Bündner confusion
The Graubünden turmoil ( Scumbigls grischuns in Rumantsch Grischun , Scumpigls grischuns in Ladin and Sgurdins grischuns in Sursilvan ) is the name given to the military conflicts between 1618 and 1639 between the France-Venice and Spain-Austria coalitions around today's canton of Graubünden as part of the Thirty Years ' War . It was mainly about controlling the Graubünden Alpine passes, but also about the religious order in Graubünden. The conflict over Graubünden also threatened the Swiss Confederation at timesdrawn into the Thirty Years' War.
parties
In the struggle for supremacy in Europe at the beginning of the 17th century, the great powers France and the countries ruled by various branches of the House of Habsburg faced each other. The kingdom of Spain , Tyrol and the foothills (→ Habsburg monarchy ) were directly involved in the Graubünden turmoil. Spain at the time also included the Duchy of Milan . On the side of France stood the Republic of Venice . From 1618 Archduke Leopold V ruled the Habsburg region of Austria and the County of Tyrol , first as governor and then as sovereign. He was bishop of Passau and Strassburg and particularly attached to the Jesuit order and the Counter-Reformation . Spain was represented in Milan by governors, until 1610 by Pedro Henriquez de Acevedo , Count of Fuentes, notorious in the Netherlands for his excessive severity , then after a few changes between 1618 and 1627 and between 1631 and 1634 by Gómez Suárez de Figueroa , Duke of holiday
In the canton of Graubünden, or in the Drei Bunden , the leading noble families maintained lucrative relationships with the various courts in Europe, which tied influential people and families to them with pensions , bribes and mercenary contracts. One group held to Austria-Spain, the other to France-Venice. The Catholic family of the Planta were among the friends of Austria, while the Calvinist Salis family sided with France .
initial position
The Reformation found its way into Graubünden according to the community principle, i. H. each congregation could decide on its denomination. About two thirds of the congregations joined the Reformation, around a dozen chose parity , the rest remained Catholic. The Reformed communities were mainly in the League of Ten Jurisdictions, in the city of Chur and in the Engadin, so that the League of Gods was religiously mixed. In the Gray League, Catholics were in the majority. The Abbey of Disentis became the cultural and political center alongside the episcopal court in Chur. The initially peaceful reform gave way to a tense atmosphere with the onset of the Counter-Reformation. Alongside the disputes between the valley communities , the economic, political and dynastic conflicts, the denominational differences became an additional dimension in the opaque struggle of the major parties and their exponents for influence in the Free State of the three covenants.
Two circumstances favored the clashes of the Bündner turmoil: on the one hand, the fanatical fights between the denominations in connection with the Counter-Reformation weakened the country, on the other hand, the loose political structure of Graubünden with the sub-states of the three leagues without actual central authority prevented a joint approach to the warring powers . The League of Gods and the Ten Courts League were mostly Reformed, the Gray League mostly Catholic. Family feuds and rivalries between the valley communities made the situation even more difficult.
At the beginning of the 17th century, the Graubünden Alpine passes gained increasing strategic importance as the shortest connection between the Spanish-Habsburg-ruled Milan and the Austro-Habsburg Tyrol. Above all, the Graubünden subject Veltlin aroused the interest of the warring powers France and Spain. The valley was the shortest and most convenient route between East and West, a gateway to the Duchy of Milan and as a borderland of religious denominations of great geopolitical importance. The Alpine passes were also important for Spain because King Philip III. of Spain was striving to establish a connection between the Spanish possessions in the Netherlands and northern Italy and had already had the cession of Alsace assured in the Oñate Treaty of 1617 by Archduke Ferdinand of Austria . On the other hand, the Gotthard Pass through Catholic Central Switzerland was closed to the Protestant side and the Splügen Pass - or the Septimer Pass - was the only open route to Venice, the head of the anti-Habsburg coalition in Italy.
Most recently, the unresolved constitutional and sovereign connections of the Three Leagues to the Empire, to the Bishop of Chur and to the Archdukes of Austria formed the basis for protracted legal disputes. As imperial prince , the bishop of Chur was actually the owner of sovereign rights in large parts of today's Graubünden, which he was only able to exercise to a limited extent since the founding of the Three Leagues and the Reformation . With the support of Austria, various bishops in the 17th century attempted to reassert their old prerogatives. The House of Habsburg also had sovereignty over eight of the ten courts of the League of Ten Courts, the Lordship of Rhäzün in the Upper League and, in competition with the Bishop of Chur, as Counts of Tyrol, jurisdiction in the Lower Engadine and in the Munster Valley . The inheritance of 1518 between the Three Leagues and Emperor Maximilian I initially defused the conflict, but Habsburg nevertheless held on to its rights and finally prevailed in Vinschgau in 1608 , so that the Untercalven court was lost to the church association. After the Reformation, Habsburg rights in Bünden gained new importance because they served as a lever for re-catholicizing the affected areas.
criminal courts
The parties mutually tried to keep the passageway open or to block it. They influenced Graubünden politics with money, promises and threats. On August 15, 1603, the Venetian envoy Giovanni Battista Padavino brought about an alliance between the Three Leagues and the Republic of Venice, which, among other things, granted the latter the right to recruit up to 6,000 men in Raetia . In the following year, however, the Spanish ambassador Alfonso Casati managed to achieve an alliance between the Grisons and Spain. His party had powerful advocates in Bünden, including Rudolf von Planta , who was considered the richest citizen of Graubünden at the time.
