JENATSCH. ya'natch, Georg, or Jdrg, Swiss political leader and soldier: b. 1596; d. Coire, 24 Jan. 1639. He was educated at Zurich and Basel and became pastor of the Protestant church at Scharaus, near Tunis, in 1617. He entered politics, espousing the cause of the Venetian and Protestant Salis family against that of the Spanish and Romanist family of Planta. He was the leader of the body which in 1618 put to death by torture the arch-priest, Rusca of Sondrio, and outlawed the Mantas. In 1621 he was one of the murderers of Pompey Planta, head of the opposition, and was forced thereafter to flee the country, abandoning his pastorate and becoming a soldier in the service of the French. The peace of 1626 between France and Spain.left the Romanists in control and destroyed Jenatsch's hope of return to power. After killing his colonel in a duel he again fled from his native land, and joining the forces of the French he ably supported the Duke de Rohan in expelling the Spaniards from the Valtellina in 1635. Upon the failure of the
French to restore the Protestant Grisons ascend ency he turned Romanist and joined the Span iards in the plot which led to the downfall of Rohan's power. Again failing to secure ascend ency for the Grisons in the Valtellina he ap proached the French for support, but was as sassinated by one of Planta's supporters. Later in the year the Spaniards restored the Val tellina to the Grisons, in whose possession it remained until 1797. His career is important because of its close connection with the long struggle of France and Spain for the Valtellina, one of the most sanguinary phases of the Thirty Years' War.