180 Glossary
Lower Union The alliance signed in April 1474 by the bishops of Basel and Strasbourg,
the imperial cities of Basel, Strasbourg, Colmar, and Sélestat, and Archduke Sigismund
of Austria to combat the expansionism of Duke Charles the Bold of Burgundy.Mammelu The pro-Savoy faction in Geneva, though in reality its members were as often
as not partisans of the bishop rather than the house of Savoy.mandement In francophone territories an administrative district.
Niedere Vereinigung see Lower Union.
oath of homage Properly speaking a term under feudal law, binding a vassal to his liege
lord. In republican Switzerland it was the preferred method of securing subjects’
allegiance, but local lords (as in the Thurgau) regarded it as socially degrading. In the
Thurgau it was replaced after 1500 by a Landfriedenseid, that is, a sworn declaration to
uphold the public peace.Öffnungsrecht The reserved right of a lord or city to gain access to a castle or town in time
of military emergency (or more generally), which might involve provisioning, the
garrisoning of troops, and an undertaking to offer no support to an enemy.Paßstaat A territory straddling mountain passes, the control of which ensured its survival;
Savoy is a prime example.Perpetual Accord The settlement brokered by King Louis XI of France in early 1474
between Habsburg Austria and the Swiss Confederation which provided for arbitration
in disputes and reciprocal aid, and which confirmed existing titles to property and
prohibited the acceptance of subjects of one party by the other.plappart A Bernese coin of low value.
Rhaetian Leagues The three leagues which today constitute the canton of Graubünden
(Grisons). The League of the House of God (Gotteshausbund), the Grey League (Grauer
Bund), and the League of Ten Jurisdictions (Zehngerichtenbund) came together in 1471
to form the Alliance of Three Leagues (confirmed in 1524), which later came to be
known as Graubünden.Saubannerzug The march by Swiss youths, mostly from the Inner cantons, on Geneva in
1477 to avenge its refusal to pay the war reparations it owed; the irregulars carried a
banner with the head of a wild boar.Tagsatzung The Confederal diet.
vidomne There is no English equivalent to this official in Geneva, whose name derives
from the Latin vicedominus, that is, an official whose powers are dependent on a superior,
in this case originally the bishop of Geneva, though by the late thirteenth century his
function had been usurped by the dukes of Savoy. The vidomne, here translated as
justiciar (the office itself was the vidomnat) heard secular suits in the city, both civil and
criminal. The city council suspended the office in 1527 and replaced it with a civil court
of justice two years later.welsche Garde King Maximilian’s band of mercenaries, drawn mostly from the Low
Countries, who harried the Franche-Comté and even Austrian territory on the Upper
Rhine, at the turn of the fifteenth century.Zugewandte Orte see associated members.