Pedro Henriquez de Acevedo , Count of Fuentes, the Spanish governor in the Duchy of Milan, repeatedly responded with a trade embargo against the Three Leagues to exert pressure in favor of the Spanish party. Since the most important trade route between Graubünden and Italy passed through the Duchy of Milan via Lake Como, Spain was able to exert considerable pressure. To secure access to Graubünden, he had the Fuentes Fortress built at the entrance to Valtellina, from which Spain could interrupt the north-south connection at will.
Tensions between the parties grew in Graubünden. In March 1607, 6,000 men met in Chur for an armed Landsgemeinde, where opinions clashed hard. The leaders of the Franco-Venetian party were convicted in a criminal court. In a "letter of articles" the closure of the passes for foreign troops was demanded and clerics were forbidden from interfering in secular affairs. Heavy fines were distributed against the leaders, and the clerk, Colonel Johannes Guler , was sentenced to death in absentia. Numerous defendants fled to the Swiss Confederation.
In the early summer of 1607, the Venetian party responded with a counter-court. The bishopric in Chur was stormed and the leaders of the Spanish-Austrian party, the bailiff of Castels , Georg Beeli of Belfort , and the bishop's castle captain, Kaspar Baselgia of Savognin , were executed in early July. In November 1608, a criminal court in Ilanz overturned the penalties pronounced in Chur and imposed lighter sentences. The result of these disputes was that the Catholic party Austria-Spain was strengthened and prevented the alliance of the Three Leagues with Venice, which had expired in 1603, from being renewed. Spain and Venice again began to promote their respective parties with all their might.
In February 1618, Spain again imposed a trade embargo to exert pressure. At a reformed synod in Bergün in April 1618, led by Kaspar Alexius , with the support of reformed preachers working in the Catholic Valtellina , including Blasius Alexander and Jörg Jenatsch , so-called Hispanism was condemned and warned of the Catholic machinations in Spain. In June 1618, Jenatsch organized another condemnation of the Catholic party leaders as traitors and led an ensign against Wildenberg Castle in Zernez, where Rudolf von Planta resided. However, he was able to save himself in Austrian territory. Jenatsch then moved to Valtellina and arrested Archpriest Nicolò Rusca in Sondrio , a declared opponent of the Reformation, nicknamed "Heretic Hammer". After further arrests in Valtellina and Bergell, the so-called Thusner Criminal Court was formed in Thusis in August 1618 . Rusca was tortured to death, the anti-Venetian-minded Landammann of Bergell, Baptist Prevost , was executed, Rudolf von Planta, his brother Pompejus and the Bishop of Chur, Johannes V. Flugi , were declared outlaws and expelled from the country. In addition, numerous fines, some of which were very high, were imposed. The expellees sought support in the Swiss Confederation and in Austria. Other criminal courts followed in rapid succession: in the spring of 1619, a court in Chur, dominated by the Catholic party, overturned the judgments of Thusis and convicted the leaders of the reformed Venetian party. In November 1619, they organized a criminal court in Davos, which confirmed the judgments of Thusis.
This internal chaos caused the diplomatic position of the Three Leagues to deteriorate sharply. Rudolf and Pompeius von Planta campaigned in the Catholic Confederation, in Austria and in Milan for an intervention in Bünden. France severed ties with the Bunds and eventually even backed the Spanish Catholic side in the hope of calming the situation. In this situation , with French toleration, Ferdinand II of Austria, who had been elected Holy Roman Emperor in 1619, planned an invasion of Graubünden with a simultaneous Spanish attack from Milan and an Austrian one under Archduke Leopold of Vinschgau .
First Austro-Spanish invasion 1620 and Treaty of Milan 1622
The real prelude to the Bündner turmoil was the Veltliner murder of July 18th and 19th, 1620, when Italian mercenaries under knight Giacomo Robustelli , the nephew of Rudolf Planta, invaded the Veltlin and the Catholic local leadership organized an uprising against their majority Reformed Bündner sovereigns won. Around 500 Protestants were killed and hundreds of members of the Graubünden ruling class fled Veltlin, including all the evangelical preachers .
After that, the Valtellina and Bormio were lost for the Three Leagues. The two territories established an independent government headed by Giacomo Robustelli, who wrote to the European rulers asking for their recognition. Spanish troops from Milan occupied Valtellina to secure the Addastrasse, while Archduke Leopold V of Tyrol sent troops into the Munster Valley to secure the Umbrail Pass . The Grisons immediately tried to recapture the Valtellina and moved with a few regiments via Chiavenna and the Muretto Pass into Valtellina, but were defeated near Morbegno on August 8, 1620 .
