Customer Reviews

Landsknecht Soldier 1486-1560 (Warrior)

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John Richards and Gerry Embleton make a nice team in this new title for the Osprey Warrior series LANDSKNECHT SOLDIER 1486-1560, if you ever wonder the origin of this Servant of the Country this is one of the best intro to the subject, the famous Landsknecht were one of the best infantry soldiers of the Renaissance,Mercenary Pikemen was one of the deadliest weapon on the field without forgetting their famous and colorful clothes.

I think that the content of the book is pretty well done as all Osprey books in 64 pages they try to give the most important info from the Origins of the Landsknecht, organization, army life, religion, costume( one of the most important part) and the decline. In a nice weekend you can seat a relax a travel back in time to the days of the "BAD WAR". Nicely Illustrated by Gerry Embleton which famous illustration and knowledge on the subject make the book complete, he have some works on the subject his book Medieval Military Costume is also illustrated by him and with many colour photographs of real models.

A Nice read if you looking for the everyday life of these formidable soldiers of the late 15th century you will find it fascinating. For more Renaissance warfare the book from Thomas Arnold "The Renaissance at War" explore in more detail the wars of this period with alot of maps and Illustration, Osprey have alot of titles on the subject Armies of the German Peasants War 1524-26 by Douglas Miller and Angus McBride and Pavia 1525 are some of the titles you would enjoy if you like to read about the German mercenaries. Lets hope for more titles like this specially on the Swiss, Spanish Tercios and Italian mercenaries.

Richards provides an excellent account of the Landsknecht mercenaries of the renaissance in this work. I particularly enjoyed his section on the structure of a Landsknecht regiment and the officers that led it- the roles of the nachrichter and hurenweibel were quite amusing. Richards certainly proves in this work that the Landsknechts were the first to make use of a modern regimental structure. He also goes into vivid detail describing the Landsknecht costume. I have only one major complaint- Richards spends almost no time in detailing the weapons of the Landsknecht or their battle tactics. He does briefly mention (in the caption of an illustration), the significance of the katzbalger, a Landsknecht's favourite sword, and in his colour plates displays the tactics of a regiment during a battle, but he doesn't write much on either subject. Nonetheless the book was very enjoyable, and worth buying if you're keen on the subject.