Armies of the German Peasants' War 1524–26

49 Pages·14.154 MB·English

by  Douglas Miller, Angus McBride(Illustrator)

Armies of the German
Peasants' War 1524-26
First published in Great Britain in 2003 by Osprey Publishing Dedication
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Editor: Martin Windrow contemporary woodcuts.
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Index by Alan Rutter Artist's Note
Maps by Alexander Moore & Mary Mcloughlin
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SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
Steinmann, U., 'Die Bundschuhfahnen des joss Fritz', in
DeuL5ches Jahrbuch fi.i.r Volkskunde ( 1960, pp.243-284)
Bensing, Manfred, & S.Hoyer, Der deutsche Bauernkrieg Zimmerman, Wilhelm, Der Grosse Deutsche Bauemkrieg
1524-1526 (Militarverlag der DDR, Berlin, 1982) (DEB, Berlin, 1975)
Hoyer, Siegfried, 'Arms and Military Organisation in Museums
German Peasant War' in R.Scribner & G.Benecke, Baluingen: Bauernk.riegsstube, Hauptstrasse 19 (town
The German Peasant War I 5 25 - New Viewpoints, hall), 88487 Baltringen (tel: [phone])
pp.98-108 (George Allen & Unwin, London, 1979) Beutelsbach: Bauernkriegsmuseum, AILes Rathaus,
Kluepfel, Karl (ed.), Urkunden zur Geschichte des Stiftstrasse 11, 71384 Weinstadt-Beutelsbach (tel: 00 49
Schwiibischen Bundes, Vol. II, p.291 (Stuttgart, 1858) 7151-693289)
Kuhn, Elmar (ed.), Der Bauernkrieg in Oberschwaben Bi:iblingen: Bauernkr-iegsmuseum, Pfarrgasse 2,
(Biblioteca Academica, Tubingen, 2000) Zehntscheuer, 71032 Bi:iblingen (tel: [phone]-
Laube, A., M.Steinmetz & G.Vogler, Jllustrierte Geschichte 669481)
der deuL~chen frilhburgerlichen Revolution (Berlin, 1974 ) Hilzinggen: Museum im Schlosspark, Haupt~tra~se, 78247
Richards, John, & Gerry Embleton, Landsknecht Soulier Hilzingen (tel: [phone])
1486-1560, Warrior 49 (Osprey, Oxford, 2002) Muhlhausen: Bauernkriegsmuseum, Kornmarkt-kirche,
Scou, T, & R.W.Scribner, The Gennan Peasants' War, A Muhlhausen (Lei: 00 49 3601-16066)
History in Documents, pp.108-109 (Humanities Press, Niklashausen: Pfeifer Stube, Wertheimerstrasse 32, 97956
London, 1991) Werbach Niklashausen (tel: [phone])
Scribner, R.W., 'Images of the Peasant 1514-1525' in Frankenhausen: Panorama Museum Bad Frankenhausen,
Janos Bak (ed.), The German Peasant War of 1525, am Schlachtberg 9, 06567 Bad Frankenhausen (tel: 00
pp.29-48 (Frank Cass, London, 1976) 49 3 4671-61920)
ARMIES OF THE
GERMAN PEASANTS' WAR 1524-26
INTRODUCTION
~~ T THE ROTTOM was the exploited bulk of the nation, the peasants. No
matter whose subject the peasant was-a prince's an imjmial baron\
s,
a bish&/J a monastery's or a town's - he was treated by all as a thing,
a beast of burden, and worse ... lie could neither marry nor die without paying
the lord. Besides his statute labou·r he had to gather litter, pick strawberries and
bilberries, collect snail shells, drive the game in the hunt, and ch&/J wood for
his lord. The right to fiSh and hunt belonged to the master... the common
pastures and woods ... were almost everywhere forcihly appropriated by the lord.
The l&rd reigned as he pleased over the peasants own pers&n, over his wife and
daughters, just as he t"eignf'd over his property. He had the right of the first night.
