Thank you for your dedication to presenting history in a concise, high quality and interesting manner while remaining true to the historical sources. Ridely Scott could learn a thing or two from you! Also this is by far the best channel that covers the pike and shot era, which is one of the most underrepresented and underrated periods in history.

the movie wasn't half bad though, was it? @@curranlakhani

Thanks dad

@clintmoor422 Yeah, if you like fictional period dramas and romcoms, then it's not a bad film. As a historical epic, it's frustratingly inaccurate. Who's idea was it to have Napoleon shooting cannonballs at the Pyramids? They forgot about the entire Italy campaign despite it being the reason Napoleon gained power and popularity so quickly. I liked the actress who played Josephine. As a film, it's not too bad if we pretend that it's an alternate timeline version of Napoleon.

I thought this looked familiar

*very hardy

Hire your army out as condottieri as Switzerland

youtube isnt real life go touch grass

@@2MaxVoltage nobody here is mad but you.

Lying not laying. Back to school you go.

Glad to hear it!

That’s pretty badass. If only my ancestors had left me a nice parcel of land in Europe as well

@@ashercroy4982 they still own it! It’s not far from the border of the Czech Republic it’s just a farming estate.

Has anyone published that journal? That would be invaluable to Landsknecht researchers

Janissaries

In English its Landsknechts

It's referenced in the damn video. Stop making comments before finishing the whole thing.

could be a mistake since Solder is not a word but Söldner is, which means mercenary. Ersatz translates to Reserve or Replacement in military jargon.

Well, I'll give you clues as to what he means by that, so you can investigate it (in case he never makes a video about it). Of the two cases, I am sure that with respect to his interventions in Africa, it refers to the campaigns that Emperor Charles V carried out against the Turks and Berber pirates, generally he always carried a component of mercenaries on those expeditions (among them the Landsknechts ) and I suppose that is what SandRhoman is referring to, for example in Algiers and Tunisia; In the second case, I am not entirely sure, but I understand that there were imperial German troops in Venezuela, trying to establish a colony with permission from Charles V, to help in the conquest, but in the end the expedition did not prosper and it ended up entirely under dominion. Spanish. I hope this helps you investigate this interesting topic.

very interested, the concept itself is so intriguing for warfare. like drugging WW2 soldiers to make them supersoldiers, or mongols using poor civilians as shields in sieges. if these tactics were used, they must've had some degree of effectiveness because there is nothing like war to determine what does and does not work

We do landsknecht reenactment, and we tried ourselves a forlorn hope tactic where we improvised, rammed the bidenhander next to a line of pike and just let us fall on it - the one falling was easily able to block/hinder 3-4 men, a gap which you can easily exploit. So, speaking about historical sources I do not know any, but in the case of experimental archelogy, I'd say they were surely sometimes effective!

On top of that Knights arent Just cavalry. They could and often did fight on Foot.

Not a historian, but I believe it was primarily to effectively be clothed in currency, as all pieces of colored cloth had universal value it could be both relatively easily exchanged whilst also signifying status and looking hella good.

@@Romahelten actually different coloured cloths had different prices, for example black would be expensive, while light green or brown or even red accents would be cheaper, so I don´t really know about that

If you looked rich while at war you were more likely to be captured and ransomed back rather than killed.

People had one pair so the more extravagant the better. Often additional flourishes were attached to indicate status or wealth thus the flamboyant appearance. So a siple shirt with a wavy colar artached. Or hat with top cut off and more fabric attached etc. Since it was all you had, you upgraded as you got more matterial(often but not necessarily). Its not like clothes of today that fall appart and tear easily the fabric was good and often expensive for average peasant. Thats why you see deifferent colors cuz they got whatever available and luckily it was also fashionable then. Also padding is cheaper and lighter than leather or armor, and needed patching with fabric after battle sometimes different colors were used at such time as well.

