THE MERCENARY MARKET, 1543–1546 Neither England Nor France Could Fight the War With

CHAPTER SEVEN

FRANCE AND ENGLAND COMPETE FOR TROOPS: THE MERCENARY MARKET, 1543–1546

The Almaynes, who be accompted among all nacions the flower of the world for good orders of footemen1

Neither England nor France could fight the war with their own troops alone; both needed access to the market for professional troops that was overwhelmingly concentrated in the German territories of the Empire. France was well used to drawing on German, Italian and Swiss troops for its armies.2 Henry, as we have seen, wrote into his agreement with the Emperor in 1543 a provision for making up part the army by troops from Germany and the Low Countries. Historians have often stressed the importance of mercenaries in European warfare of the sixteenth century. As both infantry and cavalry, it is plain that they were the professional soldiers needed by every army to stiffen its attack capability.3 It was normal to lament reliance on such foreign troops. In 1545, having to cope with the aftermath of a disastrous attempt at recruitment, Stephen Gardiner thought peace the best way to ‘to eskape the thrawldam to such noughty mennes service.’ At the end of the war, William Paget, after a particularly dire performance by foreign cavalry at Boulogne, lamented that: every tyme [they] leave us in the durt, sumtyme thalmaynes and sum- tymes the Albanoys. I besech God direct all thinges so as for this tyme

1 Description by Thomas Audley in his ‘Order for the warres,’ BL Harl. 309, fo. 6r. 2 D. Potter, Renaissance France at War pp. 124–151. 3 See C. Oman, The Art of War in the Sixteenth Century (London, 1937), and other basic surveys: J.R. Hale, War and Society in Renaissance Europe, 1450–1620 (Lon- don, 1985), pp. 146–152; A. Corvisier, Armies and Society in Europe, 1494–1789 (trans. Indiana, 1979). M. Mallett, Mercenaries and their Masters: Warfare in Renais- sance Italy (London, 1974), argues that the condottiere had become an increasingly stable and aristocratic, as well as professional, force in Italian warfare. On internal landsknecht organization: H.M. Möller, Das Regiment der Landsknechte (1976); F. Redlich, The German Military Enterpriser and his Workforce (2 vols., Wiesbaden, 1964–1965). 306 chapter seven

we leave to have non of them and against the next tyme to be able to have a gret force of our own horsemen.4 Nevertheless, infantry (landsknechts) and light horse drawn mainly from the Empire but also from Italy and the Balkans were essential to all armies. This chapter will concentrate mainly on German mercenaries if only because the survival of substantial French, English and German sources for the engagement of mercenaries from the Empire in the mid-1540s allows an examination in depth of how the two countries competed for the services of military professionals. It also throws light on the practical processes of recruitment and on the interaction of war and diplomacy in the period. Yet it should be obvious that similar problems bedevilled the market in other troops as well. As we have seen, the duke of Albuquerque, a favourite of Henry’s, accompanied him in 1544 with a mounted retinue. A small corps of Spaniards, 450 men, served in 1544 and was then augmented in 1545 by another 700 under Pedro de Gamboa as marshal of the camp. These served at Boulogne, Portsmouth and Scotland in 1545 and Ambleteuse in 1546. An anonymous Spanish chronicler insisted on Henry’s high regard for them but on their quarrelsomeness.5 During the fighting of 1545, Poynings was eager to entice the disgruntled Italians in French service but the coming of peace in 1546 opened the way for both Spaniards and Italians to be enticed into the army being prepared by the Emperor against the German Protestants.6 The duel that took place on 15 July 1546 at Fontainebleau between Julian Romero and Antonio Mora, two Spanish captains in Henry’s service, proved an embarrassment for the recent peace between the kingdoms. Romero accused Mora of betray- ing his oath to Henry. His victory was gratifying to Henry but did not derail the peace.7

4 Gardiner to Paget, 7 Nov. 1545, Muller, Letters, p. 180 (L&P, XX, ii, 749); Paget to Petre, 28 April 1546, NA SP1/217, fo. 121r (L&P, XXI, i, 691). 5 Hume (ed.), Chronicle . . . written in Spanish, pp. 100–131. 6 Poynings to Henry VIII, 4 May 1545, L&P, XX, i, 654; count Berlinguero, com- mander of the Italians in French service in Boulonnais, came to court at this time to threaten that, either his men should be paid or sent back to Italy. Otherwise they would defect to the English. 1800 out of 2000 remained unpaid (Alvarotti to Ercole II, 1 June 1545, ASM, Francia, B 21, fasc. 1, p. 170 (172 decipher). Selve to Francis I, 8 July 1546, Lefèvre-Pontalis, no. 5, p. 9. 7 Selve to Francis I, 4, 18 July 1546, Lefèvre-Pontalis, no. 1, 10. Knyvet to Henry VIII, 17 July 1546, St.P., XI, pp. 239–245; Brantôme, ‘Discours sur le duels’ in Oeuvres completes, ed.L. Lalanne, 11 vols. (Paris, 1864–1882).