138 The Swiss and Their Neighbours, 1460–1560
Confederal diet in Baden in June (a fair distance to travel), where it sought help
from the other cantons, since Bern refused to advise it, stating that all it desired
was peace and quiet. But the Catholic cantons showed little sympathy, pointing out
that all their efforts to get Duke Charles to change course had proved fruitless.594
Bern indicated that if the blockade of the city and acts of violence against its citizens
persisted it would cancel its Burgrecht with Savoy.595 That was not a meaningless
gesture, for it would free Bern from any contractual obligations towards Savoy and
open the gate to military intervention.
It might be thought that the Bernese Small Council was feigning indifference
and that it was giving covert support to the Genevans. Two incidents suggest this
was not so. In September, in the face of yet more urgent requests for military aid,
Bern made it clear that it would not allow Geneva to recruit troops on Bernese soil
(what it did elsewhere was its own affair).596 And in October, after a Genevan sor-
tie had rescued a Neuchâtel band which was penned in at Nyon, Bern found itself
dealing with a fresh troop of Neuchâtel irregulars who had inflicted a modest
defeat on a much stronger force from the League of the Spoon. Far from rejoicing
at Savoy’s discomfiture, Bern ordered the men to return home without delay.597
Geneva was perplexed: was this not the same Bernese council which a month earlier
had permitted recruitment as long as it was not on Bernese soil?598
Bern knew that it had to guard its back. Its bailiff in Aigle passed on intelligence
in October from his spies in Faucigny that Claude d’Alliez, lord of Rosey, a Savoyard
nobleman and member of the Confrèrie de la Cuiller, was raising 300 men in
Savoy’s defence from his seigneurie near Rolle.599 To make matters worse, Rosey
had citizen’s rights in Fribourg.600 There were also reports of troop movements in
Lausanne.601 The Bernese council was equally aware that it had to guard its front.
Ami Porral, Geneva’s permanent envoy in Bern, gave an account of discussions
which he had overheard in the city in the summer. The mood was enthusiastically
in favour of rendering Geneva assistance at all costs, regardless of the provisions of
the Burgrecht, since, as Porral affirmed, the latter had endorsed evangelical preach-
ing at Bern’s behest, despite which it had in vain waited a year for support.602
By December, Jean Baudichon, Geneva’s envoy at large could declare that he had
never seen such determination to come to Geneva’s aid as he had encountered
in Bern; moreover, there was considerable muttering against the council for its
594 EA IV, 1c, 502 (no. 286: II) (June 1535); 504–5, 507 (no. 287: g; x) (June 1535).
595 EA IV, 1c, 536 (no. 313: to IV, 1) (Aug. 1535); 565–6 (no. 331: III, 2) (Sept. 1535).
596 EA IV, 1c, 565–6 (no. 331: III, 1) (Sept. 1535).
597 The Neuchâtel troops were, however, among the first to rally to Bern’s march to Geneva in
January. Gilliard, Eroberung, 49 [79].
598 EA IV, 1c, 569 (no. 336: 1, 2) (Oct. 1535); Santschi, Crises et Révolutions, 11, where a
typographical slip gives the year as 1533.
599 SABE, Unnütze Papiere, Waadt 11, no. 9 (7 Oct. 1535). The bailiff also reported that some
German mercenaries had encountered resistance as they approached Geneva; in the ensuing skirmish
80 Genevans had been killed.
600 AEF, Missivale 12, fo. 34r (10 March 1536).
601 EA IV, 1c, 576 (no. 340: I, 1) (Oct. 1535).
602 EA IV, 1c, 526–7 (no. 302: 1; 2) (July 1535).