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108-443: The Landsknechte (singular: Landsknecht , pronounced [ˈlantsknɛçt] ), also rendered as Landsknechts or Lansquenets , were German mercenaries used in pike and shot formations during the early modern period . Consisting predominantly of pikemen and supporting foot soldiers, their front line was formed by Doppelsöldner ("double-pay men") renowned for their use of Zweihänder and arquebus . They formed

216-528: A forlorn hope preceded the pike square to break enemy pikes. The pikemen were supported by halberdiers , who would rush a gap in an opposing line, a tactic also copied from the Swiss. As their solidarity grew, commanders emphasized finesse and timing, rather than the head-down battering charge of the Swiss. As the Landsknechte's fighting techniques were developed, they no longer preferred fighting along

324-481: 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,

432-639: A Castilian ordinance for "people of war" of 1497, Spanish foot soldiers were divided into three categories. One-third of the infantry carried pikes; one-third had swords and shields; and the final one-third consisted of crossbowmen and gunmen. It is in this configuration that the Spanish army won the first Italian Wars. In preparation for the Third Italian War of 1502 to 1504, Spanish general Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba set his companies at 50% pikes, 33% swords and shields, and 17% arquebuses. This ratio

540-564: A European power. Archduke Maximilian , who became co-ruler of Burgundian lands in 1477 by marrying Mary of Burgundy , 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. The dissolution of his levied army at war's end found Maximilian wanting

648-614: A battlefield force, and as such were soon relegated to garrison duty until they matured in the seventeenth century. In practice, pike and shot formations that the French used on the sixteenth-century battlefield were often of an ad hoc nature, the large blocks of Swiss mercenary, Landsknecht , or, to a lesser extent, French pikemen being supported at times by bands of mercenary adventurer shot, largely Gascons and Italians. (The Swiss and Landsknechts also had their own small contingents of arquebusiers, usually comprising not more than 10–20% of their total force. The French were also late to adopt

756-585: A checkerboard formation, another similarity to Roman military systems, in this case the Legion's Quincunx deployment. In the end, Maurice's armies depended primarily on defensive siege warfare to wear down the Spanish attempting to wrest control of the heavily fortified towns of the Seven Provinces, rather than risking the loss of all through open battle. On the rare occasion that open battle occurred, this reformed army, as many reformed armies have done in

864-529: 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

972-425: A lord with 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

1080-425: A normal Landsknecht 's pay and getting the title Doppelsöldner , made up a quarter of each Fähnlein . 50 of these men were armed with a halberd or with a 66-inch (170 cm) two-handed sword called a Zweihänder while another fifty were arquebusiers or crossbowmen . The focus on firearms, rather than crossbows, as ordained by Maximilian, was where they were different from the Swiss. Maximilian abolished

1188-599: A permanent and organized military force like the Confederation's to protect his domain. The existing Burgundian structure was inadequate to this end, however, and moreover the French wielded a monopoly on the hiring of Reisläufer . Maximilian began raising the first Landsknecht units in 1486, amassing 6,000–8,000 mercenaries. One of these units he gave to Eitel Friedrich II, Count of Hohenzollern , who trained them with Swiss instructors in Bruges in 1487 to become

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1296-462: A playground for innovations, foreshadowing developments in military practices. The Tross were the camp followers or baggage train who travelled with each Landsknecht unit, carrying military necessities, the food, and the belongings of each soldier and his family. The Tross was made up of women, children and some craftsmen. Women and young boys set up Landsknecht camps, cooked, mended injuries, and dug and cleaned latrines. A Landsknecht

1404-474: A polyglot army of foreign-supplied troops and mercenaries, the Dutch took steps to reform their armies starting in 1590 under their captain-general, Maurice of Nassau , who had read ancient military treatises extensively. In addition to standardizing drill, weapon caliber, pike length, and so on, Maurice turned to his readings in classical military doctrine to establish smaller, more flexible combat formations than

1512-565: A ratio of 31% shot to 69% pikes. The musketeers used a particularly heavy firearm which fired balls twice the size of an arquebus's. In Venice the proportions were first fixed in 1548, at 10% halberds, 30% arquebuses, and 60% pikes. French contracts of 1562 simply specified 33% of arquebusiers. For the English 1571-2 campaign in France the recommended balance in newly formed companies was 6% halberds, 20% muskets, 34% arquebuses, and 40% pikes; this

1620-604: A repeat of Stuhlweissenburg, Maximilian now sought to homogenize the Landsknechte into a fully professional, and mostly Germanic military force. 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." After

