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Freiburg's History for Pedestrians |
Archduke Albrecht VI
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The Duchy of Burgundy
In 1361 the French King Jean le Bon (1350-1364) grants his youngest son Philippe le Hardi the territory of Burgundy - the wine land around the city of Dijon - in fee. This is the beginning of the Duchy of Burgundy. In later years nobody stops Philippe's heirs from expanding their territory as France is in the midst of the Hundred Years War with England (1339-1453) while the Habsburgs battle the Swiss for their Austrian possessions in the Aargau.
Soon the citizens of Freiburg realize that there is not such a thing like a free meal, as their new rulers ask them for money and troops to fight in the Swiss wars. The battle of Sempach against the Confederates in 1386 marks the beginning of Swiss independence. In that battle not only the Austrian Duke Leopold is killed but the majority of Freiburg's nobility is slain too. One of them the Duke's body guard Martin Malterer fights with all his might against the Swiss halberdiers while his master is bleeding to death at his feet. At least Freiburg's banner shall not fall in the hands of the enemy. In vain, the winners eventually capture the flag and still expose it in the Church of the Bare Footers in the city of Lucerne.
The Church Council of Constance (1414-1418)
Jean XXIII
Freiburg Gets its University in 1457
Lecturing in the Dominican monastery
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Charles the Rash |
The End of the Duchy of Burgundy
Charles the Rash (1433-1404) was the greediest of all the Dukes of Burgundy. People called him the Occidental Turk, for his hunger for land was comparable with that of the Turks in the Orient i.e. on the Balkan. To stop Charles from expanding his territory the French King Louis XI manages an alliance between the Swiss and the Habsburgs against the Duke who then fights his last three battles: At first Charles loses his bonnet in the Battle of Grandson, later his booty in Morat and eventually his blood in Nancy.
Real trouble starts as a consequence of the Senlis Peace Treaty in 1493. The young Archduke Maximilian married to Charles' sister Maria inherits most of the Duke's land whilst the French king only gets la Picardie and la Bourgogne. Judge for yourself looking on the map supplied.
As German King Maximilian later acquires the rule over Spain, Naples, Bohemia and Hungary again not by war but according to the motto: Fortes bella gerant, tu felix Austria nube!*. The French king feels that the Habsburg outmaneuvered him. This is the beginning of more than 300 years of bitter enmity between the Houses of Valois, later Bourbon and Habsburg. It only came to an end in 1806 when, pressed by Napoleon I, the Habsburg Franz II abdicated as German Emperor but at the same time remounted the throne as the Austrian Emperor Franz I. *May the strong wage wars, you lucky Austria marry!
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Maximilians Statue at the Kaufhaus on Münsterplatz
The Reich's double eagle at the Altes Zollhaus in Colmar (France). One head represents the Emperor the other the Estates
Maximilian's relief at the House of the Whale on Franziskanerstraße
Gravamina kept in the Martin Luther Museum in Wittenberg |
Maximilian I, They Call Him the Last Knight
In 1473 the German Emperor Frederick III (1439-1493) takes his 14-years-old son Maximilian to Freiburg. When they visit one of the many gem-cutting factories young Maximilian gets his pointed shoe into a polishing machine. His shoe is torn off but luckily his foot is saved.
In
spite of this event Maximilian loves Freiburg and is always generous to the
city when he becomes German King in 1493. The Empire is not in a good
state. Roads are not safe and only fortified
Medieval city wall riddled with toilets and an underground parking lot at Gerberau near Augustinerplatz
The Imperial Diet Meets in Freiburg in 1498
Maximilian convenes the 1498 Imperial Diet in Freiburg. The city is bursting
at the seams when the
The old Courthouse on Turmstraße now used for the City's receptions
On the agenda of the Diet is the Swiss refusal of both the Imperial Court and the Common Cent. For the participants of the Diet this attitude causes severe headaches or are those rather due to the bad wine that is served at the Kornhaus. Since no peace can be made with the Swiss the Diet instead adopts the first German ordinance on the purity of wine that threatens heavy punishment to those guilty of adulteration. The famous German beer purity regulation only passed in 1516, i.e. 18 years later!
The Swabian War
In 1599 immediately following the Diet Maximilian starts the so called Swabian war on those stubborn Swiss. Again Freiburg has to send troops and furnish money and as before the Swiss inflict a crushing defeat but this time on the Imperial Army at Dornach. In the following peace treaty of Basle the Swiss have their will and de facto become independent of the Empire.
Those Golden Years
The
defeat of the
Keystone of the original gate to the Freiburg Mint on Münzgasse
The Münster in all its splendor around 1520
Joß Fritz, Leader of a Peasants' Revolt
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Impotence of Emperor and Estates
It is true that Maximilian at the end of his life is only a shadow of his former self. The roads of the Reich are as insecure as at the beginning of his reign. While desperados like Franz von Sickingen devastate the country the simple people groan and cry. At the Imperial Diet held in Frankfurt in 1518 a remedy is not even proposed. One year later in Augsburg the same assembly rather discusses another ongoing topic: the Gravamina of the German Nation against the Holy See in Rome. These complaints are directed against the financial burden the Roman Church is inflicting on the German nobility as well as on the common man by asking money for the Curia, entitling clergymen to undeserved benefits and selling indulgences to the people. Also here necessary reforms are postponed.
When Emperor Maximilian dies in 1519 the Electors having been bribed with more than 850 000 ducats choose his grandson Charles V as German Emperor, money that the rich trader house of the Fuggers in Augsburg had easily advanced.
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This page was last updated on 08 August, 2013