Early Modern Warfare

This most recent edition of the bibliography contains almost 21,200 titles in English (64%) and French (36%), with an introductory section on historiography. It deals with every aspect of Italian history and culture from the Late Renaissance to the French Revolution.

Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, Gran Capitán de los ejércitos españoles, destacó por mantener la fidelidad a la misión, por la aplicación deliberada de la violencia a gran escala como resorte para mover voluntades propias o del enemigo. Impuso en Europa la forma de guerrear característica en Granada, de ardides, escaramuzas y emboscadas.
Procuró que los combatientes armados de distinta manera  se complementaran en sus capacidades, formando  agrupamientos tácticos, base de los Tercios, dominadores de los campos de batalla europeosdurante siglo y medio.
Sus enseñanzas sobre el aprovechamiento del terreno pasaron a convertirse en algo básico de la praxis militar; llevó a Italia la sorpresa para multiplicar la eficacia de sus fuerzas, y con ello devolvió a la guerra europea uno de sus principios fundamentales, mereciendo por ello un puesto entre los grandes jefes militares de la Historia.

The Nine Years War has often been portrayed as a no-holds-barred conflict in which brutality was the norm. The orgy or bloodshed and cataclysmic famine in Ulster which brought the war to its close helped cement this image. That Queen Elizabeth and her advisors saw this as a rebellion and not a war demonstrated that, for the English, the actions of the Hugh O’Neill and his allies placed them beyond the prevailing customs of jus in bello. This would have allowed any and all actions to recover control of Ireland. However, close examination of the details of the war shows that restraint was commonplace from its outset. This paper will look at the limitations on inter-personal violence against both soldiers and civilians and how these could change according to circumstance. It is well-known that the forces of the crown and the Irish lords could be callous, but there also many instances here surrenders were accepted and prisoners spared. Whenever outrages did occur, often they can be explained for reasons other than cultural intolerance or bigotry; personal animosity, logistical weakness, operational expediency and frustrations caused by the irregular characteristics of the conflict could all influence either side’s proclivity for taking prisoners. However the war was not fought in a moral vacuum as there were frequent examples of trust and expectations of good-faith between belligerents. While brutal the war was not an untrammelled descent into barbarism, thought the decidedly bloody conclusion has tended to obscure this.

Quisiera agradecer en primer lugar la ayuda y el apoyo prestado por el profesor Bernardo García y la Fundación Carlos de Amberes, sin las cuales esta investigación no hubiera sido posible, muchas gracias de todo corazón. Al profesor Fernando Andrés le doy las gracias por todos los desvelos que ha tenido por mí en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. A los profesores Antonio Álvarez-Ossorio, Declan Downey, Alicia Esteban Estríngana, Enrique García Hernán y Brian Jackson, director del John Hume Institute for Global Irish Studies, University College of Dublin, les agradezco su constante aliento y auxilio. También a los doctores Benjamin Hazard y Antonio Rodríguez.

There is a lot of misinformation circulating about this battle. This is largely based on retrospective accounts of the day, and some particularly partisan accounts.  This section challenges these through a forensic study of eye-witness accounts of the battle. In so doing it completely revises our understanding of the battle.

Indice / Content: 1. La teoría en los prólogos. 2.  Con toda verdad: testigos, documentos, archivos. 3. Cumplir con la poesía. 4. Entender la guerra: épica y artes de la milicia. 5. A leer una épica no se acomoda el vulgo. 6. Faltando quien las escriba.

Abdullah bin Ibrahim nicknamed Üsküdarî was a participant in the military campaign of grand vizier Mustafa Pasha Köprülü against Serbia in 1690. In his diary, he described one of the largest destructions in the long history of the Belgrade fortress. In October 1690 during the Ottoman bombardment of Belgrade, which was then in hands of the Habsburg Monarchy, one grenade struck a large powder storeroom and caused an explosion that destroyed the medieval castle of despot Stefan Lazarević. The castle, built in the early 15th century, was situated in the present-day area between the Victor monument and the Ottoman fountain at Defterdar’s Gate, where today only a miniature scale model reveals its former appearance. Üsküdarî’s dramatic first-hand description of the explosion and of the slaughter of defenders in the Danube port tells not only about the human and material costs but also provides information on the location of some of the city’s buildings and neighbourhoods.

