The Elite

by Ranulph Fiennes

  One such Obrist was Georg von Frundsberg, lord of Mindelheim. Alongside his wealth and prestige, Frundsberg possessed a great personal charisma, and it was said that he was capable of raising armies of 20,000 men in a matter of weeks. It helped that the standard Landsknecht pay on offer was four guilders per month, which compared favourably with that of civilian occupations (a typical building worker in the city would earn two and a half guilders in 1515). Unlike others, Frundsberg also developed a reputation for ensuring that his troops were paid on a regular basis. All of this meant that he not only attracted the best recruits but also managed to keep his mercenary forces, and Maximilian, happy.

  However, Frundsberg would not just accept any prospective recruit. A strict selection process based on physical fitness, equipment and social and economic status meant that only the very best men were recruited.

  Having drummed in the villages for recruits, the men were instructed by Frundsberg to meet at a certain time and place for a muster parade. Here, they were ordered into two columns facing each other. At the end of the gap between them, an arch consisting of two halberds and a pike was erected. It was through this arch that each man had to pass a recruiting officer, who would check if they were of sound mind and body.

  A figure that Frundsberg would have taken great care in selecting during this process was the ensign, who was regarded as only second in importance to the company captain. These men were usually chosen for their size, courage and skill in battle, as their role was to protect the company banner with their lives. Indeed, from the moment the banner was formally presented to an ensign during the muster, this flag, and its carrier, became the very symbol of the unit’s ‘manliness, courage and being’ and the banner was never to fall into enemy hands. So important was the banner that, at the Battle of Marignano in 1515, a dead Landsknecht ensign was found with both his arms chopped off but with part of the banner pole still clenched between his teeth. If ever a man displayed true commitment to his job, this was it.

  With Frundsberg having assembled his army, the men were immediately paid one month’s wage before they assembled in a circle surrounding him. Frundsberg then informed them of their rights, duties and restrictions by reading out the ‘Letter of Articles’. The articles consisted of a very detailed code of conduct and set out all the punishable offences, such as mutiny, unwarranted plunder, drunkenness on duty, having more than one woman following in the baggage train, and so forth. This was followed by an oath-taking ceremony in which every Landsknecht swore his allegiance to his cause, his emperor and his officers, and promised to abide by the laws set out in the articles.

  Frundsberg now had to ensure that his men were well drilled and disciplined before they could be sent into battle against the French and their Swiss mercenaries. While the Swiss pike block had achieved tactical superiority during the Burgundian Wars, Maximilian was ready to go one step further. He realised that the introduction of the new arquebus, alongside the pike, could make for a formidable proposition. With this, he had soon devised a formation that he felt could make his Landsknechts more than a match for the Swiss.

  Put simply, in a defensive position the pikemen and the halberdiers formed a solid square, and around this block stood a wall of arquebusiers affording protection from enemy pikemen. If the order to advance was given, a line of foot soldiers was strung out in front of the square, which was composed of either volunteers, prisoners who hoped to redeem themselves, or unfortunates who had been picked by lot. Known as the ‘forlorn hope’, it was their task to advance in front of the square with their pikes and two-handed swords, to stave off the oncoming enemy and hack their pikemen to pieces, so that their comrades would be able to penetrate the gaps they had made. The order would then be given for the regiment to form an Igel or ‘hedgehog’, either in a square or circle. The pikemen would now be at the front, levelling their weapons at an angle to take the oncoming cavalry, with the arquebusiers behind them opening fire.

  Innovation such as this can soon catch up and even surpass the very best, as I have found to my cost. When I attempted to make a solo Antarctic crossing in 1996, I was known by the Guinness Book of Records to be the ‘World’s Greatest Living Explorer’. However, since my previous expedition, trekking in the snow had been revolutionised by one of my rivals, Borge Ouslund. Moving at a phenomenal speed, the secret to his success was the skilful use of a high-tech wind chute, which helped pull him, and his sledge, along. While I practised before I set out, I also had some real success using it in the Antarctic, once travelling over 117 miles in a day. By the twentieth day, I was already ten days ahead of my previous Antarctic journey, thanks to the addition of the kite, yet I was still struggling to keep pace with Ouslund. Alas, kidney stones were to cause me to abandon my attempt, while Ouslund continued on, making the crossing in a quite incredible fifty-five days, having sailed for over three-quarters of them. The Norwegian had adopted and perfected this revolutionary new feature in polar expeditions and had left his rivals in his wake.

