Source: P.H. Wilson, Heart of Europe. A History of the Holy Roman Empire, Cambridge (MA), 2016; C.H. Church, R.C. Head, A Concise History of Switzerland, Cambridge 2017; B. Marquardt, Die alte Eidgenossenschaft und das Heilige Römische Reich (1350-1798), Zürich 2007).
