This one died on the garden gate, the one on the sidewalk

It is October 23, 1729, a foggy Sunday. The pious people of Solothurn had just been to church for Sunday Mass and were now on their way home. Some of those returning home saw a middle-aged man on the main street. The latter moves uncertainly, looks around several times and notices the whispers of the passers-by, the fingers pointing at him, the glances turning towards him.

The immediate pressure of the city’s public eye seemed to unnerve the man as he stumbled down the alleyway toward a house and stopped in front of the entrance. He picked up the bell, tugged it nervously, and let go of the handle. However, as soon as the man rang the doorbell, he froze, moaned, fell off the threshold and, mortally wounded by the blow, lay in the street in front of the shocked witnesses.

This unfortunate man was Peter Julius von Sury (1689-1729) from Solothurn, scion of a family from the town of Aare who could be a regimental, a captain in the French service and a knight of the Order of Ludwig. The house that von Sury had visited on that fateful autumn Sunday was inhabited by Gertrud von Besenval, a resident of Sury.

The bystanders who witnessed the incident on Sunday knew what had happened here. Peter Julius von Sury wanted to ask Gertrud von Besenval for forgiveness. forgiveness for the death of her son six years ago.

Six years earlier, on April 17, 1723, mayor Johann Friedrich von Roll was solemnly buried. By custom, the burghers and councilors of Solothurn met immediately after the funeral in the town’s Franciscan church to elect from among themselves a new mayor, the highest political office of the class. As was the custom, the previous “Stadtvenner” (second highest office with military and police administrative positions) was elected as his successor in the mayor’s office. So someone had to move into the Stadtvenner’s house.

Here too, traditionally, the person who fulfilled the function of «Seckelmeister» (responsible for finances) should be promoted. A problem arose here, because the office of Seckelmeister was held by Peter Josef Reinhart at the time. Reinhart came from a family that had only recently risen to the ranks of the Solothurn regimental families. Long-established patrician families were particularly suspicious of these “upstarts,” who would challenge them to the estate’s hard-won offices of influence. Reinhart’s father was already denied access to the highest offices. The same should happen with the son.

A faction around the influential Besenval family opposed the election of Peter Josef Reinhart. The young watch captain Peter Josef Anton Besenval, son of Gertrud von Besenval, née Sury, also belonged to this faction. In the run-up to these elections, Anton Besenval had arranged with his older friend Peter Julius von Sury to vote against Reinhart. But when Peter Josef Reinhart was elected Stadtvenner by a clear majority, the opposing party demanded that two Venners be elected instead of one, hoping to raise their candidate to office and dignity.

There was opposition to this within the community. Peter Julius von Sury also contradicted this request and took the floor. Then young Besenval, feeling betrayed by his friend, publicly intervened:

When it came time to vote on whether to elect one or two Venners, Peter von Sury went to the front of the church and passed the angry Anton Besenval. This went from Sury that he was a ‘party maker’, a front changer. Von Sury defended himself against the accusation, to which Anton Besenval launched an insult chosen at the time:

That was the last straw. Sury publicly complained about this insult in the church for all present to hear. Besenval doubled down and loudly claimed that von Sury had first accused him of lying. Although many of those present heard the heated exchange, these insults went unheeded.

Wounded in his honor, Peter von Sury was expelled from the Franciscan church and, ashamed and offended, he walked over the newly built ramparts in the direction of the Bieltor. As luck would have it, around eleven o’clock in the morning he met Anton Besenval again, who was walking out of town, accompanied by the Knights of Malta, Johann Leonz von Roll.

Immediately Besenval and Sury continue their quarrel. Besenval should withdraw these insults, Sury demanded. There was no way, said young Besenval. The argument rose dangerously higher and higher. In what is now the Ggräbengasse, which at the time was largely lined with gardens, Peter Julius von Sury finally drew his sword and demanded satisfaction in a duel. Anton Besenval also drew his weapon and both opponents unleashed a heated battle.

Finally, the Maltese Von Roll energetically intervened and separated the two quarreling sides. The credit is done, as both had fought like true cavaliers, he gave understanding to both. They must now make peace again. Da demanded from Sury that Von Roll acknowledge as a witness that he had seized his opponent’s sword blade in his hand, thus prevailing over Besenval in the fight. Sury saw himself as the winner of this honorary agreement.

This so enraged Anton Besenval that he attacked violently and headlessly again from Sury. In distress, von Sury raised his sword so that Anton Besenval himself fell on the blade. Besenval was pierced in the chest, fell to his knees and was caught by his companion, von Roll. Peter Julius von Sury, himself surprised by the fatal outcome, made his way to town, where he drove off shortly before noon, covered in blood.

The Maltese knight von Roll dragged the dying broomstick into a garden and sent local residents running to get help from the nearby Capuchin monastery. The orderly of the convent appeared shortly afterwards in the greaves. However, medical help came too late. Besenval had already lost too much blood and was so weak that he could not speak.

As a sign of regret for his actions, Besenval squeezed the Father’s hand weakly. He absolved him from sin and performed the last rites. Then Peter Josef Anton Besenval, 25 years old, took his last breath. His body was carried to the Capuchin monastery.

News of the deadly fight spread in a flash. That same afternoon, Solothurn’s council ordered an immediate investigation and arrest of all involved. By 3:00 p.m., the council had been notified that Peter Julius van Sury had circumvented the law by fleeing.

Solothurn’s strict prohibitions against duels or honor fights could also result in those who die in duels being denied final rest on hallowed ground until an investigation is made. However, when the council learned that Anton Besenval had repented and received the last rites before his death, the family released the dead man for a Christian burial.

However, before the council’s decision was known, the dead Besenval was secretly removed from the Capuchin monastery and hidden and guarded in a forest close to Besenval’s family castle, Waldegg Castle. The corpse must be removed from dishonorable trials and investigations by the authorities and brought closer to his family. Two days later, the body of Peter Josef Anton Besenval was taken from the family property to the nearby parish church of St. Niklaus and laid to rest there.

Gertrud von Besenval, the inconsolable mother of the young deceased, also took care of the funeral, as the bereaved woman had to do for her husband and three other sons. When she heard rumors during the funeral procession that her son’s body was not in the coffin, she asked that the coffin be opened before the funeral. However, upon becoming aware of her dead child, she fell over the corpse before the eyes of the mourners and pressed her son to her heart for the last time.

Peter Julius von Sury managed to escape from Solothurn and was sentenced in absentia to twenty years of exile. However, the intervention of his family and friends caused Solothurn’s council to reduce the exile to six years. Peter von Sury spent his exile at the court of the Prince-Abbot of St. Gallen, returned home, but soon after lost his life on the doorstep of the unfortunate Gertud von Besenval.

A stone statue cross in the Greisengasse of Solothurn still reminds us of the place of the duel. A small image once embedded in the cross showed the “Mater Dolorosa”, Mary as the Mother of Sorrows, her heart pierced by seven blades. Below it, between the coats of arms of the Besenval and Sury families, was written in Latin: “In memory of April 17, 1723”.