Slitherine

Is there a list that would cover Livonian forces under the control of what remained of the Teutonic Knights for the initial clashes with Russia under Ivan Grozny in the 1550's? The German States list from Trade and Treachery might work but the description with the list certainly doesn't seem to obviously cover Livonia.

Chris

In the lack of a specific list I'd suggest that the German states list is best, particularly as the Knights did hire Landsknechts and they probably had lost their edge when they secularized, as in the old military orders the Knights trained every day in swordsmanship and other combat skills as part of their daily ritual, but once they secularized they'd be like any other magnates/small landholders. Most of their horse would probably be typical German mercenary types as well.

As to eastern troops, unfortunately there's not a lot written about this in English, as it's also a subject I'm interested in, but can find little that discusses the histories of the campaigns or the composition of the Knights' armies. Alan Murray states in his book on warfare in the Baltic ("The Clash of Cultures on the Medieval Baltic Frontier") that the troops from the Knight's territories always included very large numbers of "peasants," far outnumbering cavalry and landsknechts, but apparently these were not your father's peasants, they were proper troops wearing breast and back plate and armed with pikes. I guess they could be swapped for landsknechts. They were also very aggressive, not timid chaps with pitchforks. Murray says that the peasant pikemen were "led by Landsknechts who knew their language," so the peasants were not German, but Estonians, Letts, Livonians, etc.

Murray says that the Hochmeister and the peasants were strange bedfellows, united in their dislike of the great German magnates of the area, who resisted the control of the Hochmeister and also resisted the arming and training of the peasants.

When Murray talks about composition of forces, the "horsemen" mentioned are always "German," he does not mention Eastern lighter horse types. (For what it's worth.)

I know they often operated in cooperation with the Poles, and often lost when the Poles could not come to their aid, so that's one consideration as an allied contingent (or perhaps more appropriately, a Polish army with German allies!).

Hopefully someone with more information will chime in, but that's the little I know. For some strange reason I find the remnant TK warfare toward the end to be more romantic and interesting than when they were a truly great power in the East and on the attack.