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Antonio,
"The Crazy" of Brenzio
 When
the French reduced their forces at the Tre Pievi
to reinforce Como defensive system, they consented
to the Grisons’ faction to take advantage of the
situation and to re-establish their power on the
area.
At the head of the anti-French party there was
a very peculiar figure: a greedy and fierce highwayman
from Brenzio, in the Parish of Dongo, where he
was known as Antonio il Matto (Anthony the Crazy)
or, simply the Crazy. This nickname was to be
extended to his sons, who continued his deeds.
Anyway, Anthony the Crazy gathered around him
a good number of men of his own kind, equipped
several vessels with which he started to search
the lake, and began his pirate career assaulting
the along shore villages of both sides, terrifying
the poor inhabitants. He plundered Colonno, Dervio
and Bellano and went as far as Val Sassina, from
which he retreated with a prize of iron plates
and bars which were to be employed to forge weapons
for his private army.
As
a matter of facts, in 1508 the iron mines of Dongo
have been sold to the Marshall Gian Giacomo Trivulzio,
who belonged to the French faction, and that forbade
the access to the Crazy. Not only, but in 1517
a fountain was introduced into the Castle of Musso.
Rebuschini reports: "... and with great expenses,
a source of ever running water and a fountain
with the proper workshops were built for the melting
of the iron from the nearby mines of Dongo, and
for moulding it into the uses of war..."
Anthony the Crazy was thus forced to find elsewhere
the raw materials to produce his own weapons and
to this aim, together with the usual robberies,
he devoted himself.
Soon after the plundering of Val Sassina, he and
his hands landed nearby Menaggio and went as far
as Polezza on Lake Ceresio. On the way back they
set Menaggio on fire.
Identical
destiny would have happened to Lenno if its inhabitants
didn’t accept to pay a ransom of a hundred gold
scuds. It is possible that it was while sailing
to Lenno that he set eye on the Castle of Griante,
which was to become one of his the most important
operative bases.
Meanwhile,
the domain of the Tre Pievi was back under the
French and it was ruled by the eighty years old
Marshal Trivulzio, who gained the favour of the
population by building a port and an oven in Dongo.
The 29th November 1516, the ratification of the
Freiburg Everlasting Peace seemed to put an end
to the war for the succession to the Dukedom of
Milan. With it, together with some privileges
and franchises, the Swiss were given Lugano, Mendrisio,
Capolago, Riva San Vitale and Locarno, while the
Grisons had the Valtellina with the Counties of
Bormio and Chiavenna. But the signature of the
treaty did not bring peace on Lake Como for Anthony
the Crazy started again his ferocious fights against
the French party, once more supported by Grisons.
He underestimated Marshal Trivulzio’s capabilities,
though, who assembled a good number of well-trained
and armed men among the people of Menaggio and
Torno and, one night, with the help of some trusty
informers, he seized the Crazy in his sleep in
his dwelling above Dongo. The following day, Anthony
the Crazy was found dead with an arquebus shot
in his chest. It was the 19th September 1517.
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