We don’t know much about Joachim Meyer’s professional life. He lived, was a practicing messerschmidt and part of the local smith’s guild in Strasbourg, and did all of his fencing and book writing on top of his day job. That’s essentially it.
However, we know a lot more about the careers of his most accomplished student, Wygand Brack. He appears often in the historical records because he worked for the city government of Strasbourg in a couple of positions during his lifetime. Both of his government jobs, first as a night's watch captain then as a council messenger, were also tumultuous periods for Brack resulting in complaints. In this article we will explore this fencing master’s first council-related job, Scharwächter Hauptmann (Night Watch Captain), and how he was fired from this position for misconduct relating to his fencing students.
Part 1: What were the Scharwächter?
The Scharwächter (night watch) were a mixture of law enforcement, fire patrol, and general city safety personnel. They would patrol the streets of cities all over western Europe during the renaissance era, and many cities maintained night watch forces for centuries. Scharwächter may have started their shift in the evening, 9-10pm, and maintained watch until the early morning, with duties such as enforcing curfew if present, spotting fires, calling out the time, preventing crime, and generally keeping order during the dark hours before street lighting was commonplace. They also appear frequently in the records of mandates and regulations in Strasbourg, with lots of rules relating to their functioning. A regulation from Nuremberg in the late 1400s specifically mentions scharwächter not only being fire alarms, but to patrol for potential looters after a fire and look for “anyone who has thrown out or taken out something or wants to carry or transport goods in a suspicious way.”
Nights watchmen would often be outfitted with a lantern, polearm, and would have likely been partially armored. An excerpt collected in “Das alte Strassurg” by Seyboth even mentions some parts of the uniform and armament of the night's watch of Strasbourg:
According to ancient regulations, each guild was required to provide some of its members as night watchmen; on the ground floor of this corner house was the guard room, and on the corner stood the effigy of an "iron man" in full dress, which disappeared only in 1793. The night watchmen received a new black tabard in 1555, with the city's emblem on one sleeve, a knebelspieß (boar spear), a sturmhaube (a type of helm) with (a liner of) fulled felt underneath, bantzer (panzer), and gloves, as they used to go very torn and tattered before.
Many watch positions were compulsory, and burghers with citizenship status in cities may have been required to own and maintain their own arms and armor to fulfill these duties. Even though these positions were obligatory, night watch duties were not some rent-a-cop snooze fest and often contained real danger. There are multiple notes in digitized German archives which have accounts for the killing or injury of a scharwächter, such as one where a Georg Hack von Augsburg, a student, killed a guard and fled the city. Students and night watchmen seem to have clashed often, and it is easy to find records of conflicts like a riot between these two groups.
The night's watch had a ‘Scharwächterhus’ located at what is now 54 Rue des Grandes Arcades, essentially directly next door to the city mint and across the street from the Pfalz (council building). This is the location Wygand would have likely operated out of for his duties in the watch.
Brack would have been especially trained in the use of weapons as a fechtmeister and student of Meyer, but it is unclear if this would lead to any specific preference for his employment for this position. The other individuals applying for a captain’s position (see below) did not appear in the records as fechtmeisters at any time.
However, Brack did not work simply as a run of the mill watchman, but applied for and was hired as a captain of the watch.
Part 2: Brack’s Application and Hiring
In June of 1566 we have the first mention of Brack seeking employment as a scharwächter hauptmann (captain). By this time he had been trained as a freyfechter by Meyer and had run a few fechtschul with the title of “fechtmeister” over about two and a half years.
Wygand Brack, the tailor and fencing master, asks my gentleman, through Doctor Wernher Knoderer, to give him a gracious answer regarding the recently delivered supplication concerning his debts.
Secondly, since a captain's position of the nightwatch is open, he requests to let it come to him.
Thirdly, (he asks) to be allowed to hold a fencing school until St. John's Day.
Only 9 days later we have a note which contains Brack’s name in a list with other applicants, including a Mathis Mussel who would go on to be a council messenger with Brack over a decade later.
