Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of maps
- List of tables
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Note on the text
- List of abbreviations
- Maps
- 1 ‘Then was then and now is now’: an overview of change and continuity in late-medieval and early-modern warfare
- 2 Warfare and the international state system
- 3 War and the emergence of the state: western Europe, 1350–1600
- 4 From military enterprise to standing armies: war, state, and society in western Europe, 1600–1700
- 5 The state and military affairs in east-central Europe, 1380–c. 1520s
- 6 Empires and warfare in east-central Europe, 1550–1750: the Ottoman–Habsburg rivalry and military transformation
- 7 Ottoman military organisation in south-eastern Europe, c. 1420–1720
- 8 The transformation of army organisation in early-modern western Europe, c. 1500–1789
- 9 Aspects of operational art: communications, cannon, and small war
- 10 Tactics and the face of battle
- 11 Naval warfare in Europe, c. 1330–c. 1680
- 12 Legality and legitimacy in war and its conduct, 1350–1650
- 13 Conflict, religion, and ideology
- 14 Warfare, entrepreneurship, and the fiscal-military state
- 15 War and state-building
- Bibliography
- Index
8 - The transformation of army organisation in early-modern western Europe, c. 1500–1789
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of maps
- List of tables
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Note on the text
- List of abbreviations
- Maps
- 1 ‘Then was then and now is now’: an overview of change and continuity in late-medieval and early-modern warfare
- 2 Warfare and the international state system
- 3 War and the emergence of the state: western Europe, 1350–1600
- 4 From military enterprise to standing armies: war, state, and society in western Europe, 1600–1700
- 5 The state and military affairs in east-central Europe, 1380–c. 1520s
- 6 Empires and warfare in east-central Europe, 1550–1750: the Ottoman–Habsburg rivalry and military transformation
- 7 Ottoman military organisation in south-eastern Europe, c. 1420–1720
- 8 The transformation of army organisation in early-modern western Europe, c. 1500–1789
- 9 Aspects of operational art: communications, cannon, and small war
- 10 Tactics and the face of battle
- 11 Naval warfare in Europe, c. 1330–c. 1680
- 12 Legality and legitimacy in war and its conduct, 1350–1650
- 13 Conflict, religion, and ideology
- 14 Warfare, entrepreneurship, and the fiscal-military state
- 15 War and state-building
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The framework: militia, mercenaries, and the standing army
The greatest problem facing the early-modern state was not fighting wars but maintaining and managing its armed forces. Especially in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, governments had to be wary of becoming hostages of the soldiers they had hired. As already noted in Chapters 3 and 4, the Florentine politician Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527) viewed mercenaries as a grave threat to the stable governance of a polity. In his Arte della guerra (1521), he argued that troops who depended for their livelihood on pay presented their employer with only three options: ‘either [he] must keep them continually engaged in war, or must constantly keep them paid in peacetime, or must run the risk of their stripping him of his kingdom.’ Although his concerns were overstated, in the context of the Italian city-states they were understandable; there was a real risk of the condottieri turning against their political masters and seizing power for themselves. However, mercenaries were of course not a recent phenomenon. Nor were infantry victories over noble heavy-cavalry-based armies, when the former were on the defensive; but in the fifteenth century, Swiss infantry successfully attacked mounted opponents in the open field. The Swiss did not need ditches, woods, brooks, or hedges to face a charge; armed with pikes and halberds they formed a living forest that could resist an attack from all sides.
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- European Warfare, 1350–1750 , pp. 159 - 180Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010
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