1728-474: A retinue of a jailer, bailiff, and executioner ( Freimann ). Just like the Reisläufer , Landsknecht formations consisted of men trained and armed with pikes , halberds , and swords. 300 men of a Fähnlein would be armed with a pike, though a Landsknecht 's pike was generally shorter than a Reisläufer 's at about 4.2 meters (14 ft). Experienced and well-equipped soldiers, receiving double

1836-633: A selection of Dutch companies from 1587, standardized by William of Orange, showed 34% pikes, 9% halberds, 5% swords and bucklers, and 52% firearms. Bucklers disappeared from the ranks by the end of the 16th century, as did halberds except in the hands of NCOs and bodyguards. In 1588, the English Trained Bands consisted of 36% arquebusiers, 6% musketeers, 16% bowmen, 26% pikemen, and 16% billmen. Lansdowne MS 56, attributed to Lord Burghley , states that ideally infantry formations should consist of 50% shot, 30% pikes, and 20% billhooks. In 1571

1944-489: A skirmish screen in front of the battalion, the rest forming up in two equal bodies, one on either side of the pikemen. Two or more of these battalions were to form the regiment, which was thus theoretically 1,100 men or stronger, but unlike the tercio, the regiment had the battalions as fully functional sub-units, each of mixed pike and shot which could, and generally did, operate independently, or could support each other closely. These battalions were fielded much less deep than

2052-473: A staff that included much of the same, but with additional musicians and two Doppelsöldner to protect him. A provost marshal and 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

2160-411: 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

2268-433: A strong defensive position. At first, this mixed infantry formation was referred to as a colunella ("colonelcy"), and was commanded by a colonel . It interspersed formations of men in close order armed with the pike and looser formations armed with the firearm, initially the arquebus . They reappeared during the conquest of Granada with "El Gran Capitán". The arquebusiers could shoot down their foes, and could then run to

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2376-498: A thorough reorganization of their army and tactics under the great captain Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba ("El Gran Capitán"). Realizing that he could not match the sheer offensive power of the French gendarmes and Swiss pikes, he took advantage of the shooting power of firearms , an emerging technology at the time, with the defensive strength of the pike , and to employ them in a mutually-supporting formation, preferably in

2484-542: A way that often caught attacking infantry or cavalry with fire coming from different directions from two or more of these strong infantry squares. The great rivals of the Spanish/Habsburg Empire, the Kings of France, had access to a smaller and poorly organized force of pike and shot. The French military establishment showed considerably less interest in shot as a native troop type than did the Spanish until

2592-495: The Battle of Cerignola , one of the great victories of the Italian Wars, in which the heavily outnumbered Spanish pike-and-shot forces, in a strong defensive position, crushed the attacking gendarmes and Swiss mercenaries of the French army. The proportion of melee weapons to shot varied depending on the state and era, as did the exact weapons used. In general, the later the date, the more prominent firearms were. Due to this,

2700-577: The Battle of Novara in 1513, the Swiss executed the hundreds of German Landsknecht mercenaries they had captured who had fought for the French. At the Battle of Bicocca and the Battle of Marignano (1515), the Landsknecht performed well, defeating the famed Reisläufer . 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

2808-515: The Black Band 's companies consisted of 70% pikes, 12% arquebuses, 12% two-handed swords, and 6% halberds. For landsknechts in general, the usual arrangement was that one Fähnlein , the standard unit, had 400 men, of whom 300 were pikemen (75%), 50 were arquebusiers (12.5%), and 50 were halberdiers or two-handed swordsmen (12.5%). Arquebusiers, halberdiers, and swordsmen all received double pay compared to pikemen. The Spanish army standardized

2916-459: The Gemeinweibel , was the spokesman for the men and was elected monthly. According to Imperial law, a colonel could have a staff of 22 officers but in practice this depended on the colonel's wealth. Included in that staff were a chaplain, a scribe , a doctor, a scout, his personal quartermaster and ensign, a drummer and fifer , and a bodyguard ( Trabanten ) of eight men. Captains also had

3024-1001: 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. Over the Burgundian Wars , the well-organized and supplied armies of Charles the Bold were defeated again and again by the Swiss Confederation , which wielded an ad hoc militia army. Charles's army lacked esprit de corps because of its composition by feudal lords, mercenaries, and levied gentry. The Swiss army, though poorly organized, were highly motivated, aggressive, and well-trained with their arms. The Swiss pikemen , called Reisläufer , repeatedly defeated and eventually killed Charles, eliminating Burgundy as

3132-688: The Holy Roman Emperor . This guaranteed both quantity and quality to the Imperial military for a century and a half. At their peak during the reign of 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

