| Dolphus Thurn | |
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| Non-contemporary portrait of Thurn | |
| Born | 30 September 1452 Regensburg, Bavaria Holy Roman Empire |
| Religion |
Jungism (1507-) |
Dolphus Thurn (1452 - ) was a German knight and adventurer, known for his involvement in the feud between Agnes of Hesse and the House of Lenzburg, and his long career as part of the King of Switzerland competition.
Born in 1452 to a minor noble family, Thurn aspired to become a knight from a young age. As a teenager he was warded in the court of Hesse, where he is believed to have first met Agnes, the future Duchess. Thurn eventually became a knight but was distrusted by the Hessian government due to his lowly status, foreignness, and cold demeanor. He was advised to stay away from Agnes by Duke Hermann III, who feared the notoriously violent man might be lusting after his daughter. Any love Thurn had for Agnes would appear to have been unrequited. He subsequently became a mercenary and tournament contestant, traveling across Germany.
After Hermann III’s death Thurn briefly returned to Hesse but was almost immediately sent away. The newly crowned Duchess Agnes viewed Thurn as a trustworthy servant whose attachments to Hesse were secret, and so tasked him with becoming a spy. He was dispatched to the Swiss Confederacy in the hopes of befriending and spying on Eberhard von Lenzburg, but this went on fruitlessly for several years. In 1483 Agnes had Hessian ministers personally wrote to the Lenzburgs that Thurn was a trusted diplomat and friend, persuading Eberhard to cautiously appoint him as a knight protecting Otto von Sonnenberg, Bishop of Constance.
During the hunt for the Shoes of Germanicus, a showdown ensued between Sir Jan Jakob, also of Hesse, Henry the Black, son of Henry VIII, Holy Roman Emperor, and Peter III von Lenzburg of Geneva. Thurn, having seemingly killed the Bishop of Constance and puppeted his body in an effort to impersonate him, joined the confrontation with a retinue of soldiers. In the ensuing conflict, Thurn purposely turned against Jan Jakob and supported Peter, saving his life, and so managed to flee the confrontation alive as a trusted companion of Peter of Geneva. After these events Thurn became a trusted bodyguard of the Lenzburgs, although he would have to cover up the death of the Bishop of Constance, which was not without suspicion.
During the Lenzburg-Premyslid War Thurn continued to guard and fight for the Lenzburgs, further earning their trust, while all the while secretly leaking information to Hesse. His primary contact became Frederick von Hohenzollern, the future Holy Roman Emperor Frederick IV, who also supported the Hessians and in return became a prominent Hessian vassal awarded with lands in Swabia. Unbeknownst to Thurn, Frederick was also in love with Agnes, and sought to gain her affection by bringing back to the head of Eberhard von Lenzburg. Thurn, unaware of Frederick’s plans, sought to assassinate several Lenzburgs to bring their heads to Agnes for himself.
During the flight from Switzerland after Eberhard was deposed, the Duke of Lenzburg and his family fled into the night with only a few companions by their side, including Thurn. Thurn quietly would go about assassinating the grandchildren of Eberhard, but his plans were foiled ironically by agents of Frederick, causing confusion. When Frederick’s involvement in an attempted assassination was discovered, he betrayed Thurn and revealed he was a double agent, in an attempt to pin the attempted assassinations on Thurn rather than himself. As a result Thurn would be arrested by Papal guards while in Rome and severely tortured. Papal inquisitors would claim Thurn confessed that Agnes was involved in the plot, much to her shock, and she was excommunicated. Others such as the Thin White Duke of Thuringia wrote that Thurn was innocent and was being framed, as he was in the middle of his own feud with the papacy.
Thurn would not reappear until years later, having escaped from Papal imprisonment and torture into secrecy, but becoming heavily scarred and deformed in the process. Contemporaries would describe him as having the appearance of burned, unhuman flesh, and having become utterly cruel and ruthless in his ambitions, with an almost supernatural aura about him. He assembled a band of hardened criminals and warriors, becoming a terrorizing legend across the Empire. He first appeared in the court of Edmund Alwin of Saxony, a secret lover of Thurn’s love Agnes, and began shadowing him in an effort to regain information regarding the King of Switzerland competition. This would unknowingly cause paranoia between Edmund Alwin and his relative Shadrach de la Marck, who suspected Thurn was working for the Duke rather than against him. Shadrach dispatched Daniel Schwerfassbar to spy on Edmund Alwin and report back to him, however, Schwerfassbar was captured by Thurn and forced to become a double agent for him instead. With information from Schwerfassbar Thurn was able to jumpstart his quest and have Shadrach assassinated, becoming a leading contestant.
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