Free-lances

Free-lances were roving companies of knights and men-at-arms, who, especially after the Crusades had ceased to give them employment, wandered from state to state selling their services to any lord who was willing to purchase their aid in the perpetual feuds of the middle ages. In Italy they were known as Condottieri (q.v.). In Germany the name Landsknechte was given to a famous organisation of mercenary foot-soldiers, originally raised by Maximilian I. in 1487 from the inhabitants of his Austrian hereditary dominions. The name is not, as is commonly said, a corruption of Lanzknechte ('lancemen'), but was given to distinguish the men of the Austrian lands from the Swiss mercenaries. The Landsknechte played a distinguished part in the wars of the 15th and 16th centuries, but fell into disrepute after the Thirty Years' War.