Subject: schutter militiaman
Culture: Dutch
Setting: Gouden Eeuw / Dutch Golden Age, Netherlands 17thc
Evolution:
Context (Event Photos, Primary Sources. Secondary Sources, Field Notes)
* Haley 1972 p52
"Oligarchies there certainly were, both before and after the Revolt, for the burghers had long since lost any rights that they had once possessed in the election of their vroedschap, or city council. Only in times of crisis might the members of the ornamental civic militia known as the schutterij (themselves well-to-do, for they had to provide their equipment and their functions were largely social) seek to play a part in civic affairs -- as in Amsterdam in 1578, when in the coup known as the Alteratie, the old pro-Spanish and Roman Catholic ruling clique was turned out, and the schutterij proceeded to choose a new Council. Three years later the States sanctioned the new patriciate, but forbade city governments for the future to seek the advice of the guilds and the schutterij: the Alteratie was not to be a precedent."
"In the Netherlands, the twelfth and thirteenth centuries ushered in progressive urbanization of the growing population. Civic guards or militia, as they are also called, became necessary to protect the towns because traditional private guards of the aristocratic rulers proved insufficient. Protection was required that not only from foreign enemies, but from fire or the floods as well. Popular revolts occasionally had to be put down. Hence the Dutch name for their guards was Schutter (in German: 'Schütze', from: 'beschützen') which is 'guardian' (to guard, to protect) and not 'shooter.'
"Members of the schutterij were selected from the town's wealthy burghers since the lower classes could not afford the appropriate equipment and uniform although some local authorities had occasionally paid for the equipment. Officers and captains were appointed by the city magistrates, and aside their social origin, they had to be members of the Reformed Church. In the words of a Delft edict of 1655, schutters were 'the most suitable, most peaceful and best qualified burghers or children of burgers.' Their pay, compared to their duties, was negligible consisting of a small subsidy or a partial release from certain taxes. Nevertheless, the membership in a Civic Guard was a matter of civic pride, an honor which led to the development of a kind of civic nobility (burgeredeldom).
"Members of the schutterij obeyed strict rules, embedded in the general civil law. In time of war, importance was given to the assigning of colors and symbols for each town so that fellow citizens could be easily identified avoiding confusion in the tangle of a battle."
* Schama 1987 p244
"[T]he most celebrated of all pseudo-military ensembles, the schutterstukken militia scenes (whether in the sober and formal manner of sixteenth-century prototypes, or the flamboyant grandeur of Hals and Rembrandt), are emphatically group portraits of civilians in martial fancy dress. Their ranks are determined by their respective places in the patrician pecking order, and their regimental insignia and emblems and colors are closer to those of the civic corporations and guilds rather than to battle dress (which had no uniforms at all). The gorgeousness of their array was an urban parade, and the doelen, even amidst the banner waving and the shouted Sunday drill, stood not as an extension of the military life into the civic, but as its opposite and alternative. The militiaman, the armed civilian, was as intrinsically benign as the professional soldier was malign. He was of the community and not a marauding invader or an unwelcome billet. He could be relied on to bear arms in the Fatherland's hour of need without abusing them to threaten its liberties. That, at least, was the received wisdom ...."
Armor
* Royal Armouries Museum > War Gallery
"... Armour like this appears in several group portraits of Dutch Civic Guards." ...
Costume
* Ventura 1993 p40
"In the early 1600s there was another kind of fashion in the Netherlands, the richest country of that time. It was the opposite of Spanish style in that it gave men longer, looser doublets with less noticeable padding, a higher waist, and wider, longer breeches that were tucked into turned-up funnel boots."
Sword
* Hermann/Wagner 1979 p23
"Offizierfelddegen (Pappenheimer) waren Degen mit einer zweischneidigen Klinge, S-förmiger Parierstange, beidseitig durchbrochenen großen Stichblättern und einem Faustbügel."
* Victoria & Albert Museum online (describing a Pappenheimer rapier, ca. 1630)
"A type of rapier known as a 'Pappenheimer' widely used during the Thirty Years War (1618-48), so called because this form of pierced basket hilt was favoured by Gottfried Heinrich, Graf Pappenheim, a famous general for the Hapsburgs. Many smiths throughout Germany and the Low Countries copied the style, which provides excellent sword hand protection."
* Fryer 1969 p66
"Pappenheimer A rapier with swept hilt having pierced double-shell guards. The name derives from marshal Maximilian Pappenheim. Also referred to as a a 'Walloon Sword.'"
* Art Institute of Chicago online (describing a Pappenheim rapier, Dutch ca. 1630)
"Both mounted cavalry and men on foot favored this form of sword during the height of the Thirty Years’ War (1618–48). The large guard fitted with pierced plates protected the user’s hand from heavy cuts and thrusts. The weapon is often termed a Pappenheimer rapier after the German Count Gottfried Heinrich zu Pappenheim, an imperial field marshal during the conflict." ...
* Cohen 2002 p71
"In the Netherlands the rapier had already begun to be replaced as early as the 1630s by swords with smaller hilts and shorter, more manageable blades. When Charles II and his followers returned to England after their long exile there, they brought these 'town swords' with them."
* Metropolitan Museum of Art online (describing a smallsword, Dutch ca. 1650)
"By the early seventeenth century, the rapier, a long slender thrusting sword, began to dominate as the gentleman’s weapon of choice. During the course of the century, however, as civilian fencing techniques became more specialized and refined, the rapier developed into a lighter, trimmed-down weapon known by about 1700 as the smallsword."
Cup
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