Savoy Strikes Back 109
itself,331 since the Small Council was in a dilemma and struggling to keep on top
of events. On the one hand, among its members were Savoy partisans in receipt of
ducal pensions;332 on the other, the council was under pressure to take a hard line
against Savoy from its own commons, who were being egged on by refugees pour-
ing in from Geneva, having first fled to Fribourg. The latter informed Solothurn
that 300 Genevans and their families had quit the city.333 In the end, it was the
Great Council which forced the Small to accede to the Burgrecht with Lausanne.334
Meanwhile, the fate of Geneva hung in the balance. In December 1525 Duke
Charles had sought to mollify the city council by promising to cancel the fines imposed
on the city by the court at Chambéry, which amounted to more than 20,000
écus.335 But time was not on his side. Bern, no longer able to insulate itself from
developments, was under pressure from the refugees within its walls and from
Fribourg to conclude a separate Burgrecht with Geneva. Aware of the Small
Council’s cunctatory tactics, Fribourg urged that the Great Council be summoned
to approve any deal,336 with the result that the two cities signed a Burgrecht with
Geneva in February 1526, only weeks after their alliance with Lausanne.337 That
agreement was wrung out of the Small Council, which feared that war would
be the likely outcome, with many of the XIII cantons ranged against it.338 Duke
Charles was dismayed and disclaimed any military intent,339 but sought to recoup
his losses by establishing a common front with the bishop and the Mammelus
against the fugitives. Had he been able to win over the bishop, the position of the
Eidguenot refugees, who had returned to the city and were agitating for the
Burgrecht,340 would have been seriously undermined. But Pierre de la Baume,
irresolute but not stupid, saw through Charles’s ploy.341 He was no friend of the
recently concluded Burgrecht, but knowing that most Eidguenots were prepared to
recognize his authority rather than the duke’s he made noises ostensibly in support
of Savoy.342 To that end he commandeered a general assembly of the citizens
331 SABE, Teutsche Missiven-Buch 18 P, fo. 484v (Nov. 1525); AEF, Ratsmanuale 43, p. 102 (Dec.
1525); EA IV, 1a, 795 (no. 318: I; II; III; III, 2) (Oct. 1525). It appears that Fribourg was not present, though
it was certainly invited.
332 Von Muralt, ‘Berns westliche Politik’, 92.
333 SASO, Missiven 8, pp. 244–5 (Sept. 1525).
334 EA IV, 1a, 809 (no. 326: to b 1): Bern to Caspar von Mülinen at Luzern: und diewyl sunst
unser burger und großer rat (als üch wol wüssend) dem selbigen herzogen ganz widrig und ufsetzig
[sind]; Naef, Fribourg, 90 n 1; von Muralt, ‘Berns westliche Politik’, 92–3. The Small Council kept
secret a letter from Fribourg which would have exposed the divisions between council and commons.
SABE, Ratsmanuale 208, p. 59 (Jan. 1526).
335 Naef, Fribourg, 129.
336 EA IV, 1a, 826–7 (no. 333: 14; 15) (Jan. 1526); Naef, Fribourg, 88–9.
337 EA IV, 1a, 827 (no. 335) (Jan. 1526); 846–9 (no. 343: a; to a 6, 7) and Appendix 5 (Feb.
1526). Solothurn was not a party to the Burgrecht.
338 Naef, Fribourg, 214, 230; SABE, Ratsmanuale 208, p. 125: ingedenck das sölichs die rät
zethůnd sich gewidriget haben. Initially the members of the Small Council had declared they would
rather give up their offices than agree to the Burgrecht; Naef, Fribourg, 206.
339 EA IV, 1a, 853 (no. 346) (Feb. 1526).
340 Caesar, Pouvoir, 75; Monter, ‘De l’Évêché’, 131.
341 On this cultured voluptuary see Monter, Calvin’s Geneva, 38–9. 342 Naef, Fribourg, 189.