The Swiss and Their Neighbours, 1460-1560. Between Accommodation and Aggression

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Trouble in the Thurgau 25


that his subjects in the eastern Thurgau should swear loyalty to the Swiss—though


by the same token he faced demands from Konstanz that they should be account-


able to its territorial court!98 The bishop of Konstanz, too, resisted Swiss claims on


his subjects in the Thurgau, as did the Carthusian priory of Ittingen, which was


called upon to acknowledge the authority of the territorial bailiff. These skirmishes


continued unabated throughout the 1480s and 1490s, with the Swiss insisting that


those who defied the bailiff should be punished.99 But both sides had reason to feel


aggrieved. The VII cantons complained that jurisdictional lords in the Thurgau


were blocking the collection of fines levied upon their subjects guilty of maraud-


ing, while Konstanz bewailed its inability to enforce sentences of its Landgericht


because those convicted invoked Swiss protection.100 Even after the Swiss War this


impasse was not fully resolved.


98 EA III, 1, 146–8 (no. 176) (1483); 377 (no. 405) (1491).
99 EA III, 1, 294–7 (no. 326: dd) (1488); 300–1 (no. 329) (1488); 322–6 (no. 351) (1490);
351–3 (no. 388) (1490); 357–9 (no. 391: h) (1490).
100 EA III, 1, 374–6 (no. 403: a; c; d) (1490); 380–3 (no. 409: k) (1491); 426–8 (no. 452: c)
(1493).

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