100 The Swiss and Their Neighbours, 1460–1560
French crown led both to the conclusion of a Perpetual Peace in 1516 (confirmed
in 1521)258 and to the resumption of generous pension payments to the cantons.
Bern, which had always been a somewhat reluctant participant in the Italian
campaigns, was now free to concentrate its attentions on the west, where its true
geopolitical interests lay.259 With the settlement in Neuchâtel in 1518 and the
eventual treaty of neutrality for the Franche-Comté in 1522 it might appear that
quiet had at last returned to the western front, especially since Emperor Maximilian’s
death in 1519 and the beginnings of a Spanish Habsburg policy under Charles V
meant that the Franche-Comté and the duchy of Burgundy ceased to be the fault-
line which had habitually disrupted the regional balance of power since the days of
Charles the Bold.
Alas, conflict beckoned from an entirely new direction, centred on the Württemberg
exclave of Montbéliard and its surrounding districts. We have earlier noted the
significance of Besançon, an imperial city, capital of the Franche-Comté, and seat
of an archdiocese comprehending much of western Switzerland, which despite its
independence felt it prudent to conclude Burgrechte with Bern, Fribourg, and
Solothurn in 1519;260 these were renewed at five-yearly intervals.261 More vulner-
able by far was its neighbour to the north-east, the county of Montbéliard, which
became the object of rival claims between the dukes of Württemberg and the
counts of Fürstenberg, both of whose power bases lay not in the Franche-Comté
but in Swabia. The conflict, which absorbed the first three decades of the sixteenth
century, principally affected Basel and Solothurn,262 but Bern, as the most power-
ful city in western Switzerland, was ineluctably sucked in. Indeed, at the same time
as the cities’ Burgrechte with Besançon were being sealed, Bern and Fribourg were
negotiating a similar treaty with Montbéliard, flanked by Solothurn.263
The details of the conflict are complicated, but only its outlines need be sketched
here. In 1505 Count Wilhelm of Fürstenberg, though barely fifteen, had gained
through marriage rich lordships in the Doubs valley, not least Blamont, which
yielded 1000 fl per annum.264 His rights of possession, however, were challenged
by Duke Ulrich of Württemberg, who invaded Blamont, claiming inheritance as
father-in-law of the last legitimate lord. Wilhelm’s father, Count Wolfgang, the
Outer Austrian bailiff of Alsace, intervened to assert Blamont as an imperial fief on
behalf of King Maximilian, who was once again pulling the strings from behind
the scenes.265 There matters rested for a good ten years, until Count Wilhelm
258 Enthusiasm among the Swiss was not universal. Zürich invoked the Perpetual Accord with
Austria as proof that an alliance with France was unnecessary; Schwyz was also opposed. EA IV, 1a,
17–25 (no. 8: to a 3) (April 1521).
259 Feller, Geschichte Berns, 1, 574.
260 See the discussion in Chapter 13 on Bern and its neighbours to conclude Burgrechte with
Besançon and Montbéliard. The negotiations had begun in late 1518. EA III, 2, 1132 (no. 764)
(Nov. 1518).
261 EA IV, 1a, 355 (no. 163) (Dec. 1523); 1475 (no. 612) (Dec. 1528-Jan. 1529). Solothurn
renewed its five-year Burgrecht in 1527. SASO, Ratsmanuale 18, p. 325 (Jan. 1527).
262 AEF, Missivale 7, fo. 86v–87r (Jan. 1519). 263 EA III, 2, 1135–6 (no. 769).
264 Johannes Volker Wagner, Graf Wilhelm von Fürstenberg 1491–1549 und die politisch-geistigen
Mächte seiner Zeit (Pariser Historische Studien, 4) (Stuttgart, 1966), 11.
265 Wagner, Graf Wilhelm, 12.