Landsknecht

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For the card game sometimes called Landsknecht and reputedly played by theLandsknechte, see Lansquenet.
Landsknechte, etching by Daniel Hopfer, c. 1530

The Landsknechte (singular: Landsknecht, pronounced

Habsburg-Ottoman wars, and the European wars of religion
.

Although prone to

Charles V of Habsburg, and under the leadership of notable captains such as Georg von Frundsberg and Nicholas of Salm, the Imperial Landsknechts obtained important successes such as the capture of the French King Francis I at the Battle of Pavia in 1525 and the resistance against the Ottoman Turks led by Suleiman the Magnificent at the Siege of Vienna in 1529, while also being responsible for the Sack of Rome
in 1527.

Etymology

Image of Landsknechte in the Geschichte des Kostüms

The Germanic compound Landsknecht (earlier Lantknecht, without

court ushers
.

The word Landsknecht first appeared in the German language circa 1470 to describe certain troops in the army of Charles, Duke of Burgundy. As early as 1500, the term was morphed into Lanzknecht, referring to the unit's use of the pike as its main weapon.[3]

History

Kaiser Maximilian I. und Georg von Frundsberg, depicting Maximilian I and Georg von Frundsberg, founders of the Landsknechte, by Karl von Blaas. 1868. Kunsthistorisches Museum.[4]

Over the

Swiss pikemen, called Reisläufer, repeatedly defeated and eventually killed Charles, eliminating Burgundy as a European power.[7] Archduke Maximilian, who became co-ruler of Burgundian lands in 1477 by marrying Mary of Burgundy,[8] was greatly influenced by the Swiss victories. When the French contested the inheritance, Maximilian levied a Flemish army and defeated the French in 1479 at the Battle of Guinegate, mixing Swiss-styled square infantry formation and Hussite wagon forts tactics.[9] The dissolution of his levied army at war's end found Maximilian wanting a permanent and organized military force like the Confederation's to protect his domain.[10] The existing Burgundian structure was inadequate to this end, however,[11] and moreover the French wielded a monopoly on the hiring of Reisläufer.[2]

Maximilian began raising the first Landsknecht units in 1486,

Stuhlweissenburg (now Székesfehérvár, Hungary), citing lack of pay and stopping Maximilian's advance on Buda. To prevent a repeat of Stuhlweissenburg, Maximilian now sought to homogenize the Landsknechte into a fully professional, and mostly Germanic military force.[13]

Standard bearer fighting against five Landsknechte (etching by Daniel Hopfer)

In the 1490s, the well-trained Landsknechte managed to defeat significantly greater Frisian armies. Paul Dolnstein [de] wrote of the siege of Älvsborg Fortress in July 1502, fighting for the king of Denmark: "We were 1800 Germans, and we were attacked by 15000 Swedish farmers ... we struck most of them dead."[14] After the Battle of Novara in 1513, the Swiss executed the hundreds of German Landsknecht mercenaries they had captured who had fought for the French.[15] At the Battle of Bicocca and the Battle of Marignano (1515), the Landsknecht performed well, defeating the famed Reisläufer.

In 1521, the Spaniards recruited German infantrymen to defend their country against the French because, as they stated "our infantry does not perform as well in its native country as abroad".[citation needed]

Landsknecht mercenaries with arquebuses (Tapestries of the Battle of Pavia by Bernard van Orley, between 1528 and 1531)

The Imperial Landsknechte were instrumental in many of the Emperor's victories, including the decisive Battle of Pavia in 1525. The same year, they also managed to defeat the peasants' revolt in the Empire. At their peak in the early 16th century, the Landsknechte were considered formidable soldiers who were often brave and loyal. However, these qualities may have declined afterward. The Landsknechte were also employed by the Habsburg emperor and the royal Valencian authorities in the suppression of the First Revolt of Espadà of 1526, which took place in the mountains of Espadà, in modern-day Spanish Castelló province (then in the Aragonese Kingdom of Valencia), where thousands of Valencian Muslim fellahs took up arms against the decree of forced conversion issued that very year by the emperor.[16]

Reisläufer and Landsknechte engaged in a push of pike (engraving by Hans Holbein the Younger
, early 16th century)

They are attested as deployed in the armies of Kings

Hondarribia, 1521–1524) where they performed strongly. They also served in high numbers in the Imperial army during the campaigns of Austria (1532), France (1542), Germanic Reformed League (1547) and in of all the Italian wars. Others also fought on the Habsburg-Ottoman frontier
.

The army of the Holy Roman Emperor defeated the French army in Italy, but funds were not available to pay the soldiers. The 34,000 Imperial troops mutinied and forced their commander, Charles III, Duke of Bourbon, to lead them towards Rome. The Sack of Rome in 1527 was executed by some 6,000 Spaniards under the Duke, 14,000 Landsknechte under Georg von Frundsberg, some Italian infantry and some cavalry.

