The Treaty of Basel of 22 September 1499 was an armistice following the

Battle of Dornach A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and for ...

, concluding the

Swabian War The Swabian War of 1499 ( gsw, Schwoobechrieg (spelling depending on dialect), called or ("Swiss War") in Germany and ("War of the Engadin") in Austria) was the last major armed conflict between the Old Swiss Confederacy and the House of ...

, fought between the

Swabian League The Swabian League (''Schwäbischer Bund'') was a mutual defence and peace keeping association of Imperial Estates – free Imperial cities, prelates, principalities and knights – principally in the territory of the early medieval stem duchy o ...

and the Old Swiss Confederacy. The treaty restored the

status quo ante ''Status quo ante'' may refer to: * ''Status quo ante'' (phrase), Latin for "the way things were before" * Status Quo Ante (Hungary), Jewish communities in Hungary See also * ''Status quo ante bellum The term ''status quo ante bellum'' i ...

territorially. Eight out of the ten members in the

League of the Ten Jurisdictions The League of the Ten Jurisdictions was the last of the Three Leagues founded during the Middle Ages in what is now Graubünden, Canton Graubünden of Switzerland. The League was created in the County of Toggenburg after the counts of Toggenbur ...

were confirmed as nominally subject to the Habsburgs, but their membership in the league and their alliance with the Swiss Confederacy was to remain in place. Jurisdiction over

Thurgau Thurgau (; french: Thurgovie; it, Turgovia), anglicized as Thurgovia, more formally the Canton of Thurgau, is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of five districts and its capital is Frauenfeld. Thurgau is par ...

, previously an Imperial loan to the city of Constance, was to pass to the Swiss Confederacy. The

imperial ban The imperial ban (german: Reichsacht) was a form of outlawry in the Holy Roman Empire. At different times, it could be declared by the Holy Roman Emperor, by the Imperial Diet, or by courts like the League of the Holy Court (''Vehmgericht'') or t ...

and all embargoes against the Swiss cantons were to be discontinued. In 19th-century

Swiss historiography The historiography of Switzerland is the study of the history of Switzerland. Early accounts of the history of the Old Swiss Confederacy are found in the numerous Swiss chronicles of the 14th to 16th centuries. As elsewhere in Europe, these ...

, the treaty was presented as an important step towards ''de facto'' independence of the Swiss Confederacy from the Holy Roman Empire. In the words of

Wilhelm Oechsli Wilhelm Oechsli (6 October 1851, Riesbach – 26 April 1919) was a Swiss historian. Oechsli studied theology and history at Berlin and Zürich, under Theodor Mommsen among others. In 1887 he took up the new chair of Swiss history at the Swiss Fe ...

(1890), the treaty represented "the recognition of Swiss independence by Germany". This view has come to be viewed as untenable in 20th-century literature (Sigrist 1949, Mommsen 1958), as there is no indication that the leaders of the Confederacy at the time had any desire to distance themselves from the Empire. Nevertheless, the Confederacy was substantially strengthened as a polity within the Empire by the treaty, and an immediate consequence of this was the accession of

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...

and

Schaffhausen Schaffhausen (; gsw, Schafuuse; french: Schaffhouse; it, Sciaffusa; rm, Schaffusa; en, Shaffhouse) is a town with historic roots, a municipality in northern Switzerland, and the capital of the canton of the same name; it has an estimate ...

in 1501, as part of the expansion (1481–1513) from the late medieval

Eight Cantons The Old Swiss Confederacy began as a late medieval alliance between the communities of the valleys in the Central Alps, at the time part of the Holy Roman Empire, to facilitate the management of common interests such as free trade and to ensure ...

to the early modern

Thirteen Cantons The early modern history of the Old Swiss Confederacy ('' Eidgenossenschaft'', also known as the "Swiss Republic" or ''Republica Helvetiorum'') and its constituent Thirteen Cantons encompasses the time of the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648 ...

. "Obwohl weder die Wormser Beschlüsse von 1495 noch die Weigerung der Eidgenossen, diesen nachzukommen, erw. sind, sah die ältere schweiz. Historiografie im Frieden von B. einen Wendepunkt im Verhältnis zwischen Eidgenossenschaft und Reich; nach Wilhelm Oechsli wurde damals die "Unabhängigkeit der Schweiz von Seiten Deutschlands" (1890) anerkannt. Diese Meinung gilt heute als widerlegt. Die Berichte des Gesandten Solothurns von den Verhandlungen in B. zeigen vielmehr, dass die Eidgenossen wünschten, "gnedeclich wider zum Rich" gelassen zu werden. Bis ins 17. Jh. hielten die eidg. Orte an ihrer Zugehörigkeit zum Reich fest und waren z.B. bereit, für die Türkenkriege Truppen zu stellen oder Geld für den gleichen Zweck zu bezahlen. Die Konflikte mit dem Haus Österreich und der eidg. Widerstand gegen eine wachsende "Verdichtung" der "offenen" Reichsverfassung (Peter Moraw) schmälerten in der Eidgenossenschaft noch bis weit in die Frühneuzeit nicht das Ansehen des Reichs als oberster Schutzmacht der Christenheit.

References

*H. Sigrist, "Zur Interpretation des Basler Friedens von 1499", ''Schweizer Beiträge zur Allgemeinen Geschichte'' 7, 1949, 153–155. *K. Mommsen, ''Eidgenossen, Kaiser und Reich'', 1958, 11–16. *P. Moraw, "Reich, König und Eidgenossen im späten MA", in ''Jahrbuch der Historischen Gesellschaft Luzern'' 4, 1986, 15–33. {{Authority control 1490s treaties Treaties of the Old Swiss Confederacy

Swabian War 1490s in the Holy Roman Empire 1499 in Europe 1499