Mercenary – a dangerous profession
A grenadier and a fusilier of the Salis-Samedan regiment, 1786, in which many men of the Grisons were serving. While mercenariness was a lucrative business for the Grisons upper classes, the income of an ordinary soldier at the end of the 18th century was below that of a labourer.Image: Raetian Museum
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A grenadier and two fusiliers of the Buol-Schauenstein regiment in Austrian services in 1734 und 1738. Even in the services of the Austrian emperor it was hardly possible for an ordinary soldier to put any money aside for the time after his return home.Image: Raetian Museum
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Soldiers of the Sprecher regiment in Austrian services. This regiment numbered 2,300 men and fought successfully in the Austrian war of succession between 1743 and 1748 in Central and Upper Italy against the King of Sicily.Image: Raetian Museum
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«Schrecken des Krieges» [The Horrors of War] by Urs Graf, 1521. Urs Graf (c. 1485‒1528), copperplate engraver and glass painter, was himself a mercenary. His depiction of the battlefield of Marignano in 1515 is stark in its imagery of war atrocities of the time. All soldiers faced the danger of being maimed, traumatized or even killed in foreign services.Drawing: Museum of art, Basel, online collection, Inv. U.X.91
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