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Slashing of the Doublet Backside
By Craig Shira
 ne of the most distinguishing aspects of the clothing associated with Landsknecht mercenaries is the usage of cut fabric as a design element. Sleeves and pant legs were often slashed as part of the style. One might wonder if other items of clothing were slashed in addition to the areas of arm and leg. The answer would be yes. The codpiece can be seen with decorative slashes in addition to various hats with cuts in them.
When I first began to design my garb for the Renaissance Fair, I wanted to have as many slashes as I could. My original designs had cuts all over the sleeves, pants, codpiece, hat, brustfleck (the piece of clothing that closes the doublet), and backside of the doublet. Fortunately, it was kindly pointed out to me that if I were to go back to the woodcuts, I would find that the slashes were not on every part of a Landsknecht's clothes. In particular, the backside of the doublet was not a common location for slashing in our year of 1536. Taking the advice, I looked through the German Single Leaf Woodcuts (a collection of block prints from the period) and various online archives that depicted Landsknechte within a 20 year window of our target year.
Depictions of cut designs on the backside of a doublet are, in fact, quite rare. In all the woodcuts I scoured, I found only four definite depictions of the backside being slashed.
The above three images clearly depict that the doublet has been slashed. It is interesting to note that two of those doublets have stripes and that one soldier is holding a harquebus and an other holds a halberd. These two were not the common Speißträger. The fourth instance of a slashed backside was found a little bit outside our time period, being created by Hans Burgkmair towards the beginning of the 16th century. Since the style of these early Landsknechte is similar to later Landsknechte style of 1536, the cross-reference seems to offer a good view of the popularity of slashed backsides.
Only one solider in this image, the Fähndrich, has a slashed backside. This is barely visible, since a solid piece covers most of his back. Similarly, another Burgkmair image depicts a ship of soldiers of various rank. For many of the soldiers, it can be difficult to see what backsides are part of the doublet and what might be a waffenrock, but it is clear that only one has any thing that resembles slashing on the back. In this instance, it could be the doublet that has been cut or, judging by the seam down the back, it could be a ledergollar (leather vest) worn by many Landsknechte. Regardless of which one it is, the important observation is that the slashed backside is a minority.
In comparison, I was able to find many more instances of the backside being intact. In addition to the aforementioned Burgkmair images above that show more soldiers than not with solid backsides, one more shows us that slashed backs were most common. The image below does not depict any type of slashing on the rear side of a soldier.
Referencing the German Single Leaf Woodcuts and other sources that detail Landsknechte of our exact time period, solid backsides are still far more plentiful.
Since backsides that are not decorated are not interesting to draw in portraiture, we will not find as many instances of these people standing with their backs to the artist. To continue the search for plain backsides, we can examine the block prints of the soldiers who wear clothes that allow us to easily deduce that they have not slashed the back of their doublets. Looking through the imagery, there are many examples of doublets that do not have cut sleeves or a cut brustfleck. It is logical to assume that if these commonly slashed areas of the doublet are intact, the backside would be intact too.
The five pictures above clearly demonstrate nine Landsknechte who have unslashed doublets and would not have slashed backsides. Another observation that can be made is that most of these men have very few cuts on their hose. The Pfeifer, the prisoner, and the tradesman talking to the prisoner are the only three with slashing that decorates the entire length of their legs.
The next four images depict soldiers of wealth, as they are able to afford velvet and brocade. We can assume with greater certainty that the backsides of these doublets have not been slashed.
Looking at the picture of the Landsknecht and the boy kneeling at his left, the boy's simple clothes (no slashing on sleeves or on hose) also leads us to conclude that the backside of his doublet would not be slashed. However, it is evident that there is some slashing on one of his garments, since we can see the tell-tale slashing pattern on his shoulders. This boy is wearing a ledergollar, a leather vest which was frequently slashed.
Unlike the doublet, there are many examples of the ledergollar being slashed on the backside. In fact, when most people say that Landsknechte slashed the backs of their doublet, they point to an image of a slashed ledergollar. Truth be told, I had this problem too. Now that I know what I am looking at, it is obvious that the ledergollar has been slashed and is over a doublet with a solid backside.
I have observed that the ledergollar was more commonly slashed than not. One of the few instances of a plain ledergollar backside is the image depicted below; the soldier on the right has only a seam down his back.
As a result of looking at the primary sources from the time period, it is obvious that the backside of the doublet was not commonly slashed; rather, most of the slashing worn on the backside was on the ledergollar. With all this said, one might wonder what purpose is there to make such a trivial point. As a member of the reenactment community, regardless of what era or culture we depict, we are teaching the history of the world by example. In this particular instance, examining our source material and following it as closely as we can ensures that we can present the public with accurate information. If I was to follow through with my original idea of having everything on my garb slashed, I would not present the average Landsknecht accurately.
Sometimes it is not enough to research and discover if something is of the proper period; we must also look to see how common it is. This brings us one step closer to accurately depicting and understanding the culture.
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