… in the Pay of England.
"ALTHOUGH the following notes are not strictly connected with numismatics, yet they may be of interest indirectly to students of British military annals and collectors of war medals. A History of Switzerland, I4gg-igi4, by Wilhelm Oechsli, late Professor of Swiss History at the University of Zurich, and translated from the German by Eden and Cedar Paul, was published in 1922 by the Cambridge University Press. This important work is supplemented by an appendix, which first appeared in 1919 in the Neue Ziircher Zeitung, and was later issued in pamphlet form, entitled The Historical Relations of England and Switzerland.
This concise record of Anglo-Swiss political connexions led one tosearch for further information on the services of Swiss officers and Swiss mercenary regiments in the pay of England. Richard Pace was the first British envoy to propose, in 1514, an alliance between the powerful "Swiss league" and his master, King Henry VIII, against France. Cardinal Schinner, the famous representative of the Swiss cantons, came over to London, but French intrigues thwarted the negotiations which came to nothing.
The Reformation brought Switzerland in closer touch with the
British Islands. During the reigns of Edward VI and Queen Elizabeth the spiritual intercourse between the two countries became very intimate. John Knox, who had sat at the feet of Calvin in Geneva, founded the Presbyterian Church on Calvinistic principles. Under Mary Tudor, and later under Charles I, numerous British refugees found an asylum and friendly welcome in Switzerland. The relations
of friendship continued under Cromwell, who was well supported by the Swiss in his conflict with the Duke of Savoy over the Waldensians. On the accession of William of Orange, the champion of Europe against France, England and the Netherlands planned to take advantage of the friendliness of the Protestant cantons to detach them from
their alliance with France and to utilize Swiss mercenaries. An English envoy, Thomas Coxe, was sent in 1689 to conclude an alliance and secure 4,000 mercenaries.
This alliance did not come off, because William III would not accept the condition laid down that "the Swiss troops should only be used for purposes of defence". Oechsli tells us that "the Protestant cantons showed a scarcely concealed dislike to Louis XIV after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685), and maintained the closest relations with the Protestant naval powers. Zurich and Bern rejoiced over the victories of Marlborough and of Prince Eugene, and rightly so from the Swiss point of view…"
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