Lansquenet

see also: Etymology of Lansquenet

Of German Landsknecht , attested since 1480, Knecht (servant) indicating a constraint with respect to the “employer” and Land ( country or more certainly in this case countryside, flat ) marking the origin of these Mercenaire S which did not come from the mountain, contrary to the Swiss stitchers. As of 1500, one finds deterioration Lanzknecht influenced by Lanze (lance, spade), the term Landsknecht is still in German modern within the meaning of mercenary (Söldner).

The lansquenets were Mercenaire S, often “German”, if as well is as the word has a direction at the time, and operating 15th century at the 17th century. The Swiss troops having made the demonstration on several occasions that best Cavalerie S was impotent against Fantassin S equipped with spades reaching up to 6 meters length, on many sovereigns decide to create units on the model of these “ Reislaüfer ” Swiss. In Bavaria, one of the mercenaries main leaders to the service of the emperor was Georg von Frundsberg. With Florence, one finds for example the Loggia dei Lanzi, thus named because of the presence of German mercenaries stationed in the vicinity. It is the beginning of the era of glory of the lansquenets of which Maximilien Ier de Habsbourg (1459 - 1519), called the “father of the lansquenets” , mark perhaps the apogee.

As required as the Swiss S, they are put at the service of all the sovereigns of Europe, in particular of the King de France, and marked the history of their plunderings and exactions. A long spade of 6 meters or more was their principal weapon but the Hallebarde, shorter (approximately 2 meters) and various types of swords to one or two hands also equipped their troops. The lansquenets of elite, the Doppelsöldner (double balance), used for example the Flamberge, a long sword being able to cut down a Cheval easily, but also the Arquebuse etc a unit of lansquenets of Maximilien 1st comprised in the ideal 300 stitchers and 100 Doppelsöldner , including 50 Arquebusier S and 50 Hallebardier S, but with time, this proportion evolved/moved in favor of the arquebusiers. The balance basic of the lansquenet was of 4 Florin S per month, the officers were " double soldes" , the captains gained 20 guilders.

At their time of glory, the lansquenets marked not only the tactics, the armament and harnessing (armours, coats, helmets, harness etc) military but even the vestimentary fashion: on the basis of the report which it was necessary to be at ease in its clothing on the battle fields, the lansquenets allowed freedoms more and more, including in the “civilian”, influencing the European fashion. Noble and clergy upset their extravagances which encroached to some extent on their social status: the ecclesiastics saw in particular evil eye their atours suggesting bulky genitals, but Maximilien Ier made them grant by the Reichstag of Augsburg (1503) the right to get dressed according to their goodwill.

The lansquenets often acted in roughneck soldier S and in plundering S avid of plunder S and often nearer to the misery than of glory because only the most famous officers and of the lansquenets could treat to extravagances in question. The majority were badly seen by the population and due: massacres, put at bag, flights and rapes, fires, prostitution, nothing amusing was not to be waited of their passage. Even the social layers from which they resulted (days laborer, small craftsmen or companions, even taken again peasants of justice) and from which they hoped to be extracted thanks to the pay, had an bad image of the lansquenets.

The least wound was synonymous with infection, gangrene resulting in death or the amputation, the venereal diseases or others were the daily batch, the life expectancy was thus particularly reduced. The fate of the survivors was hardly more enviable and of the troops of estropiés or asocial living flights and begging at least belonged to the European landscape until the middle of the 17th century.

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