Misplaced Pages

#635364

22-683: Historically, Leute der Talschaft is the traditional German translation of the Latin term homines vallis in the Federal Charter of 1291 , literally 'the people of the valley'. Thus, the enumeration of the Confederates , is rendered as This article about politics in Switzerland is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Federal Charter of 1291 The Federal Charter or Letter of Alliance ( German : Bundesbrief )

44-480: A national holiday on 1 August based on the date on the document was first suggested in 1899 (although it was introduced officially only in 1994). The idea to build a dedicated national monument housing the foundational documents of the Confederacy was first proposed in 1891 by federal councillors Emil Welti and Carl Schenk. This plan was revisited in 1915 during the preparation of the 600th anniversary celebration for

66-768: A boarding school in Basel run by Heinrich Glarean , with whom he maintained a lifelong correspondence. He had brief stints as a mercenary in Northern Italy in 1523 and in Southern France in 1536. Beginning his political career, Tschudi served as bailiff of Sargans from 1530 to 1532, of Rorschach (on behalf of the Prince-Abbot of St. Gall ) from 1532 to 1533, and of the County of Baden from 1533 to 1535 and from 1549 to 1551, where he had his first contact with Roman antiquities on

88-682: A summary of these discoveries see Georg von Wyss in the Jahrbuch of the Historical Society of Glarus (1895), vol. xxx., in No. i (1894), of the Anzeiger f. schweizerische Geschichte , and in his Geschichte d. Historiographie in d. Schweiz (1895), pp. 196, 201, 202. The original articles by Vogelin (Roman inscriptions) appeared in vols xi., xiv. and xv. (1886–1890) of the Jahrbuch f. schweizer Geschichte , and that by Schulte (Glarus) in vol. xviii. (1893) of

110-604: Is one of the earliest constitutional documents of Switzerland. A treaty of alliance from 1291 between the cantons of Uri , Schwyz and Unterwalden , the Charter is one of a series of alliances from which the Old Swiss Confederacy emerged. In the 19th and 20th century, after the establishment of the Swiss federal state , the Charter became the central founding document of Switzerland in the popular imagination. The Charter documents

132-698: Is the Chronicon Helveticum , a history of the early Swiss Confederation . Tschudi was born in Glarus on 5 February 1505 to Ludwig Tschudi the Elder, a Swiss mercenary in French service and veteran of the Swabian War , and Margaretha Kilchmatter. He studied at the Latin school of Glarus, where he had the future Protestant reformer Huldrych Zwingli , then the parish priest of Glarus, as his professor. Tschudi later attended

154-548: Is the year inscribed for example on the Tell Monument , commissioned in 1895. The idea of the charter of 1291 representing the founding document of the Confederacy was first suggested in a report by the Federal Department of Home Affairs of 21 November 1889, in the context of a proposed combined celebration of the 700th anniversary of the foundation of Bern and the 600th anniversary of the Confederacy in 1891. Celebration of

176-558: The Abbot of Einsiedeln for the final sessions of the Council of Trento . He died in Glarus on 28 February 1572. Tschudi's chief works were not published until long after his death. The Beschreibung Galliae Comatae appeared under Frieda Gallati 's [erratum: Johan Jacob Gallati, 1715-1760; Frieda Gallati 1876-1955] editorship in 1758, and is mainly devoted to a topographical, historical and antiquarian description of ancient Helvetia and Rhaetia,

198-521: The Battle of Morgarten , but its realisation was delayed due to World War I. After the war, the canton of Schwyz requested federal support for the project, which was granted in 1928. Designed by Joseph Beeler in 1933, the Bundesbriefarchiv (Federal Charter Archive) was opened in 1936. In 1979/80, the exhibition hall was renovated, and restoration work was carried out on the 21 banners and flags displayed in

220-617: The Eternal Alliance of the League of the Three Forest Cantons ( German : Ewiger Bund der Drei Waldstätten ), the union of three cantons in what is now central Switzerland. It is dated to early August 1291, which in the 20th century inspired the date of Swiss National Day , 1 August. Done in Latin , the Charter makes reference to a previous (lost or unwritten) pact. It is now exhibited at

242-726: The Museum of the Swiss Charters of Confederation in Schwyz . The Alliance was concluded between the people of the alpine areas of Uri , Schwyz and Unterwalden ( homines vallis Uranie universitasque vallis de Switz ac communitas hominum Intramontanorum Vallis Inferioris ). The participants are referred to as conspirati and (synonymously) coniurati , traditionally translated in German as " Eidgenossen " (and in English as "Confederates"). The Charter