The people of Graubünden are now asking the Confederation for support. The Catholic cantons refused to move in, while Bern and Zurich sent troops. Because of the obstruction by the Catholic cantons, they had to make a long detour via Toggenburg to Graubünden. The badly planned campaign ended after the sack of Bormio, where the Reformed took revenge for the Veltliner murder, in the defeat in the Battle of Tirano on September 11, 1620. Now the Three Leagues were threatened with dissolution from within. In the autumn of 1620, the Spaniards recruited 1,500 Catholic mercenaries in Central Switzerland and transferred them to Reichenau GR to support the Catholic cause in Bündden and to protect the returned Pompejus Planta. On February 6, 1621, representatives of the mostly Catholic Gray League in Milan concluded a separate peace with Spain. Although this provided for the return of Veltin and Bormio to the Three Bunds, it gave the Spaniards free passage and occupation rights, including for the Bündner passes. In addition, the Gray League was prepared to exclude the areas of the Three Leagues claimed by the Habsburgs from the federation. This would have affected eight courts (Klosters, Davos, Belfort, Churwalden, Ausserschanfigg, Langwies, Schiers and Castels) of the Ten Courts Association, the Lower Engadine and the Munster Valley. Numerous Reformed families fled from Graubünden and Valtellina to the Confederation, especially to Zurich and Bern. In addition to private motives for revenge, this allegedly motivated Jörg Jenatsch to murder Pompejus Planta , the leader of the Spanish party, on February 25, 1621 in Rietberg Castle in Domleschg . Jenatsch had been a reformed preacher in Berbenno near Sondrio and only just escaped murder in Valtellina with his family.
Later campaigns to win back the Veltlin were also unsuccessful. The last took place in October 1621 under the leadership of Jörg Jenatsch, who moved to Bormio with around 6000 ill-equipped fighters, where the attack failed due to lack of artillery. Also in October 1621, the Spanish-Habsburg troops invaded the Three Leagues from various sides. Colonel Erhard Brion attacked the Prättigau via the Schlappiner Joch from the Montafon, the Spanish governor in Milan, Gómez Suárez de Figueroa, Duke of Feria , conquered Chiavenna and penetrated into the Bergell, while Colonel Alois Baldiron with 8000 men across the S-charltal invaded the Lower Engadine from the Vinschgau and fought its way across the Inn after fierce resistance at Scuol. From there he moved to Davos, where he forced the people of Prättigau to pay homage to Austria. On November 22, 1621, Baldiron entered Chur with Rudolf Planta, the leader of the Spanish party, while the last Zurich troops under Colonel Steiner, who had still held out at Luzisteig and near Maienfeld, left the country. Jenatsch and the other leaders of the Venetian-French party fled, Blasius Alexander fell into Austrian hands and was beheaded in Innsbruck in December 1622. Baldiron then moved over the Albula Pass to the Upper Engadine and Puschlav in order to subdue the rest of the League of Gods.
In the Milan Treaties of January 1622, the Three Leagues had to give up the Munster Valley, the Lower Engadine, Davos, Schanfigg, Belfort and the Prättigau in return for an annual tribute of 25,000 guilders , which again became Habsburg subjects. They were also ordered to give up Bormio and Veltlin for all time , to keep their passports open and to tolerate an imperial garrison in Chur and Maienfeld for twelve years. At the same time, the re-Catholicization of the ceded areas was taken in hand by expelling all reformed preachers and calling the Capuchins into the country. The Three Leagues had become an Austrian protectorate; only the Gray League, with the support of the Catholic cantons, was able to retain a certain degree of independence.
Prättigau Uprising and Second Austrian Invasion 1622
After the signing of the Milan Treaty, Austria began re-Catholicization in the areas ceded by the federations. The practice of the Reformed faith was forbidden and the Reformed preachers were expelled from the eight courts and the Lower Engadine. The Capuchin order took over the parish churches, and attending the Catholic sermon became compulsory. Contributions were also collected and weapons collected in the conquered areas.
On April 5, 1622, the peasants in the Prättigau rose up against the oppressive Austrian rule and drove the Austrian troops and the Capuchins out of the valley. After the return of the exiles, Rudolf von Salis assumed supreme command over the insurgents, who were financially supported by Venice, Zurich and Glarus. The Gotteshausbund and the Oberer Bund refused to provide any assistance and even asked the Confederation to refrain from any support for the insurgents. The insurgents were able to beat the Austrian troops remaining in the country in battles near Fläsch and on the Molinära between Trimmis and Chur with the confederate influx, so that the garrisons of Maienfeld and Chur had to capitulate and leave the country.
After a violent intervention by Rudolf von Salis, the other two federations could finally be persuaded to terminate the Milan Treaty and on 14/27. June in Chur to conjure up the common bond again. The Bundestag appointed Rudolf von Salis "three-alliance general" and placed 1,200 men from each alliance under his command as a joint army. The Grisons now went on the offensive against the neighboring valleys and plundered the Austrian villages between the Luzisteig and Feldkirch and invaded the Montafon .
On August 31, 1622, Archduke Leopold V ordered his generals to launch a counterattack. Count Alwig von Sulz and Colonel Baldiron invaded the Lower Engadine with around 10,000 men from Samnaun through the Val Sampuoir . At that time, Rudolf von Salis had around 2,000 men at his disposal and unsuccessfully requested further additions to the leagues. He tried unsuccessfully to stop the Austrian troops at Remüs and on the Tasna and had to retreat to Susch . When it became clear that there would be no further influx from the Bunds, he occupied the Flüela Pass and took up quarters in Davos. The Engadin was thus left to the Austrians without a fight, who plundered and burned all the villages. Baldiron and von Sulz then moved over the Scaletta Pass into the Prättigau and thus bypassed the Graubünden positions on the Flüela. Salis had to withdraw further down the valley and tried again on September 5 between Raschnals and Aquasana near Saas to stop the Austrian troops. However, the positions could only be held by the troops, weakened by desertion, as long as the population had enough time to flee. Finally, Salis withdrew step by step to Malans and covered the flight of the people of Prättigau to the Confederation. As in the Lower Engadine, all the villages in the Prättigau went up in flames during the Austrian conquest. The need of the population was correspondingly great and epidemics and famine spread. There are no exact figures on the decline in the civilian population in the Engadin and Prättigau, which contemporaries described as drastic, but the Austrian troops were also caught by the epidemic known as the "Hungarian disease" and severely decimated. The garrison of Maienfeld suffered around 2000 dead and Colonel Baldiron's army dwindled from 3000 to 400 men when it left Graubünden in December 1622.
