The saying "Landsknechts are
as good as the gold you pay them, and last about
as long as the beer" is a
modern Renaissance Festival axiom, but it is accurate
neverless.
Renaissance warfare
was a dirty, bloody business, and the average life
expectancy
for a footsoldier was
about one year. Still, young men flocked to the
armies
for valor and glory, and also
because of the opportunities they provided.
In a time when most peasants-farmers earned roughly two marks per year, the
lowliest Landsknecht was paid four marks per month. Additionally, soldiers
were often given
incentive pay, being allowed to keep anything they could
carry off from a conquered
city or town.
When the Landsknechts sacked Rome in 1527, the looting lasted for over
a year,
and in the end, the mercenaries were paid to leave, since no force could drive
them out. If a soldier survived three or five years of hard campaigning, he could
retire as a wealthy man.
It was a generally accepted fact of the time that one could
not send a soldier
off to was without someone to cook, clean, dress, heal and otherwise
look after him. Then, as today, support services were extremely important,
and support personnel often outnumbered the combatants.
Unlike today the
Landsknecht commanders were not about to hire the additional men required,
and then not be able to use them in the fighting.
