Landsknecht Pike Block – Italian Wars

A forest of pikes and a sea of lace.

Following the lead of last weeks post, I return yet again to the time of lace-clad Renaissance warriors with a second row of landsknechts, completing my first pike block. Each Landsknecht pike block for my Italian Wars collection will be winged with a set of 3-base arquebus units, building on the Spanish firepower heritage of the imperial army at the time of Charles V. 

The second row.

Any willing Doppelsoldners? Come on now...

In order to familiarize with the subject standing on my painting table, I set out to investigate the origins of the Landsknechts. The word Landsknecht perhaps unsurprisingly originates from German, and can be translated roughly into knight or servant of the land. The term landsknecht is first used in the late 15th century to describe the elite mercenary infantry tradition developing at the time. They were initially an imitation of the Swiss in terms of tactics, but the later influence of the Spanish military innovations, would prove vital in establishing the landsknecht’s edge over their much feared mountain-men adversaries.

Second line, shot from the back.
The hardly visible 40*120mm plexiglass tray is from Oshiro Modelterrian.

The Landsknechts were chiefly drafted from the regions of Swabia (Southwest Germany), Alsace, Flanders and the Rhineland, but the phenomenon became a key part of European military culture and thus many more nationalities were represented in their ranks.

The father of the fatherless. 

Georg Von Frundberg.

The great iconic leader of the Habsburg landsknecht was Georg Von Frundsberg (1473 – 1528). He came from a South-German family of long knightly heritage serving under the Holy Roman Emperors. With a stern character true to the codes of his noble birth, he would become the all-embracing father of these “fatherless” mercenary children. 

A view of the complete pike block from the back.

Again it's set in a tray from Oshiro, but now in a 80*120mm frame.

Von Frundsberg would serve under both Maximilian I and Charles V in their wars on the Swiss and later the French. A true father to his flock, Von Frundsberg would on occasions, and without request from the Emperor, sell off personal belongings such as silverware and even his wife’s jewellery to create money to pay his devoted landsknechts.

The innovative Spanish Tercio would enjoy more than a century of battlefield dominance,
eventually outdating in the middle of the 17th Century.

The initial weapons and tactics were, as previously mentioned derived from the aggressive Swiss use of massed pike. However the Landsknechts would refine it and make it their own. The Imperial army’s quick tactical adaption to the late Renaissance influence of more efficient firepower from artillery and the arquebus, would put them at a distinctive advantage. One that even the gallant metal plated French Gendarmes or stern Swiss pikes forests couldn’t break. This would signal a shift in military paradigm; the time of the Tercios had come.

Thank you very much for reading!