Sigismund

Sigismund, the Habsburg Duke of Austria, had inherited from his father rulership over Tyrol in 1446, together with (other) Further Austria Vorderösterreich, which include the Sundgau in the Alsace, the Breisgau, and some possessions in Swabia.

Emperor Frederick III, of a rival branch of this expansionist family, backs his cousin’s family claim rather than assert imperial rights in the region.

Frederick attempts to split the Swiss Confederation, which now includes the abbeys of Saint Gall, Rapperswill, and Stein am Rhein as allies and Appenzell and Steinhausen as members.

When Pope Pius II excommunicates Duke Sigismund over the investiture issue in 1460, the Swiss, not yet under attack, act against the imperial menace by dispatching their troops north as far as the Rhine River, meeting with scarcely any opposition.

Occupying Frauenfeld and taking Thurgau canton from Sigismund’s forces, …

…Swiss troops unsuccessfully besiege Winterthur.

Pius II has tried also mediation in the Thirteen Years' War between Poland and the Teutonic Knights, but, when he fails to achieve success, casts an anathema over Polish and Prussians both.

At the same time, Pius is engaged in a series of disputes with the Bohemian King George of Podebrady and Archduke Sigismund of Austria (who has been excommunicated for having arrested Nicholas of Cusa, bishop of Brixen, in the course of a dispute over the control of the Eisack, Puster and Inn valleys.

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The Habsburgs, in the person of Duke Sigismund, are left with only a few strongholds south of the Rhine by the Peace of Constance concluded in 1461, and the members and allies of the Swiss Confederation are left, for the time being, to their own devices.

Jakob Fugger is responsible for his family's business in Augsburg, Tyrol, Venice and Rome.

Around 1485, the family had also founded manufactories in Innsbruck.

Through a small loan, he there had first come into contact with Archduke Sigismund, a member of the Habsburg family.

The archduke, as the sole owner of the Tyrol property rights, has handed out permissions for mining operations to private investors which in return have to pay a share of their profits to Sigismund.

Despite this income he is constantly short of money owing to a lavish lifestyle, several illegitimate children and his extensive construction projects.

A responsibility to pay the amount of one hundred thousand guilders of war reparations to Venice is eventually financed by Jakob Fugger.

In 1488, the total debt already amounts to more than one hundred and fifty thousand guilders.

Notable is the form of payment: instead of paying the Fürst directly, the Fugger family pays the money to his creditors as well as providing the wages for the royal court and craftsmen.