The three Swabian lands which formed the kernel of the Old League lay at the point of union of the three Imperial kingdoms, parts of all of which were to become members of the Confederation in its later form. ♦First known document of union, 1291.♦ The first known document of confederation between the three lands dates from the last years of the thirteenth century. But that document is likely to have been rather the confirmation than the actual beginning of their union. They had for their neighbours several ecclesiastical and temporal lords, some other Imperial lands and towns, and far greater than all, the Counts of the house of _Kyburg_ and _Habsburg_, who had lately grown into the more dangerous character of Dukes of Austria. ♦Growth of the League.♦ The Confederation grew for a while by the admission of neighbouring lands and cities as members of a free German Confederation, owning no superior but the Emperor. ♦Luzern, 1332.♦ First of all, the city of _Luzern_ joined the League. ♦Zürich, 1351.♦ Then came the Imperial city of _Zürich_, which had already begun to form a little dominion in the adjoining lands. ♦Glarus and Zug, 1352.♦ Then came the land of _Glarus_ and the town of _Zug_ with its small territory. ♦Bern, 1353.♦ And lastly came the great city of _Bern_, which had already won a dominion over a considerable body of detached and outlying allies and subjects. ♦The Eight Ancient Cantons.♦ These confederate lands and towns formed the _Eight Ancient Cantons_. Their close alliance with each other helped the growth of each canton separately, as well as that of the League as a whole. ♦Their growth.♦ Those cantons whose geographical position allowed them to do so, were thus able to extend their power, in the form of various shades of dominion and alliance, over the smaller lands and towns in their neighbourhood. These lesser changes and annexations cannot all be recorded here; but it must be carefully borne in mind that the process was constantly going on. ♦Dominion of Zürich and Bern.♦ Zürich, and yet more Bern, each formed, after the manner of an ancient Greek city, what in ancient Greece would have passed for an empire. ♦Conquests from Austria, 1415-1460.♦ In the fifteenth century, large conquests were made at the expense of the House of Austria, of which the earlier ones were made by direct Imperial sanction. The Confederation, or some or other of its members, had now extended its territory to the Rhine and the Lake of Constanz. ♦Aargau, Thurgau, &c.♦ The lands thus won, _Aargau_, _Thurgau_, and some other districts, were held as subject territories in the hands of some or other of the Confederate states. ♦No new canton formed for a long time.♦