The winter of 1622/23 went down in the history of Graubünden as a particularly loss-making hunger winter .
The victorious Austrians dictated the Treaty of Lindau to the Grisons on September 30, 1622 , which essentially reinstated the Treaty of Milan. The areas that were once again subject to Austrian rule also had to deliver all letters of liberty and renounce any connections with the superior and the church association. These were now forbidden to conclude alliances without Austria's consent. Maienfeld and Chur should be allowed to be occupied by Austria if necessary and the passes were again open for the passage of Austrian and Spanish troops. The Catholic Church was to regain all the possessions, freedoms and rights it had held in 1526 throughout the Bund area.
The Lindau Treaty formed the basis for the Counter-Reformation in Graubünden. In 1622 and 1623, the Capuchin Father Ignatius directed the Catholic Church's restoration efforts. Numerous people converted to Catholicism following the example of Rudolf von Planta. Where resistance to the ban on evangelical worship grew, energetic action was taken, as in Poschiavo, where the evangelical community was forced into submission by force of arms. However, not all high courts were affected equally by the re-Catholicization. In the Upper Engadin and Bergell, for example, she was not very successful. The restitution of ecclesiastical property also met with strong resistance, including from the Catholics, who had appropriated former ecclesiastical property, particularly from the Disentis and Cazis monasteries.
The first French intervention in 1624 and the Treaty of Monzón in 1626
In France, which was Catholic but nevertheless supported the Protestant side, Cardinal Richelieu largely determined policy. He felt threatened by the Spanish-Habsburg successes and intervened in the conflict in favor of Bünden. On February 17, 1623, France signed an alliance with Savoy and Venice to liberate Graubünden. France massed an army in Burgundy and Jörg Jenatsch and Ulysses von Salis used French money to recruit an 8,000-man army from among refugees from the Grisons and Swiss and French mercenaries, which was placed under the command of the French General François-Annibal d'Estrées , Marquis de Cœuvres. In the meantime, in April, the Gotteshausbund and the Grauer Bund managed to get the Austrian troops under Count von Sulz to withdraw on payment of a contribution. Only the League of Ten Courts and the Lower Engadine remained occupied. Archduke Leopold V issued an ultimatum for the Reformed residents, demanding either conversion within six months or emigration.
When the Marquis de Cœuvres came to the Confederation as an extraordinary envoy and conducted negotiations about Confederate participation in the war, the Catholic cantons expressed concerns. Nevertheless, by October 1624, with the troops already recruited, six federal regiments were formed, one from Zurich under Kaspar Schmid , one from Bern under Niklaus von Diesbach , one from exiled Graubünden under Rudolf von Salis and three more from Valais, Zug and Uri. There was also a contingent of French troops, so that around 12,000 men were ready. On October 28, 1624, Rudolf von Salis occupied the Tardis Bridge , the Luziensteig, the Landquart Bridge and the entrance to the Prättigau with one of the Bündner regiments , thus securing access to Graubünden. After the majority of de Cœuvre's troops had marched in, the Austrian occupying forces withdrew without a fight. The eight courts in Prättigau renewed the federal letters and the returning evangelical pastors replaced the Capuchins again. The Lower Engadine was also abandoned by Austrian troops and Rudolf von Planta had to flee to Meran. On November 7, the representatives of the Three Leagues decided to unite their troops with the Swiss and French contingents under De Cœuvres. The troops of this alliance occupied the Engadine and moved over the snowy passes to Bormio, Chiavenna and Tirano, where De Cœuvres established the connection to the allied Venice via the Aprica Pass . In December, the former subjects' territories were successfully recaptured without the papal troops having put up any serious resistance. Only the castle of Chiavenna initially did not surrender and was besieged. Reinforced with supplies, weapons and ammunition, De Cœuvres moved from Tirano to Chiavenna, where the castle surrendered after artillery bombardment on March 10, 1625. Spanish and Austrian troops reached Valtellina too late to do anything against the combined forces of France, the Three Leagues, the Confederation and Venice.
Because of the internal French conflict with the Huguenots , Richelieu was soon forced to enter into papal mediation in the conflict with Spain. In the Treaty of Monzón (also Treaty of Monsonio ) on March 5, 1626, he agreed with Spain, without the participation of the Grisons, that the Veltlin should nominally be subject to the Grisons rule again, but that, apart from an annual levy of 25,000 guilders, none Rulership rights could be exercised by the Three Leagues. They should neither be allowed to place crews in the valley community nor intervene in their self-government. In particular, the Catholic cult was to be protected and the penetration of the Reformation prevented. For the time being, the valley was to be secured by papal troops and thus neutralized in the conflict between France and Spain. The treaty gave it de facto political independence under nominal Bündner suzerainty. In February 1627 the French withdrew and papal troops occupied Valtellina. Although the people of Graubünden did not recognize the treaty, they initially felt unable to take action against it. The bitterness about the treaty led the people of Graubünden to approach Archduke Leopold V., with whom they agreed in 1629 to renew the 1518 inheritance agreement . Leopold recognized that the eight courts and the Lower Engadine belonged to the Three Leagues, but refused the freedom of religion of the courts under Habsburg rule. In 1627, the three valley communities of Chiavenna, Valtellina and Bormio established an independent administration, each with its own provincial governor.