They are by name (...) Hanns Volg (who) reports (his membership in?) the crossbow association, Stoffel Prang the Beppering, Heinrich Groß Sr.[?], Hieronymus Beck, Ludwig Müle, Mathis Mussel and Wygand Brack.
Brack was not immediately hired for the position, but took his oath on October 7th along with Anders Goldschlager and the same Hanns Volg named above. Later that year in December he had the title of scharwächter hauptmann included as part of his application for a fechtschul.
Part 3: A complaint about the night’s watch names Brack
However, Bracks' title would not stick for long. Starting in July of 1567, less than a year after his hire, there was a series of complaints against the night's watch.
The notes of the complaints are long, totaling almost 4 pages across 2 separate entries into the Council of XXI records. The second note in August of 1567 is the most interesting however, as it mentions a plan to dismiss Brack from the position. Below are some selections from the full note, which is available within my translation and transcription document. They consist of a sequence of battling complaints between Steffan Bleicher, a bailiff of the city, and the night's watchmen, both plaintiffs putting forth examples of overreach or dereliction of duty for each other.
(They complain that) Steffan Bleicher wants them to strike down those who walk down the alley with lutes and fiddles, and because they do not do it, he reports them for not fulfilling their oath, that the Schwarwächters do not keep watch on the basis of their regulations, one of them may have always kept their watch right but the other not at all, or they will even go directly against regulations. Some of them guzzle themselves full of wine, others work in the day so they cannot keep their watch at night.
The scharwächter contend that Steffan had ordered them to abuse musicians playing music in alleys late at night, whereas Steffan notes that many watchmen work totally blitzed off wine, or are trying to burn the candle at both ends and thus neglect their duties for the watch. Interestingly, the drink budget for the nights watch is included in the Constitution of Strasbourg as 16 shillings per week, but I do not know enough about booze prices in 1567 to know if this would be enough to cause the guards to get sloshed every night.
Following this, Bernhard Groß and Herr Johann Schenklich[?] have questioned - according to this newest insight – the inclined thurnhueter (jailers or tower guards), they were told the same thing. They also listened in the same manner to Steffan Bleicher, he doesn't want to see himself as having ordered them to strike (someone) down, rather he gave the order to check the people, to let them walk away if they give good reply, to seize those who do mischief[?].
Here Bernhard and Johann questioned some tower guards who corroborated the order to beat up lute players, but Steffan countered that he just told them to deal with the musicians playing at night -- ask them about their business and only arrest them if they are up to no good.
Otherwise he (Bleicher) complains generally that the schwarwächter do not follow their regulations. They guzzle themselves full, they do not carry themselves during the night as they should, they let him talk without listening, they do what they want.
Drunken, ignoring orders, going about their business, not showing up for their watch. This willful ignorance of the regulations was also true for Wygand, who is named half way through the complaint…
Wygand Brack keeps it like this with the students, when they walk in front of him during the night they say "master"[?] and "where will we meet tomorrow", (and) he lets them walk away.
Brack during his late night rounds has apparently come across his fencing students (who refer to Brack as “master” and ask where they are going to meet to practice), and rather than discipline them as he should for being out at night, he lets them go. Preferential treatment for his own students, letting potential hooliganism go unpunished! The final judgment of the council was as follows.
The Herr Ammeister (mayor) shall order the herrenknechte (bailiffs) to write down each night who among the schwarwächter keep watch, and if they determine that one does not abide[?] (by the rules) or make up[?] (for lost time when missing nights), they shall enter them (their names) in writing. They shall be presented to the council and be punished with jail or in a different manner, as it is supposed to happen.
In addition one should give the Ammeister the order (that) if one of them enters the scharwächter's house at night, full with wine, to have the same carried off to jail.
