"Late XVI German Armies" Topic

While looking at topics about the last landsknechts here on tmp, I found out that the Augsburg Reichstag of 1555 ordered the creation of standing armies in the german counties. Does Anyone know how were those organized? Also, did the big states like Bavaria, Saxony or the Palatinate had standing armies by that time? If so, would they be any different from the other german states armies?

Ok, to make the question clearer, my main question is: What kind of troop types existed in germany besides Landsknechts, Reiters and Heavy Cavalry? I've heard that not all the infantry on XVI German Armies were Landsknechts, but If so, what were those different kinds of infantry (I can imagine some would be city militias, but the only print I've seen of german city militias on the XVI Century shows them dressed just like landsknechts)?

The "Reiters" were actually made up of several diffrent types of cavalry. Early on (1540's) they were actually a mix of fully armoured lancers, less well equipped demi-lancers and finaly the mounted aquebusiers armed with arquebus & pistol.

By the last quarter of the 16th Century the "Reiters" were recruited in one of two types. First the "Schützenpferd"/"Archibusier zu Ross" who were armed with a wheellock arquebus and one or two pistols. Second the "Reiter" who were only armed with two pistols (sometimes which 1 in 5 or 1 in 6 troopers carrying an arquebus as well) Both types wore the same armour, the trabharnisch

City militas would not be dressed like landsknechts, the burghers wore much more somber dress. An image showing city milita just as flamboyantly dressed as any landsknecht is a case of the troops being landsknechts who have been mislabled. Take a look at this painting of a 1561 event in the rich city of Nürnberg
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Compare the drummers & pfifers wearing Landsknecht style clothing
With the dress worn by the rest of the townspeople
(Edit, seems like TMP makes it impossible to link directly to the images at wikipedia commons as the it insists on trying to turn it into a picture rather than a link)

The countryside also supplied several diffrent types of troops. In most states the nobility had to provide mounted troops and in some states such as the Duchy of Styria (Steiermark) they had to provide infantry in times of war as well. Recruited from the local population those men formed a sort of select milita of 2000 to 2500 arquebusiers who in time of war was equipped from the stores of arms and armour held in the state armoury in Graz. Additional levies could be raised from the peasant & yeomen by calling out one man in five, six or ten for service. Such levies were less well quipped than those paid for by the nobility and in Styria were often equipped as simple halberdiers rather than as arquebusiers.

In Tyrol the involvement of the comman man in the defence of his state was even more extensive with a select milita in the form of the Aufgebot and obligations for every man between 18 and 60 to serve in the landsturm if Tyrol was invaded. Again a extensive state armoury (in Innsbruck) helped to insure that the men were properly equipped for war.

Along the Habsburg-Ottoman border you would find more esoteric troops as well as the Habsburgs raised armoured hussar cavalry and harami infantry as part of the troops defending the military border in Croatia and Slavonia
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In their struggle with the Ottomans the Habsburgs also used various foreign troops such as Walloons, Frenchmen, Italians and Spaniards. in particular the "Long" war of 1593-1606 saw the Habsburg recruit a lot of out of work veterans who had previously fought in the French wars of Religion or in the war in the Netherlands.

Town militias often wore the colours of their city- in mid 16th century Nuremburg, coats issued to their arquebusiers were half red and half white. As Daniel mentioned they would not dress at all like Landsknechts.

It was the era of the state militias- by the early 17th C. they would be common in many states, especially in the richer Rhenish principalities.

There still existed a Landsknecht culture in the 2nd part of the 16th century, although the independent character of the landsknecht soldier gradually disappeared as they became more and more treated as normal mercenaries, subjugated to the same rules as all other mecenaries.

In the 1550's and 1560's the pluderhosen characterized them still as extraordinary soldiers, but gradually their appearance equals that of all other soldiers, untill one can't tell the difference anymore. On engravings of military actions during the 1580's one can ahrdly tell the difference between troops of different nations. This might indicate that for an observer the difference had almost disappeared.