T HE siege and battle of Kinsale have signified the end of the Gaelic world for the historiography of Ireland and Spain 1 . After the defeat of the Earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnell and their Spanish allies, Irish society beyond the English Pale or enclave around Dublin, began to change dramatically. This trauma was not only experienced by the Gaelic Irish, but also by those Irish of Hiberno-Norman and Old English origins. The old customs and the Brehon law were proscribed and English Common Law was imposed on the island kingdom, at least in theory 2 .

oco a poco, los esfuerzos de avezados editores, así como los riesgos que estos asumen en el desempeño de un trabajo vital para la sociedad, van poniendo a disposición del público castellanoparlante y su comunidad investigadora clásicos como este Historia de la guerra, impecablemente vertido a nuestra lengua por Francisco Martín Arribas y con un fantástico acabado debido al buen hacer de los compañeros de Turner Publicaciones. Desde el 2011 han traducido y publicado cuatro de sus obras fundamentales: The American Civil War [Secesión. La guerra civil americana], Intelligence in War: Knowledge of the Enemy from Napoleon to Al-Qaeda [Inteligencia militar. Conocer al enemigo, de Napoleón a Al-Qaeda] y, seguramente la más importante, El rostro de la batalla [The F ace of Battle] 5 . Esta firme apuesta por dar a conocer los trabajos de uno de los historiadores más influyentes en el ámbito de la historia militar hace que estemos de enhorabuena, tanto el público aficionado como aquellos que andamos embarcados profesionalmente en esta pacífica lucha por situar dicho paradigma en un plano diferente al que estamos habituados. Merece la pena remontarnos varias décadas atrás para constatar que su The F ace of Battle, publicado en 1976, marcaría un punto de inflexión sin precedentes en el ámbito de la metodología en un panorama historiográfico que, a decir de Richard Buel, era «poco brillante» en lo que se refiere a la historia militar 6 . Hasta ese momento, los debates e interpretaciones más interesantes habían estado dominados por enfoques clásicos propios de la historia política o, en el mejor de los casos, de tipo más estructural, fruto de la hegemonía de la Escuela de los Annales y el tipo de historia social que se practicaba por aquel entonces. Sin lugar a dudas, algunas obras posibilitaron notables avances de los que hoy en día somos deudores en muchos sentidos, pero no se centraban estrictamente en el hecho bélico per se ni desarrollaban conceptos originales dirigidos a su conocimiento, sino que aplicaban esquemas interpretativos preexistentes 7 . En este sentido, el trabajo de Keegan supuso un soplo de aire fresco que pronto dio lugar a la aparición de otros trabajos que se reconocían de uno u otro modo como deudores de las visiones y propósitos alumbrados por el británico y que, finalmente, acabarían fundando lo que hoy en día constituye un paradigma de 5 Ya una década antes el servicio de publicaciones del Ministerio de Defensa tradujo algunas de estas obras, si bien en tiradas mucho más pequeñas y dirigidas fundamentalmente a las Fuerzas Armadas con fines profesionales. 6 Véase KEEGAN, John, (1976) The Face of Battle, Londres, Jonathan Cape [Disponible en castellano: (2013) El rostro de la batalla, Madrid, Turner]. Para un buen análisis del conjunto de la obra de Keegan y su contexto historio

The ‘Nine Years War’ in Ireland saw violence and upheaval which brought the authority of the English crown to the point of collapse, but also resulted in the completion of the Tudor conquest and the eradication of native Irish laws and social order. This thesis examines the conduct and impact of the Nine Years War in the context of military transformations occurring in continental Europe. The effects of the modernising influences of the ‘military revolution’ on the native Irish military are explored, and also the reciprocal development and response of the forces of the English crown. This is achieved by studying the war at strategic, operational and tactical levels, the role of combat, the methodology and equipment used and development of doctrine. Furthermore the increased intensity of war precipitated higher levels of brutality and civilian victimisation. Therefore this study examines the role and extent of atrocity and aggression against civilians in Ireland and compares this with the experience of war in contemporary Europe.
Key issues engaged with are the strategy behind both Irish and English campaigns, the degree to which the war can be considered a guerrilla war, the use of fortifications by the Irish, and the fatal weaknesses in the forces raised by O’Neill and his confederates. In addition non-combat characteristics of the war are examined such as the native economy, manufacturing, the command and control of military forces, and Irish military logistics. Detailed examination of the course and key moments of the war provides significant insight into attitudes in early modern Ireland with regards to modernisation, innovation and the social relationships between the native Irish, and the Old English and New English.

