40

The Valtelline and foreign Powers

[1600-20

the outlet of her commerce; while on the east the Republic was threatened by Archduke Ferdinand, the "Gratzer," under cloak of the marauding Uskoks, the refugee settlers on the Dalmatian coast; and Fuentes, governor of Milan, stood as menace to the west. Such a combination would inevitably have been used by the Pope and Spain — Sarpi's hated" Diacatholicon"-against the Republic which had dared to withstand and break the power of excommunication and interdict. But to carry out this policy the possession of the Valtelline was essential. It was therefore a matter of life and death for Venice that the Valtelline should remain in the hands of the Grisons. Savoy was hardly less interested than Venice, and for the same reason. Charles Emmanuel remarked to the Venetian ambassador, Renier Zeno, "Four thousand Spanish hold us all in chains; what is wanted is courage and money. The one I have: if the others had it too, in four months we would drive out Spain." That was the dream of independent north Italian Princes, to get rid of Spain; but if the Valtelline came into the hands of the Spanish governor in Milan such a design would be frustrated.

Outside Italy the struggle between the Reformed and the Catholic Church was dividing Europe into two great groups, France, England, the Dutch, and the Protestant Princes of the Union, against Spain, Austria, the Jesuits, and the Church. France and the Reform party welcomed the support they readily found in Italy from Venice and Savoy, and Henry IV calculated on the politico-religious situation in this quarter as a chief factor towards the success of his designs for the abasement of the House of Austria. In this connexion the possession of the Valtelline was of high significance, for as Plessen, the Elector Palatine's councillor, explained to Antonio Foscarini, Venetian ambassador in England, the Valtelline formed a connecting link between Francophil Venice, the anti-Spanish Grisons, the Protestant Princes of Germany, the Dutch, and the English. The question of its possession, therefore, was in a way similar in importance to the question of the possession of Jülich and Cleves, which in the hands of the Catholics would have driven in a wedge between the several parts of the antiAustrian federates.

The question of the Valtelline, accordingly, engaged the attention of Spain, Savoy, Milan, Venice, Austria, France, and is one of the dominating features of the early part of the Thirty Years' War. The smaller Powers were anxious to see the Valtelline preserved in the hands of the Grisons; they did not aspire to possession themselves, but they were determined to do all they could to prevent the valley from falling into the hands of Spain or Austria. The three greater Powers, France, Spain, and Austria, though professing to desire the status quo, showed by their conduct that they were prepared to take possession if they could. Each, however, thwarted the other by the help of the Grisons and the Valtelliners themselves. These people and their country are the

44

Discord in the Grisons

[1607

and original were identical and that the voting had been legitimate, they then and there voted the abrogation of both French and Venetian treaties.

This high-handed act of the Spanish faction, carried out by the Spanish-Catholic communes of Belfort and Churwalden, in the Spanish-Catholic city of Chur, marks the strength of the Spanish reaction against the Franco-Venetian party. On April 10 the victorious faction in a Strafgericht of purely Spanish leanings published an Artikelbrief or decree by which the Passes were closed; pensions and presents were declared to be the property of the Bund; the clergy (Prädikanten) were forbidden to meddle with politics; and the levies raised by Venice were debarred from entering her service. The three Chiefs of the Leagues refused to attach the seals to this illegal decree; whereupon the seals were taken from them by force.

This violence provoked an inevitable counteraction on the part of the Franco-Venetian Protestants. The leading spirits on the Spanish side had been George Beeli of Belfort and Gaspar Baselga. News was now sent through from Chiavenna that both were deeply implicated in treasonable correspondence with Fuentes. In the actual tension of parties and the universal suspicion, the charge was readily believed. Meanwhile Paschal, the French envoy, had been raising the Protestants of the Engadine and Prätigau. With nine Fähnleins, that is about 2700 men, they marched on Chur, stormed the Bishop's palace in which Beeli and Baselga were confined, and carried them off to the Rathhaus. Then they locked up the judge and proceeded to try the prisoners themselves in a Strafgericht of purely Franco-Venetian complexion. A mission from the Swiss Confederation urging moderation and the liberation of Beeli and Baselga was dismissed without an answer. The prisoners were tortured, and the Court found that both had had dealings with Fuentes, and had been bribed to vote for the closing of the Passes against Venice and France. Both were condemned to death. Baselga was beheaded on July 4. He had begged leave to be executed in the courtyard of the Bishop's palace; but the Engadiners would not hear of any concession and carried their victim off by force to the common execution place in the town. Beeli suffered on July 6. In a speech of much dignity he defended himself from the charge of treason to his country, and declared that only by a good understanding with Milan could the Grisons find peace and quiet. He died with the word "fatherland " on his lips. The victorious Franco-Venetian Strafgericht proceeded to tear up the Spanish Artikelbrief of April 10 and substituted the following declaration: The French and Venetian treaties shall hold good; private persons shall not receive pensions nor presents, nor may they take service with foreign sovereigns without leave; the Secret Council is abolished; an impartial Strafgericht is erected at Ilanz to revise the operations of both the Spanish and the French Strafgericht in Chur