  This was certainly something Frundsberg aimed to do. Training his men day after day, his Landsknechts soon marched to war against the French, followed by an enormous train of wagons, supplies and hangers-on. Since each Landsknecht was a self-supporting entity, every soldier needed some personal support, which usually meant someone to cook for him, set up the camp, mend and wash his clothing, and nurse him when wounded or sick. While women and boys usually carried out this supporting role, some men were not so lucky. As such, a set of the articles of war from 1530 proposed that two or three women should also be engaged to be ‘everyman’s wife’. In other words, they were to be prostitutes available to the camp, who could charge two kreuzer for ‘services of love’.

  In the travelling camp, there was also a chaplain, a scribe, a doctor, a scout, a quartermaster, and a bodyguard of eight trustworthy men for Frundsberg. An independent group of officials was also responsible for maintaining discipline and ensuring that the Landsknechts abided by the articles. The most feared among them was the provost, who remained unimpeachable during his period of office. His retinue consisted of a jailer, a bailiff and an executioner called the Friemann, who was recognisable by his blood-red cloak and red feather in his beret, as well as his executioner’s sword and hangman’s rope, which hung from his belt.

  As their wagons passed through towns and villages across the continent, the Landsknechts’ dress caused quite a stir. Maximilian had made his Landsknechts exempt from the ‘sumptuary laws’, which dictated the colours and style of clothing each social class could wear, because, in his words, their lives were ‘so short and brutish’. As a result, Landsknechts dressed in the most garish costumes. Slashed doublets, striped hose, tight or voluminous breeches and outrageous codpieces were all worn in a deliberate attempt to flaunt their status, intimidate their enemies, and shock civilians.

  When their wagons finally reached the village of Wenzenbach, near Regensburg, they found the forces of the Palatine Ruprecht had taken up a defensive position on a hillock behind a wall of shields. It was time to put Frundsberg’s Landsknechts to the test.

  Firstly, Frundsberg sent out his ‘forlorn hope’ to engage the enemy. Ruprecht’s cavalry made such quick work of them that, suitably emboldened, they charged through the ranks. Yet, as they did so, the Landsknechts immediately took up a defensive position, forming a wall of spikes, as well as guns, the likes of which had never before been seen on a battlefield. Before Ruprecht could react, his men were either impaled on spikes or shot off their horses. Over 1,600 men were killed in the ensuing slaughter. Maximilian’s bold move to build such a mercenary army had been a roaring success. His Landsknechts developed such a reputation for unprincipled, ruthless violence that one chronicler remarked that the devil refused to let them into hell because he was so afraid of them.

  However, the French knew well from their Swiss pikemen that all mercenaries had their price. As such, they managed to persuade some German Landsknechts to move away from Maximilian and fight on
their behalf instead. According to Machiavelli, the French subsequently massacred Spanish forces at Ravenna in 1512, thanks to the stubborn resistance and fierce close-quarters fighting of these German Landsknechts. Maximilian was disgusted. Several days after Ravenna, he ordered all the German Landsknechts in the pay of the French to return home. All except 800 obeyed their emperor; with those 800 subsequently forming the nucleus of what became known as the ‘Black Band’.

  While Frundsberg continued to command his Landsknechts to more victories, with their pike block fast becoming impregnable, a new foe soon presented itself. In 1515, 20-year-old Francis I ascended the French throne. Around the same time, Charles V, Duke of Burgundy, the grandson of Maximilian and soon-to-be Holy Roman emperor, inherited the kingdom of Spain from Ferdinand. This suddenly posed a military threat not only to France but to the Pope as well, for the whole of southern Italy belonged to Spain and therefore most of Italy would soon be in Charles’s hands. As such, when Maximilian died in 1519, Pope Leo X allied with Francis I, who had renewed his alliance with the Venetian Republic and Genoa. In addition, he had also recruited an army of 16,000 Swiss mercenaries. Just as his grandfather had done before him, Charles V looked to Frundsberg’s Landsknechts to assert his authority.

