Thank you Victrix!
I just ordered a biography of von Trenck, and curious to see what it entails. This guy sounds quite self promoting and clearly was pretty ruthless, he was pretty much always in trouble but his 'bravery' led to his favor with superior officers.
Regarding the swords, that illustration you posted reflects the 'clipped point' which came into use in it seems a bit less dramatic profile on German swords of 18th c. I often wondered if these were artistic license in many of the period illustrations, but in "Schwert Degen Sabel" by Gerrhard Seifert (1962) in panels of blade types shows this exact tip as a 'PANDOUR POINT'.
Here we see the association which reflects the 'fearsome' demeanor of the Pandour weapons, which clearly were intended to present psychological threat to people they came in contact with.
This type effect was of course used by pirates in their maritime versions of these depredations, as well as Cossacks, Vikings, Mongols and other groups to present fearsome appearance before even any action.
There is a possibility he was imprisoned as a result of numbers of things, and may have used the 'laison' reason in a sense of hubris. It seems he was imprisoned numbers of times for his rather sociopathic behavior, so the true reason may be in accord with that issue.
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