PFYFFER, LUDWIG. - Swiss soldier and statesman, born in 1524 at Lucerne, died there on 17 March 1594. He first entered the service of the King of France.
In 1567, with a regiment, he placed himself at the service of Charles IX; returning to Switzerland in 1569, he became the recognized leader of the Catholics, and as *Schultheiss* of Lucerne from 1571 until his death, he made Lucerne the stronghold of Swiss Catholicism against the Reformers. There he promoted the establishment of a college directed by Jesuits and obtained from the Holy See the dispatch of a permanent nuncio. In 1576, in the service of Henry III, he protected Paris against Condé; and he played a major role in the conclusion the following year of the alliance between the six Catholic cantons and Savoy. In 1588 he signed a treaty in Milan with Spain.