Bern

Bern was a free imperial city on a bend of the Aare. Founded by Berthold V of Zähringen, it had won its independence from his house in 1218.

In 1339 Bernese militia and their Forest Canton allies defeated Fribourg and Burgundian nobles at Laupen. Bern joined the Swiss Confederacy in 1353, adopted the Reformation in 1528 and conquered Vaud in 1536. French invasion broke its power in 1798; the 1803 Act of Mediation reunited the canton.