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HWS Medieval Female Landsknecht Concept

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Description

Freiin Ilsa Ermengard von Harzberg of die Regenborgen Garde Lantknechtsregiment, Heiliges Kaiserreich

A Re-drawing of the original Female Landsknecht as part of the Historically Wrong Sketch Series: Medieval Revisited which aims to portray Women Warriors of various cultures in a fictitious historical settings based on AD 800s - AD 1400s era of warfare. :)

Inspired by the song: Sonnenreigen by Faun


INTRODUCTION

Warfare is no strange business for the German people in the middle ages and given the volatile nature of the Holy Roman Empire, war was essentially a part of people's life. As such, whenever there's conflict within and abroad, there's always the need for mercenaries which provided opportunities and profit to be made for those with enough gut. One of the famous mercenaries to have come out durinf the later stage at the end middle ages was the Landschneck, originally formed in the end of 15th century by the Holy Roman Empire Maximilian I, these well armed professional mercenaries would later dominate the landscape of 16th century European warfare. By this time after the Burgundian wars in 1476-1477, the warfare in Europe saw the deadly use of disciplined drilled pike formation and handguns against well-armed cavalry force who had dominated the battlefield for centuries. Due to the significant increase in the cost of raising mounted forces because of the rising status of nobility as well as the veterans of the war who were now unemployed, that future Holy Roman Emperor emperor Maximilian needed to raise cheaper force promptly to uphold his claims to the Burgundian Netherland as well as territories to the east, and thus, creating the beginning of the Landsknecht.


DRAWING COMMENTARIES

Lately, I've been trying to improve my skills on drawing plate armor (and multiple inked character), because strangely enough, I find plate to be more challenging to draw than mail or lamellar/scale armor. Late medieval setting provided the perfect opportunity for that, and even if it goes slightly beyond the 15th century timeline, like this drawing of landsknecth.

Technically speaking, female Landsknecht is rather inaccurate as there weren't any female landsknecth recorded in the history, let alone those who fought in armed conflict. Also, given the timeline of the series, this one is pretty out of the boundary; although the first landsknecht regiment were created in late 15th century, they were actively deployed throughout the 16th century. Nevertheless, there were however, the "tross" or the camp followers, which consisted of Landsknecht's wives (ans sometimes, female relatives), children as well as other specialist such as carpenters. While the tross present a liability to the Landsknecht company and therefore being subject to attack by enemy forces, it's plausible to say that some of the women belonging to the Tross would have had the experience for self defense with weapon, possibly as a last ditch against raiding enemies.

In this drawing, Ilsa von Harzberg is the younger sister of another HWS woman warrior in the series, Ilda von Harzberg. While Ilda is portrayed as vicious and cold-blooded warrior adorned in the most expensive gothic armor, Ilsa is a warm-blooded, bold and often reckless woman who enjoyed the traditional pell-mell battle. As such, I decided to portray her as a stylized Landsknecht, a re-drawing which incorporates the usual puff-slash clothing as well as plate armor for protection, all of which can be found in contemporary depictions (with the exception of greaves, it was uncommon). Her weapon is what is referred to as a Flammenschwert (Flame-sword) due to the wavy blade, a variant of Doppelhänder which was used by the highly experiences swordsmen of the Landsknecth regiment, the Doppelsöldner (Double-soldier, due to them received double pay). The two-handed sword itself reach about 180cm in total length, indicating the Ilsa is a pretty tall woman warrior :P

In the HWS stories, she went her own separate way to carve dynastic realm of her own in north-east Germany, rivaling that of her sister which is based in Austria.


OTHER RELATED MEDIA

Her cold-blooded and vicious sister

Freiin Ilda I von Harzberg of Kaiserreich (German) by Gambargin



See other medieval German women warriors of the series:


Markgrafin Henrike von Onolzbach of Kaiserreich by Gambargin Herzogin Katharina von Lothringen of Kaiserreich by Gambargin Reichsfrau Oda von Meissen of Kaiserreich (German) by Gambargin Herzogin Agnes von Bamberg of Ostarrichi (Austria) by Gambargin


A Part of the Historically Wrong Sketch Series: Medieval Revisited - You can find more on the various faction on the map here:

HWS Medieval Revisited - Faction Map v.1.32 by Gambargin

Image size
2708x4085px 3.55 MB
Make
samsung
Model
SM-N910G
Shutter Speed
1/25 second
Aperture
F/2.2
Focal Length
5 mm
ISO Speed
200
Date Taken
Sep 11, 2016, 11:54:28 PM
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