Page "Sigismund, Archduke of Austria" Paragraph 5

In 1469, he sold his lands on the Rhine and in the Alsace to Charles, Duke of Burgundy.

Sources are unclear whether he sold them due to his debts he had accumulated owing to his luxurious lifestyle or just " rented " them because he wanted to have them protected better against the expansion of the Old Swiss Confederacy.

In any case, he bought back these possessions in 1474, and together with the Swiss ( with whom he had concluded a peace treaty in Konstanz ) and the Alsatian cities, he sided against Charles in the Battle of Héricourt.