Von grosser Sterk,
Ein theurer Held;
Behielt das Feld
In Streit und Krieg.
Den Feind niederslieg
In aller Schlacht.
Er legt Got zu die Er und Macht."
Which maybe roughly translated: "George of Frundsberg, of marvellous strength; a hero of renown; invincible upon the field of combat and war; victorious in every battle. The honour of which success he gave to God."
He threw in his lot with the Lutherans, and commanded the troops under Charles V., and was one of the knights who were concerned in the attack upon Rome.
Although at one time immensely wealthy, when he was at last taken with an apoplectic seizure during the siege of the latter city, and carried home to die at Mindelheim, he was a ruined man. He had spared none of his wealth in the prosecution of expeditions in which he had been engaged, where, as often as not, the kings and emperors on whose behalf they were undertaken failed to pay the troops. To his credit, Georg von Frundsberg seems to have invariably paid the men himself; and we are told he seldom took the booty which fell to his share, selecting only some comparatively valueless, though generally historically interesting objects, such as flags and banners, a sword (jewelled sometimes, it is true, but still comparatively unimportant monetarily compared with the vast treasure he might have taken as his share), or the helmet of a conquered challenger, preferring that his men should be well paid by the major portion of the loot for their bravery and endurance. In those days money advanced by nobles and others to warring princes to carry on expeditions was generally not recovered from the actual borrowers, but repaid by robbery of the conquered, out of the booty seized, or by means of the ransoms paid by distinguished prisoners. So it happened that Georg von Frundsberg, scorning these means, was gradually ruined, for neither Charles V. nor Maximilian saw to it that the vast sums he from time to time expended on their behalf during their campaigns were repaid to him.