Valais History

Occupied since prehistoric times, the canton of Valais saw the rise of an exceptional civilization during the Bronze Age. From the 4th century BC, four Celtic tribes shared its territory, which was incorporated into the Roman Empire by Augustus. The Gallo-Roman Valais, located on the important Great St Bernard Pass, was prosperous. Christianity was first established in 377, and a bishopric was opened in Martigny by 381 at the latest.

With the fall of the Empire, the region became Burgundian, before being integrated into the Carolingian Frankish kingdom. On its demise, it became part of the Transjurane kingdom of Burgundy, of which the abbey of Saint-Maurice d'Agaune was the religious center. The county of Valais became the property of the bishop in 999, upon donation by Rudolph III of Burgundy. In the 11th century, it passed to the Holy Roman Empire, and feudalism fragmented it into numerous seigneuries and territories. The upper part of the territory became Germanized in successive waves between the 9th and 14th centuries, while the influence of the Counts, then Dukes, of Savoy increased in the Lower Valais. At the end of the 14th century, it became an ally of the Swiss cantons, and its border was fixed at the Morge de Conthey. During the Burgundian Wars, the Upper Valais invaded Savoy territories, annexing the Lower Valais as far as Massongex and organizing it as a subject country. In 1569, Chablais Valais was conquered, again to the detriment of Savoy. The Lower Valais remained subject to the Upper Valais, which saw the bishop's power diminish in favor of the Patriotes, who in 1634 formed a genuine federal republic, the Republic of the Seven Tithings.

It wasn't until the French Revolution that the Lower Valais gained its independence. Valais fluctuated between the Helvetic Republic (1798-1802), theoretical independence (1802-1810) and incorporation into the Empire (1810-1813). Following the fall of Napoleon I, the Allies persuaded Helvetia to join the Swiss Confederation in 1815, making it the twentieth canton.

Still torn between the German-speaking upper and French-speaking lower cantons, it came close to splitting into half-cantons (1840). As a member of the Sonderbund (1845-1847), it was defeated. The second half of the 19th century saw the development of transport (rail and road) and the beginnings of tourism, while the early 20th century saw the industrialization of the country (chemicals in Monthey and Visp, aluminum in Chippis) and the exploitation of water resources. From 1950 onwards, mass tourism developed and numerous resorts sprang up.

Prehistory and protohistory

Palaeolithic

The Valais has been inhabited since prehistoric times. The only surviving traces of Neanderthals, dating from the Palaeolithic period, were found in the Lake Tanay region and date back some 32,000 years. The Würm glaciation, when the Rhône glacier covered the whole of the Valais between 25,000 and 19,000 BC, probably irreparably disrupted most of the earlier human traces. After the glacial retreat, hunter-gatherers seem to have colonized the Valais; nevertheless, only the Scex du Châtelard cave has yielded a few remains of these late Paleolithic hunters (-13000). By contrast, no traces have been found of the hunter-gatherer cultures that colonized the rest of the Alps at the end of the Palaeolithic, around 10000 BC.

Due to the extension of Lake Geneva, whose surface was at 405 m, which at that time filled the Rhône plain as far as the Saint-Maurice cluse, it seems that reindeer, and hence the Magdalenian culture, did not penetrate the Valais, although a settlement is attested in the Chablais vaudois at Villeneuve.

The lowering of Lake Geneva's water level during the Epipaleolithic period enabled Azilian culture to spread into the Chablais region, but less probably upstream of the Saint-Maurice cluse. Although no remains have been found, camps must have existed on the plains and at high altitudes, for hunting ibex.

Mesolithic

A rock shelter dating from the Mesolithic, around 8,000 BC, has been excavated in the Vionnaz region, associated with the Sauveterrian. Traces of human occupation from the same period have been found near Zermatt, attesting to the presence of humans at altitude from this remote period.