He threw the peasant into the tower whenever he saw fit ... he killed the peasant,
OT had him beheaded whenever he jJleased ... Who wouul defend the peasant? It
was the barons, clergymen, patricians, &r jurists who sat in the courts, and they
knew perfectly well what they were being paid for. All the official stales ofJhe
Empire, after all, lived by squeezing dry the peasants. '
By the end of the 15th century the conditions amongst the peasants in
Germany described here by Friedrich Engels in his Peasant War in
Germany had brought them to breaking point. In these territories, society
was still essentially locked in a feudal pattern. In 1476 there had been
insurrections in Begeim, and in 1493 near Selestat in Alsace, site of the
first so-<:alled 'Bundschuh'conspiracy (the term for the simple peasant's
shoe of that time, which the rebels took as their symbol of solidarity). This
rebellion failed, as did its successors in the bishopric of Speyer in
1502 and at Lehen in Breisgau in 1513. ln 1514 the Rems Valley in
Wurttembergwitnes ed a movement known as 'Poor Conrad', as peasants
and urban artisans were provoked by the imposition of unbearable new
taxes by their duke; tJ1e e insurgents too were crushed, and their leaders
executed. Throughout the Upper Rhine Valley discontent mmbled on,
The peasants had a range of
articulating itself in further conspiracies in 1517 as peasants, miners,
demands which essentially
involved the reform and in urban day labourers, artisans and even mercenary soldiers rose up to rid
some cases the overthrow of themselves of the intolerable restraints of a system which had not signifi
the feudal order. It Is estimated cantly advanced their condition for centuries. Since the Church was
that over 100,000 mobilised
closely associated with the mling classes, the upsurge in the early 1520s
at different stages during the
of evangelical reformers preaching against abuses by the Church
conflict. Both Individuals and
whole villages were summoned hierarchy added to the fermenl; while some, notably Martin Luther
and, when necessary, forced of Wittenberg, urged obedience to secular authority, others had more
to join the Insurgents. In some radical sympathies. A defining moment was soon to come.
cases those who refused to join
During the harve t of 1524 in the county of St:Uhlingen, south of the
the revolt were ostracised by
Black Forest, the Counte s of Lupfen ordered her serfs to collect snail
their neighbours. (Woodcut
by Hans Sebald Behaim) shells so thal she could wrap thread around them. This ridiculous 3
Map showing the territories
in which most peasant
insurrections occurred.
(Mary Mcloughlin)
OPPOSITE This woodcut dating
from 1514 shows peasants
swearing an oath of allegiance
Cienctdl cJrccJs to a Bundschuh banner. Raising
ot upnsmy the standard heralded the
McJjut cJrcas o/ creation of the peasant military
dill red CUll/ItO unit. Peasant leaders, like Joss
Fritz, had to search for suitably
l<tl.l<'l~
supportive artists who could
(secretly) paint the required
motif on to a sheet of white
cloth. In some cases finer
fabrics such as silk might be
used, with sewn-on emblems.
See Plate D. (Courtesy
Stadtarchiv Bruchsal)
TYROL
instruction proved to be the final straw; within days, some 1,200 peasants This example of typical footwear
had mobilised, elected officers and raised a banner. As the disturbances of the German peasant and
spread most of south-west Germany was soon in open revolt. The risings other humble classes dates
from c. 1480-90 and was
stretched from the Black Forest to Lake Constance, into upper Swabia,
discovered with clothing in
the lands along the Upper Danube as far downstream as the borders of
the Alpirsbach monsastery
Bav.tria, and southward to the Alps. Between mid-March and mid-April find. Made of rough rawhide
1525 there were uprisings in central and eastern Franconia on both sides and tied In criss-cross fashion
of the River Main. Between mid-April and mid-May revolts broke out in with leather bindings through
metal rings, this was known as
Wi.irttemberg; northern Switzerland; in Alsace and the Rhine valley as
a 'Bundschuh'. Because it
far downstream as Mainz; in parts of the Palatinate, Lorraine, and the
contrasted sharply with the
Franche-Comte and Thuringia. Later in the summer of 1525 what could boots and spurs of the no61es,
now be called a revolution spread eastwards into Saxony proper and and also implied the notion of
the Erzgebirge, along the border with Bohemia; it also swept through 'union'-the other meaning of
Bund-the Bundschuh took
Salzburg and the Habsburg lands of Tyrol, Styria, and Austria.
