Feÿ in France & Switzerland
The presence of Feÿ as a place marker through out the original Latin spelled region of Burgundii = Burgundy
( Is Feii perhaps the earlier Latin version of = Feÿ?) [Remember, while Fei sounds like pie in German, the pronunciation in French would be Feh yee].
Fey is also prevalent in Switzerland, in Thurgau, a german speaking Canton,
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Swiss History, But Were Afraid to Ask
compiled by K. Augustiny at web site:
http://www2.genealogy.net/gene/reg/CH/history.html#kap1http://www2.genealogy.net/gene/reg/CH/history.html#kap1
It is always a must in genealogy, to associate names with places in terms of the history and the language and the economics (occupations) of the region in which it is found. In can not be done in a vacuum or be based upon mythology. The same techniques applied to biblical exigesis (historical-critical methodology), applied to word etymology and linguistics in general should be applied in attempts to surmise the origins of names (whether it be place, occupation, patronymy, or landmark nomenclature).
Cited above, Augustiny, notes:
The Celtic population soon became assimilated into Roman civilisation and during the first two centuries of our era enjoyed peace and prosperity. An excellent network of roads, traces of which still remain, led across the Great St. Bernhard Pass in the west and the Grisons passes (Julier, Splügen, Oberalp) in the east to Rome, the hub of the empire, with which active contact could be maintained.
The peaceful era ended with the invasion of the Roman Empire by GERMANIC TRIBES. In 260 the ALEMANIANS crossed the 'limes' the fortified northern boundary, for the first time and pushed on southwards. Around 400 Rome finally had to evacuate its Alpine territories. During the era of Great Migrations, the Western part of the Empire succumbed to the Germanic invaders, the vital commercial links with the Mediterranean world were interrupted. Burgundians [BURGUNDII in Latin], [ a GERMANIC TRIBE] already converted to the Christian faith, settled in the west, adopting the language - Latin. It was a similar story for the Lombard (Langobard) tribes, installing themselves in southern Switzerland and scarcely disrupting the established culture. The largest number of immigrants was the heathen Alemannian tribe in the area between the Rhine and the Aare. The Alemannians did not succeed in infiltrating Rhaetia (the future Grisons), thanks to the resistance of the Rhaetian Romans. This people had established themselves over much of eastern Switzerland, South Tyrol, Vorarlberg and Friuli. Later, during the Middle Ages, they withdrew into high Grisons valleys to live autonomously. Without this strong survival instinct, the Rheto-Roman (Romansh) tongues would quickly have been absorbed by the major language groups around them.
So by now the pattern for today's quadrolinguism was established:
in the Roman and Burgundy region, VULGAR LATIN evolved into Franco-Provencal dialect; the lands occupied by the Alemannians became completely GERMAN SPEAKING by 900 AD. The people in the southern valleys stuck to their Gallo-ITALIAN Lombard dialects, while ROMANISH was spoken in the Grisons region.
The Franks conquered both tribes, the Burgundians and the Alamannians, in the 6th century, but the two areas were torn asunder when Charlemagne's Empire was partitioned in 870. Between the 9th and the 14th centuries hundreds of castles, imposing fortresses, monasteries and new towns were built. Some fine examples have survived: the frescoes in St. John's Monastery at Müstair, Germany (DE) are among the rare reminders of the Carolingian period: the 10th century Cluniac abbeys of Romainmôtier and Payerne, Zurich's Grossmünster and the cathedrals of Basle and Schaffhausen remain the most important romanesque buildings in Switzerland.
4. Medieval Feudal Society
Town and Urban Leagues and no Knight Willibald!
In the Middle Ages the Swiss territory was included in the great body of the Holy Roman Empire (1032). The gradual decline of this Empire enabled certain feudal dynasties, like the families of Zähringen, Savoy, Kyburg and Habsburg, to emerge as real territorial powers at the beginning of the 13C. Meanwhile, as in Germany, certain cities (Zurich, Berne), which had enjoyed the favour of the distant Emperor, already had the status of free towns, while the small isolated communities in the mountains were almost autonomous. The Waldstätte (the forest cantons) of the shores of the lake Lucerne adopted themselves without difficulty to a symbolic allegiance to the Emperor. The "immediate" attachment of the district of Uri to the Empire was formally guaranteed as early as 1231, since that area deserved special treatment for its situation on the St. Gotthard route.