Universidad de Alcalá lA cesión de soberanía de los estados de Flandes a los archiduques Alberto e Isabel, que Felipe II efectuó en 1598, no sólo conllevó cambios sustanciales para sus naturales. También los españoles que servían en el ejército de Flandes sintieron que todo cambiaba súbitamente para ellos. En noviembre de 1599, el embajador de Felipe III en la Corte archiducal, don Baltasar de Zúñiga, comunicó al monarca la desconfianza de este colectivo, derivada del cambio de soberanía del territorio: la gente española que aquí tiene v. M., [que] es el nervio d'este exército i de toda la milicia de sus reinos, se va menoscabando mui a prisa i aunque este daño debe venir de muchas causas, una de las más eficaces pienso qu'es havérseles assentado (assí a las personas principales del exército como a los soldados en general) que desde que se hizo la çessión d'estos estados no son de ningún valor sus servicios ni v. M. ha de hazer más caudal d'ellos que si militaran en servicio de otro Rei i así se van desgastando i se acabarán de deshacer si v. M. i sus ministros con palabras i obras no tratan de desarraigar este error tan perjudicial a su servicio. 2 Puesto que ahora servían en los estados patrimoniales de un soberano extraño (el archiduque Alberto, capitán general del ejército de Flandes antes y después de 1598), los oficiales y soldados españoles entendían que Felipe III apreciaría menos sus servicios. Según su razonamiento, los servi-1 Contribución realizada entre dos proyectos I + D del Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (ref. HUM2006-09833HIST y HAR2009-12963-C03-02/HIS), ejecutados desde la Fundación Carlos de Amberes y la Universidad de Alcalá. También forma parte de la labor que realizo como investigadora Ramón y Cajal de dicho Ministerio en la misma universidad.

This talk (which alludes to many authors but contains no notes) suggests how neo-Darwinian theory enriches our understanding of war, which is an important human universal. Passing in review some important studies in anthropology, it concludes with some recent attempts in historical writing to increase our knowledge about how men behave in combat and on campaign.

Este artigo pretende analisar a estrutura, organização e conteúdo do Armazém de Goa em 1546. Baseam o-nos numa devassa inédita ordenada pelo governador D. João de Castro, aquando da sua chegada à capital do chamado Estado d a ín d ia. Este manuscrito, hoje preservada na Biblioteca da Ajuda, dá conta do material existente neste edifício, do seu estado de conservação e disposição interna, dados raramente encontrados noutra documentação. N om eado para este cargo no início de 1545, D. João de Castro é uma das figuras mais emblemáticas da presença portuguesa na Ásia. O seu governo e curto vice-reinado (1545-1548) decorreu num conturbado período de tensão político-militar, especialmente no âmbito da guerra movida contra soberanos locais. Ficou particularmente marcado por diversas reformas na estrutura militar, financeira e administrativa reforçando assim o poder da Coroa na Ásia. A reorganização do Armazém de Goa nestes anos foi crucial para assegurar o abastecimento logístico das restantes fortalezas e dos próprios efectivos militares tão frequentemente utilizados nas campanhas militares de D. João de Castro.

People have built walls for thousands of years to protect cities, to divide cities and along the borders of polities.  This paper examines this process to place modern walls in a historical context and to ask in what ways is modern wall building similar and different from earlier walls. For most of human history, people primarily built walls as military technology. The European invention of cannon in the 16th century radically changed global wall construction. The further development of artillery in the late 19th century as well as tanks and aircraft in the 20th essentially made walls obsolete as military technology.  Within cities, walls defined and elaborated ethnic and religious differences but this custom also declined in the 19th century to be revived in the second half of the 20th century.  Many walled cites such as Carcassonne in France and long walls such as the Great Wall of China and Hadrian’s Wall in England are important parts of global heritage.  Modern walls largely lack the military emphasis of earlier walls but retain the power to define, assert, protect, and ultimately polarize radical, ethnic, religious and national identities.

