Martin Schwartz (mercenary)

Colonel Martin Schwartz ( * 1450, † June 16, 1487 ) was a German mercenary leader, who died at the battle of Stoke, while he was fighting for Lambert Simnel, an impostor who claimed to come from the house of York.

Schwartz was born in Augsburg as son of a shoemaker. In 1486 he was appointed by Maximilian I, who later became emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, hired to liberate the Burgundian Netherlands of the French, and to suppress a rebellion in Flanders.

When John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, learned that the English courts substantiated the claim Simnels, tried that on the farm of his aunt Margaret of Burgundy. She supported him financially and hired more than 1500 German and Swiss mercenaries, whose commander was Schwartz, for an invasion to. Both the Earl of Lincoln and Schwartz died when the invading forces of Henry Tudor's army were stopped.