Battle of the Calven
General map of the Battle of Calven
| date | May 22, 1499 |
|---|---|
| place | Taufers im Münstertal and Mals im Vinschgau ( South Tyrol , Italy ) |
| output | Decisive victory for the three frets |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
|
Three Leagues : Zehngerichtebund Gotteshausbund Grauer Bund
and Old Confederation : Zurich Berne Lucerne Uri Schwyz Unterwalden Glarus train Solothurn Freiburg |
|
| Commander | |
|
Benedikt Fontana , Hartwig von Capol , Dietrich Freuler , Wilhelm von Ringk , Hans von Lumerins |
|
| Troop strength | |
| approx. 12,000 Swabian mercenaries, mercenaries from Italy, Tyrolean soldiers | approx. 6300 Graubünden and Confederates |
| losses | |
|
5000 dead |
2000 dead |
Triesen · Hard · Bruderholz · Hallau · Schwaderloh · Frastanz · Calven · Dornach
The Battle of the Calven ( Romansh Battaglia da Chalavaina ) between the Three Leagues and the Swabian League took place on May 22nd, 1499 in Val Müstair / Münstertal in the area of the municipalities of Taufers and Mals and was a dispute during the Swabian War . The battle of the Calven , the valley of the valley that separates the Val Müstair from the Vinschgau , used to be known as the battle of the Malser Haide .
prehistory
The Vinschgau and the Münstertal had been controversial between the Diocese of Chur and the County of Tyrol since the early Middle Ages . In the 13th century, the Counts of Tyrol acquired sovereignty over the county of Vinschgau-Lower Engadine. The goods and rights of the diocese of Chur remained unaffected. They were mainly concentrated in the Upper Venosta Valley. In Mals there was an episcopal court for the subjects, the so-called "people of God". An episcopal captain resided at the Fürstenburg in Burgeis .
After Tyrol came to the House of Habsburg in 1363, Habsburg governors tried repeatedly to restrict the episcopal rights in the Lower Engadine, the Münstertal and the Vinschgau and to enforce Tyrolean sovereignty. Against these attempts at alienation from the diocese of Chur, the subjects of the bishop united between 1367 and 1415 to form the Church of God , which also included the judicial communities of the Lower Engadine, the Münstertal and the Upper Vinschgau. The Prince-Bishop of Chur, at the time in question Heinrich von Hewen , a Swabian nobleman, got caught between the fronts. On the one hand, as a sovereign, he was clearly interested in pushing back the influence of the Habsburgs and strengthening his own rule. On the other hand, he could not have been interested in overly strengthening the liberal, cooperative element in his dominion.
In the later 15th century the Habsburgs acquired more and more rulers and rights in the Prättigau and Schanfigg, so that their sovereignty slowly seemed to establish itself in all of Bünden. King Maximilian I of Habsburg finally united the Roman-German royal dignity, the entire Habsburg hereditary land and Burgundy under one crown. From 1495 he tried to implement imperial reform in the German Empire in order to strengthen the central power. However, the Swiss refused to implement them and opposed the Reich and Habsburg. In 1497/99, the Church of God and the Gray League therefore concluded an alliance that was clearly directed against the further expansion of the Habsburg power in Graubünden.
The increase in power led from 1494 to a protracted conflict with France for supremacy in Italy. For this reason, control over the Alpine passes, which enabled direct advances into Lombardy, was of crucial importance. One of these important Alpine crossings was the Umbrail Pass from the Münstertal to the Valtellina , which enabled a direct connection between Innsbruck and Milan . A raid Tyrolean troops in the Convent of St. John in the Munster solved finally in an open conflict, which in February 1499 in the Swabian War of the Swabian League, led between the Confederates, the Three Leagues and the House of Habsburg supported. The bishop of Chur initially tried to settle the conflict. Considered a traitor by the Grisons, he had to seek refuge in Innsbruck.
For Maximilian I, during the entire Swabian War, the conquest of the Engadine and the Munster Valley was clearly the most important goal. At the end of March, troops of the King and the Swabian League plundered and destroyed the Lower Engadine as far as Zernez and the Münstertal. The episcopal captain at the Fürstenburg, Benedikt Fontana , had to flee, the abbess of the St. Johann monastery and 33 other Engadines were abducted as hostages. In the upper Vinschgau between Malles and Glurns , Maximilian then gathered an army of 12,000 men in May to carry out the decisive blow against the Three Leagues. To protect the army camp , a strong Letzi was built between Taufers and Laatsch , which blocked the Calven bottleneck, where the Rambach flows from the Münstertal into the Etschtal . The ramparts were strong and armed with numerous guns.
The battle
At the urging of Benedikt Fontana, the three leagues finally decided to counter the threat posed by the Habsburg army. On May 11th, the Habsburg troops were driven from the Ofen Pass. On May 17, the main Graubünden power then moved from Zuoz with 6300 men to the Münstertal. When they arrived in front of the Letzi on May 21, they decided to attack immediately because the troops in the barren mountains were unable to get their food for a long time and Maximilian I was on his way to the Vinschgau with another army. A battle plan was drawn up in a brief council of war in the «Chalavaina» house - hence the Romansh name of the battle as «battaglia da Chalavaina».
Of the 12,000 or so men on the opposite side, around 2,000 were stationed on the Letzi itself, around 1,200 Italian mercenaries covered the right flank and 200 Tyroleans occupied the Marengo Bridge behind the Letzi. In front of the Letzi there was also Rotund Castle near Taufers, which was also equipped with Habsburg troops. The rest of the army was distributed to the villages as a reserve in the Etsch plain between Burgeis and Glurns.
