Zurich, an imperial (free) city, expects to acquire Toggenburg as the latest in a line of many such domains recently incorporated in their territory.

The imperial city of Schwyz, however, quickly sets up communes in the Toggenburg and bars the road to Zurich in a preemptive action approved in 1437 by its canton officials.

The feudal domain comprising the Toggenburg district near Lake Constance had been freed by the death of its last count, Frederick VII, in 1436.

Rudolf Stüssi, who had risen from several minor appointments to the position of burgomaster of Zürich in 1430, has forced Zürich into a quarrel with the canton of Schwyz and its chief magistrate, Ital Reding, over the inheritance.