  Frundsberg and his Landsknechts soon joined the imperial forces in Italy, under the command of Prospero Colonna, and met the French at La Bicocca in April 1522. For the first time, Swiss and German mercenary pikemen would face each other in considerable numbers.

  Colonna, the Italian commander in charge of the Spanish contingent, realised that the hunting lodge at La Bicocca presented a considerable defensive position, as a sunken lane ran between the bottom of a garden and the fields that separated the two armies. He subsequently ordered the bank to be built up into a rampart on the garden side. Then he positioned his arquebusiers on it in ranks four deep, along with several heavy cannons, with his German pikemen taking up the rear. As the Swiss advanced across the fields (with rocks and sand in their hands ready to throw at the enemy in order to blind them), their ranks were decimated by the murderous fire from the Spanish arquebusiers and artillery. And those who did succeed in reaching the lane suddenly found themselves in a deathtrap. The arquebusiers, who were so high up the bank that they could not be touched by the Swiss pikemen, proceeded to pepper them with gunshots. Frundsberg’s pikemen then proceeded to rush down into the lane to finish them off. Some 5,000 Swiss, including twenty-two of their officers, were killed in the onslaught, including their commanders Albrecht von Stein and Arnold von Winkelried. The victory at La Bicocca had finally proved the superiority of the Landsknechts against the Swiss, just as Maximilian had dreamt.

  By 1523, all France’s previous successes in Italy had been undone. Matters were made worse for Francis when Francesco Sforza, an imperialist ally, now held the Duchy of Milan, long regarded as the rightful inheritance of France. After raising 40,000 men, Francis set off a year later to claim what he believed was his, soon taking Milan as well as a number of other highly fortified cities.

  This turn of events was very serious for Charles, particularly after Pope Clement VII also turned his back on the empire, entering into an alliance with France and the Venetian Republic. Following this, a French army under the command of the Duke of Albany was allowed to pass through the Papal States unopposed. An army of German Landsknechts, under the command of Kaspar von Frundsberg, the son of the famous commander, and Graf Eitelfritz von Hohenzollern swiftly marched on Milan but they were soon forced to flee to the fortified town of Pavia, where they joined the old Spanish general Don Antonio de Leyva. Before long, the French began assaulting the southern walls and a siege was underway.

  In January 1525, Charles desperately approached the ailing Frundsberg and begged him to once again raise an army to do battle with the French. Despite his ill health, Frundsberg agreed. He not only wanted to serve his master but also to help rescue his son at Pavia. Quickly, Frundsberg marched to Lodi, northeast of Pavia, where he joined Marx Sittich von Ems, who had also brought troops with him. Together their forces now numbered some 17,000 infantry and 1,000 horses.

  Realising that the imperial relief force would soon be arriving, Francis moved his headquarters to the nearby park of Mirabello, securing a strong position between Pavia and the oncoming imperialist army. However, after three weeks of trench warfare, Frundsberg’s men succeeded in making contact with the Spanish general Leyva in Pavia. Supplying him with much-needed ammunition and provisions, they also co-ordinated plans for the oncoming main assault.

  Meanwhile, drenched by rain and decimated by sickness, the French army’s morale was rapidly dwindling. On 20 February, 6,000 French troops even insisted on returning home, while 2,000 Germans deserted, thus reducing Francis’s army to fewer than 20,000 men. At this, his generals advised Francis to withdraw, but he refused. The stage was set for a battle to the death.

  At midnight on 24 February, the imperialist army, under cover of an artillery barrage and a noisy decoy, moved northward up the River Vernavola. Silently crossing the ford they reached the wall of the Mirabello park, which had thus far been protecting the French. Without drawing the attention of the enemy, the Spanish engineers worked through the night, forcing a 50-yard-wide breach in the wall.

