Swabian League of Cities

While these were initially temporary protection and assistance agreements to safeguard security and economic interests, these city alliances increasingly developed a decidedly autonomous stance vis-à-vis the imperial authorities.

With these agreements to jointly defend against royal attacks on the urban imperial freedom and to reach a consensual decision on the legitimacy of the monarchy.

The others were Biberach, Buchhorn, Isny, Constance, Leutkirch, Lindau, Memmingen, Ravensburg, Reutlingen, Rottweil, St. Gallen, Überlingen, and Wangen.

Ulrich was the son of Eberhard II of Württemberg, who was an enthusiastic backer of the emperor's confrontational approach to the Swabian League of Cities.

After a couple of decades when things had begun to stabilize a little after the outbreak of plague that had devastated populations and abruptly distorted economic relationships through most of western Europe during the first half of the 1350s, old tensions were again becoming more apparent.

Württemberg struck back and, uniting with the forces of Elector Palatine Rupert I and the Nuremberg Burgrave Frederick V of Hohenzollern, defeating the Swabian League of Cities in 1388 at Döffingen.