"By the way, would the primitive Stone,🪨 age to early Bronze,🥉 age ancient Aztec weapons,🔫 of the Aztec jaguar,🐆 and eagle,🦅 warriors alongside the coyote,🐺 warrior priests of the primitive Stone,🪨 age ancient aztec empire of Mexico,🇲🇽 go up,👆 against the late 15th century to early 16th century renaissance, 🎨 👤 German,🇩🇪 Landsknecht mercenary weapons,🔫 of the German,🇩🇪 Landsknecht mercenaries on horseback,🏇of an English,🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 standard thoroughbred horses,🐴 wearing Southern German,🇩🇪 Gothic plate,🍽 armor and chainmail,🔗⛓ for protection from the primitive Stone,🪨 age to early Bronze,🥉 age indigenous native american weapons,🔫 inside the hot,🔥and humid jungles,🌴 deserts, 🏜 and cold,❄ watery,💦 swamps of ancient Mesoamerica, South America,🌎 in the year of fifteen hundred twenty-one during the exploration of the primitive Stone,🪨 to early Bronze,🥉age ancient Mesoamerica and the andes of South America,🌎 in the year of fourteen hundred ninety-two to the year of fifteen hundred sixty-five, during the age of exploration,🔭 of the new world,🗺 in the year of fourteen hundred ninety-two to the year of fifteen hundred sixty-five?"

@@joeerickson516What the fuck.

very long though...

I disagree with your claim that it's obvious. Unlike English , Lanze in German can imply a spear on a horse, but it can also imply a spear in the hands of a footman. To add to this, we love turning hard and sharp sounding sounds into less sharp sounding sounds in dialect(I know, very contratian to what English popculture says about how German sounds. But to me, Englisch is the agressive sounding language, compared to both high German and the dialect of Bavarian that my native language is.) For example: tra turning into dro We also have a tendency to turn z sounds into tz sounds. So it's very well possible it shifted from lanz to Lantz to Lands

For sure, what is obvious is subjective, which is the important reason we should test all hypotheses, lest we discount one out of hand that ends up having the best attestation in the historical record.

From my understanding its a variation on the Zwehandler intended to cause vibrations in the enemies weapon when parrying or impacting, thus disarming them.

​"By the way, would the primitive Stone,🪨 age ancient aztec obsidian and flint rock,🪨 bladed,🔪 edge wooden sword,🔪⚔club,♧ and wooden feathery shield,🛡 called,🤙 the Macuahuitl and Chimali of primitive Stone,🪨 age to early Bronze,🥉age ancient Aztec empire of Mexico,🇲🇽 go up,👆 against the late 15th century to early 16th century renaissance, art,🎨 👤 Southern German,🇩🇪 Landsknecht mercenary longsword called,🤙 the Zweihander, in a sword,🗡⚔ fight?"🤺 "during the siege,💥 of Tenochtitlan Mexico,🇲🇽 in the year of fifteen hundred twenty-one, during the age of exploration,🔭 of the new world,🗺 in the year of fourteen hundred ninety-two to the year of fifteen hundred sixty-five?"