on a special meaning for the
When the peasants rose up, their overlords were in no position to
peasants. (Photo Adl Bachinger,
make a coherent military response. This was the period of the Italian courtesy Staatllche Schltlsser
Wars, which saw military and diplomatic struggles by Charles V - Holy u.Garten Baden Wllrttemberg,
Roman Emperor (1519-56), King of Spain (as Charles I, 1516-56), and Karlsruhe)
Archduke of Austria (as Charles I, 1519-21) - to hold his empire
together against increasing Turkish and French pressure, hostility from
the Pope, and internal pressures for religious reform. It was also a
time of continuous jockeying between the territorial princes
who, increasingly, had a need for standing armies. Since
the end of the 15th century warfare had become an
industry. Armies had become largely professional
and included a high proportion of trained and well
armed infantrymen who could be kept in the field
4 for a whole campaign - provided that their con-
tractors had the resources. The maintenance of
such armies with their infrastructure of transport,
victualling and engineering could drain even the
coiTers of a kingdom. These German princes, who
often made ends meet by renting out mercenary
armies drawn from the rootless young, were at the ABOVE Recruited from the sons of peasant farmers and
top of the feudal order which the peasants now townsfolk and occasionally from among young nobles,
sought to challenge. the Landsknecht mercenaries offered their services to
the League and peasant armies alike. The pay or Sold for
regular footsoldlers was 4 guilders a month (by comparison,
a labourer could earn 1.6, and a craft apprentice 3 to 3.5
THE SWABIAN LEAGUE
guilders). This woodcut by an unknown artist shows the
extensively 'slashed' style of costume favoured by these
Because Charles V's military capability and fighting men. Those Landsknechts who were better
equipped with two-handed swords (as here) and body
attention were fully stretched in Italy against
armour to fight in the front ranks were paid at double
Franr,;ois I at the moment when the Peasant5' War
rate - hence the term Doppelstsldner.
broke out, he appointed his brother, the
Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, to deal witl1 the
rebels in his absence. Ferdinand was keen to Key members were the cities of Ulm, Esslingen,
address the first wave of uprisings in Ausu·ia, but Reutlingen, Uberlingen, Lindau, ordlingen,
had little desire to take on other insurgent~ Memmingen, Ravensburg, Gmtind, Biberach,
elsewhere in the Empire. Furthermore, he had Dinkelsbuhl, Pfullendorf, Kempten, Kaufbeuren,
little authority over the German princes, who had Isny, Leutkirch, Giengen, Wangen and Aalen. In
formed their own alliance in 1487. Known as the the course of 1488 Augsburg, Heilbronn,
Swabian League, this comprised those dukes and Wimpfen, Donauworth, Wei! and Bofingen also
nobles who belonged to the Company of the joined, followed at a later date by me Bavarian
Shield of St George, and a number of Imperial states of Wittelsbach and the territories of
Cities which had applied for membership in Wtirttemburg and lower Austria.
order to maintain order in the south-west In reality the Swabian League was not simply a
German territOJ;es- me region known as Swabia. regional structure. In the years immediately 5
before the outbreak of the Peasants' War, the bishops of Bamberg
and Wurzburg, the Landgraves Philipp of Hesse, Friedrich Philip and
Ottheinrich, Duke Ludwig of Bavaria, the Archduke Ferdinand of
Austria (governing Wumemberg following the exile of Duke Ulrich),
and Prince Ludwig, the Elector Palatine, had all become members.
This gave the League the capability of mustering an army to control
all of southern Germany. Gradually, as the peasant revolts spread
northwards and eastwards, the dukes of Saxony and Brunswick also felt
compelled to mobilise to defend their principalities.
After Duke Ulrich of Wi.irttemburg had been exiled, the League had
effectively pawned his duchy to the Archduke Ferdinand of Austria for
210,000 guilders, thus generating a substantial war chest. In addition, there
Georg, the Truchsess (governor)
were always the Fuggers and Welsers - wealthy patrician families - who
of Waldburg, was the field
had a vested interest in maintaining the status quo, and were therefore
commander of the Swabian
League army entrusted with prepared to advance the nece ary finance for military campaigns.
the task of putting down the
peasant revolts, by fair means Military organisation of the League
or foul. Nicknamed 'Bauemjorg'
The headquarters of the League was based in Ulm. Here supreme
(loosely, •scourge of the
command was exercised through a war council, which prescribed
peasants'), he was ruthless in
exacting revenge, particularly the various contingents of troops to be levied from each member.
after the battles of Leipheim Thus with every new applicant the League's military capability would
and Boblingen. See Plate C1, theoretically increase. Contemporary documents give a snapshot of
and banner C2. (Woodcut by
the standing contingents drawn up by the Council; this is reproduced
Christoph Amberger, courtesy
in the acompanying Table l.
