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conquest of Geneva was not only a political and
military necessity, but a religious duty. God and
his own ambitions worked in tandem to instigate
an attack. It was not only a giant against a dwarf,
but it was also Right against Wrong.
To lull the naive Genevese before attacking, he
sent Charles de Rochette, President of the Senate
of Chambéry, to Geneva, saying he wanted to
discuss certain problems of trade and agriculture.
De Rochette had been ordered to be gracious and
accommodating, and so indeed he was. But
under cover of de Rochette’s conciliatory visit,
Francois Brunaulieu, Governor of the fort of
Bonne, and several other notables of Savoy,
came to Geneva - not to win friends and influence
people, but to spy out the land. In the dead of
night, they measured the height of the walls and
width of the moats - at just that vital part where
the guard had been relaxed - and gathered
information about the defences of the city.
Spying, after all, has often been described as the
world’s second oldest profession.
The day of the long-planned attack dawned.
Pierre Brasier, a peasant of Chêne, returning
late in the evening of 10 December 1602, saw
Savoyard troops massing at Etrembières (des
Etrembières) stopping citizens from going into the
city. Brasier, worried, reported this in Geneva but
was pooh-poohed. The guards were in no mood
to disturb their routine and listen to rumours.
A few minutes later, a cavalry officer galloped up
to the Porte Neuve and, asking to speak to the
Captain, warned him that the city was in grave
danger. Then he galloped off. Who was this
officer? Where did he come from? Where did he
gallop off to?
The Savoyard Preparations
For Savoy to attack the little Republic of Geneva
was like an elephant crushing a mouse. But war
needed careful planning, and that is what the
Duke undertook. He did not underestimate his
task.
The attack would be a complete surprise. It would
be on the darkest and longest night of the year,
that of the winter solstice: 11-12 December (the
Genevese did not adopt the Gregorian calendar
until a century later). Specially constructed,
collapsible ladders, made to measure because the
height of the walls was known, would enable an
élite band to enter the city, secure the gates and
allow the mass of infantry and cavalry to charge
in. What defence could the pitiful local garrison
offer? If my troops attack in the dead of night, the
city will be mine by dawn, thought the Duke.
Further plans had been made for the treatment of
the recalcitrant city. All the members of the Little
Council, together with the bodies of any
Councillors killed in the fighting, would be dragged
through the cobbled streets and then hanged.
Ministers of the Church would be burnt over slow
fires, and their corpses crushed to powder. The
heads of the senior ones would be taken to Rome
and offered to the Pope.
After the officers and soldiers had had their will
with the women and girls - those first up the
ladders would have first go - they would keep the
more attractive ones and kill the others, throwing
their bodies into the Rhone. This would also be
the fate accorded to the bodies of the men of
letters, merchants, artisans. Educated men were
always a danger and should be eliminated.
Pregnant women would be cut open, the unborn
children crushed and the mothers and children
thrown into the river
Duke Charles-Emmanuel I appointed d’Albigny, a
renegade Frenchman from the Dauphiné where
he had fought his King, to lead his troops.
D’Albigny had fled France and offered his services
to Charles-Emmanuel, who appointed him
Governor of Savoy. The troops under his
command included Savoyards, of course, but
were mostly mercenaries: Spaniards,
Neapolitans, and French. D’Albigny’s hatred of
Geneva was fanatic, which fitted him well for this
enterprise. Under d’Albigny was Brunaulieu, who
had taken the measurements of the walls and now
took the sacraments, determined to win or die.
The Stealthy Approach
The Savoyard troops assembled at La Roche,
Bonneville and Bonne. The Duke left Turin on 6
December and reached the Pont d’Etrembières on
the outskirts of Geneva to review his troops before
the attack: his infantry, his cavalry, his 300 élite
soldiers who would storm the walls, their armour
blackened so no reflection would give them away,
the carriages and mules with battering rams,
pliers for cutting chains, explosives, bundles of
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