How would one go about becoming a mercenary in the early modern era? How did recruitment work?
>>16890232>Go to local lord and ask to be a merc>"Do you have a sword or gun?">No>"Get fucked kid"
>>16890232A captain would be charged by a lord to raise a regiment and be given the necessary funds. He would then travel around and have his trusted recruiters travel around. They would set up on public places, send around word of mouth, maybe hang up some posters. Generally in biggers cities or villages of course. If someone wanted to sign up, they could do so, from which point they would travel either with the recruiter or towards the central recruitment place. Once properly under control, they would be trained and given their first payment - which would often go towards buying arms or armour. Obviously you'd need to be young, preferably experienced, preferably armed and armored - how much these are necessary depends on how badly the recruiter needs mercenaries.If there's no recruiters in your local places, you can try and travel around to where there are - maybe towards the residence of a lord known to be at war, or generally towards places where war happens. Germans sometimes travelled to italy on their own for that purpose.
>>16890232Become a highwayman then come to an agreement with a local lord to be paid for protection from you and other highwaymen.
>>16890232>already have the gear>be of reasonable fitness>don't be a serf (at least on paper)>find a recruiting officer and tell him you want to become a merc>if you have fulfilled the top three conditions you will probably get in>>16890391>which would often go towards buying arms or armour.In case of the Landsknechte you have to show up to the recruitment officer already under arms and armor as the level of your equipment would influence your pay grade.
>>16890232Captains would send messages throughout a region that they will hold a muster at a specific time and place. Pipers, herolds, drummers, posters hammered on tavern doors. Just outside cities preferably, as there were both the urban poor and the free citizens that might already be used to handling weapons.At the muster place, recruits would present their credentials, experience or just able bodies and if selected get their pay and march off to training.
