Maximilian I had formed the first mercenary…

Maximilian I had formed the first mercenary Landsknecht regiments in 1487.

Holy Roman Emperor from 1493 to 1519, he calls upon Georg von Frundsberg, sometimes referred to as the Father of the Landsknechts, to assist him in their organization.

Frundsberg, born to Ulrich von Frundsberg, a captain of the Swabian League forces, and his wife Barbara von Rechberg at Mindelheim, into an old line of Tyrolean knights who had settled in Upper Swabia, had followed his father in the campaign of the Hohenzollern margrave Frederick I of Brandenburg-Ansbach, authorized to execute the Imperial ban against Duke Albert IV of Bavaria in 1492.

As Albert gave in, the expedition had been canceled.

The Landsknechts, formed in conscious imitation of the Swiss mercenaries (and, initially, using Swiss instructors), will eventually contribute to the defeat of the redoubtable Swiss, whose battle formations—over-dependent on hand-to-hand fighting—are becoming vulnerable to the increased firepower of arquebus and artillery.

French artillery or Spanish firepower will deal serious blows to the Swiss formations, and the Landsknecht pike blocks will be there to fight off the depleted Swiss attack columns once this occurs.

Landsknechts will later go on to fight in almost every sixteenth-century military campaign, sometimes on both sides of the engagement.