Landsknecht armor

Jonas · Post by **Jonas** » Wed Mar 05, 2003 8:28 am

Hello!
IÂ´m about to buy a helmet and breastplate for my Landsknecht reenactment outfit. Now I want suggestions for type of helmet and breast plate. Anyone that knows any good woodcuts or paintings of landsknechts in armour?
By the way, IÂ´m an two-handed swordsman.

Alcyoneus · Post by **Alcyoneus** » Wed Mar 05, 2003 9:29 am

Depending on the era you are trying to do, a sallet or burgeonet(1510+) would work.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Mar 05, 2003 9:38 am

http://www.landsknecht.com/html/armoury.html

bottom of the page, sort of a "cartoonish" period woodcut. Looks like a burgonet on his head, could be wrong though!

------------------
"Is minic a gheibhean beal oscailt diog dunta" - An open mouth often catches a closed fist

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Mar 05, 2003 9:43 am

http://www.landsknecht.com/html/woodcut_16.html
And here is one distinctly showing maille collars/mantles, very much to my surprise!

------------------
"Is minic a gheibhean beal oscailt diog dunta" - An open mouth often catches a closed fist

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Mar 05, 2003 9:47 am

(btw I'm posting these as I find them, unfortunately my landsknecht archive on my computer is a bit lacking so these pictures benefit you as they benefit my archive

)
http://www.fahnlein.com/ChadPix/images/Hauptmann-atLaBicocca2.jpg

Photo, no helm, but it is CLEARLY visible he is wearing a breastplate. I am not an expert on plate, however if I were to have to guess I would put all my money on saying that is a "puffed" German Gothic breastplate. Anyone care to agree or contradict?

Here is another photo:
http://www.fahnlein.com/StasiaPix/

Again, I'm not a plate expert, but I BELIEVE that is called "German Half Armour." He is wearing what I would guess to be a burgonet like stated before!

------------------
"Is minic a gheibhean beal oscailt diog dunta" - An open mouth often catches a closed fist

[This message has been edited by Wes O'Brien (edited 03-05-2003).]

HugoFuchs · Post by **HugoFuchs** » Wed Mar 05, 2003 12:01 pm

http://www.pipcom.com/~tempus/landsknecht/index.html

Check out the galleries section.

Hinrich · Post by **Hinrich** » Wed Mar 05, 2003 1:19 pm

Here are a few Excellent books if you want
some primary resources.

"The Triumph of Maximillian I"
- Appelbaum, Stanley
- Dover Publications Inc., 1964

"Authentic Everyday Dress of the Renaissance: All 154 Plates from
the "Trachtenbuch"

"The Complete Woodcuts of A. Durer"

Patterns of Fashion: The Cut and Construction of Clothes for Men
and Women C1560-1620

@@@@@@not primary@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
The Renaissance at War
Landsknecht Soldier 1486-1560 (osprey)
Landsknechts (osprey)
Henry VIII's Army (osprey)

@@@@@@Excellent armour book, not landsknecht, but great pictures of munition and working class armour@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
"The Medieval Armour from Rhodes"

You can get most of these books FREE!! off your local librarys ILL inter-loan-library

I've been doing a ton of research into Landsknecht armour the last couple of months. If you have any questions, my email is clifter1@yahoo.com
Heinrich

Jason Grimes · Post by **Jason Grimes** » Wed Mar 05, 2003 3:52 pm

Hi Jonas,

I just finished writting a paper on Landsknecht pikemen armour from the years 1500 to 1550 if you would like it. It isn't real in-depth and doesn't talk about soldiers who use Zwiehanders, but does show you the common styles and types. You really need to give us a time period that you wish to portray so we can give you a better answer.

Jason
Veltin Grimm

[This message has been edited by Jason Grimes (edited 03-05-2003).]

Jonas · Post by **Jonas** » Thu Mar 06, 2003 3:44 am

Thanks for all the answers.
I belong to a reenactment society, StockholmsfÃ¤nikan. We depicts a Landsknecht Faehnlein between 1520-1530.
Please look at our website, http://www.landsknecht.org.
In this picture I am the second from the right.

http://www.landsknecht.org/galleri/pavia/big/109-0996.jpg
Now I am looking for an "only front" breastplate with taces, and a helmet. The armour might be some kind of muntions armour, but I am not sure about the helmet. As of now, I am leaning towards some kind of sallet.

