110 The Swiss and Their Neighbours, 1460–1560
summoned by Besançon Hugues and twisted it to his own purpose.343 He now
offered himself as overlord of the city if the citizens promised to sign no treaties
without his consent.344 His plan misfired. Ami Porral, the Eidguenot lawyer and
later syndic, declared that over one thousand citizens wished to adhere to the
Burgrecht, provided that it did not contravene the bishop’s authority.345
After Fribourg had agreed to withdraw its expeditionary force sent to safeguard
Geneva (accompanied, it appears, by Bernese irregulars),346 discussions dragged
on fruitlessly throughout 1526, principally because Savoy refused to recognize that
Geneva’s and Lausanne’s liberties had any role in the negotiations.347 Patience was
wearing thin on the part of Fribourg and Bern, not only with Savoy, but with
Geneva itself: they enjoined the city to refrain from provoking Duke Charles and
to allow his partisans to return home and seek legal redress.348 Fribourg was deter-
mined, however, to maintain its support for Geneva; the council declared in
November that it would rather give up its Burgrecht with Savoy than leave Geneva
in the lurch.349 That stance was consistent: Fribourg from the outset had been
Geneva’s champion. Far more surprising was Bern’s volte-face. Within a few days
of Fribourg’s decision the council suddenly announced that it was cancelling its
Burgrecht with Savoy from 1509, for so long the cornerstone of its foreign policy. 350
What had happened?
Bern disapproved of Savoy’s abandoning its neutrality in favour of Emperor
Charles V351 and accordingly no longer felt constrained by the need to take Savoy
into account.352 That gave Bern sufficient room for manoeuvre to allow it to join
Fribourg in the Burgrecht with Geneva.353 Bern had also been affronted by the
news that Pope Clement VII had conferred on Duke Charles II the title of lord of
Fribourg and Bern the previous December, and had protested vigorously to the
curia.354 From Bern’s correspondence it emerges that the duke’s refusal in late 1526
to lift the economic blockade on Geneva may finally have tipped the balance.355
And in the background loomed the increasing religious tensions within the
Confederation, albeit that it was a good year before Bern introduced the Reformation.
343 Monter, Calvin’s Geneva, 42–3. 344 Monter, ‘De l’Évêché’, 131.
345 Naef, Fribourg, 220–1.
346 EA IV, 1a, 854 (no. 347: I) (Feb. 1526); Naef, Fribourg, 229. Bern’s council had forbidden any
freebooters to come to Geneva’s aid.
347 EA IV, 1a, 874–5 (no. 355) (April 1526); 879–80 (no. 358: c) (April 1526); 939–41 (no. 365)
(May 1526); 979–80 (no. 385) (Aug. 1526).
348 EA IV, 1a, 1011–12 (408: s) (Nov. 1526). 349 Naef, Fribourg, 92.
350 EA IV, 1a, 1014 (no. 409) (Nov. 1526).
351 Duke Charles II had good contacts with the emperor’s court through his brother Philippe,
count of the Genevois, upon whom Charles V had bestowed the marquisate of Saluzzo in 1524.
Freymond, ‘Politique’, 73.
352 Feller, Geschichte Berns, 2, 353. 353 Castella, ‘Mémoire inédit’, 433.
354 EA IV, 1a, 809 (no. 327: 4) (Dec. 1525); Naef, Fribourg, 92.
355 SABE, Teutsche Missiven-Buch 19 Q, fo. 139r (Dec. 1526).