In his Discorsi Politici (1599) the Venetian Ambassador Paolo Paruta (1540-1598) analyzes several topics from ancient and modern History. Writing during the passage from Late Renaissance to the Age of Raison d’État, Paruta has the opportunity to face the new Renaissance warfare: mercenary troops, modern State armies, gunpowder and fortifications. As Ambassador of the Most Serene Republic in Rome, he announced to Pope Clement VIII the building of Palmanova fortress (1593); as political writer, he shows a deep aware of this historical turning point for Venice. The Lion Republic, harshly defeated in the Battle of Agnadello (1509), can aim no more for an offensive war, it has just to try to defend its territory from the Hapsburg and the Turks. So politics and military tactics match together: as mouthpiece of the Venetian neutrality, he opts for defensive tactics. This basic choice works as historiographical criteria, too: Charles V was right in not attacking Suleiman the Magnificent during the two Sieges of Vienna (1529, 1532); the Venetian Republic was betrayed during the Italian Wars by its offensive commanders, such as Bartolomeo d’Alviano. The last sentence of Paruta’s book («[W]here the business is doubtful and difficult, we must rather adhere to that which holds us from doing any thing, then to what eggs us on») is very far from the final, offensive exhortation of Machiavelli’s Principe: Venice and Florence have different points of view not only in the Parliament, but in the battlefield too. Yet the whole Italian Renaissance is on its last legs, under the Spanish dominion of the Peninsula. No more place for Scipio Africanus: the wise Parutian politician should follow the example of Fabius Maximus in his struggle to save the borders of the State.

En Dauphiné, les guerres d'Italie se rappellent aux souvenirs de tous par la personne du chevalier Bayard mais bien d'autres Dauphinois ont été appelés à participer aux guerres de la couronne au delà des monts: Francs archers, légionnaires, élus, fouagers. Tous démontrent une pratique militaire de frontière de plus en plus permanente pour soutenir l'effort de guerre, participant ainsi à inscrire davantage le fait militaire à l'échelle locale et provinciale.

Recibido: 24-01-2015 ▪ Aceptado: 25-05-2105 ▪ demesagallego@yahoo.es * Este trabajo se ha realizado en el marco del proyecto HAR2014-53298-C2-2-P "Nuevas perspectivas de historia social en la ciudad de Madrid y sus áreas de influencia en la época moderna", financiado por el Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad. Agradezco a Fernando Andrés Robres, amigo y mentor, sus consejos y el apoyo que siempre me ha brindado; a él dedico este artículo.

Aussi abondante que soit l'historiographie relative à Bayard, on ne saurait dire que ses états de service militaires ont fait l'objet d'une étude détaillée, tant les historiens se sont comme résignés de l'épais brouillard qui entoure sa vie. Dans sa biographie de référence, parue en 1992, Jean Jacquart affirme ainsi que « les érudits du XIX e siècle ont collecté, publié et utilisé les trop rares documents où Bayard intervient ou apparaît 1 ». Sans doute s'est-il trop fié aux travaux antérieurs, tels ceux de Camille Monnet, en Dauphiné, ou d'Henri Lepage, qui a trouvé de fort beaux documents dans le chartrier des ducs de Lorraine, mais s'est avancé à affirmer que « les procès-verbaux des « monstres et revues » [de la compagnie du duc de Lorraine, dont Bayard était alors lieutenant] n'existent malheureusement plus 2 ». L'histoire procédant par accumulations successives, il convient de saluer les découvertes et les apports des pionniers de la discipline ou de ses grands noms, et certes pas de leur reprocher d'avoir laissé de l'ouvrage aux générations suivantes. C'est ici le cas, puisque Bayard apparaît à pas moins de vingt reprises dans les montres d'armes des compagnies d'ordonnance auxquelles il a appartenu, et cela du tout début de sa carrière jusqu'à ses derniers jours 3 . Ces documents, soustraits aux archives de la Chambre des comptes de Paris, se trouvent dans les collections de montres conservées à la Bibliothèque nationale de France, et plus particulièrement celles constituées par François-Roger de Gaignières et Nicolas-Pascal Clairambault. Parmi ces vingt pièces, une seule d'entre elles a été repérée et éditée par J. Roman, dans son édition de la Très joyeuse… histoire du gentil seigneur de Bayart 4 .

Die rumänischen Provinzen Walachei und Moldau befanden sich im 18. Jahrhundert unter osmanischer Oberhoheit und wurden somit in die Kriege zwischen der Hohen Pforte und den großen europäischen Mächten einbezogen. Die vom Autor gefundenen Quellenbestände zeigen anhand des österreichisch-osmanischen Krieges von 1715-1718, wie die Armeen dieser Provinzen organisiert waren und welche Rolle sie in den militärischen Auseinandersetzungen gespielt haben. Den Vorurteilen von einer veralteten Kriegsführung in der Walachei und Moldau setzt der Autor die Darstellung der Truppen, ihrer Waffen und Kampfstrategien entgegen, um zu zeigen, dass diese Armeen nach modernen Standards organisiert wurden.

