1607-16]

Renewal of strife between the parties

45

and to try "those who had acted against the fatherland"; and this it did in a very gentle manner.

The Court at Ilanz was a compromise between the two parties. It laid, for a while, the storm of popular passion; the waves of "rustica dementia" calmed down. But the events of the year 1607 laid bare the real situation. France, Venice, and Spain were all struggling for possession of the Passes and were prepared to go any lengths in compelling or inducing the Grisons to grant it. Among the Bündners themselves the chief cause of the "dementia," of internal discord, was the discovery that they had a property to sell to eager bidders. Each party was fighting for the sole power to sell the goods. The conflict was inflamed by two genuine passions, religion and freedom, but both were intimately connected with and virtually subsidiary to the question of the Passes. It would at the same time be difficult to prove that any of the leaders were traitors to their country, though this charge was urged against them by their opponents.

The Assembly at Ilanz brought peace for a while. In 1613 the Venetian alliance reached its term of ten years and in spite of every effort on the part of the Republic the Grisons refused to renew it. The memory of the "madness" of 1607 was too vividly impressed upon their minds. But the Republic was in straits for troops to face the Uskoks, secretly supported by the Archduke Ferdinand. In 1616 Padavino was dispatched on a mission to renew the alliance if possible on the promise of large sums to each of the three Leagues, or at least to raise levies. His efforts, however, were thwarted by Gueffier, the French agent who had succeeded Paschal. He like his predecessor Paschal, when thwarting Venice and favouring Spain, was acting in obedience to the change of policy which followed on the death of Henry, whose anti-Spanish schemes were succeeded by the philoSpanish policy of Villeroy and the Queen-Mother. This rebuff to the Venetians encouraged Casati, the Spanish agent, to apply for a treaty. He proposed that neither of the contracting parties should grant passage to troops hostile to either; promised that Fort Fuentes should be demolished; and asked that the Passes should be absolutely closed to Venice and be absolutely free for the passage of Milanese troops at the rate of 200 a day; the French treaty was to hold good. These were Casati's main offers, and they were favourable, especially on the point of money, which he promised in abundance. But they instantly brought to the front the latent schism inside the Bund. The Venetian Protestant party, headed by the Preachers, opposed any dealings with Spain on the ground of religion. They pointed out that Spain might at any moment declare the Grisons heretical and announce that faith need not be kept with them. Moreover both Bern and Zurich earnestly dissuaded the Bund from accepting the Spanish alliance. On the other hand the Spanish party was strongly supported by Rudolf and Pompeius

46

The Strafgericht of Thusis

[1618

von Planta, two of the most powerful personages in the Grisons. The situation was becoming strained once more. The failure of Padavino and the proposals of Casati ranged the two factions in hostile camps; and soon we catch the first mutterings of the coming storm.

Though Padavino had failed to secure an alliance, Venetian gold tempted many Bündners to the service of the Republic, in spite of the prohibitions published by the Strafgericht in Chur. The Plantas now raised a cry against the disobedient levies. The Preachers retaliated by declaring that the Plantas were intriguing with Austria and Spain against the Bund and the Reformed faith. They alleged as proof Rudolf von Planta's secret interview with Maximilian Mohr, Casati's secretary, at Zernez, the presence of Jesuits in Planta's fortress of Wildenberg, and the fact that the governor of Milan had again closed trade communications on the rejection of Casati's proposals. In April, 1618, the Preachers summoned a Synod at Bergün; it was entirely of their colour, Protestant and anti-Spanish. There "Hispanismus" was declared to be treason. Planta was summoned to appear before the Synod, and on his refusal the Preachers under George Jenatsch, the soldier preacher who now assumed the leadership of his party, marched over the Albula down to Zernez to seize him in his castle of Wildenberg. They found the castle, however, garrisoned and fortified with 400 men under Planta's command, and it was not till they had called up the Engadiners, 1300 strong, that Planta fled over the Ofen Pass to his possessions in Tyrol. The Preachers, in pursuit of their campaign against "Hispanismus," now divided their forces. One body marched over the Maloggia into Val Bregaglia and seized Johann Baptist Prevost, called Zambra, in Vicosoprano; the other marched over the Muretto Pass into the Valtelline to secure the person of Nicholas Rusca, the Archpriest of Sondrio, head of the Catholic-Spanish party in the valley. The whole Valtelline, strongly Catholic in sentiment, was devoted to the Archpriest. It was he who had withstood the efforts to impose the Reformed teaching on the valley and had rendered inoperative the Protestant school founded in Sondrio. He was, therefore, especially odious to the Preachers. the Preachers. On the night of July 18, 1618, the Bündners swept down on Sondrio, seized Rusca in his bed, and hurried him round by Chiavenna to join the division which had captured Zambra in the Bregaglia. In Sondrio the bells were rung and the Catholics rose to attempt a rescue, but they were told that Rusca's life depended on their remaining quiet. With their prisoners the Preachers arrived at Chur, but found the town closed against them. They passed on to Thusis and there erected a Strafgericht of the most violently Protestant complexion, entirely dominated by nine of the hottest pulpiters. They proceeded to work and issued a decree, forbidding pensions and decorations, and any dealing with foreign sovereigns, disabling anyone who had taken an oath to a foreign