Third Austrian invasion 1629 and Peace of Cherasco 1631
During the course of 1628, new alliances formed on the pan-European chessboard of the Thirty Years' War. France, which had defeated the Huguenots, allied itself with Savoy, laid claim to the Duchy of Mantua , and declared war on Spain, which in turn was supported by the Emperor. In the north, Sweden made preparations to join the side of the Protestant estates in the war against Emperor Ferdinand II , who was at the peak of his success and in March 1629 issued an edict decreeing the restitution of all Catholic property in the Protestant areas of the empire. Since the Confederation and the Three Leagues still legally belonged to the Empire at this point in time, this edict also affected their territory.
When Ferdinand II assembled an army in Swabia and in the Fricktal to support Spain in the war around Mantua and occupied the prince-bishopric of Basel , the Protestant cantons united in a defensive alliance. The Three Leagues assembled an army of 6,000 men and asked the Confederation for support. At the same time, in November they sent an embassy to Archduke Leopold V in Innsbruck in order to obtain confirmation from him of the old inheritance that existed before the Lindau Treaty – until that time Leopold had the legal position that had resulted from the Treaty of Monzon , not yet recognized - had formed the basis of mutual relations between the Habsburgs and the leagues. The negotiations in Innsbruck dragged on until the spring of 1629 without any result, because Leopold did not want to give up the re-Catholicization of his Graubünden territories and the prince-bishop of Chur, Joseph Mohr , also demanded his sovereign rights based on the imperial edict of restitution.
In May 1629, an imperial army under Johann Philipp Eugen, Count von Merode , set out from Lindau in the direction of the Bündner passes. Count Alwig von Sulz invited members of parliament from Graubünden to Burg Gutenberg near Balzers to negotiate with them the modalities of moving through to Italy. These were also sent on May 27 with an accompanying letter from the French envoy in Chur, which confirmed France's willingness to protect Bünden. While the Graubünden envoys were being held up at Gutenberg Castle, imperial troops occupied the Luziensteig and plundered the Bündner dominion. On May 28, Chur was occupied. The Austrian army then moved unmolested over the Bündner passes to Italy, but also left a few thousand men behind along the pass roads. Austrian fortifications were laid out on the Luzisteig, near Landquart, Haldenstein , Tiefencastel , Reichenau , Fürstenau and Chamues-ch .
The Austrian troops brought the bubonic plague to Graubünden, which killed up to two thirds of the population in the affected areas and killed a total of around 12,000 people. On August 8, Archduke Leopold V declared that he considered the terms of the Lindau Treaty reinstated and dismissed all of the Grisons' protests, which said they would allow Austria free passage. On the same day, however, he concluded a new inheritance agreement with the three federations, which provided for an annual pension for the federations of 600 guilders as compensation for the right of passage. Counter-Reformation measures were again introduced in the Eight Courts and in the Lower Engadine. The churches and benefices were handed over to the Capuchins and the Austrian officials returned. In the Lower Engadine, Matthias Burklehner , the Austrian commissary in Nauders , even demanded that the Protestant dead be removed from the cemeteries. When resistance arose against him and the returned Rudolf von Planta, the Lower Engadine was occupied by 2,000 soldiers. The far-reaching sovereign claims of the Prince-Bishop of Chur, supported by Archduke Leopold, also proved to be a threat to the League of Worship and the Upper League. The fulfillment of all the bishop's demands would have turned most of the remaining Free State into a spiritual principality under the bishop of Chur.
However, the war in Italy went more in France's favour. The federal estates of Zurich, Bern, Basel, Glarus, Freiburg, Solothurn, Schaffhausen and Appenzell also sent troops against Spain under Ludwig von Erlach and Franz d'Affry. When Sweden made an alliance with France in 1631 and invaded the empire, Emperor Ferdinand felt compelled to break off the war in Italy and to conclude the Peace of Cherasco with France on April 6, 1631 . The implementing provisions of the June 19 treaty also stipulated that the Bündner Passes should be cleared of Austria. In fact, by September 10, the Austrian troops cleared Graubünden and destroyed the fortifications they had built. On September 18, 1631, the representatives of the three federations gathered in Ems and solemnly renewed the old federations. They decided to fortify the Luzisteig, the Rhine and the Landquart Bridge according to the plans of Johannes Arduiser and to permanently occupy these key points with 300 men each. An army of 3,000 men led by local officers was raised in the Three Leagues with French money. French interests were represented on behalf of Richelieu by Duke Henri II de Rohan , who had made a name for himself as a general of the Huguenots. Because of his Calvinistic beliefs and his skilful approach, he managed at the end of December 1631 to have the Three Leagues put him in command of their troops. The Three Leagues now became a de facto French protectorate. The Three Leagues demanded in vain that Rohan submit their former subject areas of Chiavenna, Veltlin and Bormio.
