Black Guard (Landsknechtsregiment)
The Black Guard or Great Guard was a Landsknechtsregiment that had existed since around 1488 and came from the Netherlands, the Frisian and Groninger Lands and comprised around 4,000 men. She served under various masters and specialized in the subjugation of free peasant communities on the North Sea coast.
From around 1495 Thomas Slentz was their leader.
In 1498 she served Duke Magnus I of Saxony-Lauenburg and his father on an army campaign in Bremen and in the following year in the country of Wursten .
At the beginning of 1500 the Black Guard changed to the service of the Danish King Johann I and fought unsuccessfully in the Battle of Hemmingstedt and lost 800 men against the peasant republic of Dithmarschen . Thomas Slentz also fell in these fights.
As a result, it is not documented whether the Black Guard disintegrated and was later formed anew, or whether the unit continued to exist.
In preparation for a campaign as part of the Saxon feud against Edzard I by Georg von Sachsen , the Black Guard is mentioned again in 1514. Under the leadership of Hugo von Leisenich, the Black Guard with a strength of 4,000 men took part in a campaign in East Frisia and devastated many places there in April and June, including the city of Norden .
With the end of the Saxon feud, the Black Guard, now 5000 strong, was paid off. While some entered the service of Charles and others returned home, the majority was taken as an association by Karl von Egmond, Duke of Geldern and took part in Charles' campaign to Italy, where they entered French service. There she was united with an existing Landsknecht contingent of 12,000 men, originally assembled in 1514 for an invasion of England under Richard de la Pole . The total contingent took part in the battle of Marignano in a decisive role as the "Black Legion" or "Black Gang". In the Battle of Pavia in 1525, the Black Gang was destroyed by the imperial mercenaries under Frundsberg and Ems.
More "black" heaps
The "Black Army" of Matthias Corvinus , King of Hungary, disintegrated around the same time as the Black Guard was formed.
The Arumer Zwarte Hoop (Black Pile) was built around the same time in Friesland in 1514/15 - near the region where the Black Guard was temporarily without wages and later transferred to the service of the Duke of Geldern. The association, consisting mainly of farmers, was wiped out in Geldern by 1523.
The Black bunch of Florian Geyer was born in 1525 shortly after the destruction of the black band at Pavia. It was smashed in 1525 during the peasant wars.
The black gang in French service was founded in 1526 from 4,000 mercenaries. In 1528, after the unsuccessful siege of Naples, she surrendered to the imperial family; the 2,000 survivors entered imperial service.
Web links
- The Black Guard - The route of one of the first Landsknecht formations through Northern Europe on kriegsreisen.de
- February 17, 1500: Junker Slentz and the "Black Guard" on museum-albersdorf.de
Individual evidence
- ^ Johann Samuel Publication : General Encyclopedia of Sciences and Arts : Leipzig 1818–1889. Volume 31, p. 152.
- ↑ Eggerik Beninga , Johann Beerens: Cronika der Fresen: with police regulations Countess Anna 1545 : Books on Demand, p. 256.
- ↑ Ukfe Cremer : North through the ages. 1955. Reprint: Soltau-Kurier-Norden, Norden 2000., p. 34.
- ^ Tileman Dothias Wiarda , Ostfriesische Geschichte: from 1441 to 1540, Volume 2 , Aurich 1792, p. 280 f.
- ^ Onno Klopp , Geschichte Ostfriesland, Volume 1. , Hannover 1854-1858, p. 298 f.