a 15th century spy

[Christian Folini]

Hello everyone,

Yesterday i read a few books to write an article for the historical
dictionary of Switzerland. The article is about "Menger, Konrad" from
Lucerne, Switzerland.

I thought i might share it with you. It's quite thrilling.

Konrad Menger of the small town of Sursee must have been born in
the 1430ties. He went to the University of Heidelberg in 1451,
where he graduated as a Baccalaureus of Arts in 1454 and as a Master
of Arts in 1458.

He returned to Lucerne, the city that ruled his home town Sursee.
He acted as a rector scholarum (that is an advanced (?) teacher) 
and provisor (kind of an administrator) for the Monastery "St. Leodegar 
im Hof" in Lucerne. Interestingly, he constantly acted as Konrad 
Schoch in Lucerne; a name whose origin is unknown.

In the 1460ties, he started to travel Northern Italy, mainly via Milano
where he made friends at the ducal court quite easily. He was granted
a benefice and continued his contacts; documented richly in a wide
selection of sources. He informed the duke of a conspiracy of the count
of Monserat and generally pointed out all the developments inside the
"Eidgenossenschaft" to the duke and his counselors.

The Swiss conquered the Leventine valley under the leadership of the
canton of Uri in the 70ties. Milano was reluctant to give it up
formally and the Swiss were half-eager to continue with the war.

The French king sent the emissary Bertrand de Brossa to act as a
mediator, only wishing to be granted the right to recruit Swiss 
mercenaries as a compensation.

These days in 1479 were the time when Schoch, alias Menger, really 
started a double-cross. Instead of moving to Milano to present the
Swiss offer, the French emissary only moved to Altdorf in Uri, where 
he was informed about the Swiss developments by a secret messenger
sent by Schoch. When things turned against their interests, Brossa
appeared in Lucerne again, much to the surprise of the Swiss...

Finally the treaty was signed, but not before Schoch rode into many
of the Swiss cantons to convince the local authorities of the
advantages of the contract. Shortly afterwards, he presented Milano
with a precise account of his expenses, including a paragraph describing
an exile of five weeks, then the widespread sentiment against him was
getting dangerous. He suggested that the clerical provost of Bregniano 
in lake Como had just died ...
Consequently he was granted that office and another Benefice in
Milano too.

During 1480 and 81 the contract lead to followup complications that
were a regular item at the meetings of the Swiss (the "Tagsatzung").
The canton of Uri complained, that Lucerne Konrad Schoch was travelling
regularly to Milano and that his secretiveness was getting on their
nerves.

When he was sent to Milano to accompany two Swiss emissaries and help
them with his contacts and as a translator, the canton of Uri was
advised to make sure he was not harmed...
This task makes clear why he was kept in high esteem by the Swiss
despite his well known pro-Milano acting: He was a skilled writer
and had very important contacts in Italy.

In the proceedings for a followup treaty with Milano, the Tagsatzung
found out, he was mistranslating the Milano proposal in order to pacify
the Swiss. He exused it had been late and he had to hurry...
("es sye ime an einem abent eben spat worden dz er damit habe müsse ylen")

A few years later he retired to Naters in the Wallis, now again under his
old name of Conrad Menger, as Wallis was very Anti-Milano too and Konrad
Schoch was a name that could lead to problems.

In these years he went to trial against his brother who betrayed him on
his Milano income and the convent sisters of Eschenbach complained they
were not happy with his duty in their monastery. I guess he was not seen
very often in Eschenbach.

In 1501 he resigned of the benefice in Naters and his traces disappear.

If you read German and want to know the details, these are the books
with the detailed sources:

L. Haas, Schultheiss Ludwig Seiler von Luzern, 1935, p. 33-77.
P. Bänziger, Beitr. z. Geschichte der Spätscholastik und des 
  Frühhumanismus in der Schweiz, 1945, p. 112-119.
J. Sidler, Die Bildungsverhältnisse im Kanton Luzern, 1970, p. 164f.


Now today, i will try to reduce this interesting life to 15 lines
for the dictionary.

best regards,

Christian

-- 
There's no sense in being pessimistic. It wouldn't work out anyway.
--- Anonymous