Écorcheurs

The Écorcheurs (German cutthroat ) were one of the Grandes dance companies, a group demoblisierter mercenaries ravaged France at the time of King Charles VII ( 1403-1461 ).

After the Civil War the Armagnacs and Burgundian and the Treaty of Arras ( 1435 ), who established peace between the King and Duke of Burgundy again, the mercenaries who had fought on both sides, were dismissed. They now formed gangs that could certainly include several thousand men, looted for its own account, it would not shrink even from larger cities, and were often led by officers who previously had served Charles VII. The best known of these officers are La Hire, Jacques d' Espailly, Alain de Tailleco, Antoine de Chabannes, Jean de Poton Xaintrailles and Rodrigue de Villandrando.

Their activities ravaged especially the Berry, the Languedoc, Burgundy, the Albi and the Auvergne, in the worst but in 1437 the Hainaut during the uprising of the Dutch against the Duke of Burgundy

In October 1439 called for the meeting in Orléans Estates-General that the activities of the Écorcheurs an end would be placed, former mercenaries who pillaged the country and devastated. On November 2, 1439, Charles VII was trying to solve the problem by integrating the Écorcheurs in a standing army. The " ordinance of Orleans ", was used to attempt to put them under the crown alone, however, provoked a revolt of the nobility, who had previously also served the mercenary and thus saw threatened his rights, the Praguerie ( 1440).

After the Anglo- French Treaty of Tours ( 1444 ) put Charles VII the Écorcheurs against Lorraine and Alsace one. Others entered the service of the Emperor Frederick III. against the Swiss, of which several thousand fell at the Battle of St. Jakob an der Birs in August 1444. The May 26, 1445 then brought to the Ordonnanzkompanien the first troops that offered the mercenaries a firm commitment of long duration.