Martin Schwartz (mercenary)

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Martin Schwartz (died June 16, 1487) was a German mercenary who died at the Battle of Stoke Field while fighting for Lambert Simnel, a Yorkist pretender to the English throne.

Schwartz was born in Augsburg, the son of a shoemaker. Able but arrogant^[1], he rose to become a major military entrepreneur. In 1486, he was recruited by Maximilian, later Holy Roman Emperor, to help rid the Burgundian Netherlands of the French and to suppress Flemish rebellion. When John de la Pole, 1st Earl of Lincoln fled the English court having decided to promote the cause of the pretender Simnel, his aunt, Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy, contracted Martin Schwartz to provide troops for an invasion. Both Lincoln and Schwartz died at the Battle of Stoke Field, when this invasion force was routed by the army of Henry Tudor.

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[edit] References

Bennett, Michael (1987). Lambert Simnel and the Battle of Stoke. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-01213-6.