This heralded the return of the infantry as an effective fighting force, and sounded the death knell for the era of the mounted knight. In companies of five hundred, armed with 15-18 foot pikes, the Lanksknechts (german for "land servants") quickly became the most highly respected and feared troops in Europe.
After 1500, when Maximillian allowed them to hire out as mercenaries units, they became the most sought after as well. The Landsknechts fought in virtually all of the major European conflicts from 1482-1660. They were employed by Henry VII, Henry VIII, and Elizabeth I of England, Louis XI, Francis I and Henri II of France, and, of course, Maximillian I, Charles V, Ferninand I, and Rudolph II, and Maximillian II of the Holy Roman Empire.
They were renowned for their fierceness and professionalism, but they were also known for their drunkenness, brutality, and loyalty to only their commanders and the money provided them. 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.
Women were allowed along to perform these vital services, and were supported by their husbands/fathers/brothers/protectors in the army. Although one of the period words for "Campfollower" is "Hure", which translated to "whore", by and large, the German women were not prostitutes. Other period terms include "Kampfrau"(camp wife), "Marketenderin"(Women who cares (goes to the market) for you) and "Schlachtenbummlerin"(Battle Loiterer). Most camp women were married to the soldier they cared for, or else were related in some other way.
Brother/sister or father/daughter relationships were not uncommon. According to the articles of war signed by every soldier, it was an offense for a man to have more then one woman in the baggage train, unless the excess were daughters or sisters. This kept the fighting among the women to a minimum, for an unattached female was a threat to their security. Women who were found prostituting themselves, especially with someone else's man, commonly had their hair cut off and were run out of camp by other women.
It was not uncommon for one women to have many husbands in her lifetime. Unlike their farming sisters, most campfollowers were not expected to produce one child a year from age fifteen to thirty. As childbirth was a leading cause of death among women, military wives had a slightly higher life expectancy then their civilian counterparts. That, coupled with the relatively short life expectancy of the men, virtually insured that every woman would be a widow at least once.
There is one documented case of a Landsknecht campfollower who went through seven husbands. Of course, most peasant women were not exposing themselves to the dangers the campfollowers were. Military camps were far from sanitary, and sixteenth century medicine had little chance of curing some of the nastier infectious diseases. Campfollowers were also considered plunder by enemy forces when an army was defeated, and could be slaughtered or carries away at the opposing soldiers whim. Nevertheless, like the men they followed, the opportunities for wealth and a better life were far greater with the army then back on the farm.
Another benefit of traveling with the army was that Landsknechts, as usually stated in their contracts with foreign powers, and authorized by Maximillian I at the Diet of Augsburg, were not subject to sumptuary laws, which restricted clothing, materials, and jewelry according to social rank.
As Max stated at that time, "Their lives are so brutish and short, that dressing well is one of their few joys. I am not going to take that from them."
The soldiers and their women had a reputation for bright, garish, and mismatched clothing, most often put together from what was plundered from a town, or left over on the battlefield. Still, it meant that even the lowliest soldiers and their wives could wear velvets, brocades, laces, pearls, and gemstones, provided, of course, that no one of a higher rank took a liking to what they had.
The women, who usually followed one hundred or so yards back from any actual fighting on a battlefield, took advantage of the fact, and looted the bodies of dead, and not so dead, soldiers, often of both sides. They also tended to and carried wounded soldiers away from the field, and killed enemy soldiers that were down, but not out. They were usually the first to start plundering an enemy town, taking everything they could carry as the men fought a few streets away. This way, even if the town held, and the soldiers were driven back, the women still gained something.
And it is indeed the women who had gained. If they had plundered stored of food, or even arms or ammunition from the town, it belonged to them, and if the army wanted those items, it had to pay the women for them. That was primarily how the Sutleress' got the goods they sold in camp, from taking what they could, and perhaps buying any excess from fellow campfollowers to resell. German women were allowed to own their own property, and many were shrew businesswomen.
The division of labor was a very real thing in the sixteenth century, and we, as re-enactors, are required to recreate it. This means women don't (usually) carry pikes and fight with swords, and men don't (usually) carry water and wash dishes.
In a modern recreation, the campfollowers main duties during the day are to march with the men during drill, parades, and/or progress; hold back the crowds at battle pageants, watering and body-looting when possible; fix lunch (and possibly breakfast and dinner too) and clean up afterwards; and guard camp whenever necessary.
In the camp
"Get Out of my Kitchen, NOW!"
Meals can be as simple or as elaborate as you have the time and energy to make them. Midday standard when the camp is cold (meaning no cooking fires) is bread, butter, pickles, cheeses, pre-cooked or smoked sausages, hard-boiled eggs, sliced apples, grapes, carrots, celery, water, juice, and something sweet s desert. When camp is Hot, menus can include spit-roasted meats, cooked vegetables, hot fresh sausages, pottages, pot-roasted or braised meats, and even fresh bakes breads(if you're really ambitious). A good rule of thumb is to plan for the weather, hot stews, soups, etc.