108 The Swiss and Their Neighbours, 1460–1560
remained was revealed in February 1526 when Savoy’s envoys, desperately trying
to retrieve Duke Charles’s authority, argued that because both cities were imperial
cities they should be subject to Savoy by virtue of the imperial vicariate, which
Emperor Charles V had restored to the duke from the bishop the previous year!324
Maxime Reymond has pointed out that the various imperial charters contained
numerous contradictions, sometimes endorsing ducal, sometimes episcopal, over-
lordship, but it is fairly clear that Lausanne’s imperial status had become a faint
memory by 1525.325 Interestingly enough, the Bernese magistrates, whose attitude
towards Lausanne was markedly cooler than Fribourg’s,326 in the end agreed to
sign a Burgrecht ‘notwithstanding their opposition to the commune of Lausanne’s
claim to be an imperial and free city’.327
By October a draft of the proposed Burgrecht was ready, but it still took
nearly three months to be ratified.328 Neither Bern nor Solothurn was happy at
Fribourg’s desire to force the pace329—indeed, a Confederal delegation from
Luzern and Unterwalden urged Fribourg to make haste slowly.330 On Bern’s
insistence, negotiations were transferred from Romont in the Vaud to Bern
attempts to have it revoked in 1412, Emperor Frederick III confirmed Savoy’s title in 1465. Reymond,
‘Lausanne’, 362; Jean-Daniel Morerod, ‘L’évêque de Lausanne, la ville et le roi de Lausanne: la décision
politique à l’époque des combourgeoisies (1525-1533)’, in Eva Maier, Antoine Rochat, and Denis
Tappy (eds), À cheval entre histoire et droit: hommage à Jean-François Poudret (Bibliothèque Historique
Vaudoise, 115) (Lausanne, 1999), 195–208, here at 198. See also Marie-Ange Valazza Tricarico,
‘Lausanne, ville impériale?’, in Jean-Daniel Morerod, Denis Tappy, Clémence Modestin Thévenaz,
and Françoise Vannotti (eds), La Suisse occidentale et l’Empire (Lausanne, 2004), 227–39.
324 EA IV, 1a, 858–9 (no. 348: to n 2) (Feb. 1526); Naef, Fribourg, 254; Reymond, ‘Lausanne’,- It is striking that the Burgrecht described Lausanne as a city subject to both bishop and emperor.
In 1526 Bern was prepared to renounce the Burgrecht if Duke Charles could prove that Lausanne
was under his jurisdiction. Morerod, ‘Évêque de Lausanne’, 197.
325 Reymond, ‘Lausanne’, 365. Cuendet, Traités, 22–3 doubts Lausanne’s imperial status, pointing
out that in 1523 (recte 1518) the city had explicitly acknowledged the bishop’s exclusive authority! By
1454 both Lausanne and Geneva were no longer included in the membership lists (Reichsmatrikel) of
the imperial diet. Hans Conrad Peyer, Verfassungsgeschichte der alten Schweiz (Zürich, 1978), 19.
326 Poudret, Maison de Savoie, 142.
327 Mémoires et documents publiés par la Société d’histoire de la Suisse romande, series 1, vol. 36,
Mélanges: Ernest Chavannes (ed.), Extraits des Manuaux du Conseil de Lausanne 1512–1536
(Lausanne, 1882), 1–378, here at 53: Mais nonobstant leur opposition et sur le un des titres et droits
de la commune de Lausanne comme cité imperiale et libre; Poudret, Maison de Savoie, 147. Lausanne
is listed along with Metz, Toul, Verdun, Cambrai, and Besançon as having a similar status to the free
cities (i.e. those who had expelled their bishops). Moraw, Von offener Verfassung, 109.
328 EA IV, 1a, 781–4 (no. 310: b) (Oct. 1525); 807–8 (no. 325) (Dec. 1525); 809 (no. 326: b; to
b 2) and Appendix 4 (Jan. 1526); 827 (no. 335) (Jan. 1526). See Charles Gilliard, La combourgeoisie
de Lausanne avec Berne et Fribourg en 1525 (Lausanne, 1925).
329 EA IV, 1a, 785 (no. 311: 2; 3). Its envoy Caspar von Mülinen told the council that the duke
had only arrested a few obstinate Genevans! SABE, Teutsche Missiven-Buch 18 P, fo. 439r, 447r–v
(Sept. 1525). Solothurn was reluctant to enter into a Burgrecht with either Lausanne or Geneva: 808
(no. 325: 5) (Dec. 1525); Naef, Fribourg, 85. The city seems to have recognized the imperial vicariate
and the authority of Sébastien de Montfalcon. SASO, Ratsmanuale 14, pp. 212–13, 213–14
(Oct. 1525). It was clearly annoyed by peremptory demands from Lausanne, Geneva, Bern, and
Fribourg that it summon its Great Council, a request which it dismissed as ‘not customary’. SABE,
Unnütze Papiere, Solothurn 41.1, no. 224 (Oct. 1525).
330 Naef, Fribourg, 82.