Nikolaus "Clau" Maissen (1621 - 1678) was a "Landammann" and "Landrichter" ("chief magistrate / cantonal chairman" and "top judge") in the eastern part of the Old Swiss Confederacy (approximately the area known more recently as the Canton of Graubünden/Grisons). Living during a century characterised in Europe by recurring outbreaks of plague and frequently violent political confrontations, his own career was marked by conflict. He made enemies of various land owners and rival politicians: he was, in the end, banished and outlawed. He was murdered as he travelled on the main road along the valley from Chur to Ems.
Life
Clau Maissen was born into a leading family of the Cadi (Surselva) region at Sumvitg / Somvix, a small town in the mountains west of Chur, along the route to the Oberalp Pass. Julius Maissen, probably a direct forefather, had been a top local administrator in the mid-sixteenth century: the family and its position were well established, though the twentieth century historiography includes some intense debate over the extent of the family's wealth in the 1620s and 1630s, when Clau Maissen was growing up, and western Europe was embroiled in the hugely destructive Thirty Years' War. Clau's father, Padrut Maissen, was the local "Säckelmeister" (treasurer / taxes administrator). Disentis Abbey, a hugely wealthy foundation thanks partly to it strategic position on the frequently impassable road linking the western and eastern parts of Switzerland, owned most of the cultivable land in the region and also carried significant weight politically. Abbots were engaged in a constant struggle to cement and extend the abbey's (at this time) growing autonomy in its relations with the Bishops of Chur. Surviving sources are silent about where and how Clau Maissen received his education, but it is clear from his later career that he must have received a sound grounding in the various branches of grammar, statecraft and foreign languages.
Maissen was only 23 when he was appointed "Statthalter" (local governor) of Sumvitg / Somvix. Promotion followed. In 1651, 1652. 1653, 1658, 1659, 1670 and 1671 he served as "Landammann" in respect of the entire Cadi district.
In 1663, for the first time, Maissen was elected "Landrichter" ("chief magistrate / cantonal chairman") of the so-called Obere Bund, the highest political position in the confederation that had been drawn together by the principle landowners involved in order to put an end to generations destructive local warring across what would later become the Canton of Graubünden/Grisons. The term of office for a "Landrichter" lasted one year: Maissen served further terms in 1669 and 1672. Meanwhile, between 1665 and 1667 he served as "Landeshauptmann" (chief administrator) in Veltlin/Valtellina, across the mountains to the south (in a part of the Swiss confederacy subsequently reassigned, in 1797, to what later became part of Italy). Maissen twice served, in addition, as a member of the "Syndikaturkommission", an oversight authority comprising nine men, mandated to provide reports on Veltlin/Valtellina to the Federal Diet/Council of the so-called "Three Leagues" [of the eastern Swiss confederacy] / "Raetia" about Veltlin/Valtellina. The valley, was important to the Swiss, but was also of continuing strategic importance throughout this period as a vital communication route for the "Spanish party", the term frequently used to identify Swiss supporters of the House of Hapsburg, which was keen to retain influence and access in the valley in order to be able to transit from Spain, via the port of Genoa and Hapsburg-controlled Milan, to Hapsburg territories in and beyond Austria. Particular high points in Maissen's political career came in the context of his involvement with the "Raetian Bundestag" (Federal Diet/Council) which convened at Ilanz in 1663, 1669 and 1672. As the local "Landrichter", he hosted the assembly, accepting, in addition, the honour of chairing its deliberations.