Schwabenkrieg

Having completed my block of early Landsknechts I was unable to resist getting a few more pictures of them over the Easter break. The brief Swabian or Swiss War which was fought by Maximilian I and the Swabian League against the Swiss Confederacy in 1499 has always been of interest to me as it pitched the Landsknechts and Reisläufer against each other and only furthered their already fierce professional emnity. The details of this conflict have always remained a bit of a mystery to me as there has been little written on it in English that I am aware of. Interestingly there is an episode of "Medieval Dead" which investigates the skulls found at Dornach and is worth a watch if you can track it down.

If you have read this blog before you will know I love to include some contemporary art if possible. I have included pictures of the Swabian War below as I think they capture some great details of how the cavalry and infantry of the Holy Roman Empire and Swiss Cantons looked at the turn on the century. I have been lucky enough to have seen the second image, the Schweizerkrieg, in the flesh, so to speak, in an exhibition in Vienna. The miniatures photographed below attempt to capture the style of the Habsburg troops of this conflict and show how Maximilians forces may have looked at the very start of the 16th Century. I have even tried to place buildings in the background that look suitably Germanic!

Battle of Dornach 1499,  note the Habsburg Men-at-Arms on the left

Detail from the Schweizerkrieg c.1500 depicting Men-at-Arms

Landsknechts and Swiss as depicted in the Schweizerkrieg c.1500

Habsburg cavalry and infantry c.1499

German Mounted Crossbowmen and Men-at-Arms c.1499

Habsburg Cavalry c.1499, I was trying to make the buildings in the background look suitably Düreresque!

Early 16th Century Mounted Crossbowmen

Early 16th Century Men-at-Arms

More Imperial Men-at-Arms

Men-at-Arms c.1499

Landsknechts c.1499

Early Landsknechts

Landsknechts from the Swabian War