"Italian Wars: Ratio of Gendarmes to Infantry?" Topic

What was the general ratio of Gendarmes to infantry/light cavalry in the Italian Wars? I know the French must have had a much higher proportion than other nations, and I think the some states such as the Venetians had almost none at all, but was was the general rule? The reason why I ask is that most DBA armies depicting the Italian Wars combatants show 2-4 bases of gendarmes, with three per base. After looking at some sources (like the various Ospreys or F. L. Taylor's book) I'm starting to question these proportions as vastly exaggerated.

I think it depends upon when you look -- most Italian renaissance armies had a lot of men-at-arms. Venice certainly had a good number in the early battles, and they maintained traditional men-at-arms into the 17th century (this was the source of a lot of debates in Venice, as many wanted to convert them to reiter style pistol armed cavalry).

In general there does seem to have been a pretty rapid change to light (or medium) cavalry in the early 1500s as Arfaioli's thesis makes clear for Medici's Black Bands in the 1520s.

I'll try to check some of my sources if I get the chance.

You also have to remember that the bases in DBA do not necessarily have a fixed troop representation. For example a base of Kn may be representing fewer real life men than a base of infantry. And that Kn base may also include lesser armed and armoured horsemen in rear ranks. You just represent the base with 3 gorgeously outfitted gendarmes on caparisoned horses because it looks good.

Cheers,
JohnG

Yea, it depends upon the armies and periods.

Supposedly, the French and Milanese had some of the heaviest gendarmes heavy armies.

GARS1900 -- I took a look at The Military Organization of a Renaissance State, about Venice, by Mallet and Hale.

There's a chart towards the back showing the relative proportion of forces during the war of 1509-1530 on the Venetian Terraferma.

In 1509, out of a force of about 29,000:
~4300 were men-at-arms*
~4000 were light/missile armed cavalry,

The remainder was infantry (it should be kept in mind that Venice had a pretty good militia system at that time).

The size of the army decreased after that, but rose again so that in 1529, it was about 30,000 men:

a little less than 1000 were men-at-arms*
around maybe 2500 were missile armed cavalry, and the rest infantry.

It's bar chart, so I'm kind of guessing at these values. The numbers vary a lot, and the total size of the army varied considerably. These two dates essentially book end the chart, and also represent when the army was very large.

*The Venetians changed the structure of their lance in 1519. Prior to that it consisted of three fighting men, and a servant. Afterwards it was reduced to just two fighting men and a servant. The chart assumes that prior to 1519 each lance had two "men-at-arms" and afterwards only one. So the number of lances fielded in 1529 was about half the number fielded in 1509.

There are nearly always many more than you might imagine. At Marignano 1515 the French fielded 10,000 cavalry in an army of 30,000: 2500 lances of the compagnies d'ordonnance and 1500 light horse.

Basically, when you are collecting, keep buying and you can't go far wrong. Unfortunately, it means that it gets expensive but to do the period justice you have to 'bite the bullet'.

I had just enough cavalry for demo of Marignano…..

……………but that is because only the French fielded cavalry in any numbers – I fielded a little over 250 cavalry to do it at figure scale of about 1:40. At this scale I'm still well short of enough to do, say, Ravenna 1512.