"Musketeers of the lansknechts." Topic

Hello everyone ,

Which headgear wore the musketeers of the lansknechts (not their arquebusiers) at the end of the 16th century?

Helmets or hats and of what types?

Illustrations would be the goods come, thank you.

Try looking at his range, it has got quite a few Landsknecht variants.

link

What did arquebusiers wore?

The arquebusiers of the lansknechts are normally 'Morionnés'…

On the other hand for the 17th century it is often said that the musketeers wore a hat rather than a helmet …

So I wonder if for the musketeers of the sixteenth century it was the same thing and I can not find any lansknechts musketeers illustrations.
 

I am not aware of any different headgear for "musketeer" Landsknechts – though to be honest the typical Landknechts "dissolved" after 1570 up to 1590, and I am not aware that they ever produced subunits with dedicated musketeers.

As my main era of interest ends around 1550 this never caught my attention, though. Happy to learn anything on this, too.

From my understanding of the period, there would be very little regimented look, and the musketeers like the arquebusiers would turn up in what ever they wanted.

So I would expect the standard mix of morions, floppy hats, and whatever else you would expect an unarmoured lansknecht to wear.

For now I continue to search because in the "que sais-je ?" number 1016 entitled "Les guerres de religion" page 80 it is said that in the capitulations listed in 1589 by Henri de Béarn, the Landsknecht form enseignes of 300 men with 80 musketeers, 120 corselets (pikemen), 30 halberdiers, 10 players of swords with two-handed swords (espadons) and 70 arquebusiers.

At the same time, the Swiss form enseignes of 260 men with 30 musketeers,70 arquebusiers and 260 pikemen(Page of 466 of A history of The art of War in the Sixteenth Century by Sir Charles Oman).

So since they existed, there must have been period illustrations showing Landsknecht and Swiss musketeers during the Three Henri War.

That's what I can not find.

Good find!
While I agree that these records indicate they existed, sadly the "must exist" for illustrations is debatable. There are many units in that era that do not (or very rarely) show up in illustrations, some who are pretty prominent in written history. Eg, try to identify French, Italian or Spanish infantry of the 1510-1530 era… while they did much of the fighting, we just have lots of Landsknechts and Reisläufer.

I really hope there ARE depictions, though. If there are depictions of ANY musketeers during the French WOR we could assume (occams razor) that Landskechts or Swiss would look similar, or at least would deviate from their main bodies outlook in a similar way. I am just not deep enough into that era to know of any depiction of either Landsknecht or musketeers, so I will now step back to the sidelines of this quest. Make sure to post any finds, though!

They are dressed like their respective arquebusiers, but their headgear (to distinguish oneself of the arquebusiers) , their armament and the equipment that goes with it is different.

Why would their headgear be different when they are performing the same function?

Unlike the arquebusiers, the musketeers did not want helmets it's well known, it is due to the fact that they were more heavily encumbered by their weapons than the arquebusiers.