The Thurgau (''Turgowe, Turgovia'') was a

pagus In ancient Rome, the Latin word (plural ) was an administrative term designating a rural subdivision of a tribal territory, which included individual farms, villages (), and strongholds () serving as refuges, as well as an early medieval geogra ...

of the Duchy of Alamannia in the early medieval period. A County of Thurgau ('' Landgrafschaft Thurgau'') existed from the 13th century until 1798. Parts of Thurgau were acquired by the Old Swiss Confederacy during the early 15th century, and the entire county passed to the Confederacy as a condominium in 1460. The county became the Canton of Thurgau within the Helvetic Republic in 1798, and with the

Act of Mediation The Act of Mediation () was issued by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the French Republic on 19 February 1803 establishing the Swiss Confederation. The act also abolished the previous Helvetic Republic, which had existed since the invasi ...

of 1803 a canton of the restored Confederacy.

Alamannic pagus

The ''Turgowe''

within Alamannia was named for the Thur, and it included the entire Alamannic territory between

Upper Rhine The Upper Rhine (german: Oberrhein ; french: Rhin Supérieur) is the section of the Rhine between Basel in Switzerland and Bingen in Germany, surrounded by the Upper Rhine Plain. The river is marked by Rhine-kilometres 170 to 529 (the ...

and Reuss. With the Alamannic settlement of

Central Switzerland Central Switzerland is the region of the Alpine Foothills geographically the heart and historically the origin of Switzerland, with the cantons of Uri, Schwyz, Obwalden, Nidwalden, Lucerne and Zug. Central Switzerland is one of the NUTS 2 Stat ...

in the 6th to 8th centuries, Turgowe included most of what is now Northeastern and Central Switzerland. Odilo, son of duke

Gotfrid :''See Gottfried for the given name.'' Gotfrid (also ''Gotefrid'', modernized ''Gottfried''; la, Gotfridus or ''Cotefredus''; (c. 650–709) was the Duke of Alemannia in the late seventh century and until his death. He was of the house of the Agil ...

, was count of Turgowe between 709 and 736 (when he acceded as

duke of Bavaria The following is a list of rulers during the history of Bavaria. Bavaria was ruled by several dukes and kings, partitioned and reunited, under several dynasties. Since 1949, Bavaria has been a democratic state in the Federal Republic of Germ ...

). After the

Council of Cannstatt The Council of Cannstatt, also referred to as the blood court at Cannstatt (''Blutgericht zu Cannstatt''), was a council meeting at Cannstatt, now a part of Stuttgart, in 746 that took place as a result of an invitation by the Mayor of the Palace o ...

, a Frankish nobleman named Warin is recorded as count in Thurgau for the year 754. In the 9th century, Zürichgau was detached from Thurgau, so that Thurgau was now bounded to the west by the

Töss Töss is a district in the Swiss city of Winterthur. It is district number 4. The district comprises the quarters Schlosstal, Dättnau, Eichliacker and Rossberg. It is named after the river Töss which flows through the district. In the Middle ...

basin. (the Allmen range west of the Töss), corresponding in area to what is now

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 ...

, Appenzell, parts of

St. Gallen , neighboring_municipalities = Eggersriet, Gaiserwald, Gossau, Herisau (AR), Mörschwil, Speicher (AR), Stein (AR), Teufen (AR), Untereggen, Wittenbach , twintowns = Liberec (Czech Republic) , website = ...

(

Fürstenland Fürstenland or Alte Landschaft is the name of a historical territory of the Swiss canton of St. Gallen, corresponding to the modern districts of St. Gallen (without the city proper), Wil and Rorschach. It was a subject territory of the Abbey of ...

and

Toggenburg Toggenburg is a region of Switzerland. It corresponds to the upper valley of the river Thur and that of its main tributary, the Necker. Since 1 January 2003, Toggenburg has been a constituency (''Wahlkreis'') of the canton of St. Gallen ( ...

), and the parts of

Zürich , neighboring_municipalities = Adliswil, Dübendorf, Fällanden, Kilchberg, Maur, Oberengstringen, Opfikon, Regensdorf, Rümlang, Schlieren, Stallikon, Uitikon, Urdorf, Wallisellen, Zollikon , twintowns = Kunming, San Francisco Zürich ...

east of the Töss.

Hunfriding The Hunfridings or Burchardings (''Bouchardids'') were a family of probably Alemannic origin who rose to prominence in their homeland, eventually becoming the first ducal dynasty of Swabia. The first known member of the family was Hunfrid, Margrav ...

counts of Thurgau in the 9th to 10th centuries include Adalbert II (854, 894), Udalrich (912, 917) and Burchard III (920).J. Bergmann in: ''Denkschriften der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften'' 4 (1853)
facing p. 71
With the

Battle of Winterthur The Battle of Winterthur (27 May 1799) was an important action between elements of the Army of the Danube and elements of the Habsburg army, commanded by Friedrich Freiherr von Hotze, during the War of the Second Coalition, part of the Frenc ...

