Potent arguments like these induced Matthias not only to turn his back on Podiebrad, but to accept that deposed monarch’s crown which the Bohemian nobles offered him May 3, 1469.  Then he proceeded to ally himself with Frederic, elector palatine, and with the elector of Bavaria.  This was the moment when the ex-king of Bohemia made renewed offers of friendly alliance to Charles of Burgundy.  In his name the Sire de Stein brought the draft of a treaty of amity to Charles which contained the provision that Podiebrad should support the election of Charles as King of the Romans, in consideration of the sum of two hundred thousand florins (Rhenish).[2]

This modest sum was to secure not only Podiebrad’s own vote but his “influence” with the Archbishop of Mayence, the Elector of Saxony and the Margrave of Brandenburg.[4] While Podiebrad thus dangled the ultimate hopes of the imperial crown before the duke’s eyes, he over-estimated his credulity.  As a matter of fact the royal exile had no “influence” at all with the first named elector, and the last, too, showed no disposition whatsoever to serve his unstable policy.  Both were content to advise Emperor Frederic.  The sole result of the empty overtures was to increase Charles’s own sense of importance.

Another negotiation which sought him unasked had, however, a material influence on the course of events, and must be touched on in some detail.  Sigismund of Austria—­first duke then archduke,—­Count of Tyrol, cousin of the Emperor Frederic, was a member of the House of Habsburg.  In 1449, he had married Eleanor of Scotland, and became brother-in-law of Louis during the term of the dauphin’s first marriage.  An indolent, extravagant prince, he was greatly dominated by his courtiers.  His heritage as Count of Tyrol included certain territories lying far from his capital, Innsbruck.  Certain portions of Upper Alsace, lands on both sides of the Rhine, Thurgau, Argau in Switzerland, Breisgau, and some other seigniories in the Black Forest were under his sway.

These particular domains were so remote from Innsbruck that the authority of the hereditary overlord had long been eluded.  The nobles pillaged the land near their castles very much at their own sweet will.  The harassed burghers appealed to the Alsatian Decapole,[5] and again to the free Swiss cantons for protection, and sometimes obtained more than they wanted.

Mulhouse was seriously affected by these lawless depredations.  To her, Berne promised aid in a twenty-five years’ alliance signed in 1466, and at Berne’s insistance the cowardly nobles restrained their license.  But when the city attempted to extend its authority Sigismund interfered.  Having no army, however, he could not recover Waldshut, which the Swiss claimed a right to annex, except by offering ten thousand florins for the town’s ransom.  Poor in cash as he was in men, he had, however, no means to pay this ransom and begged aid in every direction.  Moreover, he feared further aggressions from the cantons, which were growing more daring.  What man in Europe was better able to teach them a lesson than Charles, the destroyer of Liege, the stern curber of undue liberty in Flanders?  Was he not the very person to tame insolent Swiss cowherds?