Money and career: the war entrepreneurs
Paul von Buol (1634‒1697) came from a politically influential family and rose to the rank of colonel in the Spanish services he had joined in 1669. He also held many important offices. His private residence, known as the «house on the cemetery», was built c. 1675 on the site where today’s Raetian museum now stands. Our portrait shows him as a sixty-year old wearing his armour.Image: Raetian Museum
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The sons of Grisons’ patrician families may have profited from significant career advantages while serving abroad. However, the war business was also dangerous for them as well. Franz Thomas von Buol (1733‒1758), grandson of Paul von Buol, served as captain in the Sprecher regiment in Austrian services. He fell in the battle of Hochkirch, aged 25.Image: Raetian Museum
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Ulysses von Salis (1594‒1674) was leader of the Venetian-French party in the state of The Three Alliances. Serving first in the French army, he became captain in 1616 in Venetian services and afterwards sergeant-major in the army of Ernst von Mansfeld. After 1624 he was once more in French services where, after 1631, he led his own Grisons regiment in the rank of colonel.Image: Raetian Museum
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Thomas Franz von Schauenstein (1684‒1742) was a colonel in Austrian services and a regimental commander. He was given the title of baron for his merits by the emperor Karl VI. Castle Reichenau was his residence.Image: Raetian Museum
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Johann Luzius von Planta (1742–1804) served since 1781 as lieutenant-colonel in the Dutch Swiss regiment Schmid, which he left in 1797 with the rank of major. As such, he earned about 24 times more than a private. He resided on castle Haldenstein during the last years of his life.Image: Raetian Museum
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Alois Hirschbühl (1883–1950) in his full-dress officer’s uniform of the Pope’s Swiss Guard in Rome, c. 1935. This officer from the Grisons was commander of the Swiss Guard from 1921 until 1935.Source: Monastic archive Einsiedeln, KAE, glass plate 04722
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