Neolithic

Three elements support the hypothesis of population migration as the source of Neolithization in the Valais, in contrast to the acculturation phenomenon favored in the western Alps. Firstly, the simultaneous disappearance of Mesolithic techniques and the emergence of all Neolithic techniques in the Valais: there is no intermediate state."The synchronous appearance of these elements, combined with the absence of any Mesolithic features, argues in favor of colonization by agropastoral populations who, according to the style of ceramics, would have originated in the Po basin." (Pierre-Yves Nicod, ''Les premières sociétés agropastorales dans les Alpes occidentales in Premiers bergers des alpes - de la préhistoire à l'Antiquité'', Infolio, Gollion, 2008, page 46) Secondly, the absence from the local fauna of the wild ancestors' domesticated species, implying that herds had to be imported. Finally, the absence of any transition between hunting and livestock-based economies."Hunting was no longer more than an incidental activity, if the scarcity of deer, wild boar, bear and wolf bones found is anything to go by" (Philippe Curdy, ''Assises lointaines (50,000 - 15 BC)'' in ''Histoire du Valais'', Société d'histoire du Valais romand, 2002, tome 1, page 32). Because of the proximity of ceramics, it is generally accepted that it was shepherds from south of the Alps who, guiding their herds through the Alpine passes ( Simplon, Theodule, Collon, etc.), brought the new agricultural techniques to the region. Villages were located on the plain, on river alluvial fans, on the sunny side of the valley. The site of Sion (Planta) seems to have been well occupied by the 6th millennium BC, and hunting seems to have been no more than a secondary activity. At this time, the livestock seems to have consisted mainly of goats and cattle in roughly equal proportions. Wheat and starch were also grown. Ceramics, influenced by the southern Alps, are different from those of the Swiss Plateau, and the Valais civilization is referred to as the Early Neolithic culture of the Valais. Some authors see the importance of the region's settlement as a sign of the site's importance in the export throughout Europe of green obsidian polished axes from the southern Alps, at the time a symbol of power throughout Western and Northern Europe.

A new culture appeared at the beginning of the Middle Neolithic (early 5th millennium BC), related to the Early Cortaillod of the Swiss plateau, but with distinct motifs (fluting on ceramics): this was called the ''Cortaillod ancien valaisan (''Early Valais Cortaillod).

Also in the 5th millennium, an original culture, known as Saint-Léonard, developed, characterized by ceramics with original decorations. Southern influences were joined by influences from the West. The Saint-Léonard culture is particularly well represented in Sion and upstream. On the other hand, in the Lower Valais, at La Barmaz in the commune of Collombey-Muraz, two major necropolises associated with the Cortaillod civilization have been found; this would indicate two cultural areas in the Valais: the Chablais under the influence of the Cortaillod civilization and the upper Valais under that of the Saint-Léonard civilization. It is from this period that Chamblandes-type tombs composed of a cist generally contain a single skeleton in a folded position. Nearly 900 of these tombs have been found in Valais (Sion, Sembrancher, Saint-Léonard, La Barmaz near Monthey, Waldmatte, etc.).

While copper metallurgy first appeared on the Swiss plateau, no trace of this technique has been found in the Valais during this period.

The Late Neolithic saw the development of a megalithic civilization. The Petit-Chasseur necropolis in Sion, with its dolmens and anthropomorphic ''stelae'', is a monumental example. During the first half of the 3rd millennium BC, the stelae, known as ''type A'', were characterized by small heads and few representations of weapons. The graves are collective, although their small number in relation to the estimated population suggests an unequal society, probably a lineage society: this is the Valaisan Final Neolithic.

Then, between 2500 BC and 2200 BC, the Bell Beaker culture also spread to the Valais. The graves of the Petit-Chasseur became individual, and the stelae, known as Type B, were characterized by larger heads and a greater number of weapon figurations.

Near the access routes to the Alpine passes, numerous scattered objects have been found, testifying to a probable intensification of trade. A number of cupstones found in the Valais (Zermatt, Anniviers, Saint-Léonard, Évolène) also date from this period.

