Military History
European states are at war 2 years out of 3. Either war against a neighbour or a large scale civil conflict that could drag on for decades. Most tax revenues went on to fight wars, govs didn’t have social spending, not something govs did, churches might tho. War was the single biggest occupation of gov. Right up till 19th century. Background info is in textbook. One thing that started happening was the wars started getting longer because fortification got better.
Walled city has high walls and towers, towers are so that you can fire at enemies at the base of the walls without exposing themselves. The wall was thinner at the top than at the bottom because it would collapse if it was thicker at the top. There could only been two or so men at the top, with not much heavy equipment, otherwise the wall would collapse.
The first real cannons were bombards, which were largely ineffective and highly perilous. Chinese used them to fire spears. But in the early 15th century, improvements came out of France. They made them out of bronze, less brittle than iron, cools faster, allows for faster movements with the bombard (even if it takes 20 horses to do it.) they also changed the gunpowder, the early one was like ground pepper, but they found that if you make it more like pickling salt, more grainy, it increases the combustion power, so you can fire farther. They also stopped using stone balls, stone balls were cheaper, but they found iron balls did a lot more damage, they didn’t break apart on impact and they could also be reused (recollect at end of siege). Stone balls were still used on ships. Iron balls were smaller, so cannon tubes became thinner and longer which increased the accuracy.
Practically every feudal lord had a castle with a private army and a stock of weapons, but they didn’t have siege weapons, so it wouldn’t last long against them.
Improved fortifications were designed by architects and humanists. They made it to be more resilient to cannons, but they could also put cannons on top to fire back, which was absolutely new. There was a triangular thing called the ravelin which you could put cannons in. There was a ditch dug around the bottom of the wall so you could only see the top of the walls, and couldn’t fire at the bottoms. There were bulwarks on the corners called bastions that could shoot cannons out of at any angle. It took a lot of firepower to do damage to these things, and they could fire stuff like nails out of the cannons which was incredibly lethal at close range. Most of the engineers who built these were Italians (Tuscans). These were incredibly expensive so they were often erected piecemeal to shore up weak points along a wall. Bastioned forts started being put up to ward off Ottomans. After the 1550s, since Spain basically controlled Italy, they developed a lot of these walls during peacetime. To capture a bastioned fort, you’d have to capture the ravelin first. Sarzanello was the first main prototype of this design. With the early improved cannon design, you couldn’t fire in a closed room; they gave up firing them from not on top the towers but within the walls, because the black smoke would blind and suffocate the crew for like 20 minutes.
Salses didn’t move to a bastioned fort design, they just modified their towers to fire cannons from, and they were set in a ditch, so they were still very respectable. However, they were on a coastal plain, so their biggest defense (and weakness) was malaria.
Modern bastions are very difficult to knock down with artillery, also because cannon are quite expensive and it’s rare that countries are wealthy enough to put dozens of them in one place, often just a few, and the bastions have cannons of their own to fire back so sieges last longer. The bastions are becoming famous for their effectiveness, so every major power hires Italians to fortify their cities and things like that. Since everyone now has these fortifications, sieges often grind down to stalemates. During the French wars of religion, they found that they could build perfectly respectable fortifications out of dirt, and they could stop cannonballs, they were cheaper, but they also cost a lot of long term upkeep. When the Dutch rebelled against the King of Spain, they started putting up all of these sorts of dirt fortifications. In both France and Flanders, they’re talking bout 100s of these fortifications.
A much cheaper way of protecting a city than redesigning its walls to include bastions, was placing a fort on the edge of the city walls, called a citadel. It wasn’t to protect against foreign enemies, but to control the city itself at a smaller cost.
Necessity of the indirect approach, to isolate the fortress and cut it off from relief: siege of Antwerp in 1585.
Siege of Florence
Siege of Siena: Spanish built a citadel along the edge, also built modern bastions out the front. Not flat ground, often very hilly. Siena has a weird ass skyline cuz the aristocrats lived in castles within the city, made the place very unstable.
