St. Gallen War
Appenzeller and St. Gallen attack the Mariaberg monastery in Rorschach . Official Lucerne Chronicle, 1513
| date | July 28, 1489 to spring 1490 |
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| place | |
| output | Victory of the Prince Abbey of St. Gallen |
| consequences | Rheintal rulership becomes common rulership of the Old Confederation |
| Parties to the conflict | |
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| Commander | |
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Prince Abbot Ulrich Rösch |
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| losses | |
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no |
Assignment of the Vogtei Rheintal |
The St. Gallen War took place in 1489/90 between the four federal umbrella locations of the Prince Abbey of St. Gallen , Zurich , Lucerne , Glarus and Schwyz on the one hand and the imperial city of St. Gallen and the country of Appenzell on the other. The reason for the war was the “Rorschacher Klosterbruch”.
prehistory
Since the Appenzell Wars at the beginning of the 15th century, the old feudal order in what is now eastern Switzerland has been severely shaken. The prince abbey of St. Gallen threatened to slip more and more sovereignty in its area. The city of St. Gallen, in which the abbey was located, finally broke away from their rule and fought on the side of the Appenzeller and their allies against the abbey and the House of Habsburg , the main allies of the prince abbots in this conflict. It was not until 1429, through the mediation of the Swiss Confederation, that relaxation came about . As a result, Eastern Switzerland up to Lake Constance and the Rhine became a sphere of interest for the Confederates, which inevitably had to lead to further conflicts with the regional power Habsburg.
Kaspar von Breitenlandenberg , the prince abbot of St. Gallen, sought the protection of the powerful confederates and in 1451 achieved an alliance with the towns of Zurich , Lucerne , Schwyz and Glarus . Three years later, the city of St. Gallen also formalized its ties to the Swiss Confederation through an alliance with the four umbrella locations of the abbey, plus Bern and Zug . The Swiss Confederation now assumed the position of mediator between the abbey and the city of St. Gallen, for example when Abbot Kaspar von Breitenlandenberg wanted to sell the city sovereignty in most of the abbey bailiffs and the convent under Großkeller Ulrich Rösch objected to this. The Swiss Confederation decided the dispute in favor of the convention, which meant that the city of St. Gallen had finally failed to acquire its own territory. In another conflict, however, under pressure from the confederates, the abbot had to cede all sovereign rights to the city in 1457 in return for the payment of 7,000 guilders. As a result, St. Gallen rose to the rank of imperial city .
Ulrich Rösch , successor to Kaspar von Breitenlandenberg and the first bourgeois prince abbot, put the monastic state on a new, more solid basis. He restructured the finances and endeavored to consolidate the sovereignty in the monastery area. In 1468 he succeeded in acquiring the County of Toggenburg from the Lords of Raron , which almost doubled the abbey territory. The city of St. Gallen was worried by the regaining strength of the monastery, as was Appenzell, which had only just freed itself from monastery rule. Since the conquest of the Rheintal rulership by the Appenzell people in 1445, there have been friction again with the monastery, which in this area largely held the lower jurisdiction and extensive property.
1464 sentiment towards the monastery was so high, that delegates to a joint of Appenzell and St. Gallen rural community came together. Both parties were concerned about the expansion of Rorschach into the port of the prince abbey. The abbot had also acquired the St. Annaschloss near Rorschach. The city saw its own port in Steinach endangered by Rorschach , which it had just provided with a large warehouse at high costs. The Appenzeller saw their rule in the Rhine Valley endangered by the abbot's military presence on Lake Constance. Because of the impending danger, Abbot Ulrich Rösch asked the four umbrella locations to send an umbrella captain to Wil , which they did because the abbot paid him generously. The abbot also gave generous gifts to various federal politicians to ensure their protection.
The Rorschacher Klosterbruch
Abbot Ulrich Rösch wanted to break away from its grip on the city of St. Gallen because of the growing tensions, because the monastery was still within the walls of the now independent city, which is why the monastery in its own center did not (or no longer) hold state rule . First he wanted to break a separate city gate through the wall for the abbey. However, the city refused this request. With the approval of the convent, the pope and the emperor, he therefore planned to move the monastery to Mariaberg near Rorschach . On March 21, 1487, the foundation stone for the new building was laid, which should have towers, walls, walls and moats like a fortress.
The citizens of St. Gallen saw the small town on Lake Constance as a dangerous future rival and even feared the total ruin of their city. The Appenzell people were also suspicious, as they feared that relocating the abbey would also result in commercial and political disadvantages. Ulrich Varnbüler , the mayor of St. Gallen, therefore, in the spring of 1489, together with the Appenzell residents, ultimately demanded that the buildings in Rorschach be suspended. However, the abbot refused.
