 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "County of Sargans" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(August 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
County of Sargans Grafschaft Sargans | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11th century? – 1798 | |||||||||||
 Coat of arms of Sargans  Coat of arms of the Werdenberg counts | |||||||||||
 The County of Sargans, shown inturquoise – with theImperial Abbey of Pfäfers, of which the counts wereVögte,protectors – in the south of this map of what became thecanton of St. Gallen | |||||||||||
| Status | State of theHoly Roman Empire, Condominium of theOld Swiss Confederacy | ||||||||||
| Capital | Sargans | ||||||||||
| Historical era | Middle Ages | ||||||||||
• Established | before 1200 11th century | ||||||||||
1396 | |||||||||||
1436 | |||||||||||
1440–46 | |||||||||||
1458–1798 | |||||||||||
| 1798 | |||||||||||
| February 19, 1803 | |||||||||||
| |||||||||||
TheCounty ofSargans was astate of theHoly Roman Empire. From 1458 until theFrench Revolutionary War in 1798, Sargans became acondominium of theOld Swiss Confederacy, administered jointly by thecantons ofUri,Schwyz,Unterwalden,Lucerne,Zürich,Glarus andZug.
In 1396, the counts ofWerdenberg-Sarganspawned Sargans to theHabsburgdukes of Austria, who passed the territory toFriedrich VII, count of Toggenburg. After the death of the last Toggenburgers the counts of Werdenberg-Sargans redeemed the pledge, to rule over the county anew, withWalenstadt andQuarten remaining asVogtei (protectorates) of the Habsburgs. The inhabitants of the country refused, however, to recognise the counts of Werdenberg-Sargans as their lords and, in 1436, made a treaty with the city ofZürich.
In theOld Zürich War, acivil war between Zürich and thecantons ofGlarus andSchwyz, the counts allied themselves with the opponents of Zürich. Schwyz and Glarus conquered the county and forced the population to carry out, for the count von Werdenberg-Sargans, theOath of Loyalty.
In 1458, the counts renewed their association with Schwyz and Glarus. Nevertheless, theEidgenossen kept Walenstadt,Nidberg and Quarten, which they had conquered from the Habsburgs. In 1482–83, the last count sold Sargans to become ashared territory of the seven cantons of theOld Swiss Confederation. (Whilst there were eight cantons to Switzerland,Bern was not involved in this transaction.) The purchase of 1483 stood at the conclusion of a decades-longexpansionist policy of the Confederation in the east of Switzerland.
The joint administration of theLandvogtei was quite normal for the 15th-century acquisitions of Switzerland. The administration alternated, every two years, between Zurich, Luzern, Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Zug and Glarus. From 1712, after thesecond war of Villmergen, Bern became involved in the condominium, with theLordship of Freudenberg (Imperial Abbey of Pfäfers) and Walenstadt joining the jointly administered territories. From 1483, Quarten became part of theVogtei of Windegg, but it remained subordinate to theblood court (Blutgerichtsbarkeit) of Sargans.
A special case was the area of the today's municipality ofWartau. It belonged to the County of Sargans, with exception of the Lordship of Wartau, which covered onlyWartau Castle and the village of Gretschins (now part ofWartau). The Lordship was legally closely interlaced with the remaining area of the today's municipality Wartau, but was subordinate to the jurisdiction of theCounty of Werdenberg. In 1517, when Werdenberg became a part of Glarus, this legal situation led to numerous conflicts in 1694–95 between theLandvögte of Werdenberg and Sargans over "Wartauer trade", which was taken as far as theTagsatzung, a Swiss confederal council.
In 1798, most of the county was given liberty as an independent canton of Sargans, until the county was annexed to theCanton of Linth in theHelvetic Republic, later in the same year. WhenNapoleon'sAct of Mediation restored theOld Swiss Confederation in 1803, Sargans passed to the newly establishedcanton of St. Gallen.
SeeCounts of Werdenberg in Sargans
(The counting of the counts follows the counts of Werdenberg)
The county is pawned to Austria and delivered to the Toggenburgs:
| Ruler | Portrait | Born | Years | Marriage | Death | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Donat (Donat. von Toggenburg) | 1358 Third son of Frederick V and Kunigunde ofVaz or von Vatz | 1396–1400[1] | Agnes of Habsburg-Laufenburg (1387–1425)[2] two children | 7 November 1400 | ||
| Frederick (Friedrich VII. von Toggenburg) |  | c.1380 Son of Diethelm VI and Catherine of Werdenberg-Heilingenberg | 1400–1436 | Elisabeth von Mätsch three children | 30 April 1436 Feldkirch aged c. 55/56 |
In 1436 the county returns to the Werdenbergs:
 |  |  |