Terence McIntosh comments that the expansionist, aggressive policy pursued by Maximilian I and Charles V at the inception of the early modern German nation (although not to further the aims specific to the German nation per se), mainly relying on German manpower as well as utilizing fearsome Landsknecht and other mercenaries (with the Battle of Pavia and atrocities like the Sack of Rome being associated with them), would affect the way neighbours viewed the German polity, although in the longue durée, Germany tended to be at peace.[17]

From the 1560s on, after the death of Frundsberg, the reputation of the Landsknechte steadily decreased.

tercios who, however, were far less abundant and more expensive to train. When serving in southern Europe, Landsknechte were still considered elite troops. In the army of the Dutch rebels, many German mercenaries were hired but were forced to give up some Landsknecht traditions in order to increase their discipline in river crossing and their naval fighting abilities. Increasing ill-discipline within the ranks saw them replaced with an improved system of raising a German army, the Kaiserlicher Fussknecht, which was far less reliant on mercenaries.[19]

Organization and recruitment

Baden-Durlach, wearing Landsknecht dress. His greaves
, however, are atypical of Landsknecht.

The Landsknechte, often recruited from South Germany, came from a society with exploding population growth, increasing unemployment, diverse cultural factors and depleting hierarchical structure (unlike the tightly organized society of the Swiss). In addition to dispossessed craftmen and peasants, there were burghers, aristocrats and runaway serfs as well. They were also used to freedom of carrying weapons. The result was that soldiers leaned towards a libertine (and also brutal) lifestyle. Thus, the role of the regiment, leadership by example (commanders tended to dismount to fight with the troops) and harsh discipline (involving capital punishment) were emphasized to compensate.[20]

As with the Reisläufer, a

letter patent (Bestallungsbrief) that named the unit colonel (Obrist). This document laid out the size and structure of the unit, the pay of its men, and contained its Articles of War (Artikelsbriefe). Upon accepting the commission and securing funding, either through a bank loan or a grant from the lord, the colonel assembled his chain of command. His captains, once appointed, would then go to a locality he knew with drummers and fifers. Recruits gathered at a specified place and time for the muster. There, they would parade under an arch and be inspected by the colonel and his captains, then be paid their first months' salary. The colonel next read the Bestallungsbrief in full to the soldiers, who then swore oaths of allegiance to cause, officers, and the Emperor. This ceremony also saw the appointing of the unit staff and its standard bearers, or Fähnriche (ensigns), who swore to never lose the standard.[21][22][23]

The colonel was the highest–ranking officer in a Landsknecht in a regiment, but if his force contained more than one regiment he could become a Generalobrist. If it contained cavalry and artillery in addition to its infantry, then he could be a Feldobrist or Generalfeldobrist.[24] The regiment would be commanded by a lieutenant colonel in the colonel's stead. The regiment itself was formed by ten Fähnlein, equivalent to a company and commanded by a captain. A Fähnlein was made up by 400 men, including 100 veterans. Rotten, equivalent to a platoon, were the building blocks of the Fähnlein and contained either ten ordinary Landsknechte or six Doppelsöldner, led by a Rottmeister elected by his unit. In totality, the regiment averaged 4,000 men;[b] ten Fähnlein, containing 40 Rotten. Unit sergeant majors, called Feldweibel, were tasked with training drill and formation. The regimental sergeant major, Oberster-Feldweibel was responsible for drill on the battlefield. Rotten sergeants, Weibel, were charged with ensuring discipline and relaying liaisons between enlisted men and their officers. One of these men, the Gemeinweibel, was the spokesman for the men and was elected monthly.[21]

According to Imperial law, a colonel could have a staff of 22 officers but in practice this depended on the colonel's wealth.

Schultheiss were appointed by the colonel to maintain military discipline and to prosecute the Artikelsbriefe respectively. The provost was unimpeachable, and feared. Harsh punishments could be expected for offenses such as mutiny or drunkenness on duty. A provost had a retinue of a jailer, bailiff, and executioner (Freimann).[21][26]

Equipment

Landsknecht with a Zweihänder

Just like the Reisläufer, Landsknecht formations consisted of men trained and armed with

crossbowmen. The focus on firearms, rather than crossbows, as ordained by Maximilian, was where they were different from the Swiss.[30] Maximilian abolished the crossbow in military use in 1517 (although other countries continued to use them).[31]
Most Landsknechte, regardless of primary weapon, carried a short sword called a Katzbalger for close combat.[28][32] By the end of the 16th century, however, the number of pikemen in a Fähnlein had diminished to around 200.[33]

