80 The Swiss and Their Neighbours, 1460–1560
The peace treaty which followed between the Swiss and Savoy stipulated that
Geneva should pay 8000 fl forthwith and the balance of the 24,000 fl by the begin-
ning of 1478 at the latest.113 The Vaud was indeed to remain in Swiss hands, but
without Morat, Grandcour, and Cudrefin, as previously specified. Fribourg’s debt
of 25,600 fl was to be written off.114 But that was merely the opening gambit in a
game which was being played for increasingly high stakes. The question of the dis-
tribution of the booty had still to be settled. Fribourg demanded a share of the
‘ransom’ (in this case the forced contribution to be paid by the inhabitants of an
occupied territory), and submitted a plea to be admitted to the Confederation as a
full member. It was also argued that since Philibert was under the protection of his
uncle, the French king, France itself should shoulder the burden of administering
the Vaud.115 Not surprisingly, Bern and Fribourg put forward a counter-proposal,
whereby they should occupy the towns and fortresses of the Vaud for five or six
years, after which all the cantons (along with Fribourg) should govern the territory
turn and turn about every two years. That was to apply to Morat and Erlach as
well, or possibly only to Morat.116 At the time of Charles the Bold’s death, in other
words, no clear settlement had been reached.
His death served only to complicate matters. Bern and Luzern called a diet to
discuss whether to send an army into Upper Burgundy in order to forestall a
French annexation of the Franche-Comté. The cantons were irresolute, unsure
whether they risked being stripped of their French pensions. Better, some argued,
to await the outcome of a Savoy diet at Chambéry in mid-February.117 But free-
booters from the Inner cantons, principally Uri and Schwyz, dissatisfied with the
distribution of booty in the wake of victory, gathered with the intention of march-
ing on Geneva to claim the ransom which the city had promised the Swiss to avoid
being besieged or plundered. Their numbers soon swelled to around 1800, as new
recruits rallied under a banner bearing the image of a wild boar and a mace as a
sign of their anger.118
The authorities in Bern, Zürich, and Luzern were understandably alarmed that
such an uncontrolled rising of purportedly young males, which has entered the
history books as the Saubannerzug, would jeopardize their delicate negotiations
with Savoy and France. A deputation from several Swiss and Upper Rhenish cities
was despatched in haste to cut off the irregulars, who had already reached Lausanne
and Payerne.119 The upshot was that Geneva was obliged to make a down payment
113 The Eidgenössische Abschiede denominate the sums in florins, though the exchange rate given in
EA III, 1, 27–8 (no. 32: a) (March 1479) does not quite tally with these figures. See the discussion
in Chapter 17 on exchange rates between ducats and florins as calculated by Helmut Koenigsberger.
114 EA II, 608–13 (no. 845).
115 EA II, 613–15 (no. 848: b; g; l; q) (September 1476); Luzern wished to have nothing to do
with Fribourg’s application (ibid., to q).
116 EA II, 617–20 (no. 850: to gg 4, 5, 7) (September 1476). 117 EA II, 641–4 (no. 866).
118 EA II, 645–6 (no. 868: q); Andreas Würgler, ‘Vom Kolbenbanner zu Saubanner. Die historiog-
raphische Entpolitisierung einer Protestaktion aus der spätmittelalterlichen Eidgenossenschaft’, in
Peter Blickle and Thomas Adam (eds), Bundschuh. Untergrombach 1502, das unruhige Reich und die
Revolutionierbarkeit Europas (Stuttgart, 2004), 195–215, here at 195–6, 198–202.
119 EA II 648–50 (no. 871: c; e) (February 1477).