Furstlich Waldburg-Zeil'schen
Gesamtarchiv, Schloss Zeil) The League still relied on the heavy armoured cavalry of the nobility,
although the effectiveness of Swiss pikemen
during the Swabian Wars of 1498-99 had ushered
in a new era in military tactics in which the
supremacy of the mounted knight had been
placed into question. Indeed, the Peasants' War
occurred at a time when the deployment of
squared pike formations with wings of hand
gunners was in the ascendancy. If horse was to be
effective then it needed to be mobile, and if heavy
armoured horse was to be effective then it would
need both an clement of surprise and an oppo ing
infantry force which was not well endowed with
pikes. The League's mobile horse was known as
the 'Rennfahne'- a light cavalry vanguard, iden
tified by the standard of two crossed red swords on
a black and white standard. In putting together
mounted contingents, the independent cities and
towns not under the authority of the regional
princes drew heavily on 'poor knights'- sons of
the lower and impoverished nobility, who had
no inheritance or social role and hence were
often found roaming the countryside as robber
knights. Because they were likely to be of no fixed
abode and therefore could not afford too costly
and weighty horse armour, it is more probable
that such freelancers rode in the vanguard where
8 more mobile horse were preferred.
The League foot was drawn from the ranks of the many Landsknechts1
- mercenary footsoldiers, who offered their services for a monthly wage
of 4 guilders. They were organised in regiments or Haufen, which in turn
consisted of companies or Fiihnlein numbering between 120 and 300 men.
Each Fiihnu>in was so-called because it was identified by its own banner,
Fahne. Banners in the League ranks would often be those belonging to
the towns and Imperial Cities, which raised mercenaries as part of their
contribution to the League army. Each company
was composed of smaller sub-units, the basic squad
of about ten men being known as a Rntte. Table 1: Swab ian League
Standing Contingents
Because each Landsknecht had to clothe,
arm and feed himself, such mercenary armies
Horse Foot
were always accompanied by a substantial train Habsburger 50 400
or Truss of sutlers and prostitutes, which itself Archbishop of Mainz 25 100
required some organisation and discipline if Sector Palatine 75 200
Bishop of Bamberg 25 63
it was not to hamper the troops; hence this Bishop of Wurzburg 38 125
too acquired its own command structure. Bishop of E'1Chstadt 10 56
Alongside the regimental organisation, the Bishop of Augsburg 10 62
Bishop of Constance 3 15
Landsknechts maintained their own informal Duke of Bavaria 50 350
structure symbolised by the 'ring' or general Margrave of Ansbach-Kulmback 25 100
assembly known as the Gemein, and their own landgrave of Hessen 63 100
Duchy of Wurttemburg 25 200
court martial presided over by an officer Nobility (the knights) 13 250
known as the Schultheiss, with the task of Nuremberg and Windsheim 18 150
policing the ranks given to an officer known Other cities 33 575
as the Provost. Aller KJuepfel, UrlaJnden zur Geschichte des Schw6blschen Bundes,
Towards the end of 1524 the League resolved ('Documents of the Swablan League'-see Bibliography)
to maintain a small contingent of 200 horse
and foot divided between the cities of Ulm
and Kempten to deal with any further peasant disturbances. By the
turn of 1525, however, the uprisings in the Black Forest, Breisgau,
Hegau, Sundgau and Alsace demanded a substantial muster, and
3,000 foot and 300 horse were raised. Leonard V ofEck, the Chancellor
of Bavaria and a leading figure in the League's Council, was keen to
move aggressively against the peasants. The League army was stretched,
however, since the Archduke Ferdinand was concerned with incursions
r
mounted by Ulrich, tl1e exiled Duke of Wilrttemburg intent on
reclaiming his duchy. Given that substantial numbers of mercenarie
had crossed the Alps to serve with Georg von Frundsberg in the Italian
Wars, the League was faced with a problem in raising a sufficiently
sizeable force to put down the peasant revolts.
Strategically it w-as going to be necessary to buy time. This could
only be done by engaging in token negotiations with the peasants over
their political demands, in the hope that t11e League army could
be reinforced once Frundsberg's men had returned from Italy. The
task of commanding the League army was given to Georg, Truchsess
(governor) ofWaldburg, who resided in the Allgau-one of the centres of
the disturbances. When he began his campaign at the beginning of April
he had an army of 1,500 horse and 7,000 infantry and 18 artillery pieces.
The Truchsess appointed Frowin von Huuen as his lieutenant in charge
of horse, and Duke Wilhelm von Furstenberg to command the foot.
