"Military Organization of the Bohemian Lands" Topic

Does anyone knows any good book, or hás any information, about the military Organization of late XV and XVI century bohemian lands (After the Hussites and before the TYW)? It seems that the Bohemian States enjoyed a great autonomy in regards to the Imperial affairs, and I couldn't find any mentions of Landsknechts being recruited on those lands. Anyone can shed a light on the subject?

Any clues or book suggestions?

If you can read German there is interesting article from Historisches Lexicon Bayerns: link . The German historian Uwe Tresp mentioned in this article is a late medieval expert, especially Bohemian mercenaries. His book "Das böhmische Söldnerwesen im ausgehenden Mittelalter" could give you maybe enough information on this subject. Unfortunately only in German.

Thank you, Annatar! The article is very interesting. About this book by Uwe Tresp, does it cover the Bohemian Soldiers under Charles V and King Ferdinand? I'm specially interested in the Organization of the Bohemian Military under them.

No, the book covers the period after the Hussite Wars till the defeat of an army of Bohemian mercenaries in the battle of Wenzenbach (1504) in the Landshut War of Succession. This defeat, and the facts that they where more expensive to hire then Landsknechts and used obsolete tactics heralded the end of the Bohemian mercenaries being. Although Bohemian mercenaries were used after the Landshut War of Succession on European theaters of war such as the Venetian Wars (1508-1516), they now lost their importance. This is the link to the digital version of the book: link

Thank you very much, Annatar! About the bohemians of the XVI century, didn't they provide soldiers to the Habsburgs during the italian wars/schkmalkaldik war/long turkish wars? And were landsknechts recruited in the bohemian lands?

Guys, any clues? I'm having a hard time finding info about the subject D:

Don,

Have you thought of addressing your queries to the Austrian Army Museum in Vienna and the corresponding Czech one in Prague? I have always found major museums extremely helpful in finding material for interested amateurs like myself. The Bundeswehr museum in Dresden has been particularly kind to me, but I think they are less likely to have material useful to you than the two mentioned above.

Mollinary

I think it is very doubtful that Bohemia provided any troops to the Hapsburg's in any formal manner. No doubt individuals would join up but I doubt there would be 'units'.

In the period 1526 – 1618 the Czech's are basically trying to block Hapsburg attempts to gain full control of Bohemia and to defend Protestantism.

The army is involved in the campaigning in Hungary at the Italian wars of the 1520's so I suspect they were not involved in Italy.

I have no information from then until 1546-47. As far as I can tell from Czech material the Bohemian army at this time, could not be taken out of Bohemia as part of the Hapsburg take over deal. At that time the Bohemian army was used a little and to a limited extent, it wouldn't leave Bohemia, but even this provoked a revolt against the Hapsburgs. It is difficult to tell what the troops are but the army seem to be 'noble contingents' and 'militia'.

Here is something in Czech on this – link

In any case the revolt was short lived and basically dissolved as the situation in Germany was resolved. It does seem to have been the last attempt before the period immediately before circa 1618 to formally integrate the Bohemian lands into the empire and we know how that attempt end – another revolt.

So as far as I can see in the period 1526 – 1618 Bohemian forces were a separate organisation and not allowed to leave the homeland. I don't imagine they were very large or up to date. Any attempt to raise units for the Hapsburgs or use the existing army in a Hapsburg army was likely to provoke a revolt. Therefore it is most likely that there was no formal Czech involvement with the Hapsburg forces during this time.

Thank you very much, karamustafapasha! Do you have any idea of how were the Bohemian Militia organized?

Also, to anyone also interested, there are some engravings of "biblical" soldiers in contemporary XVI Century costumes on the various editions of the Prague Passover Haggadah:
link

Unfortunately the notion that the Habsburgs would be unable to raise troops in Bohemia and that any such attempt would be met with a revolt during the 1526 to 1618 period is not supported by the historical facts.

Bohemia & Moravia did indeed see a revolt during the Schmalkaldic war they repeatedly supplied men and money to the Habsburg campaigns against the Ottomans both before and after than event. In 1529 the Moravian estates agreed to provide 3000 foot and 200 horse while Bohemia were to supply the Habsburg army with 1000 horse and 6000 foot. Bohemians and Morvians were also heavily involved in the "Long War" of 1593-1606 against the Ottomans which was one reason that they had so much leverage during the so called "Brothers Quarrel" between Rudolf and Matthias which followed the end of the "Long War".

Daniel, do you have any idea of how were the bohemian and moravian foot and horse organized before the Habsburg military regulations of 1570? (For exemple, during the 1529 campaign) All I could find about the bohemian military dealt only with their armies up to the battles against Maximiliam I, when the bohemians were still fighting with pavisses.

Sadly no, none of the fine details of the large number of troops raised in 1529 seem to have been recorded (or at lest they have not been published in any book I've read) and once you get to the "Long War" the units are raised according to the German pattern (with some variations).

Thank you, Daniel! To you, or anyone else who might be interested, I found this thesis ( PDF link ) which deals with the military organization of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia from the second half of the XVI century to the XVIIth. It's still not period I was looking for, but nevertheless, it's very interesting!