Info on late 15th century German armies?

[Elrak]

Yes, this is the level of warfare that interests me!
I'm picturing neighbouring nobles having their own little feuds and private wars.... And employing mercenaries (including Italian, Swiss and English).
I'd love to find some accounts of such conflicts to read... perhaps I need to learn German?

Oswald von Wolkenstein, a Tyrolean knight and minstrel, even wrote a song about some skirmishes of the war, he himself, his brothers and allied nobles had waged against the duke of Tyrol.

And - as Arlequin said - if you take account of the (Imperial) Cities you will find a lot more of those feuds and private wars. Even the First Margrave War was characterised by raids on cattle ranges, farms and settlements. The typical report in one chronicle of this war was, that soldiers on horse (Reisige) and on foot (Fußknechte) and wagons marched out of the city, invaded enemy territory and tried to pillage and burn down the assets of the opponent.

Eventually Nürnberg had even an extra feud book to list all the knights and nobles who declared war against her.
Link to: Digitalised Version


A good starting point in German might be the article on late medieval warfare in the Historical Lexicon of Bavaria

[Arlequín]

Thank you for those suggestions, the Fehdebuch in particular is a goldmine. 

[Charlie_]

The typical report in one chronicle of this war was, that soldiers on horse (Reisige) and on foot (Fußknechte) and wagons marched out of the city...

Oh, that raises a question. What about the 'war wagons' made famous (or invented by) the Hussites earlier in the century. I'm aware that though they characterised the Hussites' form of warfare, their enemies made use of them too. Did they stay around later in the decade? A few of them could be a fun thing to add.

(And 'war wagons' or not, I should get hold of lots of stationary baggage wagons and other stuff to make some barricades and fortifications with...)

[Arlequín]

Depending on what you term a 'war-wagon' then yes. The Hussite idea caught on and there are plenty of contemporary illustrations that show wagons with a raisable loop-holed side-shield. One shows two lines of such vehicles covering a middle line of normal baggage wagons. 'Wagenburgs' of chained vehicles, with intervening artillery also created instant forts for an army's camp.

With roughly one wagon per twenty men or so, that's a lot of wagons!

[bluechi]

"Kriegsreisende" excelent side for informations.

Think they use the wagons for the stuff and for fortification for a stop of the Journey.or wiki is usefull....."Hans von Rechberg" famous and lucky Raubritter in the south...member of the Raubritter association ritter vom Hegau...and the Ritter vom St.Jörgenschild.who lived around the lake constanz. Städtekrieg 1441/1442 was one of the little wars between Raubritter and citys in the south. But not easy to get much informations. A lot of castles under siege and a lot of villages plundered.