Gruyère (Switzerland) -- History; Gruyère, Counts of
the rage and cupidity of the Bernois knew no restraint, and the city and
cathedral were sacked remorselessly, thus bringing to an end an utterly
unwarranted campaign of wanton destruction.
Duchess Yolande, who had hastened to the relief of Duke Charles, was
also so suspected by her defeated ally that he caused her to be arrested
by his maitre d'hotel and some brutal Italian soldiers and cast into the
Burgundian fortress of Rouvres, whence, finally convinced that her
brother was the most powerful as well as the most friendly of her foes,
she appealed to him for deliverance. Brought by his agents to France
after three months' imprisonment, Louis summoned her to his presence at
Plessis-les-Tours: "Madame la Bourguignonne," he said with his evil
smile, "you are welcome." "I am a good French woman," replied his
sister, "and ready to obey the will of your Majesty."
Whether, as has been recorded, Louis really loved his sister, who was
almost as able and far more attractive than himself, he kept her in
strict imprisonment until she signed a paper of perpetual fidelity to
him, and then he sent her back to Savoy and reestablished her on her
ducal throne. The prince bishop of Geneva was even more eager than his
sister-in-law to desert Duke Charles, and fearing that his city would
suffer the fate of Lausanne, offered to assist the Bernois in invading
Burgundy, there to complete the duke's destruction; whereupon the
Bernois at the price of an enormous indemnity consented to spare Geneva,
and to cease all further conquests in the Pays de Vaud. They also
agreed, under the repeated commands of King Louis to send their deputies
to a convention of the ambassadors of all the powers to meet at
Fribourg in July, 1476. A great and imposing company were these
ambassadors, who from France and Austria, Savoy, and the confederated
cities and cantons of Switzerland met to treat of the long needed peace.
Among them were Duke Rene of Lorraine and Count Louis of Gruyere, who
together with a representative of Archduke Sigismund, were chosen as
arbitrators to decide the terms of the proposed treaty. Acting for
Savoy, the count of Gruyere, who only by _force majeure_ had sided with
its foes, now ably and happily proved his real fidelity to its
interests, providing for the restoration of all its possessions in the
Pays de Vaud. At a second conference at Annecy, when the alliance
between the Confederates and Savoy was amicably regulated, he was also
present, receiving from the Genevan delegates rich donations for his
invaluable services. For Duke Charles, also Count Louis was as before
willing to negotiate a peace with Fribourg, but when a second deputation
of the same messengers whom the duke had before despatched to him, was
again unable to furnish the written authority he required, he was once
more unable to mediate on the duke's behalf. But when his friend and
co-arbitrator, Duke Rene of Lorraine, appealed for assistance to the
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