Town militias

Though their principal military responsibility was the defence of their own towns and the maintenance of their walls, in cases of particular danger town militiamen could be found serving outside of their home towns, though rarely further than a half-day’s distance from them. However, by the late-13th century it had become fairly commonplace to find at least some mercenaries being hired to serve in place of militiamen, a trend which continued throughout this period. Nevertheless, it was a slow process; initially only the defence of the most exposed towers and the suburbs beyond the town walls was allocated to hired professionals, but in due course they took responsibility for the inner defences too and often even provided captains for the town militia. Du Boulay points out that one occasional complication resulting from the hiring of mercenary captains was that they might turn out to be related to those hired by the town’s enemies, in which circumstances the campaign was ‘rarely pursued to a conclusion’, seemingly a rare enough occurrence an)rway through lack of money, determination and military competence on the part of the inexperienced local knights who tended to be hired. More professional bodies of mercenary troops, with uniforms or badges to distinguish them, were also available, but these tended to function independently, in much the same rapacious capacity as the Free Companies that roamed France throughout the Hundred Years’ War.

Organisation was usually based on the division of the town into Vierteln (quarters) based on its principal gates. Each quarter was commanded by a Viertelmeister appointed by the town council, who was assisted by other officers plus trumpeters and tower guards. The mayor himself usually doubled as commander of the militia, though towards the end of this period professional soldiers were often employed in this capacity instead, largely as a result of the growth in importance of artillery. The municipal authorities were often responsible for the militia’s arms and equipment, which, coupled with the added expense of hiring mercenaries, resulted in many militia forces being proportionately small. The largest force fielded by Vienna,

For instance, numbered just 300 cavalry and 5,184 infantry (this was in 1458). Strassburg and Aachen, on the other hand, fielded about 20,000 men and 19,826 men in 1392 and 1387 respectively.

Many towns boasted their own firing ranges and drill squares, and some attempt was made at training even in peacetime. In addition, in the late-14th century some towns began to maintain their own artillery, which became the responsibility of a paid officer called a Biichsenmeister or Geschihzmeister (who received an additional year’s pay if he was successful in repulsing an enemy assault).