42 The Swiss and Their Neighbours, 1460–1560
foreign powers.227 By 1502, apprehensive that Konstanz might still succumb to a
Swiss embrace, Maximilian intervened. The instructions to his envoys envisaged
that the city should remain open to imperial troops, in return for which the king
promised it 1000 fl annually from the Innsbruck treasury and another 10,000 fl as
acceptance of his protection (Schirmgeld). He intimated that the Estates of the
Empire were lukewarm in helping Konstanz regain the Landgericht—not surpris-
ingly since it was in defiance of an internationally recognized treaty!228 In its
response the city noted the king’s proposal to divide the Thurgau, which would
have created a cordon sanitaire south of the city, but insisted that it would prefer to
see the Landgericht restored.229 That did not stop Maximilian from clinging to the
proposal in an attempt to exert pressure on the Swiss.230 A petition by Konstanz’s
magistrates to the king two years later protesting at the Swiss territorial bailiff’s
blockade of food supplies to the city and the withholding of rent payments indi-
cates that, while the Thurgau had finally passed under Swiss control,231 a stalemate
rather than a solution had been reached.232 There were further ructions in 1507
and 1510.233 Zürich, keen to see no infringement of its northern borders, pon-
dered anew whether Konstanz’s admission to membership of the Confederation
might be coupled with the restitution of the Landgericht. In that case, the Thurgau
would serve under Konstanz’s military command, for which the city should pay
the Swiss an annual recognition fee of between 3000 and 4000 fl. The other can-
tons were deeply unenthusiastic, but recognized that in the prevailing precarious
military situation a degree of flexibility was desirable. They were well aware of
Konstanz’s strategic importance, but were opposed to the idea that the city should
receive any restoration of territory or jurisdictional sovereignty, unless it were
admitted as a new member. The cantons’ response was (as in the past) both incom-
plete and contradictory.234
Conflict over the territorial court of the Thurgau poisoned relations between
Konstanz and the Swiss, which the Peace of Basel had done nothing to resolve. But
there were at least four other bones of contention which throw into sharp relief
how problematic the administration of the Thurgau as a common lordship con-
tinued to be. The abbot of St Gallen, who had never fully accepted the VII cantons’
control of the Thurgau after 1460, continued to cause trouble, even though he was
an associated member. Before the peace was signed the abbot had been infringing
Konstanz’s high jurisdiction in those eastern parts of the Thurgau which he claimed
as his own by erecting a gallows and also by prohibiting subjects in his lesser juris-
dictions from appealing to the Landgericht.235 He even threatened to bring the
matter before the imperial court of chancery (Reichskammergericht) or abide by a
227 StAKN, Akten C V 5, 48, 20 Aug. 1501. Some of these proposals had been mooted the previ-
ous year. EA III, 2, 33–9 (no. 14: a) (1500).
228 StAKN, Akten C V 6, 23, 19 May 1502. 229 StAKN, Akten C V 5, 48, 21 May 1502.
230 EA III, 2, 231–3 (no. 136: c) (1503).
231 This is implied by EA III, 2, 171–4 (no. 96: h) (1502).
232 StAKN, Akten C V 5, 48, 23 March 1504. 233 Maurer, Konstanz im Mittelalter, 253.
234 EA III, 2, 499–503 (no. 369: b) (1510); 505 (no. 372: a) (1510). The recess of the subsequent
diet on 19 Sept. 1510 is not included in the printed EA.
235 StAKN, Akten C V 5, 36: Die artickel antreffend den abbt von Sant gallen.