European, especially German mercenaries in the 15th and 8th centuries. Episode 01.

 Mercenary's Icheon History 6 - The Appearance of Lanzknecht, God's grace to Maximilian I and the great and brave emperor Maximilian of the South German mercenary unit! Under His Majesty, a group of knights appeared and traveled to several countries to the flute and north, so this is Lanzknechtra. It is a verse from Rit (Song) sung by Eluk Grapp, who said he was in the German mercenary (Lanzknecht) unit. As this Rit points out, the Lanzknecht unit is very related to the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, who Habsburg is the founder of revival and is called the "last knight of the Middle Ages." The emperor may not be the founder of the Lanzknecht unit, but he must be a powerful fosterer. From the end of the 15th century to the 16th century to the 17th century, the Lanzknecht unit, a very unusual military organization in military history that has terrorized people, as well as European battlefields and South America, marks its beginning in the Burgundy War. Before the Burgundy War, Charles Bold sent an official to occupy the Habsburg hereditary site in the Alsace region and incorporate it into the Burgundy Republic. This official, named Hagen-Baha von Peta, had an unforgivable power politics and was later executed in a peasant rebellion, but he was a man ahead in military knowledge. He already thought that the era was an era of infantry, but the Swiss mercenaries were on the side of the enemy in the Burgundy War, so he splashed a lot of money on Alsace and southern Germany to raise a lot of infantry and gave them a Swiss-style spear. Of course, the sudden Jangchang unit did not work very well and could not prevent the peasant rebellion, but the unit created at this time became the predecessor of the Ranzknecht unit. After the Burgundy War, the Netherlands along with the Burgundy region also tried to include France as its own territory. However, Maximilian I decided on the Battle of France to stop it, which was the Battle of Guinea in 1479. The problem was that there was no army under Maximilian I, then king of Rome. The Roman king was the successor of the Holy Roman Emperor, but each of the German emperors, his subjects, pretended not to know, and his father Friedrich III was also distracted by the war against Hungary at the time. Thus, Maximilian I collected a large number of German mercenaries from southern Germany along with Swiss mercenaries. And by adopting the Infantry Dust Protection Act, the Netherlands won over France and fell into the hands of the Habsburg family. In addition, Maximilian I later made the southern German mercenary unit the center of his army. Lanzknecht's hometown. Anyway, why is it in southern Germany? Even within the Holy Roman Empire, southern Germany was a cluster of minor disciples without a strong emperor except for the Bavarian Empire. These weak kingdoms had to be wary of both sides as the Bavarian Republic and the emperor were located between Austria, the home of Habsburg. In addition, church orders were scattered here and there in this area, and starting with Augsburg, cities under the direct control of the empire were spreading their power. In the end, each weak empire will form a military alliance called the Schwaben Alliance against the Bavarian Empire, but as the Bavarian Empire joined the alliance, most of the empires will be subordinated to Habsburg or the Bavarian Empire. In addition, southern Germany had better land than the north, so the men's uniform inheritance system was traditionally adopted. Therefore, the farmland was gradually subdivided and full of small farmers, and there was no more land to distribute, and the children of the second son or younger of the farmhouse became refugees to the city and were forced to flow. Each empire to control them also had no strong public power, so there was no way to prevent farmers from fleeing or fleeing. At that time, society was a settlement-type rural society where most of the people had never gone out to a place where the spire of the village church was invisible. However, here in southern Germany was a region with a large number of wanderers and homeless people who escaped from such society. And they responded to the recruitment of mercenaries with hope for the future. It is in the distant future that they feel that the place where they went is only an endless hell, and these mercenaries from southern Germany are called Lanzknecht. The difference with Swiss mercenary units is Landsknecht, written in German as Landsknecht, Land means country, land, and country, and Kneckt can be interpreted as a soldier. There are many theories about the etymology of Lanzknecht. First of all, there is a theory that Lands is from Lanzen, the cavalry's window, but Lanzknecht uses infantry intestines as a weapon like Swiss mercenaries. Next, what about the meaning of "a soldier from flat land" rather than a mountainous loan like Swiss mercenaries? However, in Lanzknecht, there were also many soldiers from Algo region (currently mountainous areas on the border between Germany and Austria) and Tyrol. It's even more strange to be a "military from the countryside (land)", not a city. From the beginning, city-born soldiers played an important role in the Lanzknecht unit. It actually becomes a completely separate concept from Lanzknecht to be called a "military of national (land) defense." In fact, they are mercenaries who are not very related to national defense. As such, the etymology of Lanzknecht is not clear. However, even at that time, the difference between the Lanzknecht unit and the Swiss mercenary unit was clearly emphasized. The members of the Lanzknecht