3240-651: The Swedish cavalry a real advantage before the two forces met. Under normal conditions detached musketeers without pikemen would be easy targets for the enemy cavalry, but if they did close to sabre range, the Swedish cavalry would be a more immediate concern. The effect of these changes was profound. Gustav had been largely ignored by most of Europe after his mixed results in Poland, and when he arrived in Germany in 1630 he

3348-418: The gevierte Ordnung , forty to sixty men deep. 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

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3456-576: 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

3564-787: The " Black Guard " – the first Landsknechte . In 1488, Maximilian organized the Swabian League , creating an army of 12,000 infantry and 1,200 cavalry to deter Bavaria and Bohemia . This is considered to be the first Landsknecht army to be raised in Germany. Maximilian raised a strong army for the Austrian-Hungarian War of 1490, and succeeded in driving the Hungarians out of Austria. The Landsknechte in his army refused to serve after sacking Stuhlweissenburg (now Székesfehérvár, Hungary ), citing lack of pay and stopping Maximilian's advance on Buda. To prevent

3672-406: The "Dutch formations", but then adding a number of innovations of his own. He started by re-arranging the formations to be thinner, typically only four to six ranks deep, spreading them out horizontally into rectangles instead of squares. This further maximized the number of musketeers near the front of the formation. Additionally he introduced the practice of volley fire, where all of the gunners in

3780-524: The 1530s by order of Charles. The tercios were originally made up of one-third pikemen, one-third arquebusiers and one-third swordsmen. Tercios were administrative organizations and were in charge of up to 3000 soldiers. These were divided into ten companies that were deployed in battle. These companies were further subdivided into small units that could be deployed individually or brought together to form great battle formations that were sometimes called "Spanish squares". As these squares matured in usage during

3888-462: The 1530s, large infantry formations of 6,000 men which were roughly composed of 60% pikemen, 30% arquebusiers and 10% Halberdiers . These legions were raised regionally, one in each of Normandy , Languedoc, Champagne and Picardy . Detachments of around 1,000 men could be sent off to separate duty, but in practice the Legions were initially little more than an ill-disciplined rabble and a failure as

3996-400: The 1570s the standard infantry company in Dutch service (whether they be Dutch or foreign hires such as Germans and English) had about 150 men, including 4 officers (a captain, lieutenant, quartermaster, and barber-surgeon), 5 NCOs (two sergeants and three corporals), 15 musketeers, 65 arquebusiers, 45 pikemen, 12 halberdiers and targeteers, and 3 musicians (two fifers and a drummer). A study of

4104-642: The 1619 Battle of Sarhū , the Koreans (drawing on lessons from 1592 to 1598) deployed an all-shot formation (10,000 arquebusiers and 3,000 archers) using volley fire against the cavalry-heavy Manchus. The arquebusiers inflicted many losses on the Manchus, but were routed. This prompted a revision of military tactics in Korea. After the defeat at Sarhū, the Joseon forces revised their doctrine to have spearmen supporting

4212-571: The 1660s, the paper strength of an Imperial infantry company was 48 pikemen, 88 musketeers, and 8 shieldmen. The Imperial Army used this configuration during the Great Turkish War , most famously at the Battle of Vienna , where flintlock muskets were outnumbered by matchlocks (the flintlock would not enter regular service until 1699). During the same conflict, the Polish-Lithuanian army also made extensive use of pikes. In 1703,

4320-542: The 1680s, 20% of Thai soldiers used firearms. By 1825, 50% of Burmese soldiers had firearms, and as late as 1858, only 15% of the Vietnamese soldiers summoned to fight the Cochinchina campaign had firearms. By the 1840s, only 30–40% of Chinese soldiers had firearms (all matchlocks), the rest being armed with spears, swords, and bows. The armies of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, further developed

4428-400: The 16th century, they generally took on the appearance of a "bastioned square" – that is, a large square with smaller square " bastions " at each corner. The large square in the center was made up of the pikemen, 56 files across and 22 ranks deep. The outer edges of the central pike square were lined with a thin rank of arquebusiers totaling 250 men. At each corner of this great pike square were

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4536-456: The 18th century, was generally not mirrored in non-European countries that did not adopt such tactics. Nor was the proliferation of the flintlock; matchlocks remained the most common firearms in India, China, and Southeast Asia until about the mid-19th century due to being far less complicated to manufacture. For example, by the mid-17th century, only 10–13% of Javanese soldiers used firearms, and by

4644-482: The French army also discontinued the use of the pike, followed in 1704 by the British and in 1708 by the Dutch. Between 1699 and 1721, Peter I converted almost all Russian foot-regiments to line infantry . Even later, the obsolete pike would still find a use in such countries as Ireland, Russia, and China, generally in the hands of desperate peasant rebels who did not have access to firearms. One attempt to resurrect