At the Urnäscher Chilbi in 1489, citizens from St. Gallen and Appenzeller decided to move out at war against the new building. On July 28, 1489, a troop led by Heinrich Zili consisting of 350 St. Gallen citizens, 1200 Appenzell and 600 Rheintalers attacked the construction site near Rorschach and destroyed the unfinished building. Even the cattle in the stables were slaughtered. According to its own statements, the abbey suffered damage of 16,000 guilders . However, the state of Appenzell did not "officially" take part in the campaign. Unlike Diebold Schilling's chronicle, the people of Appenzell carried no banners with them, just a red flag to clearly mark the procession as a marching band without government support.
Outbreak and course of war
Because of the blatant breach of the peace by the Rorschach monastery break, the abbot called the umbrella locations for help. They demanded payment of 13,000 guilders in damages from St. Gallen and Appenzell. While the negotiations dragged on, the Appenzell and St. Gallers incited the subjects in the old landscape between Lake Constance and Wil to abandon the abbey and concluded the Waldkirch Bund with them on October 21, 1489 . St. Galler and Appenzeller finally opened the fighting when they occupied the abbot Romanshorn Castle and placed the St. Annaschloss near Rorschach under siege. This marked the beginning of the St. Gallen War, as the Confederates now sent troops against St. Gallen to help the abbot.
When the confederates crossed the borders of the abbey, the subjects of the abbot in the old landscape submitted without a fight. The Appenzeller withdrew to fortified positions at their borders and also submitted. The city of St. Gallen felt abandoned by all allies. Mayor Ulrich Varnbüler fled the city shortly before it was trapped by the Confederates, as he feared extradition. Heinrich Zili now organized the defense of the city, which was besieged by the confederates . On February 15, 1490, after protracted skirmishes, a peace treaty was signed.
Peace treaty and consequences of war
The city paid 4,000 guilders to the abbey and 10,000 guilders to the confederates. Furthermore, she was no longer allowed to accept Ausburger in the future and had to give up her rights in the abbot bailiwicks of Steinach, Oberberg and Andwil. The Appenzeller had to leave their rule over the Rhine Valley as common rule to the Swiss . The main masterminds behind the abbey, Mayor Varnbuler and Appenzell Landammann Schwendiner, had to leave the country and their assets were confiscated.
However, the war had long-term consequences for the city of St. Gallen. By the imperial reform of 1495 that was namely Reichskammergericht been created that the eternal peace in the Holy Roman Empire should monitor. The Confederation had refused to join the imperial reform, but since their area was still regarded as belonging to the empire, mayor Varnbuler, his sons after his death in 1496, and Landammann Schwendiner brought complaints to the Imperial Court of Justice. The court actually decided that the confiscation of the assets was illegal and sentenced the city of St. Gallen and the state of Appenzell to repayment and, moreover, even to compensation.
Since St. Gallen and Appenzell did not want to pay, King Maximilian I pronounced imperial ban on them in October 1496 . This meant that all St. Gallen citizens and their linen trade on all imperial roads were exposed to the Varnbülers. Appenzell was not exposed in terms of trade policy and was therefore not actually directly affected by the ban. The Confederation and the Reichstag in Worms negotiated in vain, as the Confederates did not want to recognize the jurisdiction of the court, but the court could not question the jurisdiction over their territory. After the dissolution of the Reichstag in Innsbruck in September 1497, direct negotiations between the king and the Swiss Confederation led to the postponement of the legal dispute between St. Gallen and the Varnbülers to the next Reichstag, which was to meet in Freiburg im Breisgau in 1498 . Only after the end of the Swabian War, which broke out as a result of the tensions between the Confederation and Maximilian I, was the legal trade settled by the Peace of Basel in 1499.
The reconstruction work in Mariaberg began in 1490. When Abbot Ulrich Rösch suddenly died in 1491, however, his successor hired her. With this, the city of St. Gallen had achieved its actual war goal, the prevention of the relocation of the monastery out of the city. The complex in Mariaberg was completed as a Benedictine monastery in 1497–1518, but never moved in due to the Reformation . The buildings served the St. Gallen monastery as a governor and later as a school. The Rorschach Treaty of September 13, 1566 finally gave the abbey its own city gate. As it was inaugurated on the occasion of a visit by Cardinal Carlo Borromeo , it was named " Karlstor ".