1618-20]

Reaction against Protestant policy

47

sovereign from handling Bund affairs, prohibiting foreign enlistment, and expelling foreign ambassadors. It is clear that the intention of the Thusis Strafgericht was patriotic. It was an effort to shake the Grisons free of the foreigner. There is no mention of the Passes nor of religion. The expulsion of ambassadors deeply offended France, and so enraged Gueffier, her envoy, that he became one of the most active agents in the massacre of 1620. The Thusis Strafgericht, having published its decree, turned to deal in the fiercest spirit with its prisoners and its enemies. Zambra was beheaded; Rusca, though an old and feeble man, was subjected to repeated torture by the cord; as he was being hauled up for the fifth time he fainted and died. His tongue was found bitten through in his agony. The Plantas had fled; but, on the strength of correspondence discovered in their castles of Wildenberg and Riedberg, Pompeius and his brother Rudolf were declared vogelfrei or outlawed, and banished from the Grisons under pain of being quartered if caught; their goods were confiscated, their houses were to be razed and a price was put on their heads. Banishment and confiscation were pronounced against twelve other persons, several of them inhabitants of the Valtelline. This and the murder of Rusca were among the principal causes which led up to the massacre of 1620.

The ruthless and high-handed proceedings of the Thusis Strafgericht brought the inevitable reaction. The Catholic communes of Bregaglia, Lugnetz, Disentis, Oberhalbstein, marched on Chur to demand revision; while the Protestants of the Upper Engadine, Davos, and Prätigau ranged themselves in support of the Preachers. The outlaws also had appealed to the Swiss Confederation to secure them safe conduct and a fair hearing. It seemed as if civil war were on the point of breaking out under the walls of Chur. But a compromise was effected by which, in October, 1619, a new Strafgericht was erected at Davos, and all the outlaws of the Thusis assembly, with the exception of the eight most important personages, were granted safe conduct and a fresh hearing. This was, however, only a partial reparation. It left out of account the powerful outlaws, the Plantas, who were resolved to recover their property and their status, and it ignored the growing hostility in the Valtelline, caused by the murder of their Archpriest. It is to the Valtelline that our attention must now be turned.

Since the triumph of the Protestant party at Bergün, Thusis, and Davos, the Valtelline had been even more harshly governed in Protestant interests than heretofore. The blood of Rusca was unavenged, and religious sentiment and patriotic aspirations combined to tempt the Valtelliners to throw off the yoke of the Grisons. The situation seemed favourable. The Bund was torn in two by the violence of the Thusis Strafgericht; the exiles, the Plantas and their followers, were ready with 500 men at Landeck, only waiting an opportunity to regain their possessions and their status. In Milan was a Spanish governor, the Duke of

