24 The Swiss and Their Neighbours, 1460–1560
In the meantime the situation had deteriorated. The VII cantons were putting
pressure on nobles with estates in the Thurgau to swear allegiance and to perform
military service.90 In the face of continuing unrest the cantons pondered whether
to take over the Thurgau court by force.91 Alternatively, each of the cantons could
advance 500 fl to redeem the Landgericht; if Konstanz refused, the court should be
seized and transferred to Frauenfeld.92 Then, in January 1481, Bern and St Gallen
put forward a solution to the impasse. Either the Thurgau should be divided, in
half or in thirds, so that the cantons could redeem either half or two-thirds of the
territorial court, with its administration remaining unaltered, or both court and
bailiwick should be ruled jointly by the cantons and Konstanz, with the city receiving
one-eighth and the VII cantons seven-eighths of the revenues.93
These convoluted proposals failed to gain approval among the cantons. Instead,
in early 1482, it was agreed for a trial period of three or four years simply to divide
the revenues from the court equally between the parties concerned.94 It transpired
that the cantons were deeply split over the way forward. Zürich wished to adhere
to the terms proposed the previous year; Uri argued for a common administration,
whereby Konstanz should not be forcibly deprived of the Landgericht; Schwyz and
Unterwalden concurred, but Zug, Glarus, and Luzern, on the other hand, con-
tinued to insist on its redemption.95 These divisions need occasion no surprise, for
it was precisely in those years that the festering tensions between city and rural
cantons in the Confederation came to a head over the right to conclude Burgrechte,
a conflict which was only resolved (and then imperfectly) by the Compact of Stans
in December 1481. Eventually, in early 1483 the VII cantons agreed to submit
the matter to arbitration before the bishop of Konstanz. The bishop, Otto von
Sonnenberg, himself an ally of the Swiss, reached a compromise, whereby three-
quarters of the revenues of the territorial court should be assigned to the Swiss, but
that the court itself should remain in Konstanz’s hands. Luzern’s objections were
simply overridden.96
In these negotiations for the first time the status of Konstanz itself was the sub-
ject of debate. It was Bern, ostensibly a disinterested party, which suggested that
Konstanz might enter into a formal alliance with the Confederation, provided that
it guaranteed open military access. Konstanz, too bruised to entertain such a shift
in allegiance, turned the suggestion down, but it was destined to remain a red
thread in the city’s troubled manoeuvrings between rival powers up to 1548.97
It was not only Konstanz, however, that felt the brunt of Swiss pressure in the
Thurgau. The abbot of St Gallen was at loggerheads with the cantons over demands
90 EA III, 1, 23–5 (no. 30: a); 38–9 (no. 42: f ). The documentation of the conflict is to be found
in StAKN, Akten C V 5 (Thurgau).
91 EA III, 1, 64 (no. 68: a).
92 EA III, 1, 83 (no. 87: b); 85–6 (no. 92: c); Kramml, ‘Reichsstadt Konstanz’, 315.
93 EA III, 1, 90–1 (no. 100: a); Dikenmann, ‘Stellung’, 74–5; Meyer, ‘Durchsetzung’, 149.
94 EA III, 1, 111–12 (no. 130: a); Dikenmann, ‘Stellung’, 79.
95 EA III, 1, 117–18 (no. 139: a): Dikenmann, ‘Stellung’, 79.
96 EA III, 1, 141–3 (no. 172: i); StAKN, Akten C V 5, 20 Jan. 1483 (draft); Kramml, ‘Reichsstadt
Konstanz’, 315; Meyer, ‘Durchsetzung’, 149.
97 Kramml, ‘Reichsstadt Konstanz’, 315–16, based on StAKN, Akten C V 5.