The Battle of Pavia 1525 revisited

Jim McDougall · 18th September 2008, 06:03 AM

Again, this material is really fascinating, and its great to have so much historical detail shared here, Matchlock! Its like having a personal museum tour and with these great pieces...as you note, amazing to have them in static condition of the period without later alterations.

It is also extremely interesting to see the context with these formidable weapons and the almost bizarre costume of the Landsknecht forces carrying them. It seems that Maxmilian I gave these mercenary troops free license to elaborate and most colorful attire...it would seem actually a sort of early psychological warfare. The 'X' s n their backs are interesting as preuniform identification!
I found mention of 'slashing' which apparantly was originally patching tears in clothing with whatever material was at hand, and with fanfare became popular as an application representing battle damaged cloth.

I guess the word 'alterations' set me off on the fashion tangent

!

All the best,
Jim

18th September 2008, 06:03 AM	#2
Jim McDougall Arms Historian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Route 66 Posts: 10,281	Again, this material is really fascinating, and its great to have so much historical detail shared here, Matchlock! Its like having a personal museum tour and with these great pieces...as you note, amazing to have them in static condition of the period without later alterations. It is also extremely interesting to see the context with these formidable weapons and the almost bizarre costume of the Landsknecht forces carrying them. It seems that Maxmilian I gave these mercenary troops free license to elaborate and most colorful attire...it would seem actually a sort of early psychological warfare. The 'X' s n their backs are interesting as preuniform identification! I found mention of 'slashing' which apparantly was originally patching tears in clothing with whatever material was at hand, and with fanfare became popular as an application representing battle damaged cloth. I guess the word 'alterations' set me off on the fashion tangent ! All the best, Jim