And if[?] one should dismiss their officers and the schwarwächter - if there is no repentance[?] - one should not wait until they take it as an injury but put others into office in their stead. This has chiefly been intended for Peter Pfeiffer and Wygand Brack
Thus, Wygand’s time as a scharwächter hauptmann comes to an end only a year after it began. It is unclear if he was also guilty of drunkenness or blamed for the poor state of the watch, with his blind eye towards his fencing students being the only solid rationale within the note for his termination. A month after this note naming Brack as a ne'er do well he advocated for himself to the council, asking if he could keep the job after all and if he could hold a fechtschul to make some extra cash.
Wygand Brack the former night's watch captain recites his service and activity as captain. He requests because he has rendered the service in summer and winter to allow him to retain it & also to allow him to hold a fechtschul until Michaelmas, so he may be able to better pay his house's rent.
Recognized. One should record his service and in the process of doing so tell him that it contented the Ammeister to give him leave, without [???] - because my gentlemen took no pleasure in his service, the request should be denied to him, Herr Niclaus Meyger and Hans Seiler shall tell him this
The Ammeister was happy to have fired him, and they didn’t throw him even a scrap of a bone with his request for a fechtschul. Just 3 days after the note above his replacement is already being chosen, and the note names some other captains who are not keeping their positions as scharwächter hauptmann.
They (their names) have been read, who - instead of Georg Beck, Friedrich Cleyn and Wygand Brack, who were officers - give a written (application) for the same office…
A man named Bastian Letsch (along with 2 others) got the job. A little bit of perceived corruption, turning a blind eye to some students of yours rather than doing your job, cost Brack a paying position with some responsibility and clout.
Part 4: What’s a fechtmeister to do?
Brack was apparently not in a great financial position at the start of his service, asking the council about outstanding debts, and being fired from this job likely did him no help in that regard. In the middle of 1568, a year after he was fired, Brack disappeared from the Strasbourg records and did not reappear until mid-1570 when he purchased citizenship once again. Down on his luck, strapped for cash, how would a fechtmeister struggling to make rent scrape up a few bucks? Did he leave the city for service as a landsknecht in the local conflicts going on at that time (France was in its Wars of Religion, and Brack had worked for the council some years earlier as a messenger relating to the conflict), did he petition a noble to be a court fencing master, did he travel and run fechtschul in foreign cities to scrape up some money?
One possibility is that Meyer hooked him up with a nobleman to help out Brack and his financial woes. Just before he leaves the city, Brack and Meyer hold a fechtschul together in the courtyard of a Count Kuono von Manderscheid (which the council also complains about). This is the first mention of Brack and a Graf (count) together in the records, but upon his return to Strasbourg two years later he continued to instruct local nobility in fencing. His former fencing instructor helping him get a leg up after a tough year and doing some networking for a job may not be so farfetch'd, but a direct reference to this may be difficult to locate in the archives.
What Next?
This series of notes just adds more fuel to the question of why Brack disappeared from the Strasbourg records. We now have a pretty solid financial motive established, with him indebted and losing a job within a year of falling out of the XXI notes. Him leaving the city for some kind of work seems more likely now than ever, but whether he joined up in the conflicts in France or was hired by some noble remains to be seen.
Additionally, finding some actual scharwächter-written records may add more detail to his termination and time within the service. They had their own house, tons of regulations about them, and were a fundamental part of the city, but I have not yet found any “Scharwächter Notes and Documents” specifically within the Strasbourg records. All mentions of the force are within the different council records, so something written specifically by them would definitely be more detail-rich than the occasional notes written second hand.
In short, more digging!
Big thank you to Platy for assistance in transcription and translation of the notes above, as well as in providing historical insight about the position and interesting cultural notes, such as the Eulenspiegel comedy tropes. Every time we work together I learn more and more about the history and lives that were being built during this era, and am always excited to dig into more records with your help. Additional thanks to Olivier Dupuis for finding and sharing a couple Brack Scharwächter notes I had missed in my initial search. Finally, shouts out to the HEMA Discord where I post my research and work real-time as I make discoveries, and most importantly, ask questions to the treasure trove of knowledge the other members contain.