1 See MAA 38, The Landsknechts, and Warrior 49, Landsknecht Soldier 1486-1560. 7
ORGANISATION OF PEASANT ARMIES
It has been argued that the Peasants' War is somewhat of a misnomer,
since the rebel bands in fact included day labourers, artisans, townsfolk,
and in some cases disaffected landlords and robber knights, as well
as German and Swiss mercenaries. Thus the overall size of the peasam
forces is difficull to assess. Peasant bands could be formed from a
village, a whole valley, or a complete region such as the Rheinf,<au.
Contemporary estimates of size turn out to be unreliable. The Archduke
Ferdinand wrote to Charles that the peasants numbered 200,000, and
the diaries of Mario Sanutos put the figure at 300,000. Another source
has the peasant army between Constance and Augsburg standing
at 100,000. The Tauber Valley Articles of War provide a rather more
plausible basis for estimation, showing each band comprising several
companies, each of which numbered approximately 500, and thus
generating several thousand men per band.
After the battle of Leipheim the Swabian League drew up a register
of peasant5 according to the outlying villages. This resulted in a total
of 4,005, with figures ranging between five and 100 men from some
114 different village ; but since the roll was made after the battle it
is reasonable to assume that tl1is was an overestimate. evertl1cless,
using this as a yardstick it has been calculated that there must have been
between 120,000 and 150,000 peasants mobilised throughout much
of south-west Germany during the war. Not all served simultaneously,
however; and this figure would not include townsfolk, whose partici
pation was also sporadic.
The peasant armies were organised into territorial bands known as
Haufen. As already mentioned, the Haufe was a familiar organisational
unit in Landsknecht armies, which the peasants took as a model to some
extent, dividing each band into Fiihnlein and Rotten. Here, however, any
similarity with Landsknecht military organisation ends. The bands varied
enormously in size, depending on the numbers of insurgents who
combined into an organi ed force in any locality. At Hersfeld, for
instance, the peasant band numbered 4,000; at Frankenhausen it stood
at 8,000; and ilie ranks of insurgents could swell to as many as the 18,000
Alsatian peasants who took the field at the battle of Zabern.
The number of companies could vary within each band. At Weingarten,
tl1e Swabian League counted 32 peasant standards (each equivalent to a
company). Each company was made up of 500 men, and each platoon or
squad contained ten to 15 peasants. The peasant bands generally
adopted the same rank titles as the Landsknechts. On the rdising of a band
there would be the appointment or election of a supreme commander
(Oberster Feldhauptrnann) and lieutenant~ (/,eutinger). Each company
(Fiihnlein) was commanded by a captain and had its own standard-bearer
(Fiihnrich), sergeant (Feltlweibel) and squad leaders (Rott-nteister).
Leadership
In many cases the rebels had difficulty in finding a suitable commander
with military experience - military command was not automatically
taken by the political or clerical leaders who had come to the fore in
8 their move-ment. In some cases military leaders emerged during the
course of the struggle, as in the case of the Table 2: Peasant Bands, by region
miners' leaders Caspar Prassler and Michel
(After figures from Bensing & Hoyer - see Bibliography)
Gruber at the battle of Schladming, and Hans
Region
Muller of Bulgenbach - himself a former & Band Strength Commander(s)
Landsknecht-who was leader of tl1e Black Forest
SW Germany/
peasants. Other leaders, such as tl1e robber knight
Upper Swabia: (48,000)
Gotz von Berlichingen, bore only a dubious and Allgav 9,000 Jorg Schmid ('Knopf')
opportunistic allegiance to the peasant cause. & Jorg Tauber
Lake 12,000 Dietrich Hurlewagen &
Discipline and a shared sense of purpose had to
Hans Jacob Humpis
be provided by an overwhelming belief in the Baltringen 10,000 Ulrich Schmid
movement's political and religious goals, which Leipheim 5,000 Hans Jacob Wehe
Lower Allgau 7,000 Rorian Greisel
in turn depended on the charisma and integrity
of each peasant leader. Membership of what Black Forest:
came to be known as the 'Christian Black Forest 6,000 Hans Muller von Bulgenbach
Breisgau-Ortenav 12,000 Hans Ziller aus Amoltern
Brotherhood'- motivated by a belief in divine
