A very few years later we hear of the first federal union of which we have any certain knowledge. The great quarrel between the emperor and the Pope, and the flight of the latter to Lyons, had set Europe on fire. Schwyz took up arms to defend the founder of its liberties, and entered into an alliance with Uri and Unterwalden--and even Lucerne--to throw off the yoke of the younger Habsburg line. War raged fiercely in the valleys of the Forest and by Lake Lucerne, till the Popish party was brought to bay, and the overseer driven from the Habsburg castle. We do not know the result of this insurrection; it closed no doubt with the death of Rudolf and Frederick in 1249-50. It is to this period of the insurrection doubtless that the stories of Tell, the oath on the Rütli, &c., apply most clearly. They are reminiscences probably of some forgotten episodes of the campaigns. Had the annalists connected the stories with these times instead of with the reign of Albrecht, their validity could hardly have been contested. When Rudolf III. of Habsburg-Austria became emperor, and had bought from the younger branch of his house the estates and titles in the Waldstätten, he drew Schwyz most closely to his family. He refused to confirm Frederick's charter on the plea that that monarch had been excommunicated. The magistrates were officers of his own; he gathered the taxes in his own name, and, in 1278, assigned them as dowry to the English bride of his favourite son, Hartmann. Schwyz did not feel comfortable under all this, and stood on its guard. Unterwalden[26], the lowland district of the Forest, was politically quite behind the times. It was exceedingly fertile, and was much in request, and in the thirteenth century was parcelled out amongst religious-houses, great nobles, and lesser freemen. The Habsburgs being not only the greatest proprietors, but also stewards of the religious-houses, naturally held sovereign sway. It was only by the aid of friendly neighbours indeed that Unterwalden could hold its own against such powerful masters, and of all its neighbours the men of Schwyz were not only the best organized, politically, but the most energetic and far-seeing. That the Schwyzers took the lead in the emancipation of the district is pretty clear from the name that was given to the newly-formed state by surrounding lands, and by the Austrians after the battle of Morgarten.