A Reisläufer was a volunteer mercenary foot soldier. The word means “one who undertakes the reiselaufen,” that is, one who goes to/on a military campaign (MHG reise, “military campaign,” laufen, “go on foot”). Unlike the German Landsknecht, Reisläufer has gained currency as the term for mercenaries from Switzerland, but it is relatively infrequent in sources of the period, which tend to use the more common terms Schweizer (Switzer, the early modern English term for “Swiss [person]”) or Schweizer (Fuß-)Knecht (Switzer foot mercenary).

A tradition of mercenary serv…