Swabian League definition of Swabian League in the Free Online Encyclopedia.

Swabian League, association of Swabian cities and other powers in SW Germany for the protection of trade and for regional peace. The Swabian League of 1488–1534 is the best known of the long series dating from the 14th cent. Supported by the Holy Roman emperor as an instrument of imperial power, it comprised more than 26 cities and many nobles, knights, and prelates. The league had a court, a powerful army, and a formal constitution (renewed in 1496, 1500, 1512, and 1522). It backed the election (1519) of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, and it used its military power to expel Duke Ulrich I from Württemberg Württemberg (vür`təmbĕrk'), former state, SW Germany.
..... Click the link for more information. . The league played a leading role in putting down the knights' revolt led by Franz von Sickingen Sickingen, Franz von (fränts fən zĭ`kĭngən), 1481–1523, German knight.
..... Click the link for more information. , and it helped defeat the peasants in the Peasants' War Peasants' War, 1524–26, rising of the German peasants and the poorer classes of the towns, particularly in Franconia, Swabia, and Thuringia. It was the climax of a series of local revolts that dated from the 15th cent.
..... Click the link for more information. . The dissolution (1534) of the league resulted from the opposition of interests between its feudal members and its cities and from the religious split caused by the Reformation. Many Protestant members in 1531 joined the Schmalkaldic League Schmalkaldic League (shmälkäl`dĭk), alliance formed in 1531 at Schmalkalden by Protestant princes and delegates of free cities.
..... Click the link for more information. . Later attempts by Charles V to restore the Swabian League failed.