Three weeks after setting out from Leuven in Belgium, the Earls were now almost in Italy. Indeed, as they made their way down the Ticino valley in Switzerland, the Earls would have felt like they had crossed already into Italy as the locals spoke Italian and for many years, this region had been ruled by the Duke of Milan. In addition, unlike other regions of Switzerland, the Ticino region had remained Catholic during the Protestant Reformation so the Earls would have felt relatively safe as they made their way towards the Italian city of Como..
Thursday March 20th 1608 – Distance traveled between Faido and Bellinzona – 8 leagues = 40 km. Total distance traveled so far during the Flight of the Earls by Hugh O’Neill – 416 leagues = 2080 km.
Having crossed over the formidable Gotthard Pass the day before, the Gaelic scholar Tadhg O’Cianain wrote the following ;
On the following day, the Earls went through a very beautiful valley which had much vines, wheat, crops, produce of every kind, with great wide plains, a very beautiful river, and small streams of spring water. They advanced eight leagues to a fine fortified town called Bellinzona.
Being located where two Alpine valleys meet (the Ticino and Moesa valleys), Bellinzona has always occupied a key strategic location. Indeed, several key Alpine passes, such as the Nufenen, Gotthard and San Bernadino passes, which connect northern and southern Europe, all converge in and around Bellinzona.
There are three strong castles with many powerful guards in it, which maintain supremacy and command over the town and all the country in the neighbourhood of the road.
The reason there were “three strong castles” in Bellinzona was due to different factions that had fought over the city in the Middle Ages. The original castle in Bellinzona, known as Castelgrande, was built by the Romans and expanded by the Visconti family, who controlled Milan during the 12th and 13th Centuries. In the 14th Century, another faction emerged in Milan led by the Ruesca family who were aligned with the Holy Roman Emperor based in Germany unlike the Visconti family who sided with the Pope in Rome. The Ruesca family built a castle in Bellinzona called Montebello and when they were driven out of Milan in the 15th Century settled in Bellinzola at Montebello. In the 16trh Century another castle called Sasso Corbaro was built by another faction on the outskirts of Bellinzona. In the 17th and 18th Centuries, all 3 castles were abandoned and fell into disrepair. But in the 20th Century, all 3 castles were restored and in 2000, the three castles in Bellinzona were added to the UNESCO World Heritage list.
Friday March 21st 1608 – Distance traveled between Bellinzona and Lugano – 9 leagues = 45 km. Total distance traveled so far during the Flight of the Earls by Hugh O’Neill – 425 leagues = 2125 km.
The next day they continued to advance through the same valley. They reached another portion of the Alps named Monte Ceneri. There are numerous woods on either side of the road, which was uneven, stony, rough, difficult and hard to travel although there was no snow on it.
Monte Ceneri is located at an relatively low elevation of only 554 m so that would explain why “there was no snow on it” when the Earls crossed over the climb in March 1608.
There were plenty of vines on the summits and sides of the mountain-range near the road. They came to another very beautiful valley called Lugano. That night they reached a very large town named Capo di Lago, having travelled six leagues.
There is a town called Capo di Lago in the Ticino region but the town is relatively small and a long way from Monte Ceneri. So, I believe the “large town” referred to by Tadhg O’Cianain is actually the present day city of Lugano.
Saturday March 22nd 1608 – Distance traveled between Lugano and Como – 6 leagues = 30 km. Total distance traveled so far during the Flight of the Earls by Hugh O’Neill – 431 leagues = 2155 km.
From there they and their horses went in boats across Lake Lugano, which separates Italy and Helvetia, the country of the Swiss, from each other. The lake is only three leagues in width. They had traversed forty-six leagues of the country of the Swiss, and it was strong, well fortified, uneven, mountainous, extensive, having bad roads, and no supremacy, rule or claim to submission by any king or prince in the world over the inhabitants.
In this passage, Tadhg O’Cianain totally underestimates the distance the Earls had traveled through Switzerland. It is roughly 350 km from Basel on the French border to Chiasso on the Italian border. This is the equivalent of seventy leagues not “forty-six” as claimed by Tadhg O’Cianain.
In themselves they form a strange, remarkable, peculiar state. They make their selection of a system for the government of the country each year. They have fourteen important cities. Half of them are Catholics and the other half are heretics, and by agreement and great oaths they are bound to one another for their defence and protection against any neighbour in the world who should endeavour to injure them or oppose them in upholding the public good with moderation and appropriateness. The names of the aforesaid cities are Lucerne, Bâle, Valais, Soluthurn, Zug, Schwyz, Zürich, Bern, Uri, Stanz, Glarus, Fribourg, Schaffhausen, and Appenzell.
Tadhg O’Cianain writes that Switzerland was made up of “fourteen important cities” but it would be more accurate if he had wrote that Switzerland consisted of fourteen city and rural cantons ; the city cantons being Lucerne, Basel, Zug, Schwyz, Zurich and Bern with the rural cantons being Valais, Solothun, Uri, Stanz, Fribourg, Schaffhausen and Appenzell.
