Old Swiss Confederacy

confederation of cantons (1291-1798)

44 dated entries naming Old Swiss Confederacy, drawn from 40 separate years between 1307 CE and 1798 CE. Nothing here is written by us: each line is the sentence a Wikipedia year article used, and the link beside it opens the exact revision.

Also written as Old Swiss Confederation, Swiss Confederacy in the source articles; Wikipedia redirects those to the same subject, so their entries are on this page.

JSON Wikipedia article Wikidata Q435583

14th century

1307November 18 – William Tell, Swiss mountain climber and marksman, shoots (according to legend) an apple off his son's head with a crossbow at Altdorf, Switzerland.source
1332November 7 – Lucerne joins the Swiss Confederation with Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden.source
1351May 1 – Zürich joins the Old Swiss Confederacy.source
1352June 4 – Glarus joins the Old Swiss Confederacy.source
1353March 3 – Bern signs an alliance with the Old Swiss Confederacy.source
1356October 18 (St Luke's Day) – The Basel earthquake affects northern Switzerland, with a maximum MSK intensity of IX–X (Destructive–Devastating), leaving around 1,000 dead. It is the most damaging intraplate earthquake known to have occurred in central Europe.source
1367January 29 – At Chur in what is now the Swiss Canton of Raetia, the League of God's House is founded in the Old Swiss Confederacy as an agreement between nine communities to come to each other's aid in the event of a crisis.source
1386January 6 – Officials from the Swiss Canton of Lucerne, arrive in the village of Sempach, at the time under control of Austria and the Habsburg family, and offer Swiss citizenship and rights. Lucerne's representatives enter into similar pacts with other Austrian-controlled towns, including Meienberg, and bring with them soldiers from the Swiss Confederacy.source
1386July 9 – Battle of Sempach: Soldiers from cantons of the Old Swiss Confederacy defeat the Austrian Habsburg Army in a battle that leads to the unification of the cantons into the nation of Switzerland.source
1388April 9 – At the Battle of Näfels, the Canton of Glarus, in alliance with the Old Swiss Confederacy, decisively defeats the Duchy of Austria and the Habsburgs, despite being outnumbered 16 to one.source
1389April 1 – Following the Battle of Sempach, a seven-year peace agreement is concluded between the Duchy of Austria and the Old Swiss Confederacy.source
1394July 16 – The agreement between the Swiss Confederacy (the cantons of Lucerne, Uri, Schwyz and Unterwaldeden) and the Duchy of Austria, originally signed on April 1, 1389, following the 1386 Battle of Sempach, is extended by amendment.source

