Vogtei Rheintal
Encyclopedia
Vogtei Rheintal was condominium of the Old Swiss Confederacy
from the 15th century until 1798.
Its territory corresponded to the left banks of the Alpine Rhine between Hoher Kasten
and Lake Constance
, including the towns of Altstätten
and Rheineck
.
Almost all the area is covered today by Rheintal (Wahlkreis) within the canton of St. Gallen
.
, the defeat by Appenzell
in the Battle of Stoss Pass
, 17 June 1405 put an end to the Habsburg expansion (and won Appenzeller independence from the Imperial Abbey of St Gall). Marbach
, Berneck
and Altstätten allied with Appenzell in the , in the first union of the Rhine Valley from Rheineck
to Kriessern. Appenzeller defeat in the Battle of Bregenz
three years later brought and end to this new-found liberty and restored the Habsburgs. By 1424, however, the Rhine Valley was largely in the hands of the counts of Toggenburg. After their extinction, Appenzell reconquered the Rheintal with Rheineck in the Old Zürich War
in 1445.
In 1464, Appenzell protected the Rheintal from the territorial claims of the prince-abbot
of St Gall, particularly in a series of battles at the time of the "Rorschacher Klosterbruch", the for the St Gallerkrieg between 28 July 1489 and the spring of 1490. Nevertheless, Appenzell was forced to cede the governing protectorship of the Valley to the warring powers — the Abbey and the four cantons of Glarus
, Lucerne
, Schwyz
and Zürich
— bringing the bailiwick into the ambit of the Old Swiss Confederation as a Gemeine Herrschaft (condominium
).
The following year, the were joined by Uri
, Unterwalden
and Zug
in the government of the condominium. Appenzell regained its seat in the governing protectorship in 1500 and Berne
. The prince-abbot also sat in the court, in Kriessern.
, Kriessern and Rüthi
had a Catholic majority. Through the defeat of the Catholic hegemony over Switzerland and the end of the lengthy religious disputes that had riven the Confederacy, the 11 August 1712 Peace of Aarau established confessional parity, allowing both religions to coexist in legal equality — a concept relatively common to the Holy Roman Empire
since the Peace of Westphalia
in 1648.
On 26 March 1798, a Landsgemeinde
in Altstätten
promulgated a constitution and elected both a magistrate and a council . Within weeks, however, this nascent independence was quashed with the inclusion of the Rheintal into the Helvetic
canton of Säntis
, with the exception of Rüthi
and Lienz
, assigned to Linth
.
With Napoleon's Act of Mediation
on 19 February 1803, the Helvetic Republic and its cantonal boundaries were abolished, with the Rheintal reunited as a district of the canton of St. Gallen
, stretching from Staad
to Lienz and with its capital alternating monthly between Altstätten and Rheineck.
Old Swiss Confederacy
The Old Swiss Confederacy was the precursor of modern-day Switzerland....
from the 15th century until 1798.
Its territory corresponded to the left banks of the Alpine Rhine between Hoher Kasten
Hoher Kasten
The Hoher Kasten is a mountain in the Appenzell Alps, overlooking the Rhine in Eastern Switzerland. It is located on the border between the cantons of Appenzell Innerrhoden and St. Gallen....
and Lake Constance
Lake Constance
Lake Constance is a lake on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps, and consists of three bodies of water: the Obersee , the Untersee , and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Seerhein.The lake is situated in Germany, Switzerland and Austria near the Alps...
, including the towns of Altstätten
Altstätten
Altstätten is a town in the district Rhine Valley, in the canton of St. Gall in Switzerland.- Overview :The town consists of the following tracts: Alter Zoll, Altstätten, Bächis, Baumert, Bieser, Büeberg, Bühl, Bühl , Bühl bei Hinterforst, Burgfeld, Bürglen, Burst, Domishäuser, Fidern, Gätziberg,...
and Rheineck
Rheineck
Rheineck is a municipality in the Wahlkreis of Rheintal in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland.-History:Rheineck is first mentioned about 1163 as castellum Rinegge. In 1218 it was mentioned as Rinegg...
.
Almost all the area is covered today by Rheintal (Wahlkreis) within the canton of St. Gallen
Canton of St. Gallen
The Canton of St. Gallen is a canton of Switzerland. St. Gallen is located in the north east of Switzerland. It covers an area of 2,026 km², and has a population of . , the population included 97,461 foreigners, or about 20.9% of the total population. The capital is St. Gallen. Spelling...
.
Establishment
During the Appenzell WarsAppenzell Wars
The Appenzell Wars were a series of conflicts that lasted from 1401 until 1429 in the Appenzell region of Switzerland. The wars were a successful uprising of cooperative groups, such as the farmers of Appenzell or the craftsmen of the city of St. Gallen, against the traditional medieval power...