/Best Regards, Jonas

Gottfried · Post by **Gottfried** » Thu Mar 06, 2003 7:03 am

Hi
I don't know if this is any help but according to Ospreyâ€™s â€œthe Landsknechtâ€

Hinrich · Post by **Hinrich** » Thu Mar 06, 2003 8:03 am

Jason, could you email me a copy of your paper? My email is clifter1@yahoo.com I sent you an email a couple of weeks ago but it gave me a return error. I'll try again today.

Jonas, if you would like I have only one picture of a open faced sallet Patrick Thadden made me, for my Landsknecht persona. (I'm in the process of putting in a liner, then I'll have a bunch of pictures to post). If your looking for a spot on replica, I would HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend him.
Hinrich

Hinrich · Post by **Hinrich** » Thu Mar 06, 2003 8:30 am

actually here is the picture that Patrick sent me of the open faced sallet.

<IMG src=http://www.hrantzouen.freeservers.com/images/image015.jpg>

Hinrich

I forgot, it's based off an engraving from 1515.

[This message has been edited by Hinrich (edited 03-06-2003).]

Jason Grimes · Post by **Jason Grimes** » Thu Mar 06, 2003 3:50 pm

Wes - Yes, mail standards/mantles were very popular all through out the first half of the 16th century. Landsknechts seem to have taken a particular liking to them. On your first pic, he is wearing a Maximillian style breast with a fauld, but no tassets. Is the second pic the guy wearing the black and white armour? If it is then this is very late Landsknecht wise and would be from 1550 to 1560. And yes you would wear a burgonet with it. Although the burgonet first appeared in about 1530, common soldiers were not issued them until after about 1545 to 1550.

Jonas - I got your email, I will respond to you tonight when I get home.

The German style sallet would have been worn by Landsknechts from 1486 to about 1515. I wouldn't go much past 1515. This was kind of the last gasp of the gothic style armour. More likly they would have worn a simple close-fitting skull cap and sometimes wear their hat over it.

Gottfried - Your exactly right, although not all of the amour had Maximillian fluting, some was smooth and plain. On munition armour the flutes would be fewer, shorter, and spaced farther apart. The helmet you are describing I have heard called a sallet, but I like to think of them as a pre-cursor to the burgonet. These helmets came in a huge array of styles and types. I'm just getting started in collecting pictures of them.

Hinrich - Sure, I can send you a copy. Can you open Word documents? I think I can convert it to PDF if that would be better. Let me know. Your sallet is very nice. Kudos to Patrick for such a nice job.

Could I get a copy of that engraving from you? I don't know why the email would bounce on you. Did you try grimm@gci.net. It should work.

Hope this helps everyone.

Jason
Veltin Grimm

[This message has been edited by Jason Grimes (edited 03-06-2003).]

mattmaus · Post by **mattmaus** » Thu Mar 06, 2003 4:17 pm

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Originally posted by Jason Grimes:

I just finished writting a paper on Landsknecht pikemen armour from the years 1500 to 1550 if you would like it<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Could you send me a copy as well? .doc is fine. I've got web space to spare, and would offer that if it would be something you wanted to 'publish'.

Gottfried · Post by **Gottfried** » Thu Mar 06, 2003 5:35 pm

Hello again
Since it looks like there are a lot of people that know about the Landsknecht maybe you all could help me.
Iâ€™m in the SCA and I would like to make my persona a Landsknecht. Of course I want to read all I can about the Landsknecht but I donâ€™t know very many Books (except for the one's from Osprey).
Any suggestions?

Gottfried

Jason Grimes · Post by **Jason Grimes** » Fri Mar 07, 2003 3:20 am

Hi Gottfried,

Unfortunatly, there is no single book that fully details the Landsknechts. You are going to have to glean the information from many sources. The list Hinrich gave above is a real good start. Some other books you might find interesting are...

Gerhard Benecke, Maximillan I (1459-1519) an analytical Biography, 1982

Gerhard is very opinionated, but has a lot of good information on the politics and goings on in the early part of the Landsknecht period.

F.R.H. Du Boulay, Germany in the Later Middle Ages, 1983

F.R.H. goes into some detail but again it's just an overview. This book spans a much longer time span.

David Edge, John Miles Paddock, Arms and Armour of the Medieval Knight, Crescent Books, 1988

This is a real good book to get an idea of the different armour types and styles. This book also has some munition armour pictures from the Landsknecht time period.

Hope this helps,

Jason
Veltin Grimm