By the end of the Late Neolithic, local metallurgy was very primitive.
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Bronze Age

As early as the xxi century BC, traces of the Bronze Age were discovered throughout the upper Rhône valley. A specific culture, the Rhône culture, developed. Nevertheless, there was no break with the Campaniform period: the Petit-Chasseur necropolis was still in use, and individual tombs with ''type B'' megalithic stelae were still being erected. The first phase, the ''culture du Rhône préliminaire (''Early Rhone culture), is characterized by copper objects (less than 1% tin) and seems specific to the central Valais, although a grave near Thun may indicate that this culture extended to both sides of the Bernese Alps.^(fr) (Mireille David-Elbiali, ''La Suisse occidentale au IIe millénaire av. J.-C. : chronologie, culture, intégration européenne, Cahiers d'archéologie romande n°80, Lausanne'', 2000, page 309)

The following period saw the spread of Rhone culture. The entire Valais was now part of this culture's territory, as were the Aare and Sarine valleys, and the Lake Geneva region near Lausanne. Rhône culture also extended to the French Jura and part of the Middle Rhône valley. Valais is part of the Rhône-Aar group. Classic Rhone culture is influenced by the Únětice culture attested in the Danube region. These influences seem to have come from roads north of the Alps, but also from the south and northern Italy.

Between 1800 and 1600 BC, the Rhône culture, in its so-called advanced phase, extended even further territorially for the Rhône-Aar group: the shores of lakes Neuchâtel, Biel and Murten are included, as well as the western end of Lake Geneva, as far as Geneva. Metal objects are abundant, although the variety of forms is declining, heralding the decline of the culture.

From the 16th century B.C. onwards, the Rhône culture declined rapidly; apart from the Valais, where it seemed to survive somewhat, it was replaced in the rest of its geographical area by the tumulus culture originating in Central Europe. Valais mines no longer appeared to be exporters, and the influence of the southern Alps gradually increased.

As early as 1450 BC, the Valais, which was completely outside the tumulus culture dominating the Swiss plateau, saw the development of fortified settlements and came under the influence of the Alba-Scamozzina culture, which seemed to control Alpine transit.

By the end of the 15th century B.C., southern Valais seemed to be under the northern Italian influence of the Canegrate culture, although many indigenous elements were mixed in, particularly in the Sion region. Valais thus appears to be on the borderline between two cultural groups: Canegrate south of the Alps and Rhine-Rhone-Danube culture to the north. The regional culture is referred to as the ''groupe alpin de la culture de Canegrate (''Alpine group of the Canegrate culture). The intensification of Alpine exchanges is evident.

Rock shelters have been discovered above Zermatt and in the Val d'Hérens: the seasonal transhumance of herds between the plains and the alpine pastures, already attested at the end of the Neolithic, continued.
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Iron Age

During the Early Iron Age, between 800 BC and 480 BC, the Valais was on the geographical fringe of the Hallstatt civilization, which had a profound influence on the Chablais and Lower Valais regions, even though a specific evolution was recorded in terms of metallurgy. Numerous heavy bracelets have been found in the central Valais, known as Valaisan bracelets. These bracelets, also known from the Swiss plateau, survived in the Valais until the 1st century. For example, the Don Bosco necropolis at Sion in central Valais has yielded several tumuli dated between the 9th century BC and the 2nd century BC, typical of the Hallstatt period. The Upper Valais, however, seems to be further removed from the Hallstatt civilization and is more strongly influenced by northern Italian civilizations, such as the Golasecca culture, particularly in terms of burial rites.

From the 4th century BC, and into the Second Iron Age, four Celtic tribes shared the region: the Nantuates, who occupied the Monthey region, the Veragri the Martigny region (then called ''Octoduros''), the Seduni (their oppidum is present-day Sion, perhaps already called ''Drousomagos'' unless this name was only given after the Roman conquest by Tiberius and Drusus) and the Ubères (on the territory of today's German-speaking districts). These four tribes have more in common with the Lepontii and Salassi, their neighbors to the south of the Alps, than with the Helvetii, their neighbors to the north. The Binntal, although located on the Valais side of the Albrun pass linking the Valais to the Val d'Ossola via the Val Devero, was, according to archaeological data, inhabited by Lepontians occupying the Val d'Ossola, the Ticino valleys and part of present-day Milan.