, the defeat by Appenzell
Appenzell
Appenzell is a region and historical canton in the northeast of Switzerland, entirely surrounded by the Canton of St. Gallen....
in the Battle of Stoss Pass
Stoss Pass
Stoss Pass is a mountain pass between the cantons of Appenzell Innerrhoden and Appenzell Ausserrhoden in Switzerland.-History:On June 17, 1405 during the Appenzell Wars, there was a battle on the pass between 400 soldiers from Appenzell and 1200 Habsburg and abbatial soldiers. The Appenzellers...
, 17 June 1405 put an end to the Habsburg expansion (and won Appenzeller independence from the Imperial Abbey of St Gall). Marbach
Marbach, St. Gallen
Marbach is a municipality in the Wahlkreis of Rheintal in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland.-Geography:Marbach has an area, , of . Of this area, 75.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while 6.3% is forested...
, Berneck
Berneck
Berneck is a municipality in the Wahlkreis of Rheintal in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland.-History:Berneck is first mentioned in 892 as Farniwang...
and Altstätten allied with Appenzell in the , in the first union of the Rhine Valley from Rheineck
Rheineck
Rheineck is a municipality in the Wahlkreis of Rheintal in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland.-History:Rheineck is first mentioned about 1163 as castellum Rinegge. In 1218 it was mentioned as Rinegg...
to Kriessern. Appenzeller defeat in the Battle of Bregenz
Bregenz
-Culture:The annual summer music festival Bregenzer Festspiele is a world-famous festival which takes place on and around a stage on Lake Constance, where a different opera is performed every second year.-Sport:* A1 Bregenz HB is a handball team....
three years later brought and end to this new-found liberty and restored the Habsburgs. By 1424, however, the Rhine Valley was largely in the hands of the counts of Toggenburg. After their extinction, Appenzell reconquered the Rheintal with Rheineck in the Old Zürich War
Old Zürich War
The Old Zürich War , 1440–46, was a conflict between the canton of Zürich and the other seven cantons of the Old Swiss Confederacy over the succession to the Count of Toggenburg....
in 1445.
In 1464, Appenzell protected the Rheintal from the territorial claims of the prince-abbot
Prince-abbot
A Prince-Abbot is a title for a cleric who is a Prince of the Church , in the sense of an ex officio temporal lord of a feudal entity, notably a State of the Holy Roman Empire. The secular territory ruled by the head of an abbey is known as Prince-Abbacy or Abbey-principality...
of St Gall, particularly in a series of battles at the time of the "Rorschacher Klosterbruch", the for the St Gallerkrieg between 28 July 1489 and the spring of 1490. Nevertheless, Appenzell was forced to cede the governing protectorship of the Valley to the warring powers — the Abbey and the four cantons of Glarus
Canton of Glarus
The Canton of Glarus is a canton in east central Switzerland. The capital is Glarus.The population speaks a variety of Alemannic German.The majority of the population identifies as Christian, about evenly split between the Protestant and Catholic confessions.-History:According to legend, the...
, Lucerne
Canton of Lucerne
Lucerne is a canton of Switzerland. It is located in the centre of Switzerland. The population of the canton is . , the population included 57,268 foreigners, or about 15.8% of the total population. The cantonal capital is Lucerne.-History:...
, Schwyz
Canton of Schwyz
Schwyz is a canton in central Switzerland between the Alps in the south, Lake Lucerne in the east and Lake Zurich in the north, centered around and named after the town of Schwyz....
and Zürich
Canton of Zürich
The Canton of Zurich has a population of . The canton is located in the northeast of Switzerland and the city of Zurich is its capital. The official language is German, but people speak the local Swiss German dialect called Züritüütsch...
— bringing the bailiwick into the ambit of the Old Swiss Confederation as a Gemeine Herrschaft (condominium
Condominium (international law)
In international law, a condominium is a political territory in or over which two or more sovereign powers formally agree to share equally dominium and exercise their rights jointly, without dividing it up into 'national' zones.Although a condominium has always been...
).
The following year, the were joined by Uri
Canton of Uri
Uri is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland and a founding member of the Swiss Confederation. It is located in Central Switzerland. The canton's territory covers the valley of the Reuss River between Lake Lucerne and the St. Gotthard Pass. German is the primary language spoken in Uri...
, Unterwalden
Unterwalden
Unterwalden is the old name of a forest-canton of the Old Swiss Confederacy in central Switzerland, south of Lake Lucerne, consisting of two valleys or Talschaften, now organized as two half-cantons, an upper part, Obwalden, and a lower part, Nidwalden.Unterwalden was one of the three participants...
and Zug
Canton of Zug
The Canton of Zug is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland. It is located in central Switzerland and its capital is Zug. With 239 km² the canton is one of the smallest of the cantons in terms of area. It is not subdivided into districts.- History :The earlier history of the canton is...
in the government of the condominium. Appenzell regained its seat in the governing protectorship in 1500 and Berne
Canton of Berne
The Canton of Bern is the second largest of the 26 Swiss cantons by both surface area and population. Located in west-central Switzerland, it borders the Canton of Jura and the Canton of Solothurn to the north. To the west lie the Canton of Neuchâtel, the Canton of Fribourg and Vaud. To the south...