The Swiss Confederation was unique in the strength of its burgher class. These men took the lead in expelling the Habsburgs and in weakening the local nobility. Land and power passed from the nobles to the cities, with their merchants and guilds of artisans, and to the country towns, which still had a peasant character.
Inspired by their feats of arms, the cantons felt a taste for adventure and a wish to extend their political influence farther afield. Swiss military prestige was brilliantly vindicated by the VICTORIES of Grandson and Murten over the DUKE OF BURGUNDY, Charles the Bold (1476). Fribourg, Solothurn, Basle, Schaffhausen and Appenzell joined the Confederation, and the Swiss gained independence from Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I. after their victory at Dornach in 1499.
In 1513 the Confederation was at the peak of its territorial influence, and even had Milan under its protection but finally the Swiss over-reached themselves. They squared up against a superior combined force of French and Venetians at Marignano in 1515 and lost. The Swiss therefore decided to withdraw from the international scene by renouncing expansionist policies and declaring their neutrality. Swiss mercenaries continued to serve in other armies for centuries to come and earned an unrivalled reputation for their skill and courage. Even today the Pope is protected by the Swiss Guard.
The policy ceased when Swiss soldiers increasingly found themselves fighting on opposing sides such as during the war of the Spanish Succession in 1709.
8. The Reformation in Switzerland
The Reformators Zwingli, Calvin, and Farel
In Switzerland the Reformation was launched in Zurich, where Huldrych Zwingli (1484-1531) was a secular priest at the cathedral. In 1525 Zurich's Great Council adopted his innovations (reforms in the Church and demands for economic and political change). The Reformation significantly strengthened the urban burgher class. This was why the Anabaptist (and after 1535 Mennonites) movement among the rural population, whose followers sought to do away with rents and tithes as well as serfdom, was ruthlessly suppressed and the peasants forcibly returned to the rule of the city authorities.
Peasant disturbances in several of the cities' subject territories were likewise put down, and thereafter the Reformation spread rapidly. Everywhere the guilds, which dominated the urban scene, were the driving force behind the movement. There were also some towns where the artisans were weak and which remain Catholic: Lucerne and Zug in central Switzerland, Solothurn and Freiburg in the west. But the focal point of resistance to the new faith was located in the rural areas of the central part of the country. 1528 the powerful city of Berne also threw its weight decisively on the side of the Reformers and the new faith was spread over Western Switzerland (the Romandie) by arms. In 1536 Jean Calvin (1509-1564) took up residence in the city of Geneva and Berne acquired most of Savoy's possessions in Vaud.
The Reformation split the Swiss Confederation into two camps, led respectively by a league of Catholic cantons (one third of the population) and the Protestant cities with their municipal rights. The antagonism between the Swiss Protestants and their Catholic neighbours in the German lands led to a sense of alienation from, and then to a gradual breach between the Confederation and the Empire, which was formalised in 1648 after the Thirty Years' War.
10. The Eighteenth Century - Industrial Expansion
The political conditions did not change much before 1798, and a reactionary caste spirit continued to hold sway. However, profound changes were taking place in the social and economic domain. Between 1700 and 1800 the population rose from 1.2 to 1.6 million, predominantly in the rural areas. In the textile branch spinning and weaving cotton, printing cloth (calico), the manufacture of silk ribbons and material, and embroidery all flourished in the northern and eastern parts of Switzerland. The watch- and clock-making industry developed around Geneva, in Neuchâtel and the Jura. During the eighteenth century Switzerland underwent an industrial revolution. Prior to Napoleon's invasion it was the most highly industrialised country on the European continent. Scientists such as Johann Bernoulli (1667-1748), Leonhard Euler (1707-1783) and Albrecht von Haller (1708-1777) made significant contributions to knowledge. The educational experiments and writings of Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746-1827) won renown far beyond Switzerland's borders.
11. The Collapse of the Old Confederation in 1798 and the Long March to the New Federal State of 1848
The Confederates remained neutral during the War of the First Coalition against revolutionary France. But once Napoleon Bonaparte had established French power in northern Italy the military pressure of Switzerland increased. Its alpine passes were of strategic importance for the French army, since they commanded the direct route from Paris to Milan. French revolutionary troops marched into the Bernese Vaud on 28 January 1798. The Diet was unable to react decisively to the French invasion. Berne alone withstood the French army, but its forces were defeated at the battle of Grauholz and on 5 March 1798 the victors entered the city.