Siege of Prague 1648 (2) - Soldiers
Thanks to qualitative changes in armaments and tactics, the material and time requirements for the training of soldiers gradually increased to such an extent that already at the end of the sixteenth century untrained "amateurs" from the provincial milita had no chance against military professionals. Thus, as in the late Roman period, the war again became a lifelong vocation for soldiers. Unlike antiquity, however, medieval mercenaries were not hired by the state, but - in today's terminology - by military entrepreneurs who received a so-called "patent" from the state (monarch), entitling them to recruit a certain number of soldiers.