HELVETIA. 
dent republican date was not yet in their contempla¬ 
tion. Their league was not even a general, uniform, 
equal, confederacy; it was kept together by confe¬ 
rences, which gave rife to the Helvetic Diets of after¬ 
days, but which at this date had nothing fixed either as 
to time or place. There exifted no regular organized 
congrefs, as foreigners have fuppofed ; who fancied that 
they faw in Swiflerland, in the fourteenth century, ano¬ 
ther Achrean league, or a federative republic ; an aftb- 
ciation in fubltance and in name unknown to the Swifs 
of that sera. It is necelfary to be apprized.of this fa£t, 
in order properly to comprehend the complicated tranf- 
adtions of this country. 
In the courfe of the long conteft between the houfe of 
Auftria and the confederates, we meet with this cari¬ 
ous incident. The caufe of quarrel having been refer¬ 
red to the emperor Charles IV. he pronounced a judg¬ 
ment which the cantons refufed to obey. Indignant at 
this adt of difobedience, he refolved to carry his decree 
into execution by force of arms. He called out his vaf- 
fals, marched againft Zurich, and inverted it with a large 
army. The chiefs and their followers held their enemy 
in the utmoft contempt, and they regarded themfelves 
as affembled rather to fliare fpoils than to engage in 
war. How, faid they, can four thoufand burghers and 
peafants refill four thoufand men in armour, and forty 
thoufand infantry and cavalry? The befieged, how¬ 
ever, were not difiieartened, but bravely defended them¬ 
felves, and made many forties. As little difcipline was 
obferved in the imperial camp, the befieged had fre¬ 
quent communications with the befiegers, and they per- 
fuaded a part of them that the war in which they had 
engaged was diredtly againft: their own inter,eft; that, if 
they deftroyed Zurich, they would annihilate the right 
which the ftates and cities of the empire claimed, of en¬ 
tering into alliances one with another; and that it was 
notorious that it was againft this right exercifed by the 
confederates, that the emperor and the princes waged 
war. They pointed out the alarming progrefs made by 
the houfe of Auftria, for whofe fake the war was under¬ 
taken, from the time in which Rodolph had been a pen- 
fioner of their fathers, to the prefent, when his grand- 
fon was feeking the deftrudtion of that city to which, 
his family owed the commencement of its elevation. 
Why fhould the ftates of the empire aid the duke of 
Auftria to deftroy the remains of liberty, and to forge 
thofe chains which, in their turn, they fhould be forced 
to wear ? Thefe infinuations had their etfedl. Zurich, 
having thus fhaken the fidelity of the foldiers^ induced 
them to take its part, by hoifting on a high tower a 
ftandard, exhibiting the black eagle in a field of gold ; 
which was intended to declare to all the world that it 
was a free and imperial city. At the fight of this flag, 
an univerfal commotion took place in the befieging 
camp. The heated multitude approached the tent of 
the emperor, and demanded with loud cries that he 
fhould give peace to Zurich, and to its allies. Charles 
appeared intimidated, adopted the requeft of his troops, 
and railed the fiege ; faying that, as it. was the with of 
the majority of the army that the cantons fhould be al¬ 
lowed to enter info alliances among themfelves, it was 
no longer fit to continue a war, of which the foie objedt 
was to prevent thefe compadls. The duke of Auftria 
jfoon felt himfelf under the necelfity of following the ex¬ 
ample of the emperor, by refraining from hoftilities, 
and entering into terms with the cantons. 
