Hello
I am trying to learn more about the activities, arms, and armour of Portuguese fighting men in the late 15th c.

Are there sources which mention Portuguese soldiers in Charles' army? Were they knights? Mercenaries? What arms and armour were they using? Did they have native weapons? Like slings or specific sword types?

Thank you,

John

In the 1476 army, there is mention of a company of 300 men-at-arms and mounted archers under Dom Denis of Portugal. These would be mercenaries, similar to the Italian, Spanish and English companies. As they are recorded as an ordonnance company, we can assume they were organised as one of those but with entirely or largely Portugese personnel.

Anthony is indeed correct. For further information you could do worse than getting your hands on the following volume:

Jacques Paviot: Portugal et Bourgogne au XVe siècle: 1384 - 1482. Recueil de documents extraits des archives bourguignonnes. Lisbon 1995.

I haven't read this myself, but the reviews are alright and there's much about primary sources to discover here.

As you can see from this table of contents (http://bvbr.bib-bvb.de:8991/exlibris/aleph/a2...IHKM45.pdf), it features a supplementary section on Portuguese personnel in the service of the Burgundian dukes.
On the financial side of things, there should be records of payments to troops and stipends for their leaders (as members of the ducal court). Consult the time frame of interest (unfortunately, due to events, the records for 1476 appear rather more basic than is usually the case). The ordonnance company in question, n° XX, came into being in 1475, if I recall correctly.

Hope this helps.

Thank you for the information,

I cant read French. Have to find a translation.

When you talk about mounted archers, were they using recurve more eastern style bows?

Thank you