Abbey of St. Gall Zürich Lucerne Schwyz Appenzell The Rorschacher Klosterbruch or St. Gallerkrieg was a war between the Abbey of Saint Gall, Zürich, Lucerne, Schwyz and Glarus against the city of St. Gallen and Appenzell in 1489 to 1490.

Then, in the same year when Kaspar von Landenberg was appointed Abbot over the Abbey, they declared that they could not swear loyalty to him because they already had to the Emperor.

To help rein in the abbot's spending and to further expand their independence, in 1451 the Abbey allied with Zurich, Lucerne, Schwiz and Glarus and forced Kaspar to appoint a cellarer, Ulrich Rösch.

From that time on, he served in several leadership positions and was considered the city's intellectual and political leader.

[2] In late 1480, Abbot Ulrich Rösch began planning to move the abbey away from the city of St. Gallen to a new location near the village of Rorschach near Lake Constance.

Additionally, by moving closer to the important lake trade routes, he could make Rorschach into a major harbor and collect a fortune in taxes.

In turn Mayor Varnbüler and the city feared that a new harbor on the lake would cause trade to bypass St. Gallen and Appenzell.

[3] Though the city of St. Gallen and Appenzell opposed the new monastery, after the approval of Pope Sixtus IV and protracted negotiations with Emperor Friedrich III the corner stone of the new Mariaberg Abbey was laid on 21 March 1487.

On 28 July 1489 a group of 1200 Appenzellers and 350 St. Galleners assembled at Grub (now part of Eggersriet) and marched on the Abbey.

[5] The Abbey's vassals were supportive of the actions of the city and Appenzell and on 21 October 1489 signed the Waldkircher Bund with the rebels.

The Abbot spent the following months seeking support from his allies in the Old Swiss Confederation to punish St. Gallen and Appenzell.

While the four allied cantons (Zürich, Lucerne, Schwyz and Glarus) generally supported the Abbot, the remainder of the Confederacy did not.

The following day Hermann Zidler, the Appenzell leader, appeared at the four cantons' camp and negotiated a peace treaty.

[9] After several days of negotiations, on February 15 both sides signed a peace treaty, ending the St. Gallen War.

The February treaty dissolved the Waldkircher Bund and returned all lands and possessions to everyone involved with one exception.