Charlemagne's Western empire was a personal possession and was split between his heirs. Otto I's German Empire, on the other hand, was not divided up: the successive emperors were elected by the German princes, although only members of certain families could present themselves as candidates.

When the emperor was weak, powerful families could act more or less autonomously. In the Swiss territories these families included the Counts of Zähringen (founders of Bern and Fribourg), the Counts of Savoy, the Kyburgs and the Habsburgs.

The Emperor had two sources of authority:
1) The personal power he derived from his family possessions.
2) The supreme power he held as overlord of the Empire.

This duality became very significant to the Swiss when members of the Habsburg family were elected Emperor.

The Habsburgs had major landholdings in what is now Switzerland, and therefore had an interest in curbing the freedoms claimed by the local communities. But the Emperor was the very person who granted these freedoms.