48

The Catholic conspiracy

[1620 Feria, eager to assist in crushing the Franco-Venetian party. France was still incensed at the expulsion of her envoy, Gueffier, and would not move; Venice, threatened by Austria on the one side and Milan on the other, dared not move. It seemed that the moment had come. The nobles of the Valtelline, the Schenardi, Venosta, Guicciardi, Paravicini - all of whom except the Guicciardi had suffered under the Thusis and Davos Courts - headed by Robustelli of Grossotto, who, though not a noble, was rich, vigorous, and related by marriage to the Plantas entered into a conspiracy against their Grisons lords. Guicciardi, accompanied by priests, undertook a mission to gain the support of Feria. The priests easily persuaded the Cardinal Archbishop of Milan, Federigo Borromeo, to second their efforts; while Guicciardi found an ally in Gueffier, the French envoy, who, by letter, urged Feria to embrace the enterprise. Feria's instructions were to keep the peace in Italy, and an armed intervention in the Valtelline would hardly achieve that. He hoped, however, to support the Valtelliners without being obliged to draw the sword. The Bund was divided, France engaged with the Huguenots, Venice isolated. Guicciardi's mission succeeded, and he returned to the Valtelline with money and promises of support. With this encouragement the plot ripened quickly. It embraced not merely the murder of all Protestants in the valley but also a concerted attack on the Grisons. Planta, with Austrian troops under Baldiron, was to invade the Münsterthal, establish connexion with the Valtelline by the Wörmserjoch, and to threaten the Lower Engadine by the Ofen Pass. Simultaneously an attack was to be delivered on the Rheinwald by troops raised in Milan and Lugano, under Giöri, with a view to effecting a junction with the Catholic communes of the Upper or Grey League, thus threatening Chur, which was to be menaced by Austrian soldiers massed at Feldkirch. Giovanni Maria Paravicini was charged with the closing of the valley against help from the Grisons garrison of Chiavenna, thus allowing the massacre to take place undisturbed. The plans were skilfully laid and the promoter was Gueffier, acting in concert with Casati and Rudolf von Planta against the Venetians, who alone stood with the Protestant party in the Grisons. He lived to regret his conduct when he found that he had placed the Valtelline entirely in the hands of Spain.

The conspiracy advanced rapidly; though not without arousing the suspicion of the Protestants in the Valtelline, who sent warnings to the Strafgericht at Davos and asked for a garrison. They were assured that there was no danger, the Valtelliners were unarmed, the keys of the arsenals were in the hands of the Grisons podestàs; nevertheless, as a precaution and to allay the alarm, a thousand men of the Valtelline militia would be called out to man the trenches at Mantello, as the only conceivable danger was an attack from Milan in favour of the Thusis exiles. A more disastrous step could not have been taken, for it

1620]

The massacre in the Valtelline

49

placed under arms the Catholic Valtelliners, the very men who were on the point of rising against their superiors. The massacre and rising were fixed for July 28, but two events occurred which precipitated the movement. Giöri delivered his attack on the castle of Misox and the Rheinwald on July 12, and was driven back by Guler over the Bernardino. In these circumstances Robustelli, who was the acknowledged leader of the rising in the Valtelline, wished to carry out the design at once. A messenger was sent to Paravicini telling him to move his troops up quickly so as to close the approaches from Chiavenna. The messenger was stopped at the bridge by Mantello, but found time to fling the letter into the Adda. The conspirators heard only that their messenger had been arrested; they did not know that the letter was in the river, and so concluded that all was discovered. Venosta counselled flight, but was overridden by the vigour of Robustelli, who decided to strike without delay. On the morning of Sunday, July 19, he and his band of assassins stole into Tirano. A detachment was sent to hold the gorge by the Madonna di Tirano and to prevent any help from Poschiavo. Four shots in the clear morning air gave the signal for the attack. The houses of the Protestants were surrounded. The podestà, Enderlin, was killed in the hostelry where he lodged. The preacher Basso was slain and his head placed on his own pulpit for the derision of the Catholic children. The Chancellor Lazzerone fled naked into the Adda for safety, but was discovered and murdered; the Vicar von Salis, in fact all the Grisons officials, met the same fate. About sixty persons perished in Tirano. The massacre spread down the valley. In Teglio seventeen persons fell. At Sondrio the Protestants received timely warning and many fled up the Malenco Valley and over Muretto to Maloggia; but the minister and one hundred and forty of his flock were slain in the square. At the sight of their blood the people cried, "This is our revenge for Rusca." The slaughter lasted fourteen days. About six hundred victims perished, many of them caught in the woods and on the hill-sides where they had sought shelter. Robustelli was declared Landeshauptmann, and turned at once to face the Grisons troops which were marching from Chiavenna to put down the revolt. Their lack of discipline, their greed for plunder, and a divided leadership rendered their efforts abortive; and the Valtelliners, with the help of Spanish troops, closed the approaches from Graubünden.

Feria now declared the Valtelline under Spanish protection. There was no doubt as to his main intention; under the plea of protecting the Catholic faith he meant to seize one of the gates of Italy and to secure the Passes for the Spanish-Austrian combination. The whole aspect of the Valtelline question was hereby changed. What had hitherto been to a large extent a private affair of the Grey Leagues now assumed European importance, when one of the competitors for free transit was no longer a suppliant, along with other Powers, to the Bund for favours, but was

C. M. H. IV.

4