Who were the best mercenaries in the 17th century?
17th Century Mercenaries
Cooper Mitchell
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Samuel Harris
Weren't scots a pretty common sight in many conflicts and on many sides?
Matthew Carter
Not Scottish.
The German says:
"In such habit(fashion) did 800 Irelanders -or Madmen- arrived in Stettin."
This was during the 30 years war. There is a play on words between Irrlander (irelander, Irish) and Irren (crazy, insane, madman, not of sound mind). Implying that Irrland is a place of people with no sound minds.
Anthony Nguyen
Yes
Hired under Gustavus Adolphus during the 30 years war Queen Elizabeth the 1st for beating up rebellions in Ireland, under Spain I believe and plenty of others I'm sure, I would assume highlander tribes were much more likely to become mercenaries
t.scotsman who's clan always got hired out.
Austin Howard
Irelanders could also be referring to highlanders
John King
Why the scots and the irish? Was it basically because the country had quite a lot of 3rd and 4th sons who weren't going to inherit anything so they might as well go.
Grayson Foster
I've actually been doing some reading on this, the Scots were employed in effectively every army during the 30 Years' War.
Its been calculated that something like 50,000 Scots actually fought. That's about a fifth of the countries military aged men!
Jaxon Baker
Pretty much, there was also intermittent food shortages during the period which will have helped make up some minds
Kevin Jones
It is Highlander clans spoke a version of ScotGaelic as opposed to English and always had a bit of distrust to the lowland Scots
Asher Hernandez
Depends.
In Yurop from top to bottom.
>Spanish/French Ex-Soldiers,
>Swiss
>German Mercs.
>Irish & Scottish
Middle East
>Balkanlars.
>Turkics who were still nomad like the Uzbeks
>A Eurobenis artilleryman.
South Asia
>One of the fiercer "Mlecchas" people
>Eurobenis artilleryman.
Southeast/East Asia
>Ronin & Japanese pirates.
>Chinese gunners/pirates.
>Eurobenis gunner.
Noah Edwards
I fogot, in Eastern Europe and Russia
>Cossacks.
>Western European Advisors.
>Balkanlars.
Brandon Roberts
Check them
en.wikipedia.org
Eli Baker
The German Schwarze Reiters were commonly used during that period. I believe they were the best or some of the best based on their fame and reputation, and on the many similar troops they inspired other countries to create, establishing the Cuirassier as the new Archetype for heavy cavalry in Europe. Although infantry's improving firepower diminished the effectiveness of the caracol around the middle of the 17th century, it was said that mounted pistoliers beat mounted lancers everytime.
Josiah Long
I'd argue that the Scots were higher up than that in Europe.
French army: Guard Ecosse (French Royal Guard)
Denmark-Norway and Sweden actually prioritised recruitment from Scotland over any from the Germany area and preferred using them for officers.
James Moore
>Was it basically because the country had quite a lot of 3rd and 4th sons who weren't going to inherit anything so they might as well go.
This + poverty + rebels were often given amnesty if they left the country. The most famous example is this
en.wikipedia.org
This more or less ended when the British realised that they constantly ended up fighting Irish men on the continent, so they banned all recruitment by foreign armies in Ireland. After that and the relaxation of the penal laws the Irish ended up joining the British army in huge numbers instead. IIRC the British army at Waterloo was like 30-40% irish (Wellington was Irish too, but he was Anglo not Gaelic Irish)
Owen Powell
What is with Swiss that are French or ex French soldiers? shouldn't they be like top on the list?
Charles Gonzalez
>Guard Ecosse (French Royal Guard)
Caleb Perry
Just because they didn't serve in large numbers doesn't mean they weren't good soldiers or mercenaries.
Ayden Jackson
The Guards are just a way to show how fancy you are, in top of my mind Spain for example had:
A Wallon Guard, a Irish one, the Yellow which was originally composed by Spaniards I supose, and one recluted from a specific Castilian town.
Jordan King
I also don't see many Spanish officers fighting in places like Sweden or Germany
Sebastian Young
Germans had Spanish armies fighting for them.
Cooper Nguyen
>Guard Ecosse (French Royal Guard)
They basically only existed because the Dauphin had a fetish for getting his arsehole rimmed and fucked by burly red haired men.