ABSTRACT
By the early sixteenth century, Bern and Fribourg had intensified their political rapprochement with Geneva and Lausanne, particularly through combourgeoisies (alliance treaties) signed in 1525 and 1526. The Swiss factions saw alliances with Bern and Fribourg not as liberation from a “tyrannical” feudal rule – as an outdated historiography has often claimed – but as a pragmatic alternative to Sabaudian and episcopal rule, better ensuring security and economic stability. As the Genevan case shows, these alliances, aimed at countering Savoy’s instability, intensified local factionalism. In the end, turning Swiss was less about democratic ideals and more about a complex interplay between diplomacy, the personal ambitions of some of the factional leaders, and the practical requirements of regional protection.