But though truce fucceeded truce, the cantons were 
not to be allowed to enjoy their rights in peace, till ano¬ 
ther war fhould give a new ftrength to their title. The 
houfe of Auftria regarded the confederacy as a barrier 
which it muft break down, in order to fubjugate its 
members one after another. Various caufes ‘contri¬ 
buted to rekindle the flames which had been fmother- 
ed ; both fides had been aggrefiors; and the great houfes 
and the free communities were deftined again to refer 
371 
their caufe to the decifion of the fword. The quefth.n 
to be determined was not refpedling territory and reve¬ 
nue, but whether the nobles fhould refume their ancient 
authority over the people, or the latter fhould remain 
for ever emancipated ? Leopold duke of Auftria had 
very lately triumphed over a confederacy in the empire, 
far more extenfive, but not fo well compared, as the 
Helvetic. Inflamed with rage, and intoxicated with 
fuccefs, he talked only of crufhing the infolent confede¬ 
racy of the Swifs, and of making them expiate their re¬ 
bellion by feverity of punifhment. In the Courfe of a 
few weeks, one hundred and feven princes and lords 
of Helvetia and Swabia fent to the cantons defiances 
and declarations of war, full of outrage and menace. 
T.hefe meflages were fucceffively delivered at the place at 
which they held their deliberations, in hopes that their 
threats, renewed almoft at every inftant, would terrify 
them ; the moft rigorous treatment was holden out to 
them; and their union was termed a horde of villians; 
but, to inlju.lt an enemy is never to conquer him ; and 
it often renders him invincible. Yet Berne declined a 
fhare in this glorious conteft, and the .other feven can¬ 
tons were left alone to face their powerful foe. 
The battle which decided the fate of the confederacy, 
and placed its independence out of all danger in future,' 
was fought on the 9th of June, 1386. Leopold formed 
his army under the walls of Sempach ; it confided of 
four thoufand picked troops, of princes, lords, and dif- 
tinguifhed knights, cafed from head to foot in brilliant 
armour; while the confederates occupied a height de¬ 
fended in part by a wood, and did not exceed fourteen 
hundred in number. The latter were drawn up in clofe 
order, in an angular form ; and they made extraordi¬ 
nary efforts to penetrate the Auftrian column, but they 
were vain, and many brave men fell ; till Arnold de 
Winkelried, a knight of the canton of Underwalden, a 
man of large fize and great intrepidity, f'prang from the 
ranks, crying to his companions, “Take care of-my 
wife and children; I go to open a palfage for you.” 
He immediately rufhed on the enemy, feized as many of 
the iron heads of the lances as his nervous arms could 
hold, and, placing them on his broad cheft, he drew 
them along with him in falling. By this heroic facri- 
fice of himfelf, he enfured the victory to his country¬ 
men ; who, pafling in a crowd over his body, caft them¬ 
felves into the opening which he had made, advanced 
with an irrefiftible force, and commenced a horrible car¬ 
nage. Leopold, adviled to betake himfelf to flight, 
difdained to outlive his defeat ; faying, “ Can I think 
of furviving thofe who have facrificed their lives for 
me?” Obferving fome of his moft faithful,attendants 
ftretched dead at his feet, he cried out, “ Since fo many 
brave men have died, I will die like them with ho¬ 
nour.” He then threw himfeif on the ranks of the vic¬ 
tors, and was flain by a man of Uri, who did not know 
him. Of the Auftrians two thoufand men perilhed oh 
this memorable day, in which were included fix hun¬ 
dred and fixteen nobles, and three hundred and fifty 
knights, counts, and princes.. The confederates loft as 
many hundreds, among whom was the immortal Win¬ 
kelried, the landamman of Uri, the landamman of Un¬ 
derwalden, and Peterman of Gundoldigen, their gene¬ 
ral and avoyer of Lucerne, who expired of his wounds 
juft as vidlory had declared in favour of his country¬ 
men ; and who, with his dying words, advifed his fel¬ 
low-citizens never to continue an .avoyer in office for 
more than one year. 
The exploits of the little community of Glaris follow 
clofe o.n the heels of thofe which immortalize the day ■ 
of Sempach. But thefe have been anticipated in the 
article Glaris, vol. viii. 596. Speaking of the terri¬ 
torial acquifitions made by different cities, Mr. Planta, 
in his Hiftory of the Helvetic Confederacy, obferves : 
“ In each of thefe confradts, all feudal rights, not alie¬ 
nated in the bargain, and all previous municipal privi¬ 
leges 