Greatswords are extremely good weapons, but they are expensive - if you make a sword that big, it pretty much has to be made out of quality spring steel or it will shatter. It is very good at binding multiple polearms at once, parrying hooks offer very good protection against axeheads (so halberds mostly) and having the balance of a sword and mass and leverage of a polearm, parrying is easy. This all makes them extraordinary defensive weapons, but they can't really operate next to one another without hindering each other and from historical depictions we usually see them more dispersed in the unit and not forming ranks of their own, with the exception of things like forlorn hope. As for killing power, it's fine. It's a shorter spear if you thrust and this is the most likely move you will do in 1v1.But swings hit very hard - the weapon is heavy enough for the bludgeoning damage to be dangerous even if you hit armour. People also are not really keen on trying to parry your big weapon, because: - Smaller swords and one handed weapons in general do not have the leverage to even attempt it. I've seen people trying to parry greatswords during demonstrations and it often resulted in the smaller sword bending,or outright breaking. - Polearms are useless when binded. They can't counterattack like swords can. Longer polearms shaft's will also bend when hit, which is also not exactly good for counterattacking. Also, the "Zweihander cutting off pikeheads" is considered a myth, but in actuality it is not entirely false - it is doable if you hit the shaft 3-4 times. Not something you would aim to do in a battle, but it might happen sporadically and in 1v1 it is at least worth considering. So it's more likely they would try to dodge you, parrying only if there is no other choice. Because if your swing connects to something not covered in plate, you are getting either broken bones, or the target dies. Just straight up dies. I've been training on wooden blocks with dull edge zweihander and got 20-30 cm deep by accident. Now you can imagine the difference in durability between wood and flesh and bones.The stories of men getting decapitated, or chopped in half are not exaggerated. Lastly, the greatsword technique is very unique, because it actually involves spinning - in some cases, maintaining the momentum is simply worth it and sometimes stabbing after ending a swing is simply faster if you spin. Also because of how the weapon behaves, you have around 270 degrees area that you threaten at any given time and the exact facing of that area constantly changes when you move, so while suicide plays modern fencing schools teach religiously might very well connect, in a real fight noone really likes trying to "frame-perfect" strkie you if the punishment for failing is catching a huge sword to the head (and don't forget that thanks to adrenaline, even a successful strike might still end up getting punished). Also for the Flammberger blade - it's even more expensive, harder to maintain, but also somewhat better at cutting and slightly better getting through armour because of the reduced contact area during a strike. Overall, it's a very good weapon that shines the most when you need to guard someone, or have to shock and awe a unit, or prevent the more numerous enemy to flank you (put some of those dudes in a semi-loose formation and they will stall everything in front of them). It's main downsides are cost, requiring more space to be fully effective and mediocre anti-armour capabilities. We would have seen a LOT more of those swords, if gunpowder was never invented - melee weapons were becoming obsolete ever more rapidly and so Greatswords disappeared along with them. Still the cooles swords in history and I will fucking duel everyone who says otherwise.

@@joeerickson516 I can tell you that those sword-clubs were commonly made with obsidian teeth as they were much sharper than regular stone. Problem is, there is a good reason humans switched from rock to copper, then bronze, then steel spearheads - metals are much more durable, they have higher hardness. Rocks also have a tendency to shatter when hit with too much force, while metal will usually bend and rarely shatter outright. The shield is good, it is not really of any lower quality than European ones, with the exception of the reinforced center. I think it would be able to block zweihander strikes, even if the impact would not make it pleasant. Aztec would also do much better with a spear in this matchup, as it has a far lower probability of breaking when struck by zweihander and against a sword-club, the zweihander has significant reach advantage. The biggest difference maker would be what armour the Landsknecht is wearing. If full plate, the German wins. If munitions grade, the German wins. Aztec has a realistic chance of wounding him if the German has only helmet and breastplate, or less. Aztec's armour would not really matter, since they had access to linen armour that was the exact same as European gambeson and bone armour that is a far inferior version of lammellar armour, which in itself offered a protection comparable to mail. Now consider that mail was pushed out by plate armour, because the former granted far worse protection and European weapons developed to counter plate specifically - that's why they discarded shields and began using two handed weapons almost exclusively. I'm gonna be honest, 1v1 fight like this would be extremely difficult for the Aztec. He would have to fight him like 3v1, or maybe even 5v1 to have a good chance of beating the German. And that is exactly how Cortez lost the battle in Tenochtitlan - there were simply too many enemies for his few hundred men to fight.

@@kompatybilijny9348 wow THAT was an elaborate answer for such a small question. What a great read! Thank you for your time :) So I assume this was more likely a mistake of wording on their part. Sounds like it wasn’t „popular“ in the sense of „a common sight“ but in the sense of beeing the pop star of the battlefield.

