Republic of the Seven Tithings

The Republic of the Seven Tithings was a state in the Upper Valais, in what is now the Swiss canton of Valais, during the early modern period. Its seven tithings—Goms, Brig, Visp, Raron, Leuk, Siders and Sion—emerged from medieval communes that had gained extensive privileges. After the Burgundian Wars the tithings seized much of the Lower Valais from Savoy in 1475 and ruled its districts as subject lands. Through the sixteenth century they acted as a sovereign power, ignoring the prince-bishop of Sion, who remained their nominal feudal lord. In 1613 the Diet formally declared independence from the bishop, and by 1634 the bishops had permanently surrendered their secular authority. The republic was a confederation of valley communities rather than a centralized state; its Diet met at Sion, and its seven-star coat of arms dates from 1628. It controlled the alpine passes between Italy and Switzerland and remained an associate of the Old Swiss Confederacy. In 1798 French revolutionary armies abolished the republic and incorporated the Valais into the Helvetic Republic.