The Year of the French 137
Savoy, and possibly Emperor Charles V (Duke Charles’s ally), but France as well,
which had never abandoned its designs east of the Jura, to which Geneva was the
gateway. Even a small incident might spark a wider conflagration. When Geneva
announced in May that it was bent on clearing out the ‘robbers’ nest’ in Peney
castle, Bern voiced its alarm.585 Geneva hurried to reassure Bern that it would have
desisted, had it known of Bern’s opposition.586 Bern’s response was to ask for fur-
ther details—Savoy blamed the bishop, and the bishop’s partisans claimed they
were victims, not culprits—so that the best Bern could do was to propose arbitra-
tion, given that Duke Charles had issued a proclamation urging peace on all
sides.587 In negotiations with Bern the bailiff of the Vaud, Aymon de Genève-
Lullin, claimed that all Savoy’s castellans in the Vaud were observing the proclam-
ation, but that he had no authority to intervene over Peney since it did not lie
within his jurisdiction588—which was perfectly true: it lay in the Genevois.
Another weighty consideration was the question of cost. Unlike the Catholic
cantons, the Reformed cities relied only to a small extent on French pensions.
The treaty of 1521 between the Confederation and France had provided for annual
payments to each canton of 3000 francs. But after 1529 Bern was not a signatory
to the treaty until late in the century.589 For a city which despite its territory never
had more than around 5000 inhabitants the cost of waging war was bound to put
a severe strain on the civic budget. That was revealed during the conquest of the
Vaud, when Bern had to augment its war treasury with loans from the Basel capital
market.590 The pensions which Bern was still receiving in 1536 were clearly inad-
equate to cover extraordinary expenditure.591 That helps to explain both Bern’s
dogged determination to get Geneva to pay arrears dating back to 1530 and its
refusal in July 1535 to send any troops to Geneva unless it was paid at least 2000
écus in advance. All that Geneva could offer was 500 écus to defray Bern’s expenses
incurred in the continual exchange of envoys, to which Bern reluctantly agreed in
August, only to be told the following month that money was no longer an option:
Geneva could only offer merchandise as payment in kind.592 It is no surprise that
rumours began to fly that, if it came to the crunch, Bern would leave Geneva in
the lurch.593 Geneva therefore decided, despite the expense, to send envoys to the
585 EA IV, 1c, 497 (no. 278) (May 1535).
586 EA IV, 1c, 501–2 (no. 284: I; II) (May 1535). The bishop had supposedly sent reinforcements
to Peney. Savoy accused Bern of secretly supporting the attack, claiming that its commissar in Geneva
had been personally present. EA IV, 1c, 516 (no. 290: I, 1) (June 1535).
587 EA IV, 1c, 528–30 (no. 304: I, 1; I, 2; II) (July 1535); 533–4 (no. 310: 1; 2; 3) (July 1535).
588 EA IV, 1c, 553–4 (no. 325) (Sept. 1535). In any case, said the bailiff, the situation in Peney was
the bishop’s fault, not the duke’s, a view he was still repeating in November. EA IV, 1c, 593 (no. 356: 1)
(Nov. 1535).
589 Peyer, Verfassungsgeschichte, 81–2. 590 Feller, Geschichte Berns, 2, 374.
591 Charles Gilliard, Die Eroberung des Waadtlandes durch die Berner (Bern, 1941), 78, 186
nn 561–2. (128 nn 5–6). I use the German edn rather than Charles Gilliard, La conquête du Pays de Vaud
par les Bernois (Université de Lausanne: Publications de la Faculté des Lettres, 2) (Lausanne, 1935). The
French pagination is given in brackets. See Note on Sources. Hans Rudolf Nägeli was despatched to Lyon
to collect the pension arrears. There is no sign that the pensions continued after that date.
592 EA IV, 1c, 526–7 (no. 302: II, 1) (July 1535); 536 (no. 313: to III, 2) (Aug. 1535); 548 (no. 320: I,
1; 1) (Aug. 1535).
593 EA IV, 1c, 502 (no. 286) (June 1535).