4752-507: 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

4860-683: The French army's ratio was set at 75–80% muskets and 20–25% pikes. At the start of the Great Northern War in 1700, Russian line infantry companies were 83% muskets and 17% pikes. The musketeers were initially equipped with sword-like plug bayonets; they did not fully switch to socket bayonets until 1709. A Swedish infantry company at the start of the war consisted of 66% muskets and 33% pikes. While they all carried swords, Swedish musketeers were not completely equipped with bayonets until 1704. The rapidly rising percentage of firearms spurred by pike-and-shot battles, until reaching near-100% by

4968-572: The Ming Chinese general Qi Jiguang wrote a military manual outlining his ideal compositions for military formations. In regards to missile weapons, an infantry brigade of 2,699 men was to be equipped with 1,080 matchlock arquebuses and 216 bows (40% firearms). A cavalry brigade of 2,988 men was to be equipped with 1,152 bows, 432 arquebuses, and 60 " crouching tigers ", miniature bombards loaded with one hundred pellets each, essentially 21.6 kg blunderbusses (20% firearms). A wagon brigade of 3,109 men

5076-693: The Prussians had already abandoned the pike decades prior, whereas others such as the Swedish and Russians continued to use it for several decades afterward—the Swedes of King Charles XII in particular were using it to great effect until 1721. The Army of the Holy Roman Empire officially stopped using pikemen in 1699. It had been progressively phasing out both pikes and lances since the Thirty Years War. Following Montecuccoli's reforms in

5184-430: The appointing of the unit staff and its standard bearers, or Fähnriche ( ensigns ), who swore to never lose the standard. The colonel was the highest–ranking officer 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 . The regiment would be commanded by

5292-630: The army was abandoned. Eitel Friedrich II, Count of Hohenzollern Eitel Friedrich II was the son and heir of Count Jobst Nikolaus I (1433–1488). He continued his father's policy of good relationships with the Franconian line of the House of Hohenzollern, who ruled the Burgraviate of Nuremberg and the Margraviate of Brandenburg . During his father's reign, he spent several years at

5400-439: The arquebusiers to better withstand shock cavalry. The new Korean force was tested against the Manchus again in 1627 and 1636–1637 . Both times, they were defeated, but their performance left a strong impression on the Manchus. The first emperor of the newly declared Qing dynasty later wrote: "The Koreans are incapable on horseback but do not transgress the principles of the military arts. They excel at infantry fighting." After

5508-683: The battle was ultimately lost by the Spanish and Imperial forces, it demonstrated the self-sufficiency of the mixed pike and shot formations, something sorely lacking in the French armies of the day. Foremost amongst the enemies of the Spanish Habsburg empire in the late 16th century were the Seven Provinces of the Netherlands (often retroactively known as the "Dutch"), who fought a long war of independence from Spanish control starting in 1568. After soldiering on for years with

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5616-564: The battlefield usefulness of the Landsknechte , somewhat unfairly. Their status also suffered from the rising reputation of the dreaded Spanish 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

5724-694: The bulk of the Holy Roman Empire's Imperial Army from the late 15th century to the early 17th century, fighting in the Habsburg-Valois wars , the Habsburg-Ottoman wars , and the European wars of religion . Although prone to mutiny if unpaid and divided within their ranks between Catholics and Lutherans , the Landsknechte were well-armed and experienced warriors, recruitable in large numbers throughout Germany and Austria by

5832-429: The cavalry. In traditional deployments the infantry would be deployed in the middle with cavalry on both sides, protecting the flanks. Battles would often open with the cavalry attacking their counterparts in an effort to drive them off, thereby opening the infantry to a cavalry charge from the side. An attempt to do this against his new formations would be met with volley fire , perhaps not dangerous on its own, but giving

5940-856: The court of Elector Albrecht Achilles . From 1481, he served as captain of the Lordship of Krosno Odrzańskie , east of the Oder . In 1483, he became a Councillor in Brandenburg. Later, he served as governor of Kottbus and Züllichau . In 1482 in Berlin, he married Magdalena , the daughter of Margrave Friedrich of the Altmark, thus creating a family relationship between the two lines of Hohenzollern. Elector Albrecht Achilles, who held some possessions in Swabia himself, protected his Swabian relatives against

6048-410: The crossbow in military use in 1517 (although other countries continued to use them). Most Landsknechte , regardless of primary weapon, carried a short sword called a Katzbalger for close combat. By the end of the 16th century, however, the number of pikemen in a Fähnlein had diminished to around 200. They also copied the Swiss in tactics. Landsknechte fought in a pike square they called

