Landsknecht Guild

I'm reading a book called Women, Armies, and Warfare in Early Modern Europe. It is pretty readable for an academic text (skip the intro and conclusion) and contains a lot of stuff on the Landsknecht, including a whole chapter on Women's jobs within the military unit. One section he calls camp women the mules of the camp, carying all the men's gear while the men get to march with just thier weapons.

I thought y'all might be interested in this part: “an anonymous, handwritten German manuscript of 1612 [so a little late for us but still valuable, I think] detailed the load carried by women on the march:

“How very helpful the German women in Hungary were to the soldiers in carying necessities and in their care of sickness. Seldom is one found who does not cary at least 50 or 60 pounds. Since the soldier caries provisions or other materials, he loads straw and wood on her, to say nothing of the fact that many of them cary one, two, or three children on thier back. Normally, however, aside from the clothing they are wearing, they cary for the man one pair of breeches, one pair of stockings, one pair of shoes, And for themselves the same number of shoes and stockings, one jacket, two Hemmeter, one pan, one pot, one or two spoons, one sheet, one overcoat, one tent, and three poles. They recieve no wood for cooking in thier billets, and so they pick it up on the way. And to add to thier fatigue, they normally lead a small dog on a rope or even cary him in bad weather.”

I enjoyed what I read of the book before I had to give it back to the library. hmmm, strong German women are we?

vagons, vomen… same difference, ja?  

“It vas so veird, Hauptmann.  I don't know how is halbart got up his…”