WAS HE THEIR EMPEROR?

Imperial Banner, Maximilian's Triumphs
Colorised Woodcut by Albrecht Altdorfer (ca 1515)
Source: Albertina, Vienna

Although I left Austria for Sweden at the early age of seventeen, and have hardly used my mothertongue in daily life ever since, I have always kept the German language safely and fondly stored in my memory banks. With old age sneaking up on me, I feel the urge to put it to good use now and then. Therefore, I am glad to state that I am a Member of Schlaraffia, a German speaking Gentlemen's Society with global reach.

Emperor Charles V
Artist: Titian (ca 1550)

Some eight years ago, I visited its local Chapter ("Reych") in Solothurn, Switzerland. As is our custom, a "Schlaraffe" who comes visiting is always invited to give a short speech. At that occasion, I extemporised around the University of Stanford – basing myself on my recently published book "Fiat Lux!" –, somewhat jokingly compared its main Campus Building with a Palace in Spain, and stated that "our" Emperor Charles V would have loved to be carried around therein in his old age. After all, was he not both Emperor and King and as such did he not rule half the Globe, including California, since his Conquistadores had already conquered both Mexico and Chile?

As soon as I said "our Emperor", a "Schlaraffe" interjected and advised me "He certainly was NOT OUR Emperor!". Whereupon another Member responded "You are wrong! He was INDEED our Emperor!". The discussion went on for another five minutes without conclusive results before I could finish my presentation.

After I had returned home, I studied the issue most carefully and arrived at the conclusion that both interventions must have been both right and wrong! How to explain this paradox? The answer can most conveniently be provided by studying the Swabian War of 1499!

The "Gruesome Swiss War" (Swabian War of 1499). Maximilian's Triumphs
Colorised Woodcut by Albrecht Altdorfer (ca 1515)
Source: Albertina, Vienna 

How did this "gruesome" war come to be? To fully understand it, we have to retract four years, back to the pathbreaking Year of 1495. King Maximilian I had become the sole ruler of the "Romans" just two years earlier, and was immediately embroiled in difficult discourses within the Imperial Diet (The Empire's decision making body, consisting of Representatives of the Imperial High Nobility and the Imperial Cities).

Despite his reticence, an innovative new constiution for the Empire was adopted by the Diet at Augsburg in the same year. It involved: the proclamation of an "Ewiger Landfrieden" (Perpetual Public Peace), which abolished feuds between high nobilities; the constitution of a "Reichskammergericht" (a Supreme Court of Justice for the Empire) to judge cases involving high nobilities and Imperial cities; a standing army; and the introduction of a "Reichspfennig" (a general tax) to finance it all. With this began a consolidation of the loose Empire into a firm state, which, unfortunately, was continued and accomplished first in 1871.

Maximilian I
Artist: Albrecht Dürer (1519)

The Eidgenossen were totally uninterested in all developments of that nature, being quite happy with an Empire where they could carry on their affairs as they pleased, including the grabbing of ever more land owned by neighbouring nobility. They did not even care to send representatives to the Diet at Augsburg and made clear afterwards that they vitiated all decisions made therein, considering themselves to be subject to the old style Empire only. Neither was a single penny paid into the Imperial coffers.

This Swiss rebuffal caused the Habsburg king considerable unease, as it did his confederates in the Swabian League. The latter was an alliance between all Swabian nobles and cities, including the Habsburger, reached already years earlier to create a bulwark against further encroachments by the Eidgenossen across the High and Alpine Rhines. The threat was real: was not the Imperial city of Schaffhausen already in alliance with the Eidgenossen and had it not been an accomplice in grabbing Thurgau from the Habsburger?

Finally, unrest became conflict in early 1499. Starting with a disagreement as concerns suzerainty over the Vinschgau and Münster (provinces at Southwest of the County of Tirol), open hostilities broke out between Tirol and the Bishop of Chur. Maximilian had no interest in starting a campaign at this stage, since he was fighting against insurgence in the Netherlands. So a truce was soon reached with the understanding that the question of suzerainty be decided by the Reichskammergericht.

After the Battle of Schwaderloh (11 April). Women and Clerics collecting the Fallen
Source: Zentralbibliotek Luzern   Artist: Diepold Schilling (1510)

Unfortunately, the Eidgenossen and the Swabian league both had already mobilised and definitive military conflict started with skirmishes on the Alpine Rhine (at the Southern border of present day Liechtenstein). The war soon escalated, since Maximilian issued an Imperial Ban on the Eidgenossen and rallied support also from the Imperial Diet. Still, actions took mostly the form of mutual raids across the High and Alpine Rhines, which devastated large areas in the Rhine valleys without any lasting breakthrough from either side.

Since a decisive victory escaped Maximilian, he agreed, nolens volens, to the Peace of Basle (22 September), which led to solidifying the border between the conflicting parties. Between the lines of the Treaty, it was also made clear that the Eidgenossen would not let themselves be subject to Rulings of the Supreme Court, neither would they pay any "Reichspfennig" to the Empire. Thus, at the price of accepting the de facto secession of the Eidgenossen,  the borderline against the Swiss to their North and East was permanently drawn along the High Rhine and the Alpine Rhine (North of the Lucier Steig), which abolished the urge from both sides to renew their conflict.

The Eidgenossen's vitiation of the Statutes of Worms, as tacitly accepted by the Treaty, could, as said, be considered as their de facto secession from the Empire in its form as constituted in 1495; even if the Swiss may not have seen it that way and in fact still kept the shield of the Empire in their official documents. This leads us to conjecture that Maximilian was the Eidgenossens's Emperor only de jure, and not de facto; and so was his grandson Charles V. So there!

The Flag of "La Republique et le Canton de Genève"
It still carries the emblem of the Holy Roman Empire, as well as of the Pope

But what about the Emser in all this? Several of them participated in the Swabian war, since they were Members of the Swabian League in their capacity of Imperial Knights. In particular, this concerns the battles of Frastanz (20 April) and Hard (22 April), which were fought close to their territory. No details are known, unfortunately, about their fighting. Only Merk Sittich I, whom we have already met (Three Heroes at Pavia) appears in the annals as a forceful leader of the regional guard keeping watch on the Alpine Rhine.

On 7 April, a small army of the Prince Abbot of St Gallen, led by his two brothers Hans and Rudolf Giel von Glattburg, crossed the river at Oberriet, roughly opposite the domain of Hohenems, to savage, sack and plunder the range of noble holdings East of the Alpine Rhine. It was met by Mark Sittich and a small contingent of his guard, who decisively threw back the invaders across the Rhine, after both their commanders had been killed in combat by Merk Sittich.

-o-

I see that I am forging ahead of myself in this "Imperial" exposé. We are already at the end of the 15th Century and have bypassed most of it; we still have to explain what happened to the Emser and Habsburger after the pivot year of 1415, when Duke Frederic III was banned by Emperor Sigismund (see On the Edge) and both Houses were close to destitution. Not to worry, Dear Readers! In the forthcoming blog post, we will restore order to history and have a closer look at this Century of the Great Turnaround.