unit themselves boasted such a difference. This is because such behavior led to the establishment of their identity. The inevitable thing was the beginning of Lanzknecht, which eventually began by imitating Swiss mercenaries. However, in the near future, the Lanzknecht unit, which had always followed the Swiss mercenary unit and was extremely afraid of falling off the battlefield, will suddenly stand shoulder to shoulder with the Swiss mercenary unit and emerge as a strong competitor. According to historical records around 1486, it is propagated that if you enter the unit while recruiting members of the Lanzknecht unit, you will simply deal with two Swiss soldiers alone. It can be seen that the Lanzknecht unit, believed to have been around the beginning of the Burgundy War, has formed a rival relationship with the Swiss mercenary unit after decades. Since then, the two mercenaries have competed by burning hostility, and where is the difference between Lanzknecht and the Swiss mercenaries, who have grown up following Swiss mercenaries' customs, armament, and tactics? The general assessment is that "freedom" is a much more romantic color than Swiss mercenary units in either outfit or weapon." First of all, the outfit was strange. At the end of the Middle Ages, when the trend of the times shifted from a small number of knights to a large number of infantry, the monarch's monopoly is still a story of the distant future, and the monarch who does not have money to operate the standing army will use mercenaries if necessary. Naturally, there could be no employer who dressed such mercenaries in the same uniform, and the mercenaries' costumes were arbitrary. And those who have some money wear really colorful clothes. Most of the people who entered the Lanzknecht unit were those who came in from their hometowns with their backs on the society they lived in because it was difficult to make ends meet or settle down. And most of them thought they had "freedom" by leaving the village and city where they lived, and expressed such freedom in various costumes. It was a leather "front cover" that showed off the namgeun, a hat with a huge feather decoration, and so on it. I didn't care if these costumes were uncomfortable with movement in real battle. Lanzknecht's freedom in costume stems from its organizational form. Swiss mercenary units, even if they were mercenaries, were actually state-managed mercenaries. On the other hand, the Lanzknecht unit was a private enterprise. Recruiters were in the form of collecting soldiers by spraying money, and the mercenary captain who collected them was a war entrepreneur. When Lanzknecht's recruitment of Holy Roman Emperor, German Emperor, Imperial City, King of France, King of Spain, King of England, Pope of Rome, and each city state of Italy decides to war, several mercenaries are granted a certificate of recruitment. This recruit patent was also a mercenary contract between the Supreme Commander and the mercenary ledger and a letter of appointment for the mercenary ledger. For example, look at a contract signed by the imperial city of Augsburg with a mercenary captain named Bulkhalt von Mth. Securing about 6,000 soldiers in 12 battalions of 1 regiment. Preparation of military service regulations. Employment period is about 3 months. Date and place of fever determination. The monthly salary of the regiment commander is 20 Goulden. Each company has one company commander. The company commander's salary is 12 Gulden. The rider is 10 gulden. The soldier's salary is 4 Gulden. The guards of the regiment commander were 8 Goulden. The target period for monthly salary is 28 days. The down payment paid at the time of recruitment is accompanied by detailed provisions such as 40 croissants per person. For reference, four Gulden per month was a very attractive amount for those who had difficulty making ends meet because it was the head-level punishment among their acquaintances. Furthermore, the fact that the target period for salary is 28 days is generally more attractive than that it is 30 days. In any case, a contract is signed between Regiment General Ms and Mayor Augsburg, and the contract is signed. Then, the certificate of recruitment becomes an official letter of appointment. Emce collects his usual subordinates and orders some of them to recruit him. The person in charge of the recruitment travels around the city or village and gathers people through the flute or drum. "Guys, let's abandon the ordinary life of a small citizen and join the Rantzknecht unit soon." The soldiers who abandoned the village become warriors of freedom," and shakes cash. People rush to the clerk to name their place of origin and receive a down payment from the accounting officer. They are so excited about this that they do not realize that there is "Jangchang Price 2 Goulden" behind their names on the recruitment list. They will be excluded from the initial salary of the two Goulden, which is the price of intestines paid in the fever zone. Even if they find out later, it's already late, and the moment they hold the down payment, they sold their bodies to the Lanzknecht unit. Behind these descriptions is fever. An inn and a bar are waiting for them on the road to Yeolbyeongji. Since there were endless rip-off inns and bars, the authorities were always paying attention to providing meals at reasonable prices. Of course, there were many opportunities to run away with only the down payment in hand on the way to this fever.

However, it is said that the number was surprisingly small. In short, it can be said that it is Lanzknecht's moral duty to say that those who put their names on the recruitment list must appear in the fever zone.