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Battle of Agincourt (1415)
Albrecht Dürer, Knight, Death, and the Devil (1513)
Dürer's etching gives a fairly good idea of what mounted heavy cavalry looked like at the beginning of the 16th century. Notice the heavy plate armor and the long lance.
Battle of Breitenfeld (1631)
At the Battle of Breitenfeld, during the Thirty Years' War, the forces of King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden administered a crushing defeat to Imperial forces near Leipzig. This etching captures the moment when the Imperialist flank began to collapse and its retreat to Leipzig (upper right corner) began.
Battle of Lützen (1632)
In the center foreground, this illustration clearly shows the tercio formation that that Imperialists and Spanish troops employed during the first half of the 17th century. Musketeers surround pikemen with a square of musketeers at each corner of the formation. At this battle, Gustavus Adolphus's Swedish forces (with little help from his Saxon allies who fled the field) trounced the Imperialists again. Unfortunately for the Swedes, however, Gustavus Adolphus was killed in a reckless cavalry charge.
Battle of Lützen (1632)
This etching presents a view of the battle from the Imperialist perspetive. Notice the tercio on the left side of the picture. In contrast, look at the Swedish formation in the distance on the left.
Musketeers
These illustrations constitute part of a manual that instructed soldiers on the use of matchlocks. What's more fun than holding a twenty-pound weapon, lugging around a prop, and wearing a dozen wooden powder cartridges while waving around a burning match? I'll tell you: holding a twenty-pound weapon, lugging around a prop, and wearing a dozen wooden powder cartridges while waving around a burning match as a big armored man on horseback attempts to skewer you. After you have surveyed these pictures, it should not surprise you that a trained soldier firing a matchlock often required about a minute to load his weapon.
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Copyrighted by Hugh Dubrulle, 2003.