Pastor, warrior, politician: the life of Jörg Jenatsch
Silvaplana in the Upper Engadine, where Jörg Jenatsch was born in 1596 and where he grew up. After theology studies in Zürich and Basel he became a Protestant pastor, and in 1617 village pastor in Scharans. At the same time he joined the Venetian party led by the Grison family von Salis.Image: Raetian Museum
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Thusis, the location of the judgement of 1618. France, Venice, Spain, and Austria all wooed potential party members in the Three Alliances. Religious strife further affected the land. The young Jenatsch took part in the judgement at Thusis, where the Catholic priest Nicolò Rusca was tortured to death – a case of judicial murder.Pictures: Raetian Museum/Private collection
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Coat of arms of the family Buol. Jenatsch married Anna Buol (1598‒1673) in 1620. Her father was an influential mercenary leader. This marriage meant a rise in social status for Jenatsch, who was merely the son of a pastor. The couple had six children.Photo: Raetian Museum
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The «Veltlin murder» of 1629. Jenatsch became pastor in a small Protestant congregation in the Veltlin town of Berbenno in 1620. A short while later the «Sacro Macello» occurred, the uprising of the population of the Veltlin against their Grison overlords. Many Protestants were killed. Jenatsch managed to escape. The pastor now became a warrior.Image: Raetian Museum
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The murder of Pompejus von Planta. In 1621 Jenatsch and his companions raided castle Rietberg and killed Pompejus von Planta, leader of the Spanish-Habsburg party, with an axe.Image: Raetian Museum
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View of the Untertor («Lower Gate») in Chur. Jenatsch spent the following years mostly as a mercenary in Germany, rising to the rank of captain. During a duel in 1627 in front of the city gate in Chur he killed his friend and superior officer Jacob Ruinelli.Image: Raetian Museum
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Caricature: the hands of the many-headed state of the Three Alliances are fettered by mercenaries’ pay. Jenatsch changed over to the French and served general Henri Duc de Rohan, the French representative in the Grisons. Together they re-took the Veltlin valley, and Jenatsch was now a wealthy and politically influential mercenary leader. The head in the upper left of the caricature is supposed to be his.Image: Raetian Museum
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Henri de Rohan and the «Rohan entrenchment». Grisons was hoping in vain for the Veltlin to be handed back to them by the French. As a consequence officers and politicians from the canton conspired against the French in the so-called «alliance of chains». In 1637 Jenatsch forced Henri de Rohan to capitulate at the «Rohan entrenchment» near Maienfeld.Image: Raetian Museum
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The fountain «Tears of Lucrezia» by the artist Christoph Haerle. Jenatsch switched over to the Spanish-Habsburg party and doing so also changed his faith, becoming a Catholic. He now had enemies on all sides. During carnival in 1639 he was killed with an axe at the inn called «zum staubigen Hüetli» («Dusty Little Hat»). His murderer remains unknown. This fountain now stands at the spot where he was murdered.Photo: Christoph Haerle
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