Bündner Wirren

The Bündner Wirren (Romansh: Scumbigls grischuns/Scumpigls grischuns/Sgurdins grischuns, French: Troubles des Grisons, Italian: Torbidi grigionesi, English: Confusion of Graubünden or Confusion of the Leagues) was a conflict that lasted between 1618 and 1639 in what is now the Swiss canton of Graubünden. The Bündner Wirren was a conflict between the alliance of France and Venice against the Spanish-Austrian Habsburg Monarchy over control of the alpine passes and religion as part of the larger Thirty Years War. The conflict in Graubünden threatened to draw the Swiss Confederation into the Thirty Years War.

The Three Leagues were a federation of three states (the League of God's House, the League of the Ten Jurisdictions and the Grey League) in the alpine valleys around the city of Chur. Due to their position, they controlled a number of key alpine passes. The League was also not a unified state and virtually all external affairs were settled by referendum.

At the beginning of the 17th century, the regional powers around the Leagues attempted to secure transit and trade routes through the League passes. For France and Venice the alpine passes represented important trade routes. For the Austrian Habsburgs, they were the shortest route between Habsburg controlled Milan and Austrian Tyrol. In 1602, France secured some of the alpine passes. A year later Venice bought the transit right through the passes and an alliance for 10 years. This agreement between the Leagues and Venice angered the Spanish Habsburgs. In Milan, Don Pedro Henriquez de Acevedo, Count of Fuentes, declared an embargo against the Leagues and built a fortification, the Forte di Fuentes, at Montecchio on Lake Como at the entrance to the League controlled Valtellina valley. Politically, the Leagues were split into pro-Habsburg and pro-Venice parties. In 1607, about 6,000 armed men met together in a bitter Landsgemeinde or cantonal assembly. A court was set up that initially supported the French-Venetian faction and pronounced judgments against the Habsburg faction for a variety of crimes. Shortly thereafter the Habsburg faction gained power and returned judgments against the French-Venetian side.

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