The Black Company or the Black Troops () was a unit of

Franconia Franconia (german: Franken, ; Franconian dialect: ''Franggn'' ; bar, Frankn) is a region of Germany, characterised by its culture and Franconian dialect (German: ''Fränkisch''). The three administrative regions of Lower, Middle and Upper ...

n farmers and knights that fought on the side of the peasants during the

Peasants' Revolt The Peasants' Revolt, also named Wat Tyler's Rebellion or the Great Rising, was a major uprising across large parts of England in 1381. The revolt had various causes, including the socio-economic and political tensions generated by the Blac ...

in the 1520s, during the

Protestant Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and i ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

Name

The original German name of the Black Company was . The term (black) pointed out the ideological distance of the company from the large peasant army at that time, which called itself the ( meaning "light-colored"). The German word was the name the peasants gave to their armed companies. It was never used again for an army, possibly because the word means "heap" in German and was used to refer to loosely organised armed rabbles.

Formation

The Black Company was formed in 1525 in Rothenburg, out of local, home guard farmers - maybe 600 men - and a company of mercenary

knights A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the ...

. The leader of the Black Company, at least nominally, was nobleman Florian Geyer. Geyer managed to shape the Black Company into something like a company of real soldiers, instead of just an armed mob. Some of the knights were probably his

vassal A vassal or liege subject is a person regarded as having a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch, in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. While the subordinate party is called a vassal, the dominant party is called a suzerai ...

History

After the Company took over the area around Rothenburg, it proceeded to

Swabia Swabia ; german: Schwaben , colloquially ''Schwabenland'' or ''Ländle''; archaic English also Suabia or Svebia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany. The name is ultimately derived from the medieval Duchy of ...

to destroy fortified monasteries and castles and prevent their becoming strongholds of the

Swabian League The Swabian League (''Schwäbischer Bund'') was a mutual defence and peace keeping association of Imperial Estates – free Imperial cities, prelates, principalities and knights – principally in the territory of the early medieval stem duchy o ...

. Those who didn't attack the Black Company were left unharmed during these actions. But in Schweinsberg, Swabia, another company, led by peasant leader Jaecklein Rohrbach, executed about 50 local knights after they had opened fire on two negotiators. Geyer disapproved of this slaughtering and moved his troops back to

to continue the fight. But Rohrbach's action had sealed the fate of captured peasants and of Geyer's men. From that time on,

Georg Georg may refer to: * Georg (film), ''Georg'' (film), 1997 *Georg (musical), Estonian musical * Georg (given name) * Georg (surname) * , a Kriegsmarine coastal tanker See also

* George (disambiguation) {{disambiguation ...

, ("

Steward Steward may refer to: Positions or roles * Steward (office), a representative of a monarch * Steward (Methodism), a leader in a congregation and/or district * Steward, a person responsible for supplies of food to a college, club, or other ins ...

") of

Waldburg Waldburg is a town in the district of Ravensburg in Baden-Württemberg in Germany. It is the home of Waldburg Castle, a medieval castle that sits atop the large hill in the town. The castle dates from the twelfth century, when Waldburg was a ...

, commander of the Swabian League, showed little mercy to the Black Company and hunted them down ruthlessly throughout Swabia. Rohrbach himself was

burned alive ''Burned Alive: A Victim of the Law of Men'' is a best-selling book, ostensibly a first-person account of an attempted honor killing. The author, Souad, is described as a Palestinian woman now living in Europe who survived an attempted murder ...

when he was captured in 1525. In the Battle of Ingolstadt, in May 1525, the Black Company found itself alone against the forces of the

after its allies had been destroyed. The Black Company fought its way back to

Ingolstadt Ingolstadt (, Austro-Bavarian: ) is an independent city on the Danube in Upper Bavaria with 139,553 inhabitants (as of June 30, 2022). Around half a million people live in the metropolitan area. Ingolstadt is the second largest city in Upper Ba ...

and occupied the ruins of the castle, the main buildings of which the members of the Company had themselves burned down some months before. The troops of the League encircled the castle and started their attack. The castle's occupants fought off two assaults but during the third attack, and after the League's heavy artillery breached the massive walls, they were killed. Geyer himself wasn't there during the last battle. He waited for an escort in Rothenburg, but was banned from the city before it arrived. Geyer traveled North and was robbed and killed by two servants of his brother-in-law

Wilhelm von Grumbach Wilhelm von Grumbach (1 June 150318 April 1567) was a German adventurer, chiefly known through his connection with the so-called "Grumbach Feud" (german: Grumbachsche Händel), the last attempt of the Imperial Knights to prevail against the power ...

in the night of June 9–10 in the forest near Rimpar.

Legacy

The Black Company has remained very popular to the present day, although Swabian rulers did everything to nullify its fame in the years after the uprising, through publishing a number of "facts" about the crimes the peasants supposedly had committed. The actions of the Black Company has been memorialised in the song "

Wir sind des Geyers schwarzer Haufen ''Wir sind des Geyers schwarzer Haufen'' is an interwar-era German marching song. Composed around the 1920s, the lyrics of the song are sourced from the poem ''Ich bin der arme Konrad'' by the Bavarian poet and artillery officer Heinrich von R ...

", a World War I-era composition by

Fritz Sotke Fritz originated as a German nickname for Friedrich, or Frederick (''Der Alte Fritz'', and ''Stary Fryc'' were common nicknames for King Frederick II of Prussia and Frederick III, German Emperor) as well as for similar names including Fridolin ...

with lyrics from

Heinrich von Reder Heinrich may refer to: People * Heinrich (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) * Heinrich (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name) *Hetty (given name), a given name (including a list of p ...

. The song has a strong anti-clerical and anti-noble theme, and it is remains popular in modern day Germany, with contemporary bands offering different performances and reinterpretations of the lyrics.

Notes

References

* Engels, Friedrich. '' The Peasant War in Germany'', Germany, 1850; contained in the '' Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels'' Volume 10, International Publishers, New York, 1978, pp. 397–482 *Franz, Günther. ''Der deutsche Bauernkrieg'' 'The German Peasants' War'' Darmstadt, 1987, {{ISBN, 3-534-03424-4 (in German) German Peasants' War 1525 in the Holy Roman Empire 16th century in Bavaria Mercenary units and formations of the Early Modern era 1525 establishments in Europe