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

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132 The Swiss and Their Neighbours, 1460–1560


short and succinct. It saw little point in attending another diet at Luzern, since it was


not prepared to accept the duke’s or the bishop’s authority in any circumstances.551


At that point Bern’s patience snapped. Not only had it still not been paid for its


military assistance,552 it roundly berated Geneva for the rank ingratitude which it


had shown for all the efforts Bern had made to rescue it from perdition. It now


washed its hands of Geneva: henceforth the city must shift for itself.553 In some


panic Geneva repeated its request for help and enquired whether it should attend


the February diet at Luzern after all. It was referred to Bern’s previous reply.554


551 EA IV, 1c, 455–6 (no. 242: 1) (Jan. 1535).
552 EA IV, 1c, 443–5 (no. 235: I, 6) (Dec. 1534). According to Cuendet, Traités, 103 and 108 n 29
Geneva had paid all its debts to Fribourg in July1532 and to Bern by December 1533. This view is
based on RCG, vol. XII, ed. Émile Rivoire and Victor van Berchem (Geneva, 1936), 115 n 1, 119, 404
n 3. This may hold good for Fribourg but the entries in EA IV, 1c referring to Bern suggest otherwise.
See the earlier discussion in this chapter on Bern’s demand for 9900 écus for the military assistance it
had provided.
553 EA IV, 1c, 455–6 (no. 242: I) (Jan. 1535).
554 EA IV, 1c, 460–1 (no. 246) (Feb. 1535).

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