Similar to the Confederates in the Battle of Frastanz , the Graubünden people also chose to bypass the Calven instead of the hopeless frontal attack on the Letzi. With the help of local guides from the Münstertal, a 2000-3000 strong contingent of Graubünden under the captains Wilhelm von Ringk and Hans von Lumerins rose over the 2300 m high Schliniger Berg to stab the enemy in the back. At the same time, the main power should then attack the Letzi on a signal. Rotund Castle, from which the maneuver could have been clearly seen, posed a problem. Therefore, the bypass maneuver began only after midnight, which is why parts of the troop got lost in the dark and instead of directly down to Laatsch first pushed into the Arundatal.
The Bündner reached the Adige Valley at daybreak, where they were immediately met by Habsburg troops. However, when the rumor arose that there were over 30,000 Graubünden residents on the march, panic broke out and some of the troops fled, while others were wiped out. The Bündner immediately advanced to the Marengo Bridge, where however the refugees united with the Tyroleans and stubbornly resisted. Despite several hours of fighting, the bridge could not be taken, so the attack from behind on the Letzi did not take place.
The Graubünden main force in front of the Letzi had in the meantime received the agreed signal to attack, but the leaders delayed the attack because they feared high losses and wanted to wait until the fight behind the Letzi had broken out. When news of the bad progress of the evasion maneuver arrived, the Graubünden attempted to overrun the Letzi with a frontal attack, which they only succeeded with with great losses. The episcopal captain Benedikt Fontana also fell. According to a legend, he is said to have called out to the advancing Graubünden in Romansh: « Frestgamaintg anavant, lousy mats! Ia sung angal en om, betg az starmante; oz Grischuns e las Leias u mai ple! »-« Fresh up, my boys, I'm only a man, don't pay any attention to me; still today Bündner and the Bünde or never! »(More details on the heroic words → Benedikt Fontana ). Since then he has been regarded as a Graubünden national hero. The Grisons - led by Colonel Hartwig von Capol - are said to have finally overcome the Letzi, spurred on by Fontana's death. The defenders on the Letzi now turned to flee and also dragged the Italian mercenaries with them.
The Graubünden people chased those fleeing far down into the Vinschgau. Numerous fleeing mercenaries perished in the raging meltwater floods of the Etsch when the bridges collapsed under their weight. Over 5000 men from Swabia, Tyrol and Italy are said to have died. In contrast, the people of Graubünden recorded around 2,000 deaths. The Graubünden plundered the entire upper Adige Valley as far as Schlanders and burned down the villages of Mals, Glurns and Laatsch. All male residents over the age of 12 were killed. In retaliation, the Tyroleans tortured 38 Engadin hostages to death in Merano .
Aftermath
When the Bündner destroyed the Letzi on the Calven, on May 25th they returned over the Ofen Pass with their booty, including 300 small and eight large guns. Four days later, King Maximilian arrived with another army in the completely destroyed Glurns. In revenge, he let 15,000 men advance into the Engadine , but they soon had to turn back because the Graubünden people had carried away all the supplies and burned the villages.
The defeat on the Calven was the decisive victory of the Grisons in the Swabian War. Since Maximilian could not convince his Swabian allies to send larger associations to Graubünden, he soon had to return to Lake Constance. In the peace treaty of Basel , the Graubünden could not replace the Habsburg rights in the ten-court federation and in the church federation as hoped, but the further expansion of the Habsburgs was finally stopped. The victory on the Calven is also considered to be the actual birth of the Free State of the Three Leagues, which was finally consolidated in 1524. The upper Vinschgau was the only area that remained firmly in the hands of the Habsburgs and in 1618 the Bünde had to give up this area for good.
Calven celebration
In May 1899, an elaborate celebration with a costume parade and festival to commemorate the battle was held in Chur. The Calven celebration is said to have contributed significantly to promoting national awareness in the canton of Graubünden and to the formation of traditional costume associations .
literature
- Hans Rudolf Kurz: Swiss battles . Second, revised and expanded edition. Francke, Bern 1977. pp. 165-171. ISBN 3-7720-1369-4
- Willibald Pirckheimer: The Swiss War, in Latin and German, newly translated and commented by Fritz Wille . Baden, Merker im Effingerhof 1998. ISBN 3-85648-094-3
- Peter Röthlisberger: Calvenspiel . In: Andreas Kotte (Ed.): Theater Lexikon der Schweiz . Volume 1, Chronos, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-0340-0715-9 , p. 331 f. (about the festival for the 400th anniversary in 1899)
Web links
- Martin Bundi: Calven, Battle of the. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
- Exhibition on the Swabian War: Report on the Battle of Calven
- Claudio Gustin, La Battaglia da Chalavaina dals 22 May 1499 (Romansh) (PDF file; 6 kB)
- Jürg Stüssi-Lauterburg : The Swabian War 1499 (PDF file; 36 kB)
Individual evidence
- ↑ [Forian Hitz: Benedikt Fontana is alive! The Calven celebration of 1899 and its effects on the understanding of history. Swiss History Journal, Volume 49, 1999]
- ^ Georg Jäger: Plazidus Plattner and the Calven celebration. In: Freedom then and now - commemorative publication on the Calven events 1499-1999 Calven Verlag AG Chur 1999
Coordinates: 46 ° 40 ′ 4 " N , 10 ° 30 ′ 37.7" E