Federal letter of 1315

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The morning garden letter

The Federal Letter of 1315 (also Morgartenbrief , Federal Letter from Brunnen and Brunnemer Bund ), dated December 9, 1315, was the first Swiss Federal Letter to be written in German. It was here that the word Eitgenoze (confederate) appeared for the first time . The alliance treaty regulates various issues between the countries of Uri , Schwyz and Unterwalden . It was written in fountains .

After the victory of the Confederates in the Battle of Morgarten , representatives of the countries of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden (met Obwalden and Nidwalden ) in schwyzerischen place wells and renewed on 9. December 1315 their alliance, which among other things already in the Federal Charter of 1291 was held . While that was still written in Latin , this Bund von Brunnen, as a novelty in Swiss history , was written in German ( Middle High German ). The choice of Brunnen as the conference venue may have been due to its convenient location.

The document

The Obwalden copy of the Morgarten letter

The Federal Letter of 1315 is written on 19.5 cm × 40 cm parchment . The seals of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden were attached to ribbons of parchment. There are indications that the document was only written as a postscript or a copy towards the end of the 14th century.

Like many other federal letters, it is kept in the Federal Letter Museum in Schwyz . There are also the two originals from Nidwalden and Obwalden and several copies from the period before 1500. The Nidwalden copy is in the Nidwalden State Archives, dated 1316 in the text. The Obwalden copy, also dated 1316, is in the Obwalden State Archives in the Sarner Hexenturm kept. It describes the letter as "der haben wart ze Uri", that is, as issued in Uri and not in Brunnen. Uri specimens are not known, they may have been lost in the archive fire in 1799. All copies and copies show mutual deviations, and there are also spelling differences, which is not a criterion for the credibility of copies at this time.

content

The Federal Letter of 1315 can essentially be divided into three topics:

  • Mutual help (at your own expense), if a confederate is attacked or wronged, as well as the regulation that one accepts a strange gentleman only together and not without the consent of the others (so that our lover and neither should nor our own Gentlemen take ane the other's will and ir advice. )
  • Agreements on control and conduct in external negotiations, the provision that judges may not buy their office, and the agreement that all confederates undertake to arbitrate among themselves in the event of a dispute or war against the outside world.
  • The Federal Letter also contains provisions on criminal law on the way in which crimes such as manslaughter etc. are to be dealt with.

text

«In God's name Amen. Walls of human beings are stupid and passable, that things and things should be long-lasting and constant, so light and so soon pissed off, while there is so much use and necessity, that the things that serve are fride and show (and) use and to be set up, to be made in writing and with letters in writing and in art. Therefore we customer and open the Lantlüte von Ure, von Swits and von Unterwalden to all those who read or hear this letter, that we also oversee and forkemen the hert and the strictness of the cites and we deste baz with fride unde would like to remain with grace and we would like to protect and keep our lib and our guot deste baz, so we are assured and bound with trüwen and with oaths permanent and permanent ze semene, that we have vowed and sworn to our trüwen and our oaths , help another ze and ze ratenne with love and with guote in our cost inrent country and outside against all those and against someone who killed us or our de no violence or injustice older tuon wanted to love or guote, and approve of it our deno de no shame in sinem libe older in sinem guote, where we help sin dez best as we like, that it will be pissed off or repulsed. We also have to take the same oath that our lender should not obey either our own or that no gentleman should take another's sake and advice. But Ez should be obedient to every human being, ez si wib or man, to his right lord, or to his right lordship of limphous and cienelich services, to the lord or lord who does not want to attack the loins with violence or do wrong things; deme or serve, if one does not want to do any service untz daz si with the loins undirected. We shall also agree that the lender and the co-worker have no time or security to serve the other co-workers or co-workers. Ez sol also no our counterpart den’t speak to the other hands of the other counterpart or to ir urloub, who wile untz daz diu lender is uncontrollable. Were ouch ieman, who surrender the lender of no betrayed older, or of the prescribed things deno broche older passed over the sol untrue and mineide sin and sol sin lib and sin guot dien lendern sin. In addition, we have come to a conclusion that we have no judge, that the ampt kos with phennigen or with other guote and even our lantman is not. Were there too, there are no missehelli or dekit ktieg huebe or uff stuende under serve your companions, so too suln the best and the joke gestures come and suln the war and the missehelli straighten and lie down according to minnen or according to rights. And neither part of this promise, so the other companions will help the other elderly right man to harm who is disobedient. If there was also no stoz or no war between the people, and if one of the other would not benefit from the other, then obedient protection and justice should be given to the third country. Were also there, that the co-owner declined to kill the other, who should also have left the lip, he must then judge, as ime given that he had done his necessary lip. But then he escaped, swer in danne huset older hovet older shields inrent landes, the sol von deme lande varn and niht against in daz lant komen unntz daz in the Eitgenoze with common rate against inladent. Were there too, that the individual denone the other usual older criminal brande, the solniemer me lantman, and swer in the huset older yard or kept, the solemn sinen no harm abetuon. Were there that our co-owner didn’t harm the others with roube or other ane, one found dez guotes ot inrent landes, so that one should harm deme kleger sinen abe tuon. Ez sol ouch nobody the other phenden he is valid or guarantor, and then still tuon nit, wan with his judge's urloube. Ez sol ouch also one ouch one obeys his judge sin and his judge ceigen inrent country before which he by right column stan. No matter if the courts were contrary to or disobedient, and from the disobedience of the fellow members of the party, no harm was done, so that the faulty ones were dismissed from the fellowship. And through that, that you have prescribed security and that things remain eternally constant, so we have to go to the present landlüte and Eitgenoze from Ure, from Swits and from Unterwalden, our ingesigelkit to this letter, which waits to be given well, do one of God's births Print a hundred jars and then in the next year on the cistage after Sant Niclaus days. "

- The federal letters to Schwyz. 1963, pp. 44-49.

Film documentaries

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Anton Castell: The Federal Letters to Schwyz: Popular presentation of important documents from the early Eidgenössische Zeit. Benziger, Einsiedeln 1963, p. 44.
  2. ↑ Michael Mente: Central Switzerland documents put to the test: Scientific age determination and source criticism. In: The history friend. Vol. 160. Gisler, Altdorf 2007, ISBN 978-3-906130-52-1 , pp. 95-142.
  3. ↑ entry 01.0005 federal Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden, 03.29.1316 of Obwalden State Archives, accessed on September 20, 2018
  4. ↑ Sablonier 2007, p. 13