Switzerland was founded in 1291 with just 3 rural cantons but later expanded to 14 cantons and nowadays consists of a total of 26 cantons. The Ticino canton that includes Bellinzona and Lugano is not included in Tadhg’s list perhaps because in the 17th Century, the Ticino region was part of the Uri canton.
It is said of the people of this country that they are the most just, honest, and untreacherous in the world, and the most faithful to their promises. They allow no robbery or murder to be done in their country without punishing it at once. Because of their perfect honour they alone are guards to the Catholic kings and princes of Christendom.
Tadhg writes that the Swiss have been “guards to the Catholic kings and princes of Christendom” and most famously of all, the Swiss have guarded the Pope every year since the 16th Century. The Swiss Guards were first recruited by Pope Julius II in 1506 and the Guards are now among the oldest military unit that has been in continuous operation ever since.
Initially, the Swiss Guards numbered 150 soldiers but on May 6th 1527, 147 out out 189 Swiss Guards where killed defending Pope Clement VII from German and Spanish mercenary troops that had attacked Rome. Ever since this attack, new recruits are sworn into the Swiss Guards on May 6th every year, The German and Spanish troops were in Italy in 1527 fighting for the Habsburg Emperor, Charles V mostly against French troops but had not been paid so decided to loot Rome in lieu of their wages. The mercenary troops forced the Pope to take refuge in Castel Sant’Angelo and only spared his life after he agreed to pay a ransom of 400,000 ducats to his captors. Incredibly, despite almost being killed by troops loyal to Charles V, in 1530, Pope Clement VII agreed to crown Charles V as Holy Roman Emperor. This ceremony that took place in Bologna as the Roman people were still seething from the looting that had taken place just 3 years earlier. That Catholic troops serving under a Catholic King had almost killed the Catholic Pope in Rome less than ten years after Martin Luther had nailed the 95 Theses to a church door in Germany is just symptomatic of the chaos that engulfed Europe in the early years of the Protestant Reformation.
The nobles landed at a small town called Capolago.
In the 17th Century, there was no road between Lugano and Capolago so travelers had to make their way by rowing from one end of Lake Lugano to the other. In the 18th Century, a causeway was constructed across Lake Lugano near the small village of Melide which ever since has enabled access between Lugano and Capolago by road.
From there, the Earls went to a great remarkable Italian city, Como by name, situated on the side of a great lake named Lake Como. It goes a distance of eighty leagues through Germany. Over that lake, therefore, all the wine that is required comes to the greater part of the portion of Italy which borders it.
Lake Como is a Y-shaped lake which is roughly 46 km in length. This corresponds to roughly 9 leagues not the “eighty leagues” mentioned by Tadhg O’Cianain.
To be fair to Tadhg O’Cianain, it is roughly 400 km or 80 leagues from Como to Germany via the Splugen Pass but Lake Como forms only a small part of that distance. But it is interesting that Tadhg O’Cianain mentions the distance between Como and Germany as a few years after the Earls passed through Como, Spanish troops also traveled from Como to Germany on the Spanish Road between Milan and Brussels.
The Earls route through Switzerland was similar to the route taken by the Spanish Army in both 1599 (led by Archduke Albert) and in 1604 (led by Ambrogio Spinola). However, in 1608, as the Earls made their way through Como, the Spanish were busy building a fort at the northern end of Lake Como. Named after the Spanish governor in the Duchy of Milan, Forte de Fuentes (Fort Fuentes) would be completed in October 1609.
The location of Fort Fuentes meant that the Spanish could now control any trade between northern Italy and the Graubunden canton of Switzerland as well as Austria and Germany. Not only that but construction of the fort also opened up a new route for the Camino Espanol or Spanish Road between Milan and Brussels.
A few years after the completion of Fort Fuentes, the Spanish used it as a staging post for a new Camino Espanol route between Milan and Brussels. In 1623, the Spanish set out from Forte Fuentes and climbed the San Bernardino Pass to Chur in Switzerland before going to Constance in Germany and then Strasbourg in France. In 1634, the Spanish also set out from Fort Fuentes this time climbing the Reisa Pass to Innsbruck in Austria before then defeating the Swedish Army at Nordlingen in Germany. Both these new routes were mostly through Catholic territory and had the Earls traveled from Leuven to Rome say in 1618 rather than 1608, they too almost certainly would have used either the San Bernadino pass or the Splugen pass to reach Fort Fuentes before then going on to Como.
The Earls would have been relieved to have got across the Alps and made it to Como in Italy without being attacked or suffering any injuries. They were now only 40 km or roughly a days journey from Milan where they could expect to be well looked after by the Spanish. The Earls had now traveled over 900 km in 3 weeks and 3 days since setting off from Leuven on February 28th 1608 but they still had about 900 km still to travel to get to Rome from Como. The Earls were probably not aware of it but their arrival here in Como meant they had now passed the halfway mark on their epic journey from Leuven to Rome. Not only that but the second half of their journey would be considerably easier than the first half which had involved passing over the Ardennes, Vosges and Alps at the tail end of what had been one of the coldest ever winters in Europe in recent history. But with spring fast approaching, the Earls could look forward to a much more pleasant journey as they made their way through Italy to Rome.
Tour de Travoy 