Berne, Imperial Free City of

Bern, founded in 1191 by Berthold V, Duke of Zähringen, is made a free imperial city by the Goldene Handfeste of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in 1218 after after Berthold dies without an heir.

The expansionist Swiss of the free imperial city of Bern have, throughout the early 1300s, extended their control by annexing surrounding territories.

To counter this growth, the Burgundians invade with a fifteen thousand man force, including cavalry and infantry, and lay siege to the town of Laupen, a Bernese acquisition.

Laupen’s Bernese defenders receive help from the three nuclear Forest cantons of the Everlasting League—Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden—and although outnumbered three to one, the Swiss infantry charges, routing the Burgundians on the field on June 21, 1339, and withstanding a strong counterattack by the Burgundian cavalry.

The siege is lifted, the Swiss having demonstrated, for the first time, their military valor and resolution; ...

...Bern becomes the established leader of the evolving polity of Switzerland.