FORTES FORTUNA ADIUVIT

Model of Fortress Alt-Ems

We are looking here at a fierce fortification, on top of an unsurmountable precipice. This used to be the invincible fortress of Alta Amisa, in German Alt-Ems or, better, Hohenems. "Alta" means "on the top", which is appropriate, given the location. I am saying "used to be" with purpose, since only ruins remain of this once impressive edifice. I saw this picture through the display window of the small town museum of Hohenems and have manipulated it somewhat to convey to you a view you could have had in the sixteenth century. Then, it was still the residence of the Emser, until the Renaissance Palace was ready to move into, around 1570.

After the latter building had been finished and the surrounds been landscaped pari passu, the whole centre of Hohenems looked like in the painting below. On the top of the hill in the middle lay the fortress, with bulwarks stretching to and including the second ridge to its left. Further to the left, in the background, one can see the castle "Neu-Ems". The palace stretches out just below the incline. It is far larger than the picture shows, since its size is diminished due to the drawing's perspective. To its right lies the church and in front a sizeable square. Below lay a large Tiergarten with a summer pavilion (almost a palace in itself). A huge "guest house" can be seen on the lower right, adjoined by an extended renaissance park that stretched all the way down to River Rhein. All in all, a residence for a sovereign, indeed a king.

This brings us back to the question raised at dinner in the Palace Cellar (see Imperial Splendour). How on earth could the small domain of Hohenems – that even I could walk through in about two hours – support the enormous outlays involved in creating such luxury? The answer is simple: it could not! We have to look for the explanation elsewhere.

Hohenems around 1600.  Painter: Hans Jakob Noppis

Behind the outlandish wealth accumulated by the Emser, only a small fraction of which was spent on embellishing its small domain of Hohenems, lies a quirk of nature. Starting from the late 1400s, three generations of Ems were born with extraordinary talent, manifesting itself in the art of war as well as in a game for worldly and ecclesiastic power. This is rather unusual, since personalities of extraordinary capacity usually appear only in one single generation, their heirs mostly returning to the mean of capability and instead enjoying the accomplishments of their forefather.

Not only superior talent laid the ground for this three-generational success story. In addition, a consistent strain of luck accompanied those Emser. First of all, they were born into a century of great societal upheaval, the Renaissance, where social structures were being weakened and even destroyed, enabling men of great talent to rise to the top within a generation, even when starting from modest beginnings. After all, this was the age when an insignificant nobleman grabbed the throne of Sweden and an Austrian Duke rose from an ailing Austria beleaguered by the Hungarians and Ottomans to become ruler of half the globe. 

To add to this, nature itself helped along. In the third generation, its two brothers Ems inherited the genes of fierce character and strong determination from both sides of the family, two great mercenary leaders among the Ems on the one hand and one fierce Italian condottiere on the other. Lucky marriages also helped in other respects. The second generation married into the Medici family of Milano. This made the two brothers of the third generation nephew of a Pope and cousin of a Saint. A substantive leverage of clerical support ensued, paving the way to grandeur for both brothers. It would take a full book or two to tell the story of these three striving generations of Ems. All we can do here is provide a short overview of their accomplishments, concentrating on the third generation. 

It all started with Merk Sittich I von Ems zu der Hohenems (ca 1466-1533). Beginning as a common knight of the Empire, he put his mark on history by almost single-handedly reforming the art of warfare. He became one of the foremost mercenary leaders of the Empire and participated as such in all the major wars of the period. Since he still had one foot in the medieval age, we will come back to him in a later blog post. 

Battle of Pavia.   Artist: Giovanni Bernardi

His son, Wolf Dietrich von Ems zu der Hohenems (1507-1538) followed in his footsteps and even fought under his flag in the Italian Four Years War (1521-1526). In the battle of Pavia, he met a brother-in-arms, a bit older than himself, the Condottiere Gian Giacomo Medici di Marignano. We can assume that they got a liking for each other, two fierce warriors on the same field of glory. Gian Giacomo, who harboured the ambition to conquer the Upper Alpine Rhine (Grisons/Graubünden) and what is now the Swiss Ticino, so as to create a principality combined with his domains of Marignano and Mussa, sought the support of the Emser and gave his sister to marry Wolf Dietrich. Out of this marriage (in 1528), two sons were born, Jakob Hannibal I (1530-1587) and Merk Sittich II (1533-1595), which brings us to the third generation.

Wolf Dietrich died at the young age of 31. There, the story could have ended, had uncle Gian Ciacomo not taken the two siblings under his wings and given them a thorough education in the martial arts of the time – maybe not so thorough in the more philosophical disciplines. Already as teenagers, he made them accompany him in military campaigns to add practise to theory. To take Jakob Hannibal, as a result he was already captain of a battalion at the age of 21, fighting under Gian Giacomo for Charles V in the Italian campaign of 1551. At the "ripe" age of 24, he fought, as commander of a full regiment, again under his uncle, at the siege of Siena.