1607]

Transit refused to Venetian troops

43

promised by either; Venice was resolved not to precipitate a war if she could avoid it, and Henry was too far off to lend immediate help. A Spanish reaction inside the Grisons began to make itself felt, slowly at first, but gathering volume till it culminated in 1607, the "annus rusticae dementiae."

The Grisons, finding themselves unsupported by either of their allies and alarmed at the attitude of Fuentes, appointed a Secret Council to "deal with all that might be for the service of the Fatherland," and sent an important mission to Milan. Fuentes declared that he had no hostile intentions, that the fort was merely a defence for the Milanese against French or Venetian troops, those to whom the Bund had permitted free passage. He offered to remove the commercial embargo on condition that French troops were not allowed free transit without informing the governor of Milan and obtaining his leave. As to razing Fort Fuentes, he would not hear of it. Though the envoys agreed to these terms the communes refused ratification when they were laid before them. Inside the Bund the struggle between the French party under the envoy Paschal and the Spanish party became sharper and sharper. Fuentes, receiving no definite reply to his request that the Passes should be closed to troops hostile to Milan, continued to build and strengthen Fort Fuentes. On the other hand the Franco-Venetian Protestant party, in view of Spanish threats, secured the reswearing of the oath of Federation, garrisoned the Valtelline with troops paid by France, and set aside every Friday as a day of prayer and humiliation. Matters came to a crisis in 1607. Most disquieting news had been received from Milan as to Fuentes' military preparations, and the Grisons had appointed a Secret Council of fifteen members to take steps for the "safety of the State." Venice was at that moment in dread of being forced into war with the Pope over the affair of Paolo Sarpi, and was anxious to raise troops. She had levied 6000 soldiers in Lorraine and sent Padavino to ask for free transit down the Valtelline in terms of the treaty of 1603. The Spanish party instantly objected. They pictured the Lorrainers as a horde of barbarians who would pillage and burn all along their line of march. They raised the question as to the exact terms of the treaty; was transit granted "armed" or "unarmed," in "detail" or in "mass"? They declared that the treaty had never been submitted to the whole body of communes, and had been voted by a majority bought with Venetian gold. The fire was quickly lighted and fanned to a blaze. In March the Catholic districts of Belfort, Churwalden, and Schanfig "raised their standards," and marched on Chur. They called for the production of the original document, and appointed a committee to report whether the copy and the original were identical, and whether the treaty had been voted by a legal majority. On April 3 they assembled, in the open air, on the Rossboden at Chur, to hear the report, and, on learning that both copy

42

Fort Fuentes and the Spanish party

[1603 driven to negotiate a separate treaty. The Republic entrusted the mission to Giovanni Battista Padavino, secretary to the Council of Ten. The difficulties were not insuperable. The French treaty had paved the way for a treaty with the ally of France. The Franco-Venetian party in the Grisons were in the ascendant, under the influence of the Protestant preachers, the Prädikanten, who were working against the Catholicism of Spain, and the Republic had already secured the support of the powerful family of Salis. But Padavino, like de Vic, had to face the rapacity of the Bündners, though he admits that it was due largely to "the necessities of their poor estate." The Diet was sitting at Chur when Padavino arrived in June, 1603. He had 4000 crowns at his disposal, but he was obliged to spend 9000 before he secured the treaty; 3000 went in gratuities to officials, 3500 in cash to all the voters, and 2500 in feasts and drinks. It was thus he achieved his end. On August 15 the Venetian alliance for ten years was voted by twenty Grey League votes against seven, by eighteen Gotteshaus votes against four, and by all fourteen votes of the Zehngerichten. Padavino returned to Venice with a large embassy from the Grisons, and the treaty was ratified and sworn in the Sala del Maggior Consiglio in September, 1603.

