The Schmalkaldic War, which began in 1546 and lasted less than a year, pitted the forces of the Holy Roman emperor Charles V (reigned 1519–1556) against the Schmalkaldic League, a Protestant alliance formed by German principalities and cities within the empire. The conflict was fought largely by a new breed of warrior—mercenaries trained to fight in large infantry formations. “While these troops were the backbone of all military operations, we know next to nothing about the individuals within these armies,” says archaeologist Johann Friedrich Tolksdorf of the Bavarian State Office for Monument Protection. Evidence of the grim fate that awaited many such soldiers has now emerged from excavations in the town of Lauingen. Archaeologists have discovered the shallow graves of four young men buried with coins whose dates suggest that the men perished during Charles’ siege of Lauingen, which was allied with the Schmalkaldic League.
The burials were found next to the site of Charles’ military encampment on the banks of the Danube River outside Lauingen, a setting depicted in a sixteenth-century painting that hangs in the town museum. Amid the painting’s martial splendor, a gravely ill soldier receives medical attention, an experience likely shared by those buried in the graves. Despite the men being only in their late teens, their bones bore dramatic signs of stress and attrition. “This supports the historical sources for this campaign, which reported incredibly long marching distances,” says Tolksdorf. How the men died is unknown, though it’s possible disease and the elements, rather than their Schmalkaldic League enemies, sent them to an early grave. On November 8, 1546, a Venetian diplomat who traveled to Lauingen with Charles’ army wrote: “There is great cold and continuous rain, due to which there is mud up to half a leg throughout the camp, and every day many people fall ill and die.…I see that now we are fighting more against the cold and the hardships than against any other enemy.”