              Gian Giacomo Medici leading the siege of Siena                 Jakob Hannibal I at the age of 24

Let's continue to look at Jakob Hannibal's career. He proved to become one of the most formidable war leaders of his time. Looking back at his actions, with the hindsight provided to us after 450 years have passed, two of them appear the most succinct. In 1565, when he was the newly appointed Commander General of the Papal troupes (the Papal State at the time was large, encompassing a major part of central Italy), he contributed with his men to "Gran Soccorso", that is, the relief by 8000 soldiers under Don Garcia de Toledo of the besieged Knights of St John on Malta in 1565. Through this, the Grand Siege of Malta was finally over and the island was safeguarded as a Christian bastion in the Western Mediterranean.

The relief of Malta (Gran Soccorso)    Painter: Charles-Philippe Larivière 

Six years later, the Ottomans had just conquered Cyprus and Pope Pio V had initiated the so called Catholic League, a coalition of Christian states, led by Spain and supported by ships mostly from Venice. In that context, Jakob Hannibal participated in the historic Battle of Lepanto with a contingent of some 7000 German mercenaries (the fighting took place on galleys, much like large platforms to stand on and fight as infantry). With the victory at this battle, under the leadership of Don Juan d'Austria, the Ottoman supremacy of the Mediterranean was dealt with once and for all.

The decisive Sea Battle of Lepanto

To really fathom the scope of his life's achievements, we have to briefly dig into the system of warfare of his time, first developed by Jakob Hannibal's grandfather, among others, and practised throughout the Renaissance period and up to the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648). In those days, being Captain of a battalion (Fähnlein) or Colonel of a regiment (broadly consisting of 15 Fähnlein á 350 men) did not simply mean that you were called to lead a fighting unit of a standing army. Instead, each time a King or other high-wheeler wished to start a martial campaign, he asked one or more mercenary leaders to recruit one or more regiments. The necessary funds, usually only part of it, where paid out to the leader(s), who had to acquire mercenary troupes, arms and supplies on his/their own initiative. Once the campaign was brought to a successful conclusion, the rest of the promised funds were expected to be paid out. Unfortunately, more often than not, the customer (King or other sovereign) did not have the necessary funds and the mercenary leader had to find the moneys elsewhere, through looting or simply through having to let go the mercenaries refusing to fight through lack of salary. Of course, matters turned out much worse if the campaign turned out to be a disaster. We don't have to go into detail about that!

From this we may deduce that mercenary leaders of high quality were difficult to find. Their reputation had to be firmly underpinned by a serious of previous campaigns where they consistently had succeeded to supply the customer with superior troupes, efficient and successful in battle. In addition, the more successful campaigns a mercenary leader had to show for himself, the easier (and cheaper) it became to recruit the necessary mercenaries and material for the next campaign. In that manner, success bred success, and the very few leaders who could prevail in such a world of never ending campaigns were very thought after and well rewarded. Jakob Hannibald was among the foremost of those leaders.

To start from the early successes in the Italian campaigns of 1551 and 1554 he soon after offered his services to Pillip II, King of Spain. All in all, he put together battalions and regiments for this sovereign in 5 major campaigns, one in Morocco, one in France (Picardie), one in Southern Italy, and two in the Netherlands. Overall, his fighting units were victorious, even if some campaigns and battles did not go so well, due to deficiencies in overall leadership. His consistent successes won him the favour of the King, although the sovereign could not always find the funds to pay out the rewards agreed upon at the outset. Partly as compensation of this, titles and honours were heaped on Jakob Hannibal. For instance, in 1577, when he had just finished a successful intervention in the Netherlands, where he also had served for two years as military commander of Antwerp, the King could not pay his debts to him. Instead, he elevated him to the lofty position of  Grande of Spain and deeded him the domain of Gallarate, close to Milan that at the time was a Duchy under the Spanish Crown.

Hortensia von Hohenems
Source: Copy hanging in Palace of Hohenems   Painter: unknown

Even so, when he settled in his domain of Hohenems in 1567, with his 17 years old wife Hortensia, the sister of Cardinal Carlo Borromeo, he was an extremely wealthy man. We can see this in his interactions with Archduke Ferdinand II of Tyrol and Further Austria. The latter was glad to welcome a formidable warrior in his vicinity and immediately appointed him Commander of all the troupes of his domains (a position already held by Jakob's grandfather). More importantly, since Ferdinand was notoriously short in cash, being a famous squanderer besides benefactor of artists and collector of art (remember his collection of armours, which we reported earlier), he was always in need of replenishing his coffers. Jakob Hannibal was glad to be of service, and lent him the substantial sum of 100 000 Gulden at 5% interest, to be repaid in 1582. He demanded, though, and received essentially the right to hold all of Habsburg's possessions in the Lower Alpine Rhine (what now is Vorarlberg) in pledge for the loan.

