Postilions and Diligences

Postal messengers and riders originally wore special uniforms so that people could recognise them from a distance. The towns started this custom in the Middle Ages. They dressed their messengers in the town’s colours. The uniforms of mail runners and postilions became more and more elaborate and colourful. Their purpose now was not only to show the function of the postal messenger, but also the power and importance of his master.

The Taxis postal service at first dispatched messengers on horseback along its lines, but very soon all sorts of carriages were introduced. These carriages were improved all the time, until they achieved the well-known appearance of the stage-coach, also called a diligence. The post took care not only of the transportation of messages and letters but also of travellers and luggage.

In those unsettled times, travelling by postal stage-coach was anything but a pleasure. The ride itself was tiring, and the stations where travellers spent the night were, in many cases, primitive and badly equipped. The post was continually threatened by hold-ups due to weather and highwaymen. The roads, especially during the Thirty Year War (1618 –1648) and for a long time after the war, were extremely unsafe on the continent. Stage-coaches and postal messengers were prey for robbers and highwaymen and also for marauding bands of soldiers and deserters. Many an officer ‘added to his income’ in this way.

The kings, princes and townspeople were well aware of this danger, and had to bear the disadvantages of disrupted transportation and communications. Many attempts were made to make the roads safe again, but it was a long time before the stage-coaches were reasonably reliable. One of the methods introduced was that of armed escorts. Towards the end of the Middle Ages, an escort was almost the rule. Although there were cases when the escort itself turned into a band of robbers.