Second French intervention
While the territory of the Three Leagues was neutralized under French protection after 1631, the former Grisons subject areas remained open to Spain and Austria. In 1633 the Duke of Feria moved with an army from the Duchy of Milan to the Vinschgau, in 1634 the Spanish king's brother, Ferdinand of Spain , repeated this move and was able to decide the battle of Nördlingen in the Emperor's favour. After this decisive victory for the Kaiser, Richelieu decided to intervene directly in the Thirty Years' War in Germany for the first time and allied himself with Sweden and the Netherlands. Five French armies marched against the Emperor, one of which was led by the Duke of Rohan to Graubünden to conquer Valtellina and cut the connection between Austria and Milan. Rohan set off in March in Alsace with seven regiments of infantry and 400 horsemen via the area of the reformed cantons to Graubünden and arrived in Chur on April 12, 1635.
In the meantime, on his orders, the three native regiments of Schauenstein , Salis and Brügger , who were in French pay, together with the two free companies Stuppa and Jenatsch, surprisingly occupied the towns of Bormio and Chiavenna (March 28) and thus took key positions at the entrance and exit of Valtellina one. Rohan thus anticipated an imperial occupation, since from Austria the imperial general Johann Franz von Barwitz , Baron von Fernamont, with an army of 8000 men and 1200 cavalry, and from Milan the Spanish general Giovanni Serbelloni with a second army of 4000 men Infantry, 600 horsemen and 6 cannons were approaching. Rohan now moved with the remaining French troops and two Swiss regiments, Schmied (Zurich) and Greder (Solothurn), to Valtellina, where he now had a total of around 8,000 men and 400 cavalry. He had fortifications and garrisons built in the Engadin near Ardez, near Süs and near Punt, and in Valtellina near Chiavenna, Riva, Bormio and Mantello. To defend Bünden he had the Luzisteig permanently occupied and sent 1200 men to Livigno to secure this important valley. Rohan himself took position at Traona with 2,000 men . He set up his headquarters in Morbegno. On Rohan's part, the basis of the subsequent clashes, known as the "mountain campaign", was that he had to attack each of the two advancing armies individually because he would have been too heavily outnumbered against their combined forces.
On June 13, the Austrians under Fernamont made their first attack over the Umbrail Pass and the Val Mora, which enabled them to bypass Rohan's defenses at the Baths of Bormio via the Val di Dentro. The French troops therefore had to give up Bormio and retreated to the Engadin via Poschiavo. Fernamont pushed on to Tirano and Rohan had to retreat to Chiavenna to avoid being crushed between him and Serbelloni's troops, who were already stationed on upper Lake Como. However, Fernamont did not unite with Serbelloni, but pushed forward into Val Livigno via Poschiavo. However, he did not meet the French troops stationed there as he had hoped, since they had already joined forces with Duke Rohan in the Upper Engadine. On June 26, Rohan advanced through the Casana Pass to Livigno, forcing Fernamont to retreat to Bormio. However, Rohan did not pursue this, but moved via Poschiavo to Tirano, where he entrenched himself at Mazzo and defeated Fernamont's attacking troops on July 3, 1635. He lost around 600 men, his entire entourage and 1000 prisoners. The Austrian troops then withdrew across the Umbrail, but left a garrison in Bormio and near Santa Maria in the Munster Valley.
The Spanish troops meanwhile entrenched themselves at Ponte and awaited Rohan's attack. This united at Tirano with 3000 Swiss mercenaries who had been recruited with French gold. When he pushed further against Sondrio, Serbelloni withdrew from Valtellina without a fight, allegedly because he is said to have fallen out with Fernamont. Rohan therefore turned again against Bormio, which he was able to take, whereupon the Austrians, threatened by a pincer attack over the Umbrail and Ofen passes, withdrew from the Munster valley without a fight. Rohan now moved into quarters in Tirano and had the conquered areas fortified. From France he received another two regiments to strengthen his position. However, supplying Rohan's troops in the Valtellina was becoming increasingly difficult, because on the one hand the country had been plundered and on the other hand the remittances from France were slow in coming. The monthly bill for supplying the troops with food alone was 525,000 livres. France also owed its troops pay of around 400,000 ducats.
As early as October, Austrian and Spanish troops were gathering again at the Bündner borders, and on October 24 Fernamont made another advance through Santa Maria and the Munster Alps into the Val di Fraele and over the Monte Scale to Pedenosso . At the same time, 500 Austrian musketeers bypassed Rohan's fortifications at the Bormio baths via Monte Cristallo, so that the Swiss troops entrenched there had to retreat to Bormio. However, the main force could not force a breakthrough at the Bormio baths and had to retreat to the Val Fraele. Rohan then launched a skillful pincer attack on Fernamont. He had French troops from the Engadin and Jenatsch with his Graubünden troops advance from Livigno in the rear of the Austrian troops, while he himself led the attack with the garrison from Bormio. Fernamont was defeated again on October 31, 1635 and had to retreat to the Munster Valley with a loss of around 1,200 men.
After this second victory over the Austrians, Rohan returned to Tirano to confront the approximately 7,000 infantry and 800 horsemen of Serbelloni who had advanced to Morbegno and entrenched themselves there. The situation became dangerous because at the same time the imperial field marshal Schlick in Vinschgau and Munstertal had Fernamont's troops rally again. Rohan had the passes into the Munster Valley and the Vinschgau occupied and attacked Serbelloni near Morbegno on November 10 and defeated him after a fierce battle. Around 1000 Spaniards and 200 French and Swiss are said to have fallen. After this successful campaign, Rohan moved into winter quarters in Veltlin, because further attacks over the snowy passes were no longer to be feared.
