Evil Covenant

The Böser Bund ("evil league") was an alliance sworn on 2 May 1445 at Aeschi bei Spiez by several communities of the Bernese Oberland (Aeschi, the Obersimmental, and the Niedersimmental), Saanen (which held a Burgrecht treaty with Bern), the town of Unterseen, and the subjects of Interlaken Monastery. The name was given to it by the authorities. It was the most important peasant revolt of the 15th century in the Bernese Oberland—alongside the rising of Interlaken's monastic subjects in 1445 and the Brienz conspiracy of 1446–1451—and was directed mainly against the military service and taxes demanded by Bern in the framework of its Confederate policy during the Old Zürich War.