Bernese Vaud: the bailiwicks (1536-1798)

By NovaGB · Published on 2.11.2026

For more than two and a half centuries, the Pays de Vaud was not a canton but a subject territory of Bern. The country was divided into bailiwicks, each run by a Bernese bailiff living in a castle. The former bailiffs' castles and some of the districts created in 1798 still bear the mark of this system.

The conquest and the division of 1536

In spring 1536, Bernese troops under Hans Franz Nägeli conquered Savoyard Vaud. They acted in the name of the alliance of co-citizenship between Bern and Geneva, which Savoy was then blockading. The confirmation of local charters made the conquest easier, as did the promise not to interfere in religion, which was not kept. The Bishop of Lausanne, Sébastien de Montfalcon, fled and his possessions were confiscated.

Bern left the eastern part of Vaud to Fribourg and the left bank of the Rhône as far as Évian to Valais. Lausanne and Payerne, both allied to Bern by co-citizenship, had taken part in the campaign. They gained judicial and tax rights, but not the autonomy they had hoped for.

The statutes of 13 May 1536 divided the country into bailiwicks. Their number settled at sixteen at the start of the 18th century, after the addition of the Pays-d'Enhaut, acquired when the Count of Gruyère went bankrupt in 1555. The government of Aigle, taken as early as 1475, and the Pays-d'Enhaut belonged to Bern's "German" administration. The rest of the country formed a "French-speaking" unit. The conquest long remained fragile: under the Treaty of Lausanne of 1564, Bern returned the bailiwicks of Gex, Ternier-Gaillard and Thonon to the Duke of Savoy in exchange for recognition of its rule over Vaud.

The bailiff and his lieutenant

The sixteen bailiffs were the only Bernese who represented the sovereign on the spot. Chosen by the Council of Bern, usually from among its members, they served for six years, or five in the bailiwicks shared with Fribourg. They ran the administration, justice and military affairs of their district, and it was to them that subjects swore allegiance.

The bailiff relied heavily on his deputy, the lieutenant baillival, appointed for life from among local notables. This office stayed in the hands of a small number of local families. Posts in the Bernese state required citizenship of Bern. After 1536 only a few noble families applied for it, and very few, such as the Gingins, Tavel or Goumoëns, reached such posts.

The bailiwicks were not all worth the same. Bern ranked them in four classes according to what they yielded, both to the state and to the bailiff. Lausanne and Romainmôtier were first class, Moudon and Bonmont second, Vevey third. The shared bailiwick of Orbe-Échallens, small and poor, was fourth class. Avenches was among the least profitable.

A castle for every bailiff

The bailiff lived in a castle, often taken over from a former lord or a monastery. At Romainmôtier, the prior's house became the bailiff's castle after the priory was secularised in 1537. The monastery buildings were turned into state cellars and granaries. At Payerne, the Bernese governor lived in the castle, in the buildings of the former abbey.

At Moudon, the former capital of Savoyard Vaud, the last Savoyard bailiff, Claude de Glâne, was reduced in 1536 to the rank of castellan. The Bernese bailiff lived at the castle of Lucens from 1542. The bailiff of Vevey bore the title of captain of Chillon until 1734 and lived in that castle. From 1735 he moved to Vevey itself, into the former town house of the Tavel family. At Bonmont, in the municipality of Chéserex, the present castle was built in 1736 for the bailiff, on the site of the monks' hospital. The governor of Aigle lived in Aigle castle.

Bailiwicks born of monasteries

Several bailiwicks took over the lands of secularised abbeys. The bailiwick of Romainmôtier was created on 21 June 1537. Fribourg had opposed the secularisation and delayed it by about six months. The bailiwick brought together the priory's Pôté, namely Agiez, Arnex, Bofflens, Bretonnières, Croy, Envy, Juriens, La Praz, Premier, Romainmôtier, Vallorbe and Vaulion. To these were added Apples and Bursins, then from 1566 the lands of the abbey of Lac de Joux: L'Abbaye, Le Chenit and Le Lieu. In 1598 the barony of La Sarraz was attached to it for convenience. In 1798 it had 11'366 inhabitants, almost 8% of the population of Vaud.

The estates of the abbey of Hautcrêt first formed a government. Bern added the lordship of Maracon in 1547, then in 1557 those of Oron and Palézieux, bought from Count Michael of Gruyère, bankrupt since 1555. The government then became the bailiwick of Oron. The abbey of Saint-Maurice nonetheless remained lord of Oron-la-Ville and Vuibroye until 1675.

Bonmont came later. At first a governor managed the abbey's property, under the authority of the bailiff of Nyon. Only in 1711 was Bonmont made a bailiwick. It was the smallest and the last of the sixteen French-speaking bailiwicks. It included Gingins, Chéserex and La Rippe, as well as the enclave of Bogis-Bossey and Chavannes-de-Bogis. In 1798 its five municipalities had 1'085 inhabitants.

