IMPERIAL MERCENARY INFANTRY IN SUMMER DRESS

In the course of the 17th century, the Habsburg armies took part in numerous armed conflicts, such as the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), the war with Louis XIV or the war with Turkey (1683-1699). Of course, in the course of the 17th century, this army was changing almost constantly, and its infantry changed along with the changes in the army. During the Thirty Years' War, the Austrian infantry was primarily a mercenary army, often mercenary, divided - as in many other armies of the time - into pikemen and musketeers. The Austrian infantry regiment in the 1730s consisted of about 2,000 people, divided into 10 companies, and on the battlefield it was divided into two battalions of about 1,000 soldiers. Of course, this was not a rule, and there were regiments of much fewer people. They also did their own combat losses and losses caused, for example, by diseases. As an interesting fact, it is often assumed that Austrian pikemen were most often better armored than their Swedish counterparts. At that time, great leaders in the Austrian service were, for example, Wallenstein, Pappenheim and Montecuccoli. After 1648, however, the Austrian infantry underwent considerable changes. First of all, it was slowly becoming a permanent and better trained military. The regiments numbered about 2040 people, then it was divided into 10 companies, but the company consisted mainly of musketeers of which there were 88 in the company, rather than pikemen - of whom there were 48. This was clearly shown by the emphasis placed primarily on firearms. It is worth adding that the Austrian infantry was completely re-equipped with flintlock rifles only during the Spanish Succession War (1701-1713 / 1714). On the other hand, its greatest success in the second half of the 17th century - apart from the Battle of Vienna in 1683, where the Polish hussars played the main role - was the Battle of Zenta in 1697, in which the great commander of the Austrian army at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries, Eugeniusz of Savoy, was in command.