The disputes now shifted back to the field of politics. The Bündner now immediately demanded the return of their former subject areas under their complete control. However, Richelieu did not want to allow this, but wanted in principle to confirm the Treaty of Monzon, only that France and its allies should now have the right of passage. The mood among the party leaders in the Three Leagues deteriorated noticeably, also because more than 400,000 ducats were owed from France. In January 1636, in the "Cleven Articles", Rohan offered the Bündners the prospect of a partial restoration of their sovereign rights in the subject areas, but at the same time forbade the practice of the Reformed faith in the subject areas. Rohan finally alienated the people of Graubünden.
While Jörg Jenatsch continued to play the role of a trusted friend to Rohan, he secretly converted to the Catholic faith in Rapperswil in 1635 for political reasons. Together with the Davos Landammann Meinrad Buol and Captain Johann Schorsch, he made covert contacts with Austria and Spain and obtained assurances from both powers in January 1637 that they would offer to expel the French from Graubünden. On February 6, 1637, Jenatsch informed the Mayor of Chur, Gregor Meyer, about the Chain League , which was directed against the French occupying power.
On March 21, 1637, Jenatsch moved with a troop of 3000 men to the Rohanschanze near Landquart. On March 26, Rohan signed the surrender at the Rheinschanze. Jenatsch granted him and his 1000 men free withdrawal. In his document of surrender, Rohan returned the subject lands of Veltlin, Bormio and Chiavenna to the Bündner. The last French troops under Rohan left the Three Leagues on May 5, 1637.
The Milan Capitulate
Since the Grisons had driven out the French troops before the conditions for the return of the subject areas had been settled with Spain and Austria, difficult negotiations ensued over the status of Chiavenna, Valtellina and Bormio, which lasted almost two years. Only when Spain had to fear that the Grisons could change sides again did its negotiators agree to the return of the subject areas. On September 3, 1639, an agreement was invoked in Milan, the so-called "Milan Capitulate," in which subject territories were restored to the Three Leagues, but with limitations on the sovereign rights of the Leagues. The Spanish representative in the Duchy of Milan was granted the right to supervise the administration of the canton of Graubünden and the right to protect the Catholic subjects. The spread and practice of the Reformed faith was forbidden in Valtellina and Bormio, and the bishop of Como was granted the right of visitation and ecclesiastical jurisdiction over all subject areas. Only the reformed population of Chiavenna received the right to stay. Other concessions made by Spain were that the Inquisition was not granted access to the Grisons areas and that Reformed Grisons landowners were allowed to stay in the Veltlin for three months during the harvest season. Reformed officials could also stay in the subject areas.
The Milan Capitulate also included an "Eternal Peace," a peace and alliance treaty between the Three Leagues and Spain. Spain was given permission to recruit mercenaries and the right to use the roads and mountain passes. These should remain closed to all enemies of Spain. In exchange for war, Spain granted military aid and an annual pension of 4,500 crowns. University places for people from Graubünden at the Universities of Milan and Pavia as well as duty-free grain markets on Lake Como were also granted.
Jenatsch, who had made numerous enemies and who had become too powerful for the aristocracy, was murdered in Chur on January 14, 1639, before the contract was signed.
In two treaties with Austria on June 10, 1649 and July 27, 1652, the Habsburg rights in the League of Ten Courts, in the Munster Valley and in the Lower Engadine were replaced with loans from the reformed towns of the Confederation. However, unresolved conflicts over overlapping rights in the Munster Valley and Vinschgau led to border disputes between the federations and Austria well into the 18th century, which only came to an end in 1762 with the final loss of all Graubünden rights in the Vinschgau and the cession of the village of Taufers to Austria .
Follow
The Bündner turmoil was a turning point in the relations between the Free State of the Three Leagues and the Confederation and showed both the Bündner and the Confederates their political and military weakness in the face of the internal religious divisions. The foreign policy weakness of the Confederation also prevented a longer-term stronger integration of the Three Leagues in the Confederation. In the 18th century, the three leagues were only linked to the Confederation by the eternal leagues with Bern (1602) and Zurich (1707). Full foreign policy freedom, control over the Alpine passes and neutrality could not hide the fact that the Three Leagues actually became a protectorate of Austria and Spain, on which the Alpine Republic was also completely dependent economically.
Domestically, the turmoil in Graubünden enabled the disentanglement of the complex mixture of Habsburg and episcopal sovereign rights and the autonomous judicial communities, so that the communities of the Prättigau were able to buy their way out of the Habsburg feudal rights with federal financial aid. In this way, the Reformed denomination was finally able to hold its own in the communities of Bünden and Graubünden was spared the fate of Bohemia, which was re-catholicized by the Habsburgs as a result of the Thirty Years' War. The difficult balance that arose between the denominations and the parties within the three leagues prevented any further strengthening of the common state, which more and more disintegrated into its two dozen high courts and almost 50 communities.
Economically and demographically, Graubünden soon recovered from the consequences of the Graubünden turmoil. The rapid revival of trade via the Bündner passes, the regained control over the fertile subject areas in Valtellina and the pensions and bribes from Spain, Austria and France that flowed plentifully into the pockets of the patriciate made this revival possible. Numerous churches and palaces in the Graubünden valleys from the 17th century bear witness to this economic miracle.