But Fuentes, who had also been seeking an alliance with the Grisons, was exasperated by this fresh rebuff. He instantly closed all traffic between Milan and the Grisons, and began to build Fort Fuentes on a rocky hillock, called Monticchio, which rises in the middle of the swamps at the mouth of the Adda. "Munitissiman arcem scopulis felici conatu imposuit as he boasts in an inscription which he dictated and dedicated to himself. And as a fact Fort Fuentes was a most serious menace to the Valtelline and the whole of the Grey Leagues. In it the governor of Milan could mass troops for an invasion, and, even more important still, by means of it he could completely cut off all trade with his neighbours, damaging not only private individuals by the loss of transport fees over the Passes, but the State as well by the cessation of customs dues, while the entire population was exposed to privation from the want of grain and salt, both of which they were accustomed to draw from the Milanese. Henry IV was not wrong when he exclaimed, "Fuentes veut du même nœud ferrer la gorge de l'Italie et les pieds aux Grisons."

It is true that Fuentes' instructions were to avoid a war in Italy, and an attack on the Valtelline would have compelled Venice to take the field; but the governor trusted that, with the help of Fort Fuentes, he could raise the spirits of the Spanish party and starve the Grisons into a more compliant attitude. The alarm in Graubünden was great. The people of the Valtelline were with difficulty restrained by the Grisons from attacking the workmen at the fort; and embassies were sent both to France and to Venice in search of aid. But no active support was

1601-2]

The Valtelline, France, and Venice

41

essential factors in the situation. Neither Feria, nor de Coeuvres, nor Baldiron, nor Rohan, nor Merode, succeeded in making good their hold upon the Valtelline against the will of the inhabitants. The whole of this important question, therefore, is best studied in the Valtelline and Graubünden. There we shall see the attitudes, the aspirations, the actions, the instructions of Spain, Rome, Turin, Venice, Paris, and Innsbruck faithfully reflected in the doings at Thusis, Chur, Bergün, Davos, Bormio, Tirano, Morbegno, Sondrio.

The question of the Valtelline can hardly be said to have assumed European importance till the year 1620; down to that date it was rather a matter of private concern between the Grisons and their subject land the Valtelline; but Venice, France, and Milan had, so early as 1602, alike begun to take an interest in the valley; therefore the circumstances which led up to the crisis of 1620 and the massacre of the Protestants call for attention.

In 1601, Méry de Vic, French ambassador to the Grisons, was negotiating for a renewal of the treaty of 1586 with the Bund. Henry IV, writing to him on December 16, 1601, said, "Above all I desire that you should obtain passage through their country for the troops I may wish to send into Italy, for that is the chief advantage I expect from the alliance." The King's agent met with vigorous opposition from Casati, the Spanish ambassador, and Giulio della Torre, Spanish agent, who freely lavished Spanish gold, while French money was scarce. He reports (December 18) that he has not only to bribe the seventy members of the Diet, but that "six hundred peasants, having nothing to do at home, have descended on Chur, where they live in the hostelries at the charges of the King of France. I find it impossible to buy them all." All the same, within eight days of writing this de Vic achieved his aim. The Grisons resolved to renew the alliance, "following the old treaty." De Vic had proposed a modification of the terms of that treaty as regards the Passes; he suggested that they should be open to the King of France "and his friends," meaning the Venetians; this was rejected, and France preserved freedom of passage, "pour elle seule," and not "pour elle et ses amis." This, no doubt, is one of the reasons why Venice was forced to seek a separate treaty in the following year. A tide of anti-Spanish feeling swept over the Grisons; and Giulio della Torre escaped defenestration solely by the interposition of de Vic. The French treaty was solemnly sworn in Notre Dame in October, 1602. By that treaty the French secured the passage of the Bernardino, the Splügen, the Bernina, and the Wörmserjoch. It was certain that the Spanish in Milan under such a governor as Don Pedro Henriquez de Azevedo, Count of Fuentes, would not sit down quietly under a menace of that nature. The treaty of 1602 merely inaugurated the struggle for the Alps which preluded the Thirty Years' War.

Venice, finding herself excluded by the clause "pour elle seule," was