Twing gentlemen's dispute

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Illustration to the Twingherrenstreit in Diebold Schilling's Bern Chronicle, 1485

The Twingherrenstreit (or Bernese Twingherrenstreit ) took place between 1470 and 1471 and was a dispute between the urban nobility and the notables of the city ​​of Bern .

prehistory

Since its foundation, the city of Bern has been ruled by noble families such as von Bubenberg , von Erlach , von Diesbach and others. This supremacy and the resulting class privileges have been questioned over time by the bourgeois craftsmen and their guilds. Towards the end of the 15th century there was a dispute between the Bernese twin lords and the Bern council over the haulage services required by the twin lords. One of the demands during the Twinglords dispute was the abolition of the haulage service. In 1464 a host was stolen. The city of Bern then passed a luxury order. This forbade the wearing of beaked shoes and dragging women and men 's clothes, as was the fashion at the Burgundian court.

Twing gentlemen's dispute

On April 23, 1470, the master butcher Peter Kistler was elected mayor of Bern. Kistler intended to push the noble families out of the council and to curtail their powers and privileges in favor of the city of Bern. The council passed an even stricter dress code than that of 1464. The spokesman for the aristocracy party and the main opponent of Peter Kistler was master furrier Hans Fränkli .

This now sparked fierce resistance from the nobility. During a mass in the Bern Minster , the von Bubenberg , von Erlach , von Diesbach , Matter, von Ringoltingen and others demonstratively appeared in the forbidden clothes.

This led to a court hearing in which the noble families insisted on their outward demarcation from the common people and defended this as an innate privilege willed by God. This is only possible if they are granted the right to sneakers and toes. The process ended with fines and everyone involved was banned from the city of Bern for one month.

After a short time, however, the Bernese council was forced, for economic reasons, to allow the exiles back into the city and to change the clothing laws in favor of the noble families.

consequences

The attempt to curtail the rights of the old families largely failed, and in 1471 Peter Kistler lost the office of mayor of Bern. The nobles were able to successfully defend their domination against the townspeople. The attempt of bourgeois Bern alone, however, was the basis for the later claim to power of the city of Bern over the surrounding country.

bibliography

  • Regula Schmid: Talk, call, set signals. Political action during the Bernese Twing Lords dispute 1469–1471. Chronos, Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-905311-78-X (at the same time: Zurich, University, dissertation, 1994).

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