Peace at Basel
The peace in Basel of September 22nd, 1499 between the Roman-German King Maximilian von Habsburg as sovereign of Upper Austria and Tyrol and the Swabian League with Bishop Heinrich von Chur , the ten places of the Confederation and the Three Leagues ended the Swabian War from February to September 1499.
After the decisive defeat of the troops of the Swabian League in the Battle of Dornach on July 22nd, peace negotiations between King Maximilian and the Confederates got underway. At the beginning of August, an agreement in Schaffhausen failed due to Maximilian's repeated demands that the Confederates must submit to the resolutions of the Worms Reichstag of 1495. On August 15, 1499, new negotiations began in the imperial city of Basel , mediated by the Milanese ambassador Galeazzo Visconti . The Duke of Milan , Ludovico Sforza , was interested in a quick arbitration, as he urgently wanted to recruit Swiss mercenaries because of his conflict with France. The ambassadors of the Roman-German King Maximilian were at first very persistent and the negotiations even had to be interrupted once. During this time there was warlike unrest even in the area around the city, because troops waging war on their own wandered around and molested the residents. In the city there was also a rumor that the Confederates were preparing for a new fight.
Finally, on September 22nd, 1499, the peace in Basel was sealed. Accordingly, nine resolutions were passed by both sides (selection):
- The damage is mutually canceled, the conquered regions , towns and villages are returned, their inhabitants are not punished if they paid homage to the enemy and the prisoners are released against the oath of the original feud and the food money.
- Eight of the ten courts in Prättigau and Schanfigg have to pay homage to Habsburg, but may not be punished for the uproar during the Swabian War. Their membership in the Ten Court Association and their alliance with the Swiss Confederation remain in place.
- The district court in Thurgau , which had previously belonged to the city of Constance as a pledge of the empire , is transferred to the Swiss Confederation.
- The Reichsacht and all decisions and processes of the Reich against the Confederation and its allies are repealed.
- The legal and territorial status quo ante will be restored.
In older historiography, the Peace of Basel was seen as a decisive step towards the independence of the Confederation from the Reich. After the war, however, the Confederates expressly asked that their connection to the Reich be maintained or restored, although now exempt from taxes and court oversight on the part of the Reich. The Confederation only became independent of the Reich in the Peace of Westphalia of 1648. As a concrete consequence of the Peace of Basel in 1501, Basel and Schaffhausen joined the Federal Confederation, which developed into the Thirteen Old Places .