. The prince-abbot also sat in the court, in Kriessern.
Swiss Reformation
In 1528, the Swiss Reformation was accepted in the Rheintal; whilst Roman Catholic minorities remained, only Altstätten, WidnauWidnau
Widnau is a municipality in the Wahlkreis of Rheintal in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland.-Geography:Widnau has an area, , of . Of this area, 34.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while 2.4% is forested...
, Kriessern and Rüthi
Rüthi
Rüthi is a municipality in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland.-History:Rüthi is first mentioned in 820 as Reuti. Until 1994 it was known as Rüthi .-Geography:...
had a Catholic majority. Through the defeat of the Catholic hegemony over Switzerland and the end of the lengthy religious disputes that had riven the Confederacy, the 11 August 1712 Peace of Aarau established confessional parity, allowing both religions to coexist in legal equality — a concept relatively common to the Holy Roman Empire
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...
since the Peace of Westphalia
Peace of Westphalia
The Peace of Westphalia was a series of peace treaties signed between May and October of 1648 in Osnabrück and Münster. These treaties ended the Thirty Years' War in the Holy Roman Empire, and the Eighty Years' War between Spain and the Dutch Republic, with Spain formally recognizing the...
in 1648.
Independence
In 1798, the Vogtei Rheintal unilaterally declared its independence. In the aftermath of the collapse of the Old Swiss Confederation resulting from the French invasion of Switzerland.On 26 March 1798, a Landsgemeinde
Landsgemeinde
The Landsgemeinde or "cantonal assembly" is one of the oldest forms of direct democracy. The first historically documented assembly took place in 1294...
in Altstätten
Altstätten
Altstätten is a town in the district Rhine Valley, in the canton of St. Gall in Switzerland.- Overview :The town consists of the following tracts: Alter Zoll, Altstätten, Bächis, Baumert, Bieser, Büeberg, Bühl, Bühl , Bühl bei Hinterforst, Burgfeld, Bürglen, Burst, Domishäuser, Fidern, Gätziberg,...
promulgated a constitution and elected both a magistrate and a council . Within weeks, however, this nascent independence was quashed with the inclusion of the Rheintal into the Helvetic
Helvetic Republic
In Swiss history, the Helvetic Republic represented an early attempt to impose a central authority over Switzerland, which until then consisted mainly of self-governing cantons united by a loose military alliance, and conquered territories such as Vaud...
canton of Säntis
Canton of Säntis
Säntis was the name of a canton of the Helvetic Republic from 1798 to 1803, consisting of the territory of St. Gallen, Appenzell and Rheintal. Its capital was St. Gallen....
, with the exception of Rüthi
Rüthi
Rüthi is a municipality in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland.-History:Rüthi is first mentioned in 820 as Reuti. Until 1994 it was known as Rüthi .-Geography:...
and Lienz
Lienz
Lienz is a medieval town in the Austrian state of Tyrol. It is the administrative centre of the Lienz district, which covers all of East Tyrol. The municipality also includes the cadastral subdivision of Patriasdorf.-Geography:...
, assigned to Linth
Canton of Linth
Linth was a canton of the Helvetic Republic from 1798 to 1803, consisting of Glarus and its subject County of Werdenberg, the Höfe and March districts of Schwyz and the Züricher subject Lordship of Sax, along with a handful of shared territories....
.
With Napoleon's Act of Mediation
Act of Mediation
The Act of Mediation was issued by Napoleon Bonaparte on 19 February 1803 establishing the Swiss Confederation. The act also abolished the previous Helvetic Republic, which had existed since the invasion of Switzerland by French troops in 1798. After the withdrawal of French troops in July 1802,...
on 19 February 1803, the Helvetic Republic and its cantonal boundaries were abolished, with the Rheintal reunited as a district of the canton of St. Gallen
Canton of St. Gallen
The Canton of St. Gallen is a canton of Switzerland. St. Gallen is located in the north east of Switzerland. It covers an area of 2,026 km², and has a population of . , the population included 97,461 foreigners, or about 20.9% of the total population. The capital is St. Gallen. Spelling...
, stretching from Staad
STAAD
STAAD or is a structural analysis and design computer program originally developed by Research Engineers International in Yorba Linda, CA. In late 2005, Research Engineer International was bought by Bentley Systems...
to Lienz and with its capital alternating monthly between Altstätten and Rheineck.