Landsknecht Mercenaries

1645

Each and every officer, captain of horse, or other captain, knows well that no doctors, magistrates, or any other God fearing people follow in his train, but only a heap of ill-disposed lads, who leave wives and children, abandon their duties, and follow the army; all that will not follow the pursuits of their fathers and mothers must follow the calf-skin which is spread over the drum, till they come to a battle or assault, where thousands be on the field of battle, shot or cut to pieces; for a Landsknecht’s life hangs by a hair, and his soul flutters on his cap or his sleeve.

Soldiers must be hardy and enduring people, like unto steel and iron, and like the wild beasts that can eat all kinds of food. The Landsknecht must be able to digest the points of their wheel nails; nothing must come amiss to them, even if necessity required that they should eat dogs’ or cats’ flesh; and the flesh of horses from the meadow must be like good venison to them, with herbs unseasoned by salt or butter. A Landsknecht must make three campaigns before he can become an honourable man. After the first campaign, he must return home wearing torn clothes; after the second, he should return with a scar on one cheek, and be able to tell much of alarms, battles, skirmishes, and storming parties, and to show by his scars that he has got the marks of a Landsknecht; after the third, he should return well appointed, on a fine charger, bringing with him a purse full of gold, so that he may be able to distribute whole dollars as he would booty pence.

A Landsknecht has neither house nor farm, cows nor calves, and no one to bring him food; therefore, he must procure it himself wherever it is to be found, and buy without money whether the peasants look sweet or sour. Sometimes they must suffer hunger and evil days, at others they have abundance, and indeed such superfluity, that they might clean their shoes with wine or beer. When the householder is driven away with his wife and children, the fowls, geese, fat cows, oxen, pigs, and sheep have a bad time of it. The money is portioned out in their caps, velvet and silk stuffs and cloth are measured out by long spears; a cow is slaughtered for the sake of the hide; chests and trunks are broken open, and when all has been plundered and nothing more remains, the house is set on fire.