The Ayent inscription, discovered in 2003 above Sion, confirms the close relationship between the Valais and the Celtic populations south of the Alps. Not only is the inscription written in Boustrophedon, in the late Lugano alphabet used by the Celts of the Po basin, whereas the Celts of Gaul generally used the Greek alphabet, but the Celtic dialect indicates a phonetic evolution specific to the peoples of northern Italy.

The Veragri coin, attested as early as the 1st century B.C. and also used by the Seduni, uses motifs from south of the Alps and does not seem to have been influenced by coins from the mid-Rhône valley.

Little is known about the religion of the Celts in the Valais: the oppidum of the Nantuates, ''Tarnaiae'', today's Massongex, derives its name from Taranis, the Celtic god. There also seems to have been a sanctuary at Saint-Maurice and topical deities, such as ''Poeninus'' at the Great St. Bernard Pass (''Summus Poeninus'') and perhaps ''Sylvius'' at the Theodule Pass (''Mons Sylvius''), which seems to be the origin of the Matterhorn's name.

Roman period

Conquest

During the Gallic War, Julius Caesar, with the help of the Thunderbolt Twelfth Legion (''Legio XII Fulminata'') under the command of Servius Galba, attempted to occupy Martigny, the key to the Grand Saint-Bernard Pass (''Summus Poenus''), but the Romans withdrew after their hard-fought victory at the Battle of Octodurus in autumn 57 BC. The road to the pass was then a mule track with a reputation for difficulty.

Although the incorporation into the Roman Empire of the Salassi of Valle d'Aosta, subdued in 27 BC, must already have greatly reduced the autonomy of the four Valais tribes, it was probably in 15 BC, after a military campaign led by the future emperor Tiberius and Drusus, that the Celtic tribes of the Alps were defeated and Emperor Augustus incorporated the region into the new province of Rhetia-Vindelicia, whose capital was Augsburg. Each of the four tribes formed a Roman city (''civitas''), and at first, seems to have retained a high degree of internal autonomy: documents refer to each of the cities independently, or refer to them generically as the ''four Valaisan cities'', indicating the possible existence of a league. In all cases, the cities are considered to have been conquered in 6BC, their names appearing on the ''Tropaeum Alpium'' at La Turbie.

High Empire

During the reign of Claudius (41-54), Valais was detached from Rhaetia-Vindelicia to become ''Vallis poenina'', a province that often, perhaps always, had the same governor as Tarentaise (Graian Alps), another Alpine province. In 47, or shortly before,"(...) whose capital is the new city founded by the emperor, ''Forum Claudii Augusti'' (Market of Claudius Augustus), a name that appears on two milestones engraved in 47 AD". (François Wiblé, ''Martigny-la-Romaine'', Fondation Pierre Gianadda, 2008, page 27) the emperor founded ''Forum Claudii Augustii'' in the immediate vicinity of the Celtic town of Octodure, which was renamed '' Forum Claudii Vallensium'' on his death, capital of the ''civitas vallensium'', the only city grouping together the four ancient tribes. The Roman city, with an estimated population of 5,000, was made up of ten ''insulae'' (districts), one of which was entirely occupied by a forum and included an amphitheater. The organization of the province seems classical, with several epitaphs referring to ''duoviri iuri dicundo'', indicating the presence of two judges, probably elected for annual terms as elsewhere in the empire.

To facilitate troop mobility in anticipation of the invasion of the British Isles in 49, the Romans may have made the strategic Mont-Joux pass road passable, but this hypothesis is debated. Relays (''mutationes'') and stopping places (''mansiones'') were created and maintained on the main routes.

The ''Pax Romana'', which lasted for almost three centuries, led to a boom in the region, with Acaunus becoming a customs post collecting the '' Quadragesima Galliarum''. Roman civilization took root in the Valais: alongside Martigny, the region's only real town and the city's capital, ''vici'' developed, for example in Sion and Massongex; ''villae'' were created but remained few in number (e.g. the villa de Marendeux in Monthey), as indigenous Celtic farms retained their importance. ''Civitas Vallensium'' was subject to Roman law, and Roman citizenship was granted to local councillors and their families in a straight ascending and descending line, enabling acculturation of the local population. Throughout the High Empire, no permanent troops were stationed in the Alps, although small detachments to protect the roads were documented.

