in the writers of the middle age, a kind of Netherlands soldiery, infamous for rapine; a sort of commissioned banditti, who hired themselves to fight for any one who could pay them. The word is variously written by the historians of those days; but every variety is derived from the country of Brabant, which was the chief nursery of these troops. They are also frequently confounded with the Routiers, Roturiers, Ruptarii, Rutarrii, Corteraux, and others.