Bandes d'ordonnance
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/44/Bande_d%27ordonnance_de_Charles_-_Qunt%2C_1543._%C3%89cuyer%3B_Homme_d%27armes%3B_Archer%3B_Page%3B_Trompette_%28NYPL_b14896507-84272%29.tiff/lossy-page1-220px-Bande_d%27ordonnance_de_Charles_-_Qunt%2C_1543._%C3%89cuyer%3B_Homme_d%27armes%3B_Archer%3B_Page%3B_Trompette_%28NYPL_b14896507-84272%29.tiff.jpg)
Bandes d'ordonnance (French) or Benden van ordonnantie (Dutch) were elite heavy cavalry formations recruited from the aristocracy in the early-modern Low Countries. They were originally formed by Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, and became an integral part of the military organization of the Low Countries from the mid-fifteenth to late-sixteenth centuries, up to the first years of the Eighty Years' War. They continued to exist into the seventeenth century with far less military importance, although a command in a Bande d'ordonnance was still a considerable social distinction.
References
- Baron Guillaume, Histoire des Bandes d'Ordonnance des Pays-Bas (Brussels, Académie royale de Belgique, 1873)
- D. J. B. Trim, "Army, Society and Military Professionalism in the Netherlands", in The Chivalric Ethos and the Development of Military Professionalism, 2003, pp. 279-280.
- H.F.K. van Nierop, The Nobility of Holland, 1993, p. 160.
- Fernando González de León, The Road to Rocroi, 2009, pp. 23-24.
External links
The New York Public Library Vinkhuijzen Collection of Military Costume Illustration contains the following images:
- Bande d'ordonnance of Charles the Bold, 1473.
- Bande d'ordonnance of Charles V, 1543.
- Lancers of the bandes d'ordonnance, 1572
- Man at arms of the bandes d'ordonnance, 1608.