See also
literature
- Bartholomäus Anhorn : The Graw Pünter War . Edited by Conradin von Moor, Chur 1873.
- Peter Dürrenmatt : Swiss history. Volume 1. New edition. SV international - Swiss publishing house, Zurich 1976, ISBN 3-7263-6166-9 .
- Silvio Färber: Jenatsch, Jörg (Georg). In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
- Silvio Färber: Bündner confusion. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
- Emil Frey : The war deeds of the Swiss told the people. Volume 2: From the Italian wars to our time. Illustrated by Evert van Muyden. Neuchâtel 1905.
- Randolph C. Head: "It's in vain with our big hansen ..." Family networks as a power base and disruptive factor in the three alliances around 1600. In: André Holenstein, Georg von Erlach, Sarah Rindlisbacher (eds.): In the eye of the hurricane. Confederate power elites and the Thirty Years ' War (= Bern journal for history. Vol. 77, No. 2, special edition). Here and now - publishing house for culture and history, Baden 2015, ISBN 978-3-03919-366-0 , pp. 154-169.
- Fortunate of Juvalta: Memoirs . Translated and edited by Conradin von Mohr, Chur 1848, ( digitized ).
- Sandro Liniger: Holy War. On the genesis of religious lines of conflict in the "Bündner confusion". In: Thomas G. Kirsch, Rudolf Schlögl, Dorothea Weltecke (eds.): Religion as a process. Cultural studies paths of religious research. Schöningh, Paderborn 2015, ISBN 978-3-506-78116-1 , pp. 135–157.
- Friedrich Pieth : Switzerland in the Thirty Years' War 1618-1648. In: Swiss War History. Issue 6, 1916, ZDB -ID 2438538-4 pp. 61-104.
- Friedrich Pieth: Bündner history. Schuler, Chur 1945.
- Ulysses of Salis-Marschlins: The Maréschal de Camp Ulysses of Salis-Marschlins Memoirs . Translated and edited by Conradin von Mohr, Chur 1878, ( digitized ).
- Fortunat spokesman von Bernegg : history of the wars and disturbances which beset the three leagues in Hohenraetia from 1618 to 1645 . Translated and edited by Conradin von Mohr, Chur 1856, ( digitized ).
- Peter Stadler : The Age of the Counter-Reformation. In: Handbook of Swiss History. Volume 1. Verlagberichthaus, Zurich 1972, ISBN 3-85572-002-9 , pp. 571–672.
- Paul de Vallière: Loyalty and Honour. History of the Swiss in foreign service. German by Walter Sandoz. Les Editions d'Art Suisse Ancien, Lausanne 1940.
- Andreas Wendland: The benefits of passports and the endangerment of souls. Spain, Milan and the Battle of Valtellina, 1620-1641. Chronos, Zurich 1995, ISBN 3-905311-65-8 .
- Johannes Wieland: History of the war events in Helvetia and Rhaetia as a handbook for military instruction for Swiss officers of all weapons. Part 1. Schweighauer, Basel 1827, ( digital copy ).
- Heinrich Zschokke : Selected writings. Part 38: History of the Free State of the Three Leagues in Upper Rhaetia. (Decision). Heinrich Remigius Sauerlander, Aarau 1828, ( digital copy ).
web links
itemizations
- ↑ a b Stadler: The Age of the Counter-Reformation. 1972, p. 621.
- ↑ Peter Dürrenamt: Swiss history. Volume 1. 1976.
- ↑ Stadler: The Age of the Counter-Reformation. 1972, p. 622 f.
- ↑ Stadler: The Age of the Counter-Reformation. 1972, p. 623.
- ↑ Pieth: Bündner history. 1945, p. 208.
- ↑ Pieth: Bündner history. 1945, p. 212.
- ↑ Wieland: History of the war events in Helvetia and Rhaetia. 1827, p. 470 f.
- ↑ Wieland: History of the war events in Helvetia and Rhaetia. 1827, p. 471 .
- ↑ Martin Bundi : Monzon, Treaty of. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
- ↑ a b Pieth: Bündner history. 1945, p. 216.
- ↑ Zschokke: History of the Free State of the Three Leagues in High Rhaetia. 1828, p. 102 .
- ↑ Zschokke: History of the Free State of the Three Leagues in High Rhaetia. 1828, p. 106 .
- ↑ Frey: The war deeds of the Swiss. 1905, p. 557.
- ↑ Pieth Friedrich: The campaigns of Archduke Rohan in Veltlin and in Graubünden . 2nd Edition. Schuler, Chur 1935, p. 27 .
- ↑ Frey: The war deeds of the Swiss. 1905, pp. 558, 561.
- ↑ Frey: The war deeds of the Swiss. 1905, p. 560.
- ↑ a b de Vallière: Loyalty and Honour. 1940, p. 292.
- ↑ Frey: The war deeds of the Swiss. 1905, p. 561.
- ↑ de Vallière: Loyalty and Honor. 1940, p. 294.
- ↑ Bündner church history , part 3
- ↑ Pieth: Bündner history. 1945, p. 227 f.
- ↑ Pieth: Bündner history. 1945, p. 228.
- ↑ Peter Dürrenamt: Swiss history. Volume 1. 1976.
- ↑ Ulrich Im Hof : Switzerland. Illustrated history of the Confederation. Improved and expanded paperback edition editing. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart et al. 1984, ISBN 3-17-008519-0 , p. 80.