This appears to have been of startling colour and originality from the first. When other troops complained to Maximilian about the Lansknecht’s ’costly dressing-up’, ’Give them a little happiness and pride in their lives, which are so full of danger’, he replied, and an Order of the Imperial Diet guaranteed the Lansknechts freedom in this matter! This, pius the fact that there was no official
Officer in ‘pluderhosen’.
Right Early 16th showing colours.
Century Lansknechts
A-c Three flags in the red and white Haps-burg colours, ‘a’ and 'c' are infantry flags of Charles Vs time, ‘b’ is from an artillery wagon of Maximilian I’s. d At Pavia, 1525. Another version shows three black (?) stripes on lower part of flag, e Also at Pavia. Black and white checks, red cross of Burgundy on white ground, f Pavia. Yeiiow cross on red. Stripes from top to bottom black, yellow, blue (?) and white (?). g Infantry flag of Charles Vs time. Top yeiiow on blue, bottom white on yellow, h Imperial flag captured at Lutzen, 1632. Red cross raguly of Burgundy, other colours unknown. The cross of Burgundy was probably the most common symbol on Imperialist flags, i Standard of Imperial Cuirassier Regiment, 1631. (Fringes were usual on 17th Century cavalry standards.) j Standard of Tilly's Guard Regiment at Breitenfeld, 1631. k Standard from Tiiiy's army. The motto around the centre reads 'In Nomine Jesu omne Electatur Coelestium Terrestrium et Infernorum'. I Imperial infantry flag, early 30 Years' War. The background under the design would be the usual elaborate pattern brocade —presumably in only one colour, m 'Fortune' as she appears on flags of this period, normally sailing over the sea with the aid of this banner-like sail! n Flag, probably of the Black Band, at Pavia. White cross, red or blue (?) and black, o Imperial eagle flag, black on yellow, 1525. Eagle is usually crowned, but not in this example, p Colour of the Colonel's Company of Werner von Tilly's Regiment, 1633. Blue. Christ child, Mary, child of St John, lamb, meadow and trees in natural colours, Mary wearing red and gold. Halos and motto gold. Motto on reverse reads: 'DOMINA. SANCTA. MARIA. SALUM. FAC . IMPERATOREM. NOSTRUM. ET. AUDI. NOS. IN. DIE. QUA. INVOCAVERIMUS. TE. Blue edge, then outer border of blue lozenges on white (showing Bavarian origin), inner border of black and yellow triangles (for the Palatinate). Size 259 x 283 cm. Typical of Catholic 17th Century practice of having the Virgin Mary on the Coi-onel's colours, and also of the Austro-German tendency towards elaborate geometrical borders, q Croat cavalry standard. Petrositz Regiment, 1634. Note characteristic shape and Imperial monogram.
M
Lansknecht armour, probably an officer's, circa 1550 (Tower of London).
Far right German % armour ‘biack and white', circa 1550. Reiter-type — gives an idea of the appearance of later Reiters, who would have worn similar armour with morion, burgonet or other open helmet (Tower of London).
Imperial Cuirassiers — 25 mm scale Miniature Figurines’ ECW figures.
Armoured Lansknecht officer (after Holbein) and Lansknechts of the first half of the 16th Century.
Issue of clothing, ensured that there was no uniformity whatever.
Contemporary prints such as those of Durer give a good idea of the variety of possible types. One small concession to uniformity was that Lansknechts serving the Empire had to wear a red sash over armour, or a red cross (X) on the front and back of doublets.
Their costume was simplest at the start of the period, with tight sleeves, hose and breeches, and relatively little of the slashing
Of the outer garments, revealing contrasting colours beneath, so characteristic of the Lansknechts: stripes and parti-coloured garmets were already used.
The Rose figures illustrated give an idea of the dress around the 1520s or ’30s, when it also became the fashion to have each leg differently clad — one often bare—while the prints show the baggy ‘pluderhosen’ characteristic of Lansknechts of the later 16th Century. Headgear was usually heavily plumed and sometimes tied on with a ribbon in the manner associated with Edwardian ladies! Helmets were usually sallets or pot-type in the early part of the period, open faced burgonets with peak and neck cover towards its end.
Armour seems to have been fairly rare at first (Lambert Simnel had some unarmoured Lansknecht pikemen who got badly shot up by the longbow at Stoke in 1487), but more widespread later. Mail capes and shirts were favoured but wealthier individuals could wear plate corselets, with or without laminated ‘skirt’ or fauld.
The appearance of the Lansknechts was followed by many other soldiers throughout Europe in the mid-16th Century, so that Lansknecht figures need not necessarily represent Germans, but the most extreme and grotesque styles were usually found among the latter.
World History
