Landsknecht Pants Maximilian Black/Red\"Landsknecht\" is the term used to describe a mercenary, mostly German, fighting on foot in the late 15th and 16th centuries, whose primary weapon was the pike, following the Swiss model of the Reislufer. Although Landsknechte were originally recruited as imperial Habsburg mercenaries in the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, they fought under a variety of European lords. They were considered particularly powerful due to their advanced and