man. He demonstrated fine qualities as field commander of the St. Gallen troops in the Burgundian Wars.
In the Battle of Grandson (1476) he and his troops were part of the advance units of the Confederation and took part in their famous attack. (A large painting of Ulrich returning triumphantly to a hero's welcome in St. Gallen is still displayed in St. Gallen).
After the war, he often represented St. Gallen at the various parliaments of the Confederation. In December 1480 he was offered the position of mayor for the first time. From that time forward, he served in several leadership positions and was considered the city's intellectual and political leader.
According to Vadian, who understood his contemporaries well, "Ulrich was a very intelligent, observant, and eloquent man who enjoyed the trust of the citizenry to a high degree."
His reputation among the Confederates was also substantial. However, in the late 1480s he became involved in a conflict that was to have serious negative consequences for him and for the city of which he was mayor.
In 1463 Ulrich R�sch had assumed the management of the abbey of St. Gall. He was an ambitious prelate, whose goal it was to raise the abbey by every possible means to prominence again following the losses of the Appenzell War.
His restless ambitions offended the political and material interests of his neighbours. When he arranged for the help of the pope and the emperor to carry out a plan for moving the abbey to Rorschach on Lake Constance, he encountered stiff resistance from the St. Gallen citizenry, other clerics, and the Appenzell nobility in the Rhine Valley who were concerned for their holdings.
At this point, Varnb�ler entered the conflict against the prelate. He wanted to restrict the increase of power of the abbey and simultaneously increase the power of the town that had been restricted in its development. For this purpose he established contact with farmers and