Roman arts and traditions spread throughout the Valais. Several thermal baths have been found (at Massongex, Martigny and Sion) and sculptural art was highly developed. Excavations of the amphitheatre in Martigny unearthed several bronze statues, including the head of a Hérens cow. Only one mosaic has been found, in the Massongex thermal baths; like the other first-century mosaics found in Switzerland, it is monochrome.

Low Roman

When the Alamanni raided the Swiss Plateau around 275–277, they seem to have been driven back to the Saint-Maurice cluse. At the same time, localities downstream of the cluse, particularly Massongex, the ancient ''Tarnaiae'' (spiritual capital of the Valais Celts), faltered, as did others on the Swiss plateau.

As early as the 2nd century, cults of Asian origin are attested, such as Cybele and above all Mithra, a ''mithraeum'' having been found in Martigny.

By the mid-fourth century, Christianity was spreading in the Valais. The earliest dated evidence (377) is a Chrism on an inscription by a Roman ''aedile'', found in Sion. The first evidence of a bishop in Valais, at Martigny, dates back to 381, when Theodore signed the Acts of the Council of Aquileia as ''Bishop of Octodure''. A Christian chapel dating from the mid-fourth century has been found in Martigny, replaced in the following century by a double church, typical of episcopal sees of the period. It was Theodore who initiated the cult of Saint-Maurice in Agaune, where he "discovered" the remains of the martyrs of Agaunum and built the site's first Christian sanctuary.

From the beginning of the 5th century, the economic and political ups and downs of the Roman Empire began to make themselves felt, and trade diminished. The ''Forum Claudii Vallensium'' was abandoned in favor of the nearby market town of Octodurus; the inhabitants of Sion abandoned the right bank of the Sionne, giving up their baths and dwellings, and occupied only the Cité district, backing onto the hills of Valère and Tourbillon.

From the Burgundians to the Kingdom of Burgundy

When the Burgundians arrived as federates in the lands of the Roman Empire (434), the Valais seems not to have been part of the Sapaudia granted to them. What's more, there seems to have been an immigration of notables from this area. But as soon as imperial power in Gaul came to an end (454), foreshadowing its definitive fall in 476, the Valais was rapidly incorporated into the Kingdom of Burgundy: society was governed by the Gombette law as soon as it was promulgated by Gundobad in 502, and the future king Sigismund (in 515) founded the abbey of Saint-Maurice. Freshly converted from Arianism to Catholicism, he made the site a symbol of his people's faith and an important place of pilgrimage.

The history of the Valais then became intertwined with that of Burgundy, which was soon annexed by the Frankish monarchy (534). The natural disaster of Tauredunum, perhaps Grammont, in 563 saw a section of mountain collapse, destroying a castle and a hamlet creating a giant wave on Lake Geneva, which caused extensive damage as far away as Geneva. In 574, the abbey of Saint-Maurice was destroyed by the Lombards, who were finally defeated at Bex by the Franks; King Guntram had the monastery rebuilt. Shortly afterwards, around 585, probably to protect it from looting and perhaps following an assassination attempt on the bishop by monks from Saint-Maurice, the episcopal see was moved from Octodure to Sion, which had meanwhile become the region's principal city.

Two coin workshops from this period are attested in Valais, in Sion, and Saint-Maurice.

Valais was part of Charlemagne's empire, whose expeditionary force crossed the Great St. Bernard in 773 on its way to fight the Lombards. The earliest mention of the ''pagus vallensis'', attributed to Lothaire, was made at Worms in May 839, when a plan was drawn up for the division of the Carolingian empire. The Treaty of Verdun in 843 confirmed that the Valais belonged to Middle Francia.

In 859, the Valais belonged to Louis II, King of Italy.

In 888, the Count of Auxerre, Rodolphe I, founded the kingdom of Transjurane Burgundy, which included the Valais. He was crowned king at the Abbey of Saint-Maurice. His successor, Rudolf II, bought the kingdom of Provence in 934, founding the kingdom of Arles, which survived for almost a century.

