Tyranny of Steel

In the City of Geneva on the other side of the Swiss Confederation from where the Royal Austrian Army currently occupied, various high-ranking noblemen were gathered to discuss the reality of the war they were facing.

These men in their entirety spoke the German language and were considerably closer to the Austrians ethnically than they were to their Italian masters. As vassals of the Holy Roman Empire, they held a high degree of autonomy. With this in mind, they decided to exercise their right to negotiate their surrender to the Kingdom of Austria.

Adelbrand von Salzburg, General of the Austrian Army, tasked with invading the Swiss Confederation, had sent his demands to the remaining leaders of the Swiss Confederation. The terms that Adelbrand had made were simple; the Austrian Army would only yield their conquest if the Swiss Confederation in its entirety agreed to annexation by the Austrian Crown, where it would be reformed as the Grand Duchy of Switzerland.

The Grand Duchy of Switzerland would effectively become a Vassal State of the Kingdom of Austria and would be subject to all laws as established in the Austrian Constitution. To the Lords of the Swiss Confederation, this was not an appealing prospect. They would be giving up the degree of autonomy they had maintained under the Holy Roman Emperor in favor of a strong centralized government under the authority of a single Monarch.

Not only that, but they would be forced to usher in the military, political, economic, agricultural, and industrial reforms that Berengar had established in Austria; thus, these men would be losing a significant degree of political and military power. This thought specifically caused one of the more prominent noblemen. They had gathered for this meeting to be quite irritated as he presented his case against surrendering to the Austrian Crown.

”The upstart Berengar von Kufstein has gone too far with his demands! He expects us to kneel before him and beg him for mercy!?! Never! We should fight until our last breaths against this annexation; it is a humiliation to the Swiss people! ”

This Count was not the only one who felt this way, as several members of the nobility immediately expressed support for this viewpoint.