  At this, Frundsberg ordered seven companies of Landsknechts, numbering 2,800 men, to put white shirts over their armour (those who did not have white shirts were ordered to use paper) so that they could easily recognise each other in the darkness. Then, with three blasts from a cannon, Frundsberg gave the signal to those inside Pavia that it was time to move. While his men piled into the French outside the city, with their pikes and guns, Leyva and Kaspar led the charge from inside. Their shock attack swiftly succeeded in driving hundreds of the French into the River Tissino, where many drowned in their heavy armour.

  With the French in disarray and trying desperately to stop the imperial forces from swarming through the breach in the park wall, Frundsberg’s Landsknechts suddenly found themselves in battle with a familiar foe – the Black Band Landsknechts.

  The subsequent fighting was ferocious. Packs of pikes stormed into the other, piercing skin and armour, while close-range gunshots blasted opposing numbers to bits. But soon Frundsberg’s men had the Black Band on the run. Upon seeing his best mercenaries in retreat, King Francis cried, ‘My God! What is this?’ Suddenly, his horse shot from beneath him and a mob of vicious Spaniards descended upon him. He was only saved by the speedy intervention of the imperial Spanish commander Charles de Lannoy, who granted him safe conduct from the field of battle.

  In under two hours, 8,000 Frenchmen had fallen at the expense of only 700 imperialists. The defeat of the French at Pavia left Italy at the mercy of Charles V and proved beyond any doubt that the German Landsknechts were the best shock troops in Europe.

  Francis was subsequently exiled to Spain and had to suffer the humiliation of complying with Charles’s terms of surrender. These included pledging to renounce his claims on Burgundy, Italy and Flanders before he could return to his kingdom. This marked the lowest ebb in France’s fortunes since the Battle of Agincourt, over a century earlier. It also signified the end of Swiss military supremacy.

  However, no sooner was Francis reinstated at his court than he declared the terms of the surrender invalid and once again sought to take Italy. While Frundsberg’s army of 12,000 Landsknechts prepared to march on Rome, news came that a peace treaty had been signed. But the Landsknechts were unimpressed. The treaty offered them a sum far less than they had been expecting for serving in a full campaign. With his troops threatening to mutiny, Frundsberg tried to placate them, but, exhausted by his extensive campaigning and now in ill health, he collapsed in front of his men and was to die soon afterwards. With the death of their beloved leader, discipline became virtually non-existent. Having been cheated of their full pay, the thought of rich plunder now drove the Landsknechts on towards Rome.

  Within three hours, the whole of the Vatican had
been taken. After the brutal execution of some 1,000 defenders of the papal capital and shrines, the pillage of Rome truly began. Churches and monasteries, as well as the palaces of prelates and cardinals, were looted and destroyed. Even pro-imperial cardinals had to pay to save their properties from the rampaging soldiers.

  The so-called ‘Sack of Rome’ had major repercussions for Italian society and culture. While masterpiece sculptures and paintings were lost, the city’s population dropped from some 55,000 before the attack to 10,000 afterwards, with an estimated 12,000 people murdered. Many imperial soldiers also died in the aftermath, largely from diseases caused by masses of unburied corpses in the streets. Pillaging finally ended in February 1528, eight months after the initial attack. When the city’s food supply had run out, there was no one left to ransom. It would take Rome decades to rebuild, while it also did irreparable damage to the reputation of the Landsknechts.

  Not only did the ultimatum ‘No money – no Landsknechts’ soon became one enshrined in infamy, but the body of pikemen and arquebusiers, who had been more than a match for the Swiss, was gradually superseded due to the progress of firearms. However, while the march of technology and military formations soon came to dominate the European battlefield, in Japan a group of elite warriors were achieving incredible results through nothing more than their bodies, and their ingenuity . . .

  13

  THE NINJA

  AD 1562

  By 1562, Japan was in the grip of a civil war that had lasted for over 100 years. Where there had once been peace, warlords and violent militias now roamed the countryside in an orgy of destruction.

  One such battle had ended in a year-long siege at Kaminogo Castle, an Imagawa clan outpost in the wilds of Japan led by Udono Nagamochi. While his rival, Tokugawa Ieyasu, had gathered outside his walls, along with a huge army, he didn’t dare to attack.