Moving siege cannons are already hard enough when it’s dry, it’s practically impossible in the rain.
Within a certain distance, the bastion’s guns are useless because of the angle, so they usually rely on muskets and hand grenades. More often used as an invader tactic was digging a mineshaft, packing it with explosives and blowing up the bastion.
The reason why most of these architects were Italian is because they adopted arabic numerals for their math a lot faster than others, and math with roman numerals is fucking impossible.
You won’t be able to hold a fortified city if you don’t have men to guard it.
Fortresses everywhere
Proliferation of fortresses of every size, to 1650, erected of earth, of brick and stone over decades, requiring garrisons
Fortress characterized zones of tension: tuscany, northern and eastern france, the netherlands, and western hungary
Survival of medieval castles which could not hold out against artillery, but they serve as supply points
Impact on the size of armies, one needed for multiple garrisons and another for laying sieges & fighting battles
Cost of waging modern war spiraled, to build fortresses, garrison them, maintain field armies & buy artillery
Lucca is an important banking city in Italy. You can put two cathedrals per bastion. They have a two lane road on top of the wall with (bicycle lanes on either side?). They plant a lot of trees up there because they need the lumber. The guards are usually concentrated by the gates where they collect taxes and stuff.
Milan: 130k
Palermo: 200k
Naples: 300-400k
Neapolitans were apparently not very disciplined, it’s surprising how few men the Spanish used to control the civilians.
You gotta have math, you gotta have a sense of physics, you gotta know how much they’re gonna cost. They often bring in peasants to work for weeks, they also made the municipal governments pay for them.
Fortress designers came from all walks of life, there was a bishop who made a bastion that is now dilapidated in the middle of a field.
Halifax citadel, cape breton, fort anne
Parma state archive, full of notarial bundles from the 1600s and before, just learning to read the old handwriting is a study and profession of its own. After 1626, the notaries decided they wanted their own archives. In the state archive, you have manuscripts going back to the middle ages.
Archivio di stata Siena, was a palazzo.
French military archives are in a castle.
Spanish archives decided to put its archives in a castle in the middle of nowhere, it’s just the papers of the monarchy basically, and it has been there since the 1500s.
You’ll need to learn Italian, Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, French, rarely Latin to be in the Spanish archives. The kings of Spain were probably the most respectful of local autonomy and traditions, out of all the monarchies that prof knows.
Since Spain was an empire their army was made up of soldiers from all over Europe. They would send members of their armed forces as representatives of Spain to various places in their kingdom and those representatives may not even be Spanish, but rather something like German or Dutch.
Duke Alessandro of Parmo was a very suspicious character, he killed a dozen aristocrats in the town square on trumped up charges of plotting against him. Count Masi was one of them, and the Duke wanted to see his arsenal, in case he ever needed to go to war. The notary wouldn’t be interested in the entire estate of the Count, that would take 150-200 pages.
The 7 small canons are worth 1726.6 lire, to put that in perspective, the average skilled artisan and his family would make 1 lire a day.
1 pound is a different weight in every different place.
A Canadian pound is 454g, a French pound is 500g, so you need to convert the old measures into metric to understand what you truly are dealing with.
When they say metal, they mean bronze. Bronze is better than iron in this case, because it’s less brittle, and cools off faster than iron, the downside is that it’s much more expensive.
Cannons come in many different dimensions and there’s a different name for each one.
Heavy muskets are used on a parapet, but they have a bit of a kick to them (lol)
Broken bell is mentioned here because it could be melted down and repurposed as something else (metal is expensive)
Pesi is plural for weight (P37, P71, etc), he’s only seen it in Parma tho, divide by 8 to get the kilo measurement.
Person who melts down junk metal to make weapons and repairs weapons is called an “armourer” (yay, i got that question)
Sulphur is what you need for gunpowder or just setting anything on fire.