SECTION 10

#1732847882636

264-526: The ancient traditions of the Swiss defence of liberty, giving roles not only to William Tell but to the heroic moment of the foundation of the Confederacy, when Werner Stauffacher representing Schwyz, Walter Fürst of Uri and Arnold of Melchtal for Unterwalden meet at the Rutli, a meadow above Lake Lucerne, and take an oath to defend Swiss freedom. Tschudi’s influential text dates that event to 8 November 1307. Down to

286-652: The cause of the Counter-Reformation . It is, however, as the historian of the Swiss Confederation that he is best known. He collected material for three major works, which have never wholly lost their value, though his researches have been largely corrected. In 1538 his book on Rhaetia , written in 1528, was published in Latin and in German: De prisca ac vera Alpina Rhætia , or Die uralt warhafftig Alpisch Rhætia . In his later years, Tschudi became an advisor to

308-590: The context of Chapter 15 of the Golden Bull of 1356 in which Charles IV outlawed any conjurationes, confederationes, and conspirationes , meaning in particular the city alliances ( Städtebünde ), but also other communal leagues that had sprung up through the communal movement in medieval Europe . It was then very common to produce documents only when needed. At the time, agreements were most often verbal, and any documentation drawn up later might have its contents or dates changed to suit current purposes. The charter

330-569: The latter part being his early work on Rhaetia revised and greatly enlarged. This book was designed practically as an introduction to his magnum opus, the Chronicon Helveticum , part of which (from 1001 to 1470) was published by J. R. Iselin in two stately folios (1734–1736); the rest consists only of rough materials. There exist two rather antiquated biographies of Tschudi by I. Fuchs (2 vols, St Gall, 1805) and C. Vogel (Zürich, 1856). Tschudi worked from both documents and legends to portray

352-552: The latter part of the 19th century Swiss historical writers had largely based their works on his investigations and manuscripts. The historical reputation of Tschudi has suffered after later research. His statements and documents relating to Roman times and the early history of Glarus and his own family had long roused suspicion. Detailed examination has proved that he not merely claimed to have copied Roman inscriptions that had never existed, and amended others in an arbitrary fashion, but that he deliberately forged documents to push back

374-460: The letter used to be disputed as a supposed modern forgery, but historians now agree that it is certainly a product of the 14th century. In 1991, the parchment was radiocarbon dated at ETH to between 1252 and 1312 (with a probability of 85%); alternatively, it could date to between 1352 and 1385 (with a probability of 15%). The document is thus not a forgery, tied to the emergence of the modern federal state in 1848, but should rather be seen in

396-480: The museum. In 1998/99, the exhibition was re-arranged. In the meantime, the institution changed its name to Bundesbriefmuseum (Museum of the Swiss Charters of Confederation). Aegidius Tschudi Aegidius Tschudi ( Glarus , 5 February 1505 – Glarus, 28 February 1572) was a Swiss historian , statesman and soldier, an eminent member of the Tschudi family of Glarus, Switzerland . His best-known work

418-403: The origin of his family to the 10th century. He thus also entirely misrepresented the early history of Glarus, which is that of a democratic community, and not (as he pretended) that of a preserve of several aristocratic families. Tschudi's historical credit is thus low, and no document printed or historical statement made by him can be accepted without careful verification and examination. For

440-419: The site of Vindonissa . He played an increasingly important role in the canton of Glarus in the 1550s, as councillor, vice- landamman , and finally as chief magistrate or landamann from 1558 to 1560. As the Swiss representative at the 1559 Diet of Augsburg , Tschudi was ennobled by Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor . Originally inclined to moderation, Tschudi became later in life more and more devoted to

462-476: Was part of a system of defensive pacts among the polities that later became the Swiss cantons. They include the following, also on display at the Museum of the Swiss Charters of Confederation: The charter of 1291 became important in the historiography of Switzerland only in the late 19th century. Previously, the date of the foundation of the Confederacy had been traditionally given as 1307 ( Aegidius Tschudi ); this

SECTION 20

#1732847882636

484-481: Was probably intended to ensure legal certainty after the death of Rudolf I of Habsburg on 15 July 1291. The first two paragraphs commit all three communities to the joint defence of the three valleys. The remainder of the Charter concerns judicial matters: It calls for arbitration in the case of conflicts, rejects foreign judges, establishes the death penalty for murderers and exile for arsonists, and commands obedience to judges and judicial verdicts. The authenticity of

#635364