Battle on the Oberalp
| date | 1332 or 1333 |
|---|---|
| place |
Oberalppass , Ursern , Canton Uri 
|
| output | Victory of the Urserentaler |
| Peace treaty | 1339 |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
|
|
Abbot Martin I of Sax |
| Troop strength | |
| unknown | unknown |
| losses | |
|
50 wounded |
200 killed and wounded |
The battle on the Oberalp was a military conflict that took place in 1333 (according to other sources in 1332) between the Disentis monastery and the Urseren valley in what is now the canton of Uri in Switzerland .
prehistory
Around the year 800 the Urseren valley came into the possession of the Disentis monastery, but as colonists the residents had special rights and privileges. For example, they were allowed to choose their own Ammann, who was enfeoffed with lower jurisdiction by the Abbot of Disentis . The high jurisdiction lay with the since 1232 Counts of Rapperswil , the Kastvögten Disentis. 1239/1240 made the Staufer Emperor Frederick II. The Reichsvogtei Urseren. When the Rapperswil family died out, the Imperial Bailiwick came to the House of Habsburg via Ursern in 1283 .
However, the relationship between the abbey and Urseren was often very tense. Uri tried variously to bring the Ursern valley under his control in order to be able to bring the Gotthard Pass completely under his control. In 1317 Heinrich von Hospental was deposed as a Habsburg party member by King Ludwig the Bavarian and the office of Ammann and subordinate was transferred to the Ursner Konrad von Moos, who came from the lower nobility and also held the Uri land law.
course
In 1323 Uri occupied the Urserental and expelled the Austrian-minded Vogt, in 1331 there was an Urner encroachment into the Livinental , which was under the sovereignty of the Lord of Milan Azzo Visconti (1302-1339) and the Archbishop of Milan Aicardo Antimiani (1317-1339) was at odds with the Urseren. Then (probably in 1333) at the urging of Dukes Albrecht II and Otto IV of Habsburg and given the imperial bailiwick received from the latter, an order was issued by the new Disentine abbot from 1330 or 1331, Martin I, Baron von Sax-Misox (1295– 1333) to Ursern to block the Urners the way over the Gotthard. These invoked their traditional freedoms, according to which they should live in peace during land wars, and refused to do so with reference to their connection with Uri and the Reichsvogt von Moos. After the Disentis Abbey prepared for war and tried to take control of the valley again, their troops were raised by the Urserentalers and the Urners who had moved under their banner - who were meanwhile also allied with Baron Donat von Vaz († 1337/1338) - as well as Schwyzers and Unterwaldnern (also Zurich was asked for help by the Waldstätten ) under Reichsvogt Konrad von Moos on the Oberalp Pass . In the battle 200 (according to other sources even 500) of the abbot troops are said to have died, while the opponents are said to have only had 50 wounded to complain about. The Abbot captain was captured and released for a ransom of £ 1,000.
consequences
When after the death of Abbot Martin in 1333 with Thuringia von Attinghausen († 1353) an Urner countryman became Abbot of Disentis, Ursern was able to manage himself to a large extent in the following period. From 1333 Disentis was part of a state peace agreed by the surrounding aristocracy (including Albrecht I von Werdenberg-Heiligenberg († around 1365), from 1327 imperial bailiff of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden, and Johann von Attinghausen , after the death of his father Werner in 1321 / 29 Landammann von Uri) whereby further hostilities were refrained from until the end of this peace in 1338. In 1335 the Urseren- and Livinentaler of Franchino Rusca († 1339), Lord of Como and Bellinzona, were granted duty-free in its territory. A formal peace treaty was only concluded in 1339. This safeguarded the inner-Alpine trade interests in the Gotthard, Oberalp, Lukmanier , Furka and San Giacomo passes .
In 1354 Emperor Karl IV confirmed the inalienability of the Imperial Bailiwick Ursern, in 1382 the German King Wenzel Ursern granted imperial freedom with a letter of freedom ; from then on the Ammann also acted as high judge. This freedom has been confirmed several times, most recently by Emperor Maximilian II in 1566.
On June 12, 1410, the Ursern valley community closed perpetual land rights with the canton Uri due to the distressed situation, especially through the Livinental and Bellinzona, and thus became part of the Old Confederation . Uri took over the representation to the outside as a place of protection and reserved the sovereignty in the war, Ursern remained inside, however, extensive freedoms, partly their own court as well as Alps and commons. For the Ursners, the land law meant a loss of autonomy, since Uri could unilaterally terminate the contract, but could oblige the Ursners to renew it. Therefore, the latter cultivated certain reservations about the Uri in the following period, although they also benefited from Uri's southern expansion that began in 1403 . The land law was renewed again and again, most recently in 1779. In 1649 the last obligations towards the Disentis Monastery, which apparently renounced its secular claims and rights as early as 1426, were bought off at Uri's urging.
Web links
- Hans Stadler: Ursern. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
- Jürg Simonett: Oberalp Pass. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
Individual evidence
- ^ Karl Franz Lusser: The canton of Uri, historically, geographically, statistically portrayed 1834, p. 122
- ^ Josef Anton Henne: New Swiss Chronicle for the People, Volume 1 1828, p. 273
- ↑ Hans Jacob Leu: General Helvetisches, Eydgenößisches, or Schweitzerisches Lexicon, Volume 18 1763, p. 769
- ↑ Johannes von Müller: The stories of the Swiss Confederation, Zweyter Part - From the blooming of the eternal leagues 1824, p. 96
- ↑ Johann Gottfried Ebel: Instructions on the most useful and enjoyable way to travel through Switzerland 1842, p. 576