6156-463: The end of the sixteenth century, and continued to prefer close combat arms, particularly heavy cavalry, as the decisive force in their armies until the French Wars of Religion ; this despite the desire of King Francis I to establish his own pike and shot contingents after the Battle of Pavia , in which he was defeated and captured. Francis had declared the establishment of the French "Legions" in

6264-434: The enemy line. Armies using the tercio generally intended to field them in brigades of at least three tercios, with one in the front and two behind, the rearward formations echeloned off on either side so that all three resembled a stepped pyramid. The word tercio means "a third" (that is, one third of the whole brigade). This entire formation would be flanked by cavalry. The musketeers, and those arquebusiers whose shooting

6372-561: 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

6480-473: The field infantry of the German Catholic League were 58% muskets and arquebuses, 36% pikes, and 6% halberds; this changed again in 1627 to 65% muskets, 20% pikes, and 15% halberds. The ideal field ratio often deviated from the usual combat experience; skirmishes, sieges, and minor actions were far more common than large pitched battles, and pikes were not as useful in these engagements due to

6588-502: The flanks. This drove off the Saxons on the one flank, but on the other Gustav's new combined cavalry/musket force drove off any attempt to charge. With one flank now open Tilly nevertheless had a major positional advantage, but Gustav's smaller and lighter units were able to easily re-align to face the formerly open flank, their light guns cutting into their ranks while the heavier guns on both sides continued to exchange fire elsewhere. Tilly

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6696-420: The infantry squares of the Spanish, the pikemen being generally described as five to ten ranks deep, the shot eight to twelve ranks. In this way, fewer musketeers were left inactive in the rear of the formation, as was the case with tercios which deployed in a bastioned-square. Maurice called for a deployment of his battalions in three offset lines, each line giving the one in front of it close support by means of

6804-456: The large blocks of Landsknechts they sometimes hired), rendering formal pike and shot tactics impossible. In the one great battle fought in the sixteenth century between the French and their Imperial rivals after the Spanish and Imperial adoption of the tercio, the Battle of Ceresole , the Imperial pike and shot formations shot down attacking French gendarmes , defending themselves with the pike when surviving heavy cavalry got close. Although

6912-489: The last man in each lance was a noncombatant page. The Black Army of Hungary was one of the first forces to use the arquebus to a large degree. In its 1477 to 1488 wars, 25 percent of its soldiers had firearms (both arquebuses and more primitive handgonnes), an unusually high ratio for the time. The average in Europe by the end of the 15th century was that 10 percent of the infantry were equipped with firearms. According to

7020-530: 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 centralised 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

7128-415: The maximization of combat power in the frontal arc as adopted by later formations). The individual units of pikemen and musketeers were not fixed and were re-ordered during battle to defend a wing or to bring greater fire power or pikes to bear in a certain direction. Finally, its depth meant that it could run over shallower formations in a close assault – that is, should the slow-moving tercio manage to strike

7236-815: The medieval knight ), the Swiss , the Spanish Tercio and the Landsknecht mercenary pikemen . The emerging artillery corps of heavy cannons was a rapidly improving technology. Emperor Maximilian I opposed the French armies in the War of the Burgundian Succession and the Italian wars and established the Landsknechte units. Many of their tactics were adapted from the Swiss mercenaries, but

7344-407: The melee-oriented pikemen. Military thinking switched to shallower lines that maximized the firepower of an infantry formation. By one calculation, a formation equipped entirely with mid-18th century flintlocks could output ten times as many shots in an equivalent period of time as a typical early 17th century pike and shot formation equipped with matchlocks (pike:shot ratio of 3:2), enormously changing

7452-410: The mid-seventeenth century, armies that standardized the adoption of the flintlock musket began to abandon the pike altogether (flintlocks and proto-flintlocks, such as the miquelet lock , had been in use since the mid-16th century, but remained less common than matchlocks until the late 17th), or to greatly decrease their numbers. A bayonet could be affixed to the musket, turning it into a spear, and

7560-503: The mountains of Espadà , in modern-day Spanish Castelló province (then in the Aragonese Kingdom of Valencia ), where thousands of Valencian Muslim fellah s took up arms against the decree of forced conversion issued that very year by the emperor . They are attested as deployed in the armies of Kings John III of Navarre and successor Henry II of Navarre during their campaigns to reconquer Navarre (1512–1524). In

