More from “Mobility: Voluntary or Enforced? Vagrants in Württemberg in the Sixteenth Century”

[hsifeng]

“Mobility: Voluntary or Enforced? Vagrants in Württemberg in the Sixteenth Century” by Robert W. Scribner. from Migration in der Feudalgesllschaft, Gerhard Jaritz, Alber Müller (H.G). Page 65, published 1988, Campus Verlag, Frankfurt/New York. ISBN: 3-593-33883-1

Page 69:

“Of all the identifiable types of vagrants, wandering soldiers seeking employment as mercenaries, the ‘Landsknecht’ or ‘Gartknecht’, made up by far the largest single group. Throughout the sixteenth century, they were held to be one of the greatest threats to law and order, even where they travelled singly, usually with their ‘Kebs’, or concubine. Like Veit Brunner, they often carried firearms and could be obstreperous, even without provocation. Most frequently they travelled in groups, such as the band of 15 persons who halted at an inn in Denkendorf in the district of Stuttgart in 1531: seven men and eight women, four of them married couples, and from places as scattered as Munich, Nuremberg, Augsburg, Ulm, Pforzheim and four other places which are no longer traceable, possibly villages outside Württemberg. This group claimed that they were travelling to seek service under the Emperor, but they fell into a brawl with some carriers in the inn. Local farmers tried to intervene to keep the peace, and became involved in the fighting. One of the farmers was felled, another was wounded; and one of the ‘Landsknecht’ threatened to harm the village in revenge. This was common behavior as it appears in the criminal records – they quarreled, brawled, disputed the bill, threatened farmers and innkeepers, and were not averse to a bit of extortion, even forming into robber bands engaged in ‘Plackerei’ or highway robbery.”

OK. So ‘Kebs’ is a new term for me. As someone who attempts to avoid the term Kampfrau, I am always collecting other phrases to describe the women of the baggage train. The news that Landsknecht “often” carried firearms is sort of off-putting. I have always been under the impression that guns were still pretty pricey in the early period (where the Veit Brunner example comes from), so were these men just walking away with the contents of the local armory after a campaign? It seems unlikely. Maybe the guns were plunder? Hum…

It is also interesting to note that the group of 15 people mentioned in this passage came from such a diverse number of places. I have been under the impression that most ‘groups’ of Landsknecht would have been from a similar geographical location; both for social reasons, and because I had heard that travelling singly was dangerous enough that even soldiers didn’t do it willingly. Add to that the idea that most peasants didn’t like soldiers and it seems like you are looking for death long the roadside if you take off on your own to find a Fahnlein to join. Would it be possible that this group were picked up along a muster route?

Mama, don’t let your babies grow up to be Landsknecht… No, really – there’s a song for that. 

Further along…

“From the end of the fifteenth century Swabia became the most common recruiting ground for mercenaries, and from that time on there were repeated attempts to regulate the trade.”

And further still…

“The usual period of absence on military service seems to have been no more than a year, for those charged were usually apprehended after returning home at the end of the campaigning season.”

And then…

“The most common employer was the King of France, followed by the Emperor. Occasionally employment was taken under German princes recruiting for local campaigns, such as the Landgrave of Hesse or Margrave Albrecht of Brandenburg. Thus Italy, the Low Countries and Central Germany were the main theatres of activity.”

The article goes on to state that most of the folks arrested for this offence were not thereafter arrested again for the same issue. Perhaps evidence that not many people partook of multiple campaigns?