15th century

1411November 24 – The Swiss canton of Appenzell enters into an alliance with most of the cantons of the Swiss Confederacy.source
1415The Swiss Confederation takes the territory of Aargau from the house of Habsburg.source
1427The first witch hunts begin, in Switzerland.source
1440November 2 – The Old Zurich War begins as the Canton of Zurich, led by the burgomaster Rudolf Stüssi, is expelled from the Swiss Confederation (Corpus helveticum) by the leaders of the other cantons (Bern, Glarus, Lucerne, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Uri and Zug). Stüssi makes an alliance with Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor and a war which will last more than five years begins.source
1443July 22 – Battle of St. Jakob an der Sihl (Old Zurich War): The forces of the city of Zurich are defeated, but the Swiss Confederacy have insufficient strength to besiege and take the city.source
144426 August - French troops fight the Battle of St. Jakob an der Birs against the Old Swiss Confederacysource
1446March 6 – The Battle of Ragaz marks the last military conflict of the Old Zurich War between the Swiss Confederacy and the Habsburgs, as 1,200 soldiers of the Confederation defeat the Austrian army, commanded by Hans von Rechberg and Wolfhart V. von Brandis, the Habsburg bailiff of Feldkirch. Among other things, the banners of the lords of Brandis are lost to the confederates and later transferred to the church in Sarnen. According to contemporary accounts, around 900 men from the Habsburg army and around 100 men from the Swiss army fell in the battle.source
1452November 23 – The Canton of Appenzell becomes an associate member of the Swiss Confederacy. Full membership will be granted more than 50 years later in 1513.source
1454June 13 – The canton of St. Gallen is accepted as an associate state of the Swiss Confederation.source
1460April 4 – The University of Basel is founded in Switzerland.source
1466June 17 – Mülhausen, a free city within the Holy Roman Empire, joins the Swiss Confederacy in an alliance against the Habsburg dynasty including the Emperor Frederick III.source
1469Sigismund of Austria sells Upper Alsace to Charles the Bold, in exchange for aid in a war against the Swiss.source
1470Between this year and 1700, 8,888 witches are tried in the Swiss Confederation; 5,417 of them are executed.source
1475November 13 – Burgundian Wars – In the Battle on the Planta, near Sion in the Swiss Canton of Valais, forces of the Old Swiss Confederacy are victorious against those of the Duchy of Savoy.source
1476March 2 – In retaliation for the massacre of the Swiss defenders of the Grandson Castle, troops from the Canton of Bern and the Old Swiss Confederacy defeat the Burgundian troops of Charles the Bold and force him to flee.source
14762 March – Charles the Bold suffers a defeat at the hands of Swiss forces at the Battle of Grandsonsource
1476April 14 –The Treaty of Fribourg is signed by representatives of the Swiss Confederation and the Duchy of Savoy after France's King Louis XI intervenes to stop the war in Switzerland over former Savoyard territories in the Canton of Vaud.source
1479March 26 – Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary, concludes a treaty with the Swiss Confederacy hindering the recruitment of Swiss mercenaries by the Emperor.source
1480March 3 – The Treaty of Lucerne is signed between the Duchy of Milan and the Old Swiss Confederation, 15 months after the Battle of Giornico. Milan cedes the Leventina District to the Canton of Uri.source
1481December 22 – The Canton of Fribourg and the Canton of Solothurn are admitted as cantons of Switzerland by the Swiss Confedderationsource
1499April 11 – The Battle of Schwaderloh is won by the Swiss Confederacy over the Swabian League with more than 1,400 of the Swabian troops killed.source
1499July 22 – Battle of Dornach: The Swiss decisively defeat the army of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor.source

16th century

1501The Swiss cantons of Basel and Schaffhausen join the Old Swiss Confederacy.source
1513December 17 – The Canton of Appenzell becomes a member of the Swiss Confederacy.source
1516November 29 – The "Treaty of Perpetual Peace" is signed in the city of Fribourg in Switzerland, between representatives of the Thirteen Cantons of the Old Swiss Confederacy, and King Francis of the Kingdom of France, confirming the French victory in the 1515 Battle of Marignano. The Swiss Confederacy renounces all claims to the French protectorate of Milan in Italy, in for 700,000 gold crowns in compensation.source
1531October 11 – Battle of Kappel: The forces of Zürich are defeated by the Catholic cantons. Huldrych Zwingli, the Swiss religious reformer, is killed.source
1549Excerpta antiqua is published by Hervagius at Basel, Switzerland.source

17th century

1648October 24 – Signing of the Treaties of Münster and Osnabrück concludes the Peace of Westphalia, ending the Thirty Years' War. Rulers of the Imperial States can personally convert to Protestant, Catholic or Calvinist. Ecclesiastical property is restored to the status of 1624, with the minorities of each of the three recognized faiths granted toleration of worship, and there is general recognition of exclusive sovereignty, including that of the Dutch Republic and Switzerland. France and Sweden gain territory, and the latter is granted an indemnity. However, France remains at war with Spain until 1659. Prisoners of war should be released and allowed to return to their homelands without ransom after hostilities end.source
1656January 5 – The First War of Villmergen, a civil war in the Confederation of Switzerland pitting its Protestant and Roman Catholic cantons against each other, breaks out but is resolved by March 7. The Lutheran cantons of the larger cities of Zurich, Bern and Schaffhausen battle against seven Catholic cantons of Lucerne, Schwyz, Uri, Zug, Baden Unterwalden (now Obwalden and Nidwalden) and St. Gallen.source

18th century

1764May 3 – Baden, one of the member states of the Confederation of Switzerland, declares a policy of remaining neutral in future conflicts, a model that is soon followed by other members of the Confederation and which eventually becomes the basis for Swiss neutrality from 1815 onward.source
1765September 6 – Jean-Jacques Rousseau's house in Switzerland is stoned by a mob.source
1798April 12 – The Helvetic Republic, a French client republic, is proclaimed following the collapse of the Old Swiss Confederacy after the French invasion; Aarau becomes the republic's temporary capital.source