7668-438: The musket's firepower was now so deadly that combat was often decided by shooting alone. Moreover, the flintlock could be loaded and fired approximately twice as fast as the matchlock, and misfired far less. The abandonment of the pike, together with the faster firing rate made possible by the standardization of the flintlock musket and paper cartridge , resulted in the abandonment of the deeper formations of troops more ideal for

7776-505: The musket, the first reference to their use being at the end of the 1560s—twenty years after its use by the Spanish, Germans and Italians. This was essentially the condition of the French Royal infantry throughout the French Wars of Religion that occupied most of the latter sixteenth century, and when their Huguenot foes had to improvise a native infantry force, it was largely made up of arquebusiers with few if any pikes (other than

7884-561: The muskets. Formations became more flexible, with more firepower and independence of action. Meanwhile in East Asia, the utility of pike and shot style formations were still being tested. The Japanese army in the Imjin War supported their gunmen (25–30% of their initial force) with spear and bow levies, but the pike was not as emphasized as it was in contemporary Europe due to the lack of a large cavalry threat in either Japan or Korea. At

7992-414: The nearby pikemen for shelter if enemy cavalry or pikes drew near. This was especially necessary because the firearms of the early 16th century were inaccurate, took a very long time to load and only had a short range, meaning the shooters were often only able to get off a few shots before the enemy was upon them. This new tactic resulted in triumph for the Spanish and Fernández de Córdoba's colunellas at

8100-552: The past, behaved variably, running from the Spanish tercios one day, fighting those same tercios only a few days later, at the Battle of Nieuwpoort , and crushing them. Maurice's reforms are more famous for the effect they had on others—taken up and perfected, and would be put to the test on the battlefields of the seventeenth century. After bad experiences with the classic tercios formations in Poland , Gustav II Adolf decided to reorganize his battlefield formations, initially adopting

8208-458: The pike and shot formation. The front line of Charles' German Landsknechte consisted of doppelsöldner , renowned for their use of arquebus and zweihänder during the Italian wars. The Spanish colunellas continued to show valuable flexibility as the Italian Wars progressed, and the Spanish string of battlefield successes continued. The colunellas were eventually replaced by the tercios in

8316-552: The pike as a primary infantry weapon occurred during the American Civil War when the Confederate States of America planned to recruit twenty regiments of pikemen in 1862. In April 1862 it was authorized that every Confederate infantry regiment would include two companies of pikemen, a plan supported by Robert E. Lee . Many pikes were produced but were never used in battle and the plan to include pikemen in

8424-672: The pike's low value as a personal weapon (indeed, in the English Civil Wars, only 15% of battle deaths occurred in major battles, whereas nearly half occurred in battles with fewer than 250 total casualties). In 1632, the Spanish army standardized their infantry companies at 68% arquebuses and muskets and 32% pikes. Contemporary Japanese units, while heavily focused on firearms by East Asian standards, had higher ratios of other weapons to arquebuses compared to late 16th to early 17th century European formations. When Japan invaded Korea in 1592, 30% of Japanese soldiers had firearms, and

8532-621: The pikes themselves had also shortened, from 18 feet to 13 feet. During the English Civil Wars (1642–1651), both sides preferred 2 guns to 1 pike, though this ratio was flexible. At the 1683 Battle of Vienna , the Imperial Army had set its infantry companies at 61% firearms, 33% pikes, and 6% shieldmen. The English army of the Nine Years War in the 1690s still had 2 muskets for every 1 pike. Meanwhile, by 1687,

8640-454: The ponderous regiments and tercios which then presided over open battle. Each Dutch battalion was to be 550 men strong, similar to the size of the ancient Roman legionary 480-man cohort described by Vegetius . Although inspired by the Romans, Maurice's soldiers carried the weapons of their day—250 were pikemen and the remaining 300 were arquebusiers and musketeers, 60 of the shot serving as

8748-633: The powerful Counts of Württemberg , who had formed a threat to the Swabian Hohenzollerns for a long time. Eitel Friedrich II was a close friend of Maximilian I and maintained excellent relations with the House of Habsburg . This gained great influence on imperial politics. He provided diplomatic services for Maximilian and fought for him in the Netherlands. He distinguished himself in the Battle of Guinegate in 1479 and in 1488, he led

8856-433: The push became less relevant and their secondary role (repulsing cavalry) was better filled by more pikes: the French regulars abandoned the halberd in 1568 (aside from NCOs), and the Dutch not long after, while the Spanish army, as well as those of various Holy Roman Empire states, would continue to use the halberd in limited numbers into the mid-17th century (the English used the similar billhook). The predominance of shooting

8964-704: The ranks saw them replaced with an improved system of raising a German army, the Kaiserlicher Fussknecht , which was far less reliant on mercenaries. 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