In the 8th and 9th centuries, part of the Valais became Germanized, with the gradual infiltration of populations speaking dialects of the Upper Alemannic group. Of Aleman origin, they came from the Bernese Oberland over the Grimsel, Gemmi and perhaps Lötschen passes. They seem to be colonizing new lands, clearing them at altitude. The linguistic border, once between Brig and Visp, moved further downstream, along the Lonza River, around the 11th century.^(fr) Jean-Pierre Felbert, ''De l'Helvétie romaine à la Suisse romande'', Société d'histoire de la Suisse romande, 2006

Saracens, moving up the Rhone valley from the Mediterranean, sacked and occupied Saint-Maurice in 940; they were expelled from the kingdom of Arles in 974 by a popular uprising, marked by the battle of Tourtour (973), shortly after taking the abbot Maïeul de Cluny hostage in July 972 on the road from the Grand-Saint-Bernard to Orsières, at the Château du Châtelard.

Feudal Valais

In 999, King Rudolf III entrusted county rights to the Bishop of Sion and his successors. This document, ''The Charter of Donation of 999'', drafted at Cudrefin, on the shores of Lake Neuchâtel, is the true founding act of the Valais as a state. Along with a similar donation to the bishop of Basel in the same year, it was the first time in Swiss territory that regal rights were transferred to local lords. Surprisingly, the boundaries of the ''commitatis vallensis'' were not clearly defined; it wasn't until the 11th century that the border was fixed near the Dranse at Martigny, at the place known as Croix d'Ottans, a hamlet that no longer exists today. Feudalism gradually spread throughout the region, while transalpine traffic gradually picked up again in the course of the tenth century, as a result of the renewed stability of the continent.

In 1032, on the death of Rudolf III, the County of Valais, like the rest of the Kingdom of Burgundy, became part of the Holy Roman Empire. From 1189, the county benefited from imperial immediacy, and the Bishop of Sion became Prince of the Empire. The bishopric is now the episcopal principality of Sion.
The great feudal neighbors, the Zähringens to the north and the Savoys to the west, tried to extend their power over the Valais. In 1211, Berthold V of Zähringen was defeated at the Battle of Ulrichen.

On the other hand, the Lower Valais gradually fell into the hands of the Counts of Savoy; faced with the threat, Bishop Henri of Raron joined forces with Bern (1252), placing the county in the relatively loose and incoherent zone of regional alliances known to historians as the Burgundian Confederation: Peter II of Savoy seized the pretext and invaded Valais in the spring of 1260.^{(fr) DF/sup> Victor van Berchem, "Les dernières campagnes de Pierre II, comte de Savoie, en Valais et en Suisse", ''Revue historique vaudoise'', vol. 15, no. 9, September 1907, pp. 257-269
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.} La Bâtiaz Castle in Martigny, Château du Crest in Ardon and Château de la Soie in Savièse fell under his control, and the bishop was forced to sign a peace agreement establishing the border between the two states at the Morge de Conthey. This border was reaffirmed in 1262. From then on, the Valais was split in two: the independent Upper Valais in the hands of the Bishop of Sion, and the Lower Valais part of the Savoyard possessions. In 1268, the Val d'Hérémence became part of the Savoyard territory, and was attached to the Conthey castellany against its will.

It was also at this time that the ''Conseil général'' (General Council), the future Diet, appeared in the Episcopal Valais. At first, towards the end of the 13th century, it was an exceptional meeting of the great feudal lords, representatives of the communes and a few ecclesiastics with temporal power, mainly representatives of the Sion chapter. With the disappearance of the great secular seigneuries, the limited power of ecclesiastics other than the bishop, and the grouping of communes into dizains, the council evolved in the 14th century into a body that met on request - but at least once, then twice a year - to deal with the affairs of the country. While the General Council normally brought together all seven dizains (''Consilium generale patrie'' or ''Consilium generale tocius terre Vallesii''), councils bringing together the five German-speaking dizains (''Populares universitatis Vallesii Allemanorum'') sometimes took place; these were later also known as ''diétines''. After the disappearance of the great secular estates, the nobility no longer participated as a special body, but they retained their influence in the dizains, and their delegates were often chosen from among their descendants.
Similarly, the seigneuries and communes of the Savoy-dominated Lower Valais were regularly represented in the States of Savoy in the 14th century.

