Background
One source of conflict was the ancient distrust, rivalry, and hostility between the Old Swiss Confederacy and the House of Habsburg, which had risen to the throne of the Holy Roman Emperor since 1438. Since the late 13th century, the members of the Swiss Confederacy had gradually taken control of territories that once had belonged to the Habsburg realm. The Swiss had attained the status of imperial immediacy. They were reichsfrei, subject only to the emperor himself and did not respond to any intermediate liege lords or princes. This status granted them a far-reaching autonomy within the Holy Roman Empire, even more so as the emperor was a distant overlord. Prior to 1438, the empire and the emperor had been an antipole to the Habsburg dukes for the Swiss. Previous emperors had repeatedly supported the confederates in their struggles against the Habsburgs, whom they saw a strong rivals. They had confirmed the Reichsfreiheit of the Swiss on several occasions; and the Swiss had succeeded in defending their privileged status against Habsburg dukes, who had tried to regain their former territories.
Read more about this topic: Swabian War
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