Bailiwicks shared with Fribourg

Four bailiwicks were shared between Bern and Fribourg: Orbe-Échallens, Grandson, Murten and Schwarzenburg. Orbe-Échallens dated from the Burgundian Wars. In 1475 the Swiss seized the lordship of the Chalon family. The Treaty of Fribourg of 1476 handed it to Bern and Fribourg, at first jointly with seven other cantons, which received compensation in 1484. It was then run by a Bernese and a Fribourg bailiff, who took turns every five years and lived in the town of Échallens. When the bailiff was Bernese, appeals went to Fribourg, and vice versa.

After the Reformation this arrangement became a problem, since Bern was Protestant and Fribourg Catholic. The solution was a vote: if a majority of the house owners of a parish voted to abolish the Mass, the decision was final. If the Catholics won, another vote could be held later. This vote was called the "plus". Oulens thus became Protestant in 1553, Mex and Goumoëns in 1575, Penthéréaz and Poliez-le-Grand in 1619. That same year, Bern gave up holding a vote at Assens, where many incidents had broken out. Orbe-Échallens was the only Bernese bailiwick with Catholics between 1536 and 1798.

Courts, tithes and consistories

Bern kept most of the courts it found, some 400 courts spread over sixty castellanies. The bailiwick of Morges, one of the largest with sixty-six municipalities, alone had a bailiff's court, three castellany courts, forty-five courts held by local lords and twenty-three consistories.

The consistories were church courts. Through the consistorial laws of 1640, 1746 and 1787, Bern imposed its rules throughout the country. The pastors, who came from the countryside as well as from the towns of Vaud, held civil and religious functions that made them agents of the government. Bern reorganised the clergy into six classes: Lausanne-Vevey, Payerne, Morges, Yverdon, Gex and Thonon.

Bern also tried to unify the law. It had the Customary of Moudon revised in 1577, then published the Loix et Statuts du Pays de Vaud in 1616. Some towns kept their own law: Lausanne, Payerne, Grandson, Orbe-Échallens and Aigle. From 1650 to 1750, a vast "renewal of fiefs" recorded and simplified the collection of tithes and seigneurial dues. By the end of the Ancien Régime, the Bernese state received almost half of the tithes and ground rents paid by the people of Vaud.

Local lords, as vassals of Bern, kept considerable power. In many places they exercised high justice. Witch trials cost the lives of almost 1'600 people in the Pays de Vaud between 1580 and 1653.

Major Davel, 1723

Discontent with Bernese rule broke out into the open once. Jean Daniel Abraham Davel, born in 1670 at Morrens and a notary at Cully, was appointed by Bern as grand major and commander of the Lavaux district in 1717. On 31 March 1723 he led 600 men to Lausanne, at a time when all the bailiffs were in Bern. The Lausanne authorities pretended to follow him, then arrested him on 1 April. He was sentenced to death and beheaded at Vidy on 24 April 1723.

Bern portrayed him as an outlaw and a visionary. His memory was rehabilitated in 1839 with a plaque in Lausanne cathedral. From the 1840s, when the records of the affair became accessible, Davel became the hero of the people of Vaud.

1798: the end of the bailiwicks

With the Helvetic Republic in 1798, bailiwicks and bailiffs disappeared. The Pays de Vaud became the canton of Léman, divided into districts. The bailiwick of Romainmôtier was broken up: the twelve villages of the Pôté went to the district of Orbe, the barony of La Sarraz to Cossonay, and the Vallée de Joux formed the district of La Vallée. Bonmont was joined to the district of Nyon.

In the government of Aigle, the mandements of Aigle, Ollon and Bex joined the French and Vaudois forces. The Ormonts and Leysin resisted, led by the last Bernese governor, Beat-Emmanuel Tscharner. The bailiwick of Avenches was first attached to the canton of Fribourg, as was Payerne. Its inhabitants asked from 1801 to join the canton of Léman, and the Act of Mediation of 1803 created a Vaud district of Avenches, an enclave within the canton of Fribourg.

The discredited title of bailiff was not used for the districts created from 1803. Some districts nevertheless stayed close to a former bailiwick. The district of Aigle, for example, took over the old government, with the addition of the municipality of Villeneuve.

Bernese Vaud: the bailiwicks (1536-1798)

The conquest and the division of 1536

The bailiff and his lieutenant

A castle for every bailiff

Bailiwicks born of monasteries

Bailiwicks shared with Fribourg

Courts, tithes and consistories

Major Davel, 1723

1798: the end of the bailiwicks

Places mentioned

Sources

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