In 1348–1349, Valais was ravaged by the Black Death. Between 25% and 50% of the population died, depending on the locality. The disease, which had been absent from Europe for at least five centuries, continued to cause six epidemics in the Valais until 1450.

Following the reunification of the territories west of the Morge under Savoyard authority, the seigneury of Ardon-Chamoson passed into Savoyard hands in 1348, as did the episcopal châtellenie of Martigny in 1384. Similarly, east of the Morge, it was also in 1348 that Guichard Tavelli, Bishop of Sion, paid homage for the last time to the Duke of Savoy for the seigneury of Mörel, which had been in Episcopal hands since at least 1224, after having been in Savoy possession. The seigneury of Ayent, meanwhile, changed hands in 1376, becoming the property of the bishop.

Parallel to these Savoyard claims, a number of noble families in the Upper Valais were able to build up sizeable estates: of particular note were the seigneurs de la Tour, who dominated the Lötschental and the Niedergesteln region, as well as a significant part of the Bernese Oberland, and the de Raron family.

Savoy continued to lay claim to the Upper Valais, wishing to control north–south traffic across the Simplon Pass. Fighting was fierce, Sion was pillaged several times, and its bishop Guichard Tavelli was even defenestrated in 1375 from the top of the Soie Castle by vassals of Antoine I de la Tour, a Savoy ally at the time. The ensuing revolt culminated in the battle of Saint-Léonard the same year, where Antoine I was defeated. Having fled to Savoy, his Valais territories, Niedergesteln and the Lötschental, became subject to the five Upper Valais dizains (Conches, Brigue, Viège, Rarogne and Loèche). In 1388, at the Battle of Visp, the patriots of the Upper Valais defeated the Savoyard troops. The conflict ended in 1392, with Savoy definitively abandoning its hold on the Upper Valais, which had become less strategically important since the opening of the Gotthard and the diminished importance of the Champagne fairs. The separation of the Episcopal Valais from the Savoyard Valais is complete. The Upper Valais moved even closer to the Confederate cantons, maintaining a network of alliances with them.

The Prince-Bishop continued to fight against the last great feudal lords of the Upper Valais: the Rarogne family was defeated at the Battle of Ulrichen during the Raron affair (1410-1419).

Battles between patriots and the prince-bishop

Once the great feudal lords had disappeared, it was the dizains and their elite, the Patriotes who had assimilated the local nobility, who wished to hold temporal power. Between 1420, with the fall of the ''de Rarogne'' family, and 1634, with the abolition of the ''Constitutio Criminalis Carolina'' and the end of the bishop's temporal power as an elective prince, two centuries of often violent struggles began, marked by participation in the Italian wars and attempts to establish the Reformation, which was used for political ends.

In 1415, after besieging the Château de la Soie, the patriots of the Upper Valais, with the exception of those from Sion, obtained from Bishop Guillaume VI of Raron control over the appointment of the bishop and senior civil servants. This right was enshrined in an official document in 1435, the ''organisation judiciaire'' (judicial organization) giving the Diet the power to confirm priests and civil servants; Bishop André de Gualdo also granted the communities of Sept-Dizains the right to appoint their own châtelains on an annual basis. On January 28, 1446, the Articles of Naters, wrested from the bishop, gave legislative power to the Diet; they were annulled on February 7, 1451, by his newly elected successor, Henri Asperlin.

The witch trials in the Valais began in 1428, foreshadowing the great witch-hunt in Europe.

Relations with the Aosta Valley were more strained in the 15th century: while many nobles from the Aosta Valley had settled in the Valais in previous centuries, several bishops, such as Boniface de Challant, came from Aosta, and the Cathedral Chapter was sometimes almost half made up of members from the region, disputes over alpine pastures led to threats of military invasion of the Aosta Valley by the Valais.

