These outlandishly-costumed and fierce soldiers were the ultimate warriors of 16th Century Europe. Their demise in the latter 1500s was due to several factors, not the least of which was decline of the discipline necessary to focus their military efforts. Without a strong monarch like Maximilian I or a general like Georg von Frundsberg, the landsknechts often regressed to a band of disorderly brigands rather than the soldiers of a hired national army.