He also began to enlarge the fortification Hohenems on the hill overlooking the Rhine and kept it from then on as his residence, even if he travelled abroad from time to time for new assignments as mercenary leader. Despite these martial interludes, he appears to have led a happy married life, with five children born in quick succession in this period up to 1575. Unfortunateley, his wife Hortensia died already in 1578 at the age of 28, whilst he was busy capturing the town of Maastricht during his second campaign in the Netherlands.

Speaking of the Netherlands, during his first spell there in 1574-1576, when he also was military commander in Antwerp, he commanded a great number of paintings and other valuables which were used to adorn first his fortification and later the palace. Much later, in 1584, he travelled for a last time to Madrid, in company of his 11 years old son Kaspar, in order to collect payments still due to him and his troupes from the 1578-1579 campaign in the Netherlands. In vain! He never received the 270 000 Gulden in question.

Archduke Ferdinand II of Tyrol. In armour but hardly ever in arms!
Painter: Francesco Terzio

This loss may explain part of his falling out with Archduke Ferdinand II in 1585. Since Ferdinand was unable to repay, in 1982, the loan of 100 000 Gulden that with interest and other expenses had risen to 125 000, Jakob Hannibal offered him a new loan of 150 000 Gulden, again with the right to hold the Habsburg possessions in the Lower Alpine Rhine (Vorarlberg) as pledge. However, he put rather harsh conditions on the rights he would be able to hold on the lands, conditions that essentially would have implied the transfer of ownership from Habsburg to Hohenems.

The Archduke was badly pressed by these demands and, furthermore, the Estates of his Vorarlberg possessions objected vehemently to such an arrangement. As a result, the Estates on their own account handed over 50 000 Gulden as a gift to the Archduke, who then was able to pay back the loan. This enraged the Count of Hohenems, who we may assume looked down on the Archduke as a weakling, more prone to collect armour than to use it in war.  He remarked that he may well put up a regiment again and invade Tyrol with it. But this went too far; he had forgotten that he in fact was challenging the full might of the Habsburg Dynasty. When the Archduke responded in turn that he might well consider paying Hohenems a visit, fear took possession of the Count. He immediately re-enforced the walls of his fortification and put in provisions to be ready for a possible and prolonged siege. So his last days did not quite reach up to the lofty heights he had enjoyed earlier in life.

Die Hohenemser Festtafel       Painter: Anton Boys

It would be a pity to leave Jakob Hannibal's story at that. Instead, let us have a look at a monumental painting that was delivered at Hohenems in 1578. It has later been given the name "Hohenemser Festtafel" (Banquet at Hohenems) and can still be admired in Bistrau (in present day Czechia), where it was held in storage by the last Hohenemser. This piece of art, measuring fully 2 x 4,5 meters, was commanded by the Count during his time as military commander of Antwerp and demonstrates in a rather touching way his role of Paterfamilias or, put otherwise, his loving relation with his wife, siblings and children.

Actually, this painting consists of three pictures in one. On mid-table, we see his mother, Chiara Ems Medici, sitting besides her newly wed daughter Margaretha (sister of Jakob Hannibal) and her groom Fortunato Madruzzo. The wedding took place in 1560, just after the death of Chiara. To the right, we see Jakob Hannibal himself sitting besides his brother, Cardinal Merk Sittich II. Opposite him another Cardinal can be glinted; this should be Cardinal Carlo Borromeo, Jakob's cousin and brother-in-law. Carlo Borromeo visited Hohenems in 1570. To the right of Merk Sittich we see Jakob's wife Hortensia, and behind her a nurse with her newborn last child Wolf Dietrich (born 1575). Opposite her, besides Jakob, her eldest daughter Margaretha is sitting. Kaspar, her oldest son, sits beside his mother. Her younger daughter, Clara, is standing in front of the table, hand in hand with the younger son Merk Sittich IV. This shows that the Count had commanded the painter to put in all of his family and siblings, disregarding the fact that all could not have been present at the table at the same time. A touching sense of family, possibly caused by a yearning to be able to recall his close ones whilst whiling away the days, when getting older, in the grim fortification of Hohenems. He received the painting at the right time. Just nine years later, the hardy warrior faded away himself, somewhat prematurely, at the age of 57.