Knecht = servant Ritter = knight

​@@jordanandrew2786and ritter = reiter, mounted soldiers

@@jordanandrew2786 hah... the ethimology of knight, in english came from the german "knetch", so I assumed it had developed similarly in germany

@@marcelosilveira2276 no, the German knights were very oriented on the French chévaliers, translated Riders, so from Chévalier=Ritaere (medieval german (to ride)=Ridder(dutch)=Ritter(High German)

@@itskyansaro This cant be sorry. In spain there are both "caballeros" and "jinetes" as medieval and diferenciated units. "chevalier"is about "cheval" which is the word "horse", same in spanish for caballero. The word jinete actually translates as "rider".. They are diferent things. I dont get where the english got the "knight" thing but I believe, in all continental europe the same formula used by the spanish and french was used. Im sure the french also had cavalry units that werent not noble and had a diferenciated name. In spain, "caballeros" had a big status, in most cases from novilty. This was not the case of "jinetes", riders. Which were much lightner units and from a "poorer" origin (you were still kinda rich if you could afford a horse though).

In which part of the word "Landsknecht" would the germans use an Umlaut exactly?? Its a german word...

it's not. just because the dutch started using it does not make it a dutch word. it clearly german.

the dutch took it from the germans...

This is like saying rendezvous is an English word just because we use it now 😂

It's a German word. Dutch is closely related to German and shares quite a few words.

Dutch is swamp German anyway

In some Swiss dialects it's sou

@@demoversion4375 Really? Which one? Becuse i am Swabian and i have never heard or seen that spelling. And if i google "Souschwab" i dont find anyting. So please educate me :)

I think it was kind of a fashion statement, kinda like what punk rockers do.

I'd say it's 50% fashion statement, 50% necessety, as you can guide your pike better with bare skin while in the hedgehog 😅

@@philipptreichl3552 how so?

That time fashion

@@TitusCastiglione1503 because on felt or linen, when it's wet bc of rain, it slides more, in my experience, when u have the area of your knee bare, you can control the pike more, like you feel things easier with your bare hands if you don't wear gloves, it's just that extra bit of control 😅

It means "servant"

No, It means „Servant“

It really doesn’t. And, funnily enough, it’s a 1:1 with English “knight,” though the meaning is different.

In Dutch the words land and knecht have not fallen out of use yet, however the profession under the name landsknecht pretty much has. A landsknecht is translated from Dutch to fieldworker. Not the farmer himself, but his helpers. Hardly servants as this video would suggest. These people had seasonal work and could be hired to fight. The Dutch landsknechten were the predecessors of the German soldiers, as the word doesn't have the umlaut that Germans would have used for their version of the word. The word is Dutch and the origin of the word is still very clear in this language.

Double-headed eagles appear in all kinds of coats of arms. That's the banner of the Holy Roman Emperor, specifically.

It was also a symbol of the Hapsburgs and the Holy Roman Empire.

The double headed eagle was already in use by the HRE before the Serbs took it for their Empire

@@battlez9577 Thats not totally true. While Serbia has its ancient flag with 4 fire metals with a cross, Double headed eagle was used by Eastern Roman empire far before Holy Roman empire (that was not "holy" nor was it "Roman") existed. Seems to me Landsknecht has Slavs or Serbs in it, because Germany was created out of Kelt-Slavic-Serbian population. Germans appeared in middle ages, just like English and French, and in the end Italian.

@@battlez9577 Serbia had no empire. It never controlled territories that where not Serb populated. If you are referring to Tzar Dusans Serbia, his Tzardom was all the lands that Serbs where living in, and that was majority of today Greece. He never had foreign lands in his Serbia. Serbs where ethnically cleansed from Greece around 1910, when Greek population from Turkey was transferred by mass to Greece. Also Tzar Dusan lived before "Holy Roman Empire" existed, so it could not have in use before Serbia or true Rome.

I bet you’re wrong.

Very wrong

the red outline is the hre border as with pretty much any map depicting the hre. the Netherlands, the Swiss confederacy and Austria are depicted within its borders… also, Venice wasn’t part of the hre at this time and de facto had been independent even while officially considered byzantine territory in the 9th century. get your facts straight und look at the map properly.

​@@SandRhomanHistory mike dropped

​@@SandRhomanHistory und? Sorry had to point that one out.

Is a creepy pus

@@Undeadaccount ?

@@Sealclubber420 just a little nod to the medieval arms goat