This communication presents the intervention of Alonso of Aragon, archbishop of Zaragoza (ca. 1469–1520), in the conquest of Navarre. He was the viceroy of Aragon and its commander in chief, because of that he was the main character of the military intervention. Specially, he surrendered the city of Tudela, the last stand of the loyal side to the king John III Albret. It pretends to explain the negotiations, how were the troops recruited and how was the campaign financed.

La presente comunicación pretende abordar la actuación que tuvo el arzobispo de Zaragoza don Alonso de Aragón (ca. 1469–1520) en la conquista de Navarra. Como lugarteniente general de Aragón y capitán general de sus tropas, tuvo una especial importancia en la rendición del sur del reino navarro, especialmente la ciudad de Tudela, última villa de importancia en someterse a Fernando el Católico. Se presta atención a las tropas reclutadas y las conversaciones mantenidas, pero también a cómo se financió la campaña.

Introductory course to the phenomenon of warfare and the populations supporting and enduring it over two centuries. Ranging from Spain to Ottoman Turkey, the course provides a broad chronological framework, into which it inserts the principal themes. Illustrated lectures are combined with dozens of archival and literary sources, while weekly readings underscore the manner in which research was conducted by the authors.

Underestimating the Consequences in the 21st Century of the Middle Ages
Jeremy Scahill’s book, Dirty Wars: The World is a Battlefield, (there is also the film from the book, entitled, “Dirty Wars”, a Sundance Film Festival official selection in 2013) is an exposure of an aspect of covert warfare, focusing upon targeted killings, meaning State sponsored-State directed assassinations, in the 21st century. A state-regime employing a policy of assassination, although not noted in this book, would seem to be one of history’s markers, as it seems that the adoption by a state/regime of a policy of assassination can be associated with the decline of the state that employs it, together with isolation - the bunker-mentality and with some threatened, or perceived as threatened formerly powerful minority ideology or faction.

Battle of Orsha (Belarus) fought  on September 8, 1514 was one of the largest pitched battles in series of wars between Muscovy and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and a brilliant victory of Lithuanian-Polish forces. However, the exact place of the battle is one of its most controversial issues. The paper examines all the existing versions and offers another one.

Between 1477 and 1493, the Burgundian state was confronted with the most serious crisis of its history. Against Louis XI, the successors of Charles the Bold had to defend the territorial integrity of his heritage. Within the Burgundian Netherlands, they were challenged by the claims of the largest Flemish and Brabantine cities, who promoted a political agenda based on urban autonomy. Besides the political background, the economic environment raised other difficulties, owing to the general high level of wages, which dramatically increased the cost of war at the end of the 15th century. The fiscal and military structures of the Burgundian state quickly found their limits and collapsed, forcing Maximilian’s captains to live by one’s wits, requisitioning money and supplies, or plundering the countryside. Would it be proper to say that the 1480’s Burgundian state was a failed one? Surely, it would be going too far, as no one really disputed either the legitimacy or the finality of monarchical power, namely enforcing peace and justice. Nevertheless, the inability of the medieval state to lastingly finance war invariably led to outbursts of violence.

Questo breve saggio prende abbrivio da una questione che da tempo accompagna le mie riflessioni intorno all'arte della guerra antica e alla storia della sua lunga tradizione nella cultura occidentale, e cioè come e sino a che punto la scrittura de re militari abbia influenzato, reggendolo o fors'anche destabilizzandolo, il progresso tecnologico in ambito bellico. Da questa prospettiva, la così detta military revolution dell'età moderna assume un ruolo che va ben al di là del dibattito intorno alla sua ricostruibilità storica. Infatti, la rivoluzione ascritta all'ambito strategico, tattico e tecnico in età moderna, a ben guardare, finisce per simbolizzare la pervicace immutabilità del discorso militare stesso. Intorno a questo argomento ruotano le considerazioni presentate in queste pagine, che non si pongono pertanto il fine di riassumere le varie tesi che negli anni sono state elaborate sulla military revolution né tanto meno di entrare nel merito di uno dei più celebri dibattiti storiografici sulla guerra 1 .