In 1475, at the height of the Burgundy Wars, the Bishop of Sion, Walter Supersaxo, allied with the Bernese, attacked Conthey, a Savoy possession and ally of Charles the Bold. The latter reacted, and on November 13, 1475, the Battle on the Planta took place in front of the walls of Sion. The town almost fell, but the arrival of 3,000 Confederate soldiers over the Sanetsch Pass saved it and led to the defeat of the Savoyard troops. The Valaisans then occupied the Lower Valais as far as the Saint-Maurice pass, and annexed it on December 31, 1476, shortly after the signing of the Treaty of Fribourg. The Lower Valais became a subject country of the Upper Valais. Savoy did not recognize this annexation until 1526. At the same time, the Bernese and their allies from Gessenay invaded the Chablais region on the right bank of the Rhône, definitively separating it from the secular Valais. Thus, for a quarter of a century, the conflict between the Patriotes and the bishop was muted, in order to reclaim "the patrimony of Saint-Théodule" over Savoy. The conflict resumed with Walter Supersaxo's successor, Jost von Silenen.
At the end of the Ossola Wars between 1484 and 1495, unsuccessful attempts (as at the Battle of Crevola in 1487) to annex the eponymous valley belonging to the Duchy of Milan, the Bishop of Sion, Jost von Silenen, allied with France, signed a peace treaty with Milan in 1495: the southern slopes of the Simplon as far as Gondo were incorporated into the Valais. In the years that followed, the Bishop of Sion, Cardinal Matthäus Schiner, became a strong supporter of the Pope (against France). His incessant intrigues dragged Valais and the confederate cantons into the Italian wars, culminating in the defeat at Marignano in 1515. Valais then joined the Swiss cantons in the Treaty of Fribourg signed with France in 1516.

Internally, Matthieu Schiner violently opposed Georges Supersaxo, representative of the Patriotes. He even excommunicated him in 1512. Schiner fought to assert the bishop's temporal power, and in 1514 published a law instituting regalian rights for the Church. But Supersaxo, taking advantage of one of the bishop's many absences, proclaimed in 1517 the "Peace of the Patriots", affirming the political pre-eminence of the Patriots and the replacement of the prince-bishop after an absence of six months. Schiner, who was abroad at the time, was banished and unable to return to Valais; he settled in Zurich and died five years later in Rome.
In 1536, when Bern invaded the Pays de Vaud for the second time after 1476, the Valaisans invaded the Chablais as far as Lake Geneva, also in the hands of the Duchy of Savoy. They even occupied the region between Saint-Gingolph and Thonon, and wanted to push as far as Evian, but joined forces with Bernese troops from Geneva at the Dranse. Under the 1569 Treaty of Thonon, the Duke of Savoy granted them Chablais, and the Valaisans reluctantly returned what is now French Chablais, between Saint-Gingolph and Thonon, with the right bank of the Morge de Saint-Gingolph marking the border. The parish of Saint-Gingolph, now situated between two states, nonetheless remained part of the diocese of Annecy, formerly the diocese of Geneva.

Although the presence of Protestants in Valais was attested to as early as September 1524, the choice of religion was a means of exerting pressure on the bishop, as a major conversion could lead to the secularization of episcopal property. Capuchins and Jesuits were called in to preach the Counter-Reformation. Finally, Valais renewed its alliance with the Swiss Catholic cantons, and in 1604 the Diet ordered the Reformed to convert or go into exile. In practice, with the exception of a few exalted exiles, the decision was applied sparingly, with Protestants essentially barred from high state office.

Republic of the Seven Tithings

In 1613, the patriots finally won the power struggle by imposing a charter, the ''Conclusum'', on the prince-bishop and the chapter. The latter could still nominate candidates, but it was the Diet, representative of the seven dizains, that conferred the insignia of power on the new bishop. The bishop then becomes a true elective prince, and power now belongs to the dizains, who form a veritable federal republic: the Republic of the Seven Tithings.

Under the impetus of Michel Mageran, a Protestant notary from Leuk

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