9072-482: The ranks would fire at the same time. This was intended to bring down as many members of the opposing force's front line as possible, causing ranks moving up behind them to trip and fall as they were forced forward by the ranks further back. Finally, he embedded four small "infantry guns" into each battalion, allowing them to move about independently and not suffer from a lack of cannon fire if they became detached. Gustav also placed detached musketeers in small units among

9180-416: The regiment averaged 4,000 men; 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,

9288-679: 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. The Germanic compound Landsknecht (earlier Lantknecht , without Fugen-"s" ) combines Land and Knecht to form "servant of the land". The compound Lantknecht was used during the 15th century for bailiffs or court ushers . The word Landsknecht first appeared in

9396-553: The rest were equipped with pikes, swords, and bows. Firearms usage declined after 1603. In 1618–1629, the pike to shot ratio fluctuated between 1 and 2 muskets per pike for various Western European armies. 1631–1632 saw an increased proportion of firearms, with some formations being more than 80% gunmen. The standard in the Imperial Army of the Holy Roman Empire in 1641 was 66% muskets and 33% pikes. As pike-on-pike clashes became less common in field battles, so did armor. By 1660 body armor had mostly disappeared in pike and shot formations;

9504-434: The role of the pike changed over time. In the late 15th century and the first half of the 16th, the pike was an offensive weapon; by the end of the 16th and into the 17th, its niche was primarily defensive, though this did not preclude fights between pikemen. The push of pike became rare and battles were increasingly resolved by shooting. Directly linked to this was halberds becoming less common, as their primary role in breaking

9612-463: The roughly 1:1 ratio of pikemen to shooters was generally maintained. The tercios for all armies were usually of 1,000 to 2,000 men, although even these numbers could be reduced by the conditions already mentioned. Tercio-type formations were also used by other powers, chiefly in the Germanic areas of the Holy Roman Empire. To modern eyes the tercio square seems cumbersome and wasteful of men, many of

9720-482: The same context, they are also found fighting on Charles V's side (battle for 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

9828-424: The smaller squares of arquebusiers, called mangas (sleeves), each 240 men strong. Finally, two groups in open order, each of 90 men and armed with the longer musket , were placed in front of, and to the sides of, the arquebusiers. Normal attrition of combat units (including sickness and desertion) and the sheer lack of men usually led to the tercios being far smaller in practice than the numbers above suggest but

9936-495: The soldiers being positioned so that they could not bring their weapons to bear against the enemy. However, in a time when firearms were short-ranged and slow to load, it had its benefits. It offered great protection against cavalry – still the dominant fast-attack arm on the battlefield – and was extremely sturdy and difficult to defeat. It was very hard to isolate or outflank and destroy a tercio by maneuver due to its great depth and distribution of firepower to all sides (as opposed to

10044-690: The south bank of Lake Constance . In 1500, he occupied the County of Gorizia for Austria. In 1501, he was awarded the Order of the Golden Fleece . On 12 September 1504, during the Landshut War of Succession , he fought at Regensburg against Bohemia and the Palatinate. He commanded the right wing of the cavalry and contributed significantly to the victory. In 1505 Eitel Friedrich II founded

10152-487: The tactical calculus of the infantry's armament. From 1688 to 1696, 3 out of every 5 Austrian and British soldiers had a flintlock musket, the rest mostly had matchlocks. After the Battle of Rocroi fought on 19 May 1643, the Spanish abandoned the Tercio system and adopted the line infantry doctrine used by the French. A common end date for the use of the pike in infantry formations is 1700, although some armies such as

10260-434: The tercio arrangement in 1534. At this time a tercio was 14 companies of two types. The first type, numbering twelve per tercio, had 219 pikemen and 20 musketeers. The second, comprising the remaining 2, had 224 arquebusiers and 15 musketeers. Thus, at full strength a tercio had 2,628 pikemen (77%), 448 arquebusiers (14%), and 300 musketeers (9%). However in practice, muster rolls showed that tercios averaged 1,500-strong and had

10368-518: The use of firearms was added. The firearms, in conjunction with the pike formations, gave the Imperials a tactical edge over the French. Those pike and shot regiments were recruited in Germany, Austria, and Tyrol. In 1495 at the Battle of Seminara , the hitherto successful Spanish army was trounced while opposing the French invasion of Naples by an army composed of armoured gendarme cavalry and Swiss mercenary infantry. The chastened Spanish undertook

10476-545: The vanguard against rebellious citizens of Bruges, who held the newly elected Emperor captive. Eitel Friedrich had served Maximilan as judge and when the Reichskammergericht was established in 1495, Eitel Friedrich was its first president. In 1497 or 1498, he was appointed as Councillor in Austria. In 1499, Eitel Friedrich and Dietrich Blumeneck led a small army against Switzerland and conquered Rorschach on