(919),

Burchard II, Duke of Swabia Burchard II (883/88429 April 926) was the Hunfriding Duke of Swabia (from 917) and Count of Raetia. He was the son of Burchard I of Swabia and Liutgard of Saxony. Burchard took part in the early wars over Swabia. His family being from Francon ...

asserted his control over the Thurgau against the claims of

Rudolph II of Burgundy Rudolph II (c. 11 July 880 – 11 July 937), a member of the Elder House of Welf, was King of Burgundy from 912 until his death. He initially succeeded in Upper Burgundy and also ruled as King of Italy from 922 to 926. In 933 Rudolph acquired t ...

. The most important cities of Thurgovia in the early medieval period were

Constance Constance may refer to: Places *Konstanz, Germany, sometimes written as Constance in English *Constance Bay, Ottawa, Canada * Constance, Kentucky * Constance, Minnesota * Constance (Portugal) * Mount Constance, Washington State People * Consta ...

as the seat of the bishop, and

for its

abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The con ...

County of Thurgau

The dukes of Zähringen and the counts of Kyburg took over much of the land in the

High Middle Ages The High Middle Ages, or High Medieval Period, was the period of European history that lasted from AD 1000 to 1300. The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and were followed by the Late Middle Ages, which ended around AD 150 ...

. With the extinction of the counts of Kyburg in 1264, control of the Thurgau reverted to the Habsburgs. The Old Swiss Confederacy allied with ten freed bailiwicks of the former

seized the lands of the Thurgau from the Habsburgs in 1460, and it became a subject territory of seven Swiss cantons (Zurich, Lucerne, Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Zug and Glarus). During the Protestant

Reformation in Switzerland The Protestant Reformation in Switzerland was promoted initially by Huldrych Zwingli, who gained the support of the magistrate, Mark Reust, and the population of Zürich in the 1520s. It led to significant changes in civil life and state matte ...

, both the Catholic and emerging Reformed parties sought to swing the subject territories, such as the Thurgau, to their side. In 1524, in an incident that resonated across Switzerland, local peasants occupied the Charterhouse of Ittingen in the Thurgau, driving out the monks, destroying documents, and devastating the wine-cellar. Between 1526 and 1531, most of the Thurgau's population adopted the new Reformed faith spreading from Zurich, but Zurich's defeat in the War of Kappel (1531) ended Protestant predominance. Instead, the First Peace of Kappel protected both Catholic and

Reformed worship Reformed worship is religious devotion to God as conducted by Reformed or Calvinistic Christians, including Presbyterians. Despite considerable local and national variation, public worship in most Reformed and Presbyterian churches is governed by ...

, though the provisions of the treaty generally favored the Catholics, who also made up a majority among the seven ruling cantons. Religious tensions over the Thurgau were an important background to the

First War of Villmergen The First War of Villmergen Encarta-encyclopedie Winkler Prins (1993–2002) s.v. "Zwitserland. §5.2 Reformatie". Microsoft Corporation/Het Spectrum. was a Swiss religious war which lasted from 5 January until 7 March 1656, at the time of the Ol ...

(1656), during which Zurich briefly occupied the Thurgau.

Modern history

Thurgau became an administrative unit of the Helvetic Republic in April 1798. It acceded the Swiss Confederacy as a full canton with the

of 1803. A new, liberal cantonal constitution was drawn up in 1831. Thurgau sided with the anti-Catholic party in the '' Kulturkampf'' in Switzerland, dissolving its monasteries in 1848. The electorate supported the

Swiss Constitution The Federal Constitution of the Swiss Confederation (SR 10; german: Bundesverfassung der Schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft (BV); french: Constitution fédérale de la Confédération suisse (Cst.); it, Costituzione federale della Confederaz ...

of 1848 and its revision in 1874. A new constitution of 1869 strengthened elements of direct democracy introducing the popular referendum and the direct election of the cantonal executive. The current cantonal constitution dates to 1987.

References

* . * {{HLS, 19506, Habsburg, von, author=Franziska Hälg-Steffen, Peter Hersche. * Gnädinger, Beat (ed.): ''Abbruch – Umbruch – Aufbruch: zur Helvetik im Thurgau.'' Frauenfeld: Verlag des Historischen Vereins des Kantons Thurgau, 1999. (''Thurgauer Beiträge zur Geschichte'' Band 136). * Frömelt, Hubert; Guisolan, Michel: ''Topographische Aufnahme des Kantons Thurgau von Johann Jakob Sulzberger, 1830 bis 1838.'' In: ''Cartographica Helvetica'' Heft 17 (1998), 3–17
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