[1500-1516]

Due to inactivity, the Austrian team missed a lot of opportunities to post about specific reforms or changes occurring within the Austrian crownlands. Some were taken into account - the Court Chancery and artillery foundries to name a couple - but most others fell through the cracks. This post will serve to wrap up those missed opportunities with a couple sentences in this post that we may reference for the future.

Each event will be marked with one of the following at the end: N for no mod action, A for mod attention but no action, and Y for mod action and attention.

1500 - Organization of the Kyrisser - N

Using French Gendarmes as a model, Maximilian would reorganize the Imperial Heavy Cavalry into a Kyrisser - still largely a noble profession, they retained full arms but with less weight behind them. Occasionally, Maximilian would accept non-nobles and even knight them from time to time. These Kyrisser served in units called a "lanze" and each contained one kyrisser and six to seven light cavalrymen. By the Italian War of 1516, both light and heavy cavalry would begin to see frequent replacements of cold weapons with firearms.

Probably earlier than 1500, on - Introduction of Structured Triage - A

Maximilian would be the one to introduce structured triage in his armies, first categorizing the wounded and ill after each battle and treating them according to an order of priority rather than by status.

Beginning with the Emperor, each captain of a detachment (of about 200-500 men) would be compelled to bring with them a capable Feldscherer and provide him with medicine and equipments, a process which greatly aided the recovery of his armies and an impact in the amount of dead and incapable.

1507 - Maximilian Raises Imperial Fairs in Leipzig - N

Maximilian favored a number of cities throughout his reign - Regensburg, Leipzig, and especially Augsburg among them - and in 1507 displaying that favor he raised the three market charters bestowed upon the city of Leipzig from 1165 to 1497 from mere markets to Imperial Fairs, laying the foundation for the city of become a hub for east-west trade.

1508 - Military Articles of Conduct - N

In 1508, Maximilian follows up on efforts made by his father Frederick III and issues a code of conduct for Austrian forces. In total, these codes summed up to 23 articles and covered subjects such as obedience to Imperial authority, code of conduct within war camps, exemption of churches from billeting and outright prohibition of violence against civilians, especially so for pregnant women, widows or orphans, priests, 'honest maidens', and mothers.

1511 - Tyrolean Landlibell - A

Often seen as the birth of the Tyrolean Rifle Militia, the Landlibell was a document that regulated the mobilization and raising of necessary funds to raise an army for the defense of the Tyrolean realm, for which all estates would be obligated. Depending on the threat for which the call was raised, there would be two groups, the Levy which would compromise of 5k-20k men depending on the danger and to which each district and city court had to provide a fixed number of able-bodied men. Meanwhile the Landsturm was the body reserved for a sudden break in of a major threat, in which case all able-bodied men from the ages of 18 to 60 would be mobilized for immediate military service.

In return for these obligations, all Tyroleans were exempt from military service outside the borders of the Duchy. Though it was not necessary, Maximilian was also careful not to start any wars that required he march through Tyrol.

Given that this decree required all men to be familiar with the use of arms, so too did it require freedom of arms within Tyrol, which was not something that could be done if Tyrol had serfs.

1513 - Hiring of Gregor Löffler - Y

In 1513, Gregor Löffler entered the Emperor's service following in the footsteps of his father Peter. Löffler was the first gun master who became an arms manufacturer (someone who produces weapons on an industrial scale) and was responsible for casting many of the statues in Maximilian's cenotaph. Corresponding with the ramping up in production from Löffler, Maximilian built a chain of arsenals his borders to aid in the protection of the Empire and his hereditary realms. A central arsenal would be built in Innsbruck, while smaller ones would be built in the following cities;

• Sigmundskron

• Trent

• Lindau

• Breisach

• Vienna

• Graz

• Hochosterwitz

• Laibach

• Gorizia

And finally, the old arsenals of Burgundy would be modernized. All this would be done to the financing of some 500,000 florins, though the Emperor being the micromanager that he is would keep a close eye on whether this total should be higher or lower than he predicts.

1515 - Verteidigungsordnung - A

Following the Treaty of Belgrade, Maximilian recognized the possibility of Ottoman incursions into Austrian territories and called a diet of all Austrian hereditary lands, in which he put forth three libells, all of which would be named for Innsbruck. The first dealt with "the court order of Imperial Majesty and other considerations," the second dealt with national defense and was considered an expansion of the Tyrolean Landlibell (though it was less all-encompassing and thus did not exempt all Habsburg hereditary citizens from military service outside of the Habsburg lands), and the third would deal with "common complaints", largely relating to financial concerns.