10584-465: The way neighbours viewed the German polity, although in the longue durée, Germany tended to be at peace. From the 1560s on, after the death of Frundsberg, the reputation of the Landsknechte steadily decreased. In the French Wars of Religion and the Eighty Years War , their bravery and discipline came under criticism, and the Spanish elements of the army of Flanders regularly deprecated

10692-413: Was adjusted in 1589 to 10% halberds, 30% pikes and 60% unspecified firearms. By 1600 France set a 1:1 ratio of pikes to firearms, and Spain 10% halberds, 30% pikes, 25% muskets, and 35% arquebuses. In 1560, following an order to increase the proportion of firearms, Spanish units in Italy became 54% pikes and 46% firearms. The Spanish average throughout the 16th century was 2 pikes for every 1 firearm. In

10800-550: Was equipped with 145 wagons, 256 swivel guns manned by two men each, and 512 arquebuses (33% firearms), plus eight proper cannons. On paper these were roughly in line with contemporary European rates but it is not known if these proportions were ever reached in practice. In 1601, Spanish regiments in the Low Countries were 44% pikes and 56% muskets and arquebuses. German ones had far fewer firearms, with 79% pikes to 21% arquebuses and muskets. Proportions changed, and by 1625

10908-416: Was flexible and could be changed as tactics required. The Battle of Cerignola , which demonstrated the power of the arqebus, had the Spanish army roughly following this ratio, with the infantry being 25% arquebusiers. Following its 1506 military reforms, Florence had an army armed 70% with pikes, 10% with muskets, and the remaining 20% with halberds, hog-spears , or other close-combat weapons. In 1515

11016-689: Was initially developed by the Holy Roman Imperial ( Landsknechte ) and Spanish ( Tercios ) infantries, and later by the Dutch and Swedish armies in the 17th century. By the 16th century, late-medieval troop types that had proven most successful in the Hundred Years' War , Burgundian Wars and the late phase of the Reconquista , dominated European warfare, especially the heavily armoured gendarme (a professional version of

11124-724: Was not a universal advancement, however. For example, in the Wars of Religion of the 1560s and 1570s, 54% of wounds suffered by French soldiers were inflicted by swords, these being the most common weapons on the battlefield as pikemen, halberdiers, arquebusiers, musketeers, and cavalry all carried them as sidearms. In 1471, the Burgundian State organized its army into 1,250 lances of nine men each, thus its forces were 2/8 heavy cavalry (men-at-arms and sergeants), 3/8 mounted archers (who also carried hand weapons and could fight dismounted), 1/8 pikemen, 1/8 crossbowmen, and 1/8 handgunners;

11232-462: Was not blocked by friendly forces, were supposed to keep up a continuous fire by rotation. This led to a fairly slow rate of advance, estimated by modern writers at roughly 60 meters a minute. Movement of such seemingly unwieldy groups of soldiers was difficult but well-trained and experienced tercios were able to move and manoeuvre with surprising facility and to great advantage over less-experienced opponents. They would be co-ordinated with each other in

11340-442: Was not immediately challenged. He managed to build up a force of 24,000 regulars and was joined by a force of 18,000 Saxons of questionable quality under von Arnim. Battle was first joined in major form when Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly turned his undefeated 31,000-man veteran army to do battle, meeting Gustav at the Battle of Breitenfeld in 1631. Battle opened in traditional fashion, with Tilly's cavalry moving forward to attack

11448-437: Was soon driven from the field, his forces in disarray. Follow-up battles had similar outcomes, and Tilly was eventually mortally wounded during one of these. By the end of 1632 Gustav controlled much of Germany. His successes were short-lived however, as the opposing Imperial forces quickly adopted similar tactics. From this point on pike and shot formations gradually spread out into ever-wider rectangles to maximize firepower of

11556-404: 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. As with the Reisläufer , a regiment (a typical Landsknecht regiment consisted of 4,000 men) of Landsknechte was raised by

11664-612: Was usually forbidden by his Bestallungsbrief from having more than one woman in the baggage train. The Tross was overseen by a "whore's sergeant" ( Hurenweibel ). Pike and shot Pike and shot was a historical infantry tactical formation that first appeared during the late 15th and early 16th centuries, and was used until the development of the bayonet in the late 17th century. This type of formation combined soldiers armed with pikes and soldiers armed with arquebuses and/or muskets . Other weapons such as swords, halberds, and crossbows were also sometimes used. The formation

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