For garrison troops, town soldiers etc, the appearance has throughout the 16th century been a more common one: civic clothing with of course military armour etc.

Town-soldiers may have worn a kind of livery and in Germany are often depicted with such. However they not often fought as outside their home-town, surely not in the service of others. This is I guess comparable with the famous civic-guards in the Dutch and Flemish towns during the 14th-17th centuries.

Le Duc.

Thank you people! About the City Militias, would those be only arquebusiers and possibly pikemen, or would there be any "exotic" troops Halberdiers and Targeteers? Also, would the rich towns have raised any kind of militia cavalry from it's nobles?
Also, was heavy cavalry (lancers or demi-lancers, or possibly proto-cuirassiers) still used by the end of the century?
Thank you very much for your help.

The weaponry would vary depending upon time and place, however firearms became increasingly favoured in the 2nd half of the 16th century. Rich towns could both in theory and practice field a well equipped select milita, the 'Auszug', which was armed and equipped to fight in the field with a up to date selection of infantry weapons.
This painting shows the Augsburg Auszug in the mid-16th C.

Halberdiers were hardly exotic, it was a common weapon and often favoured over the pike which was cumbersome and required more strenght and training. Often town armouries would store additional polearms such as halberds and morgenstern so that the shot did not have to rely on their swords alone if the town was assaulted.

Targeteers were extremly rare, next to non existent in Germany.

The lance had been abandoned by 1570 when the Imperial regulations speak only of firearms. Some men did fight fully armoured in a "feldkürass" but this expensive type of armour was limited to some nobles, officers and some bodyguards for the above. The lighter "trabharnisch" was the favoured armour of the professional cavalryman.
In the 1590's Cuirassiers were introduced, first in the shape of Walloon and French cuirassiers recruited from the wars in France. Then in the shape of German units of cuirassiers. But the Reiter style cavalry was the dominant German type until the early 17th Century. (When the trabharnisch was replaced with either full cuirassier armour or a lighter harquebusier armour in the style used by the Walloons and other 'western' mounted arquebusiers)

The last 40-50 years of the 16th Century were peacefull as far as most of the German states were concerned, there was little in the way of internal warfare after the Schmalkaldic war and the Margave war. After the end of the Habsburg-Valois wars the only frontier under threat was the eastern frontier which saw on and off warfare and raids with the Ottomans which sometimes boiled over into full scale war.

All of this meant that outside the Habsburg lands there was little effort and money invested into military matters. In many ways it was a period of slow decline and particularly the infantry lost much of it's skill and reputation. This only changed during the last decade of the century when the "Long" war with the Ottomans created a large number of highly experience veterans who either had previous experience from the wars in France and the Netherlands or learned new tricks of the trade from the soldiers who had served in those wars. Most of the senior commanders of the early 30YW had seen action in the Ottoman war. Tilly, Wallenstein and Mansfeld to name the most famous.

Thank you very much, Daniel! One last question, did the classical XVII Century Cuirassier originate in France? I always thought they were a german thing. Wikipedia (which is hardly a source, but still) even mentions some Austrian "kyrissers" being fielded in the 1480s.

German "Kurisser/kyrisser" of the 15th and early-mid 16th Century are not the same thing as the "Kürassiere" of the late-16th C. Not only is there a diffrence in spelling (though this is of minor importance) but the equipment was completely diffrent, the late 15th C/early 16th C version was a fully armoured man-at-arms, often mounted on an equaly armoured warhorse.

The pistol armed cuirassier originated in the French wars of reglion where the Huguenot Gendarmes increasingly fought with pistol rather than lance. But unlike the Germans they kept using complete armour (if they had it) rather than adopting a ligther style like the Trabharnisch.
The Huguenots were then copied by both friend and foe alike with Maurice of Nassau abolishing the lance completly in the Dutch army while the Catholic armies introduced cuirassiers but still retained lancers. The Habsburgs began to raise their own cuirassiers in imitation of the Walloons they hired but it is only after the end of the Ottoman war that the Cuirassier replaced the old Reiter style cavalry.

Thank you very much! This was really helpful!