In view of the tender age and delicate health of his only son, Count Louis, having long enjoyed a formal alliance with Fribourg, thought it wise to make a like treaty with Berne; and foreseeing that his son's life would probably not be a long one, he drew up a will in which he appointed his successors. In this will, he decreed that his brother François should be the next heir, after him his daughter Hélène, and next, in default of male heirs of the direct line, the son of his brother, Jean de Montsalvens. The signing of the treaty with Berne was the last political act of his reign of twenty-three years, in which, from beginning to end, he had well seconded the constructive administration of his father. Inheriting Count François' brilliant qualities, with less extended powers over Savoy, his opportunities for the display of his soldierly abilities were greater; and although wars and disasters had reduced his revenues and lessened the growth of the estates, he was able to pay a debt to Fribourg incurred by his father, and besides rebuilding the chapel and château made various important acquisitions of property. Through his wife he was connected with one of the oldest and most powerful families of Savoy whose representatives were distinguished like those of Gruyère for honorable offices at the ducal court, and whose vast possessions extended over a large part of Savoy, including the city of Aix-les-Bains. The Countess Claude, left to the charge of a young and delicate son, who after a brilliant début in the tournaments and festivities at Chambéry died at the early age of seventeen, was surrounded by a multitude of annoyances and demands from the powerful republic of Berne, which she met with more courage than discretion. Although during her popular husband's reign, the people of Gruyère voluntarily assisted in the assemblage of the materials for the restoration of the château, they revolted when the countess imposed taxes upon them for the continuation of the work, and a most unusual bitterness of feeling arose, which was only pacified by the arbitration of the Council of Fribourg. Little understanding her people--who, as always, could be ruled by love and not by force--she was not only compelled to yield in this matter, but conceded to the Bernois the fortress of Mannenburg, to keep the peace with her formidable neighbor. The countess, grief-stricken at the death of her only son, was for a brief period relieved from her onerous responsibilities by her brother-in-law, François III, who, according to Count Louis' will, followed his nephew in the rule of Gruyère. Although succeeding at an advanced age to the throne of his ancestors and occupying it for less than a year, Count François III had shared the offices of "conseiller" and "chambellan" at the court of Savoy with his brother Louis, and was held in equal honor by the cities of Fribourg and Berne. Like Louis, he was admitted to the diplomatic councils of the European powers, and allying himself with the prince of Orange, who, with the Orleans league, disputed the control of France with Louis XII, prevented the threatened intervention of the Swiss Confederates. Astonishing as was the influence of so small a principality as that of Gruyère, containing at no time more than twenty thousand inhabitants, it was due not only to its intermediate situation between the republics of Berne and Fribourg and the possessions of Savoy but to the great personal importance of its rulers--particularly of Count François and his two sons Louis and François, who were not only supreme in their control of the duchy of Savoy, but were unquestionably the greatest nobles in Romand Switzerland. Holding its sovereignty directly from the emperor, Gruyère had long been an independent state, and by the grant of Wenceslas its rulers were not only empowered to issue money but had always possessed unqualified rights of justice and administration over their subjects. An interregnum of discord was unfortunately destined to lessen the power and diminish the prosperity of Gruyère, for Count François III, who had accompanied the prince of Orange in his unfortunate invasion of Italy, succumbed to the fatigue of the campaign, leaving the countess and her daughter to a long and bitter struggle for the latter's rights to the succession.