& Goerg Heid aus Lahr
justice - took priority over military experience Upper Margrave -?· Hans Hammerstein aus
among the peasants in Upper Swabia. In tl1e Vohrenbach
Lower Margrave -?· Klewi Rudi aus Malderdingen
Black Forest peasant~' manifesto it was clearly Tavber Valley 4,000 Jacob Kohl
stated that those who refused to join the Christian Neckar Valley- 8,000 Georg Metzler, Jacklein Rohrbach,
Brotherhood would be osu·acised. Odenwald Gotz von Berlichingen
Bildhausen 7,000 Hans Schnabel & Hans Scharr
Great importance was attached to democratic
principles in the military command structure, Alsace:
and the 'ring' - whereby the peasants gathered 'Neuenbvrg' 8,000 Hans Kufer
'Weissenburg' -?· Bacchus Fischbach
in a circle to debate tactics, troop movements, Lower Alsace -?- Erasmus Gerber
alliances and the distribution of spoils - was a Middle Alsace ·?· Wolf Wagner
characteristic of these armies. Nevertheless, there Svndgav -?- -?-
was a hierarchy: the Oschenfurter Articles of War,
Thuringia:
for example, provided for a supreme commander Fulda 6,000 Hans Dalhopf
and a marshal (Schultheiss) of the band. In & the Preacher of Dipperz
Hersfe/d 4.000 -?-
addition there were the lieutenants, captains and
Werra c.8,000 Hans Sippel
standard-bearers of each company, a master Combined c.10,000 Thomas Muntzer
gunner, a master of the wagon-fort, a master of Mvlhavsen & Thvringian & Heinrich Pfeiffer
United Salza c.5,500 Albrecht Menge. Jakob Krasuse
the train, four masters of the watch, four
& Melchior Wiegand
sergeant-majors or Feldweibel to arrange the order Frankenhausen c.8,000 Bonaventura Kurschner
of battle, a Weibel for each company, two quarter Erfurt 10,000 Hans Tunger & Hans Becke
Arnstadt 8,000 Hans Bauer
masters, farriers, quartermasters for the horse, a
Saalfeld 4,000 -?-
communications officer, and a pillage master for
each company. In the Allgau band, for example, Austrian Alps -?- Michael Gaismair
there were eight companies ( Unterhaufen or
Fiihnlein) based on village musters, which each
had their own captain:
Village/hamlet Captain
Giinzberg Ulrich Rapp von Gunburg
Oberdorf Puin Probst von Ettwiesen
Seeg Hans Biethlin von Seeg
Wertach Endris Albrecht von Oy
Staufen Ulrich Gsell von Immenstadt
Isny Hans Biterotl von Holzleute
Altusried Thomas Scherer von Legau
Leutkircher Heide Michael Huess von Haselburg 9
Each capt.:'lin had a council of four men whose
task it was to negotiate and deal with their coun
terparts in other companies. In addition there was
a sergeant, a scribe, a paymaster and a standard
bearer. Since the peasants were to some extent
emulating Landsknecht organisation, they also
adopted the discipline of the standard 2 which
,
became the all-important symbol for their
struggle. It is clear that the roles of the preacher
and the standard-bearer were pivotal in the
command structure of the peasant bands.
Composition
There was much fluidity in the compositiOn of
the peasant forces. It has been shown that villages
would supply units of men, which were rotated
about every two to four weeks. It is said that
the peasants of Alsace were organised into
four groups which regularly took each others'
places, thus allowing men to tend their farms and
still serve with the bands one week in four.
Similarly, the miners of the archbishopric of
Salzburg, for example, were put back to work
extracting silver to hire fresh contingents of
Landsknechts. Such short-term rotation can
only have been detrimental to any attempts to
build up cohesion as a fighting force.
BELOW Typical peasant military organisation, based on a
diagram from Bensing & Hoyer - see Bibliography.
I
:······································:
I I appoints
Band Elects Supreme Commander ..........+ .... ...........
_... Lieutenant
4,000-20,000 men Council of War
Master Gunner
Master of the Train
Master of the
Wagonf ort
Quartermaster
Master of Supplies
Master of the Watch
Marshal (Schultheiss)
Provost
I I :······································: Numerous sergeants
Elects Captain I of arms
Company :::;;; appoints
Standard Bearer
(ca. 500 men)
4 man Council of War
: ...................................... := -------..,.
Master of supplies
I I Pillage master
Elects ..................................... ; Sergeant of arms
Squad ... ~·
. Squad commander :
15-20 men ········································
1 0 2 See Der Bauernkrieg in Oberschwaben, Elmar Kuhn (ed.)