Niklaus Manuel Deutsch

In 1516, he entered mercenary service as the secretary of Albrecht von Stein, participating in the French campaign in the War of the League of Cambrai.

His famous danse macabre on the wall of the Dominican Abbey in Berne was begun in 1516 or 1517; this work was destroyed in 1660, but a 1649 copy by Albrecht Kauw is extant.

Niklaus Manuel's latest signed works date from around 1520, after which time he dedicated himself to literary production.

After the 1522 campaign, he was also harshly critical of the Holy See, specifically the late Pope Leo X and his militaristic policy in the Italian Wars.

In the years that followed, he was a strong supporter of the Swiss Reformation and a friend of Huldrych Zwingli, who like him had been on campaign in Italy and had become disenchanted with the warmongering of the pope in the Italian Wars.

The play Elsli Tragdenknaben (von dem Elszlin trag den knaben und von Uly Rechenzan, mit irem eelichen Gerichtshandel), printed in 1530, has been ascribed to Niklaus Manuel, but the attribution is probably spurious.