Tactics

They also copied the Swiss in tactics.[11] Landsknechte fought in a pike square they called the gevierte Ordnung,[28][34] forty to sixty men deep.[11] Doppelsöldnern made up the formation's first two ranks. Then came the ensigns, and then the squares themselves. Pikemen, supported by halberdiers, formed the square while swordsmen made up their front and rear. The most experienced soldiers were located at the back of the formation and arquebusiers were placed on its flanks. In the attack, a band of soldiers called a forlorn hope preceded the pike square to break enemy pikes.[28][35]

The pikemen were supported by

halberdiers, who would rush a gap in an opposing line,[36] a tactic also copied from the Swiss.[37] As their solidarity grew, commanders emphasized finesse and timing, rather than the head-down battering charge of the Swiss.[38]

As the Landsknechte's fighting techniques were developed, they no longer preferred fighting along a straight line (as exercised by even the Swiss until the end of the fifteenth century), but leaned towards a circle-wise movement that enhanced the use of the space around the combatant and allowed them to attack the opponents from different angles. The circle-wise formation described by Jean Molinet as the "snail" would become the hallmark of Landsknechte's combat. The new types of combat also required the maintenance of a stable bodily equilibrium. Maximilian, an innovator of these types of movements, also saw value in their effects over the maintenance of group discipline (apart from the control of centralized institutions). As Maximilian and his commanders sought to popularize these forms of movements (which only became daily practice at the end of the fifteenth century and gained dominance after Maximilian's death in 1519), he promoted them in tournaments, in fencing and in dancing as well. The courtly festivals became a playground for innovations, foreshadowing developments in military practices.[39][40]

Camp

Landsknecht with his Wife, by Daniel Hopfer. Note the Zweihänder over his shoulder and the smaller Katzbalger at his hip.

The

latrines.[41] A Landsknecht was usually forbidden by his Bestallungsbrief from having more than one woman in the baggage train.[42] The Tross was overseen by a "whore's sergeant" (Hurenweibel).[25]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ The Black Guard, formed to defend the Habsburg Low Countries, fought around the North Sea until being annihilated at the Battle of Hemmingstedt after twelve years of service.[12]
  2. ^ "Regiment" originally referred to the force the colonel controlled, but by 1550 meant a formation of 3,000–5,000 men.[25]

Citations

  1. ^ Rogers 2010, p. 485.
  2. ^ a b c Jörgensen et al. 2006, p. 11.
  3. ^ a b Miller 1976, p. 3.
  4. ISBN 9781483364674. Archived
    from the original on 26 September 2021. Retrieved 20 September 2021.
  5. ^ Richards 2002, p. 4.
  6. ^ Trim 2010, p. 59.
  7. ^ Richards 2002, pp. 4–5.
  8. ^ Trim 2010, p. 162.
  9. ISBN 978-1-78925-672-7
    . Retrieved 16 February 2022.
  10. ^ Richards 2002, p. 6.
  11. ^ a b c d Trim 2010, p. 163.
  12. ^ a b Richards 2002, p. 7.
  13. ^ Richards 2002, pp. 7–8.
  14. ^ Richards 2002, p. 51.
  15. ^ Tucker 2010, p. 481.
  16. ^ Fuster i Ortells, Joan (1962). Nosaltres, els valencians. Edicions 62. p. 75.
  17. ^ "H-German Roundtable on Smith, Germany: A Nation in Its Time Before, During, and After Nationalism, 1500–2000 H-German H-Net". networks.h-net.org. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
  18. doi:10.1093/jogss/ogz069
    .
  19. ^ Miller 1976, p. 33.
  20. ^ a b Karsten 1998, pp. 20–23.
  21. ^ a b c Miller 1976, pp. 4–5.
  22. ^ Richards 2002, pp. 9, 10–11, 13–15.
  23. ^ Jörgensen et al. 2006, p. 11–12.
  24. ^ a b Richards 2002, p. 10.
  25. ^ a b Richards 2002, p. 11.
  26. ^ Richards 2002, pp. 10–11.
  27. ^ Miller 1976, p. 11.
  28. ^ a b c d Jörgensen et al. 2006, p. 12.
  29. ^ Richards 2002, p. 13.
  30. ^ Axelrod 2013, p. 214.
  31. ISBN 978-0-917418-67-9
    . Retrieved 17 February 2022.
  32. ^ Miller 1976, pp. 11, 12.
  33. ^ Miller 1976, p. 12.
  34. ^ Miller 1976, p. 7.
  35. ^ Miller 1976, pp. 7–8.
  36. ^ Rogers 2010, p. 487.
  37. ^ Jörgensen et al. 2006, p. 8.
  38. ISBN 978-0-8153-2976-3
    . Retrieved 16 February 2022.
  39. doi:10.16995/ee.843
    . Retrieved 21 November 2021.
  40. ISBN 978-0-8122-0601-2
    . Retrieved 21 November 2021.
  41. ^ Richards 2002, pp. 26–27.
  42. ^ Miller 1976, p. 4.

References

External links

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