Stone balls were super cheap (153, worth 20 lire per hundred, total value 30.12)
A serpent is the metallic thing that you put the gunpowder in on an arquebus, arquebus’ are very cheap (14 for 16 lire)
Wheel-lock arquebuses were very expensive because of the complicated mechanism.
Crossbows weren’t commonly issued to ground troops, but you would often see them on ships.
3 Turkish scimitars, two worked with silver, value lire 123 (war trophy)
Halberd is a hacking weapon, with a spear and an axehead on the top, not as long as a pike, more of a close quarters weapon.
The gendarme’s mace was once gilded, so it was a ceremonial thing, not an actual weapon.
There’s no coin for a lire, they’re always divisions (sometimes odd divisions) of the lire.
Based on the quantity of the nobleman’s arsenal, it was probably 50 men in his private army.
Montaigne was the mayor of Bordeaux. Montaigne wanted to go to Rome to show the Holy Office his essays and ask them what they think about it, so that he could get out of Bordeaux (French wars of religion were raging all around them and he wanted to get out).
Literary documents are very different from notary documents, they talk about what they find interesting.
Lucca ⅓ smaller than Bordeaux, ~25k people
Fascine, sticks together strong, symbol of the fascists, used for lining barricades and strengthening defenses
The garrison is made up of 300 foreign soldiers because they would have no reason to sympathize with locals rising up (pushed on by local aristocrats vying for power). Foreign doesn’t mean something like German, could be from another Italian region (probably not Florentine).
Dude, Italy was so fucking powerful during the feudal era, holy shit.
Cuirasses are breastplates
Patricians, people of noble status who are allowed to take part in governance of the republic, there are lots of different committees that the patricians move around to, but the Council of 120 is the largest.
Switzerland is the only modern European nation where the militia (very well trained and very large for such a small country) keeps their weapons at home with them.
Short paper assignment
If I have a reason for starting with one source and then move on to the other, tell him the reason why.
Evaluate if there are enough sources and if they can carry the argument
Please do not moralize, he doesn’t care if we’re good people, that’s not relevant to this course.
Preaching is the opposite of curiosity, if you’re not curious, you shouldn’t be at university.
Page numbers aren’t necessary
He wants to see our name on the cover page and nowhere else (not on the header, nowhere else)
Print the sources up and highlight them
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Wars of Religion in France
1. Spread of the Protestant Reformation
2. The French civil wars, to 1598
3. War of Royal Sieges
1. Spread of the Protestant Reformations
German origins of the Reformation circa 1520
The second wave, from Geneva after 1545, seeping into France, the Low Countries, Scotland, Germany, Hungary
Decentralized Calvinism, where each church was autonomous, and hired its own minister
Halfhearted repression in 1540s and 1550s France
Royal weakness after death of Henri II, Protestant success after 1559 at the Court, despite four surviving boys
Rapid spread of Calvinism in France
Calvinism was international protestantism, whereas most doctrines are fairly tribal, Luther sorta wrote that God was German, Anglicanism is the “Church of England”, but Calvinism is international. In the reformed church, there is no pyramid, no bishops telling the local clergy what to do, boards hire and fire ministers, who have no actual religious power, but are trained to explain the scriptures. Calvin puts an emphasis on reading the scriptures. The Calvinists tried to shut down Catholic churches wherever they went, so the King of France (Catholic) tried to crack down on them. But France was at war with the Hapsburgs and they were allied with Protestant states, so the repression was sort of half-hearted.
2. The French civil wars, to 1598
Local conversions to the reformation, banning the mass
Churches elected captains to raise veteran troops
Royal minority and the failure of conciliation after 1560
Slide into civil war after 1561, local unrest in Aquitaine
The first “pacification campaigns” across France 1561-62
Armies in the field slow to assemble, mercenaries arrived from far away, there was no single “front”
Short wars were followed by uneasy ceasefires
Protestants failed attempt to kidnap the king in 1567, but their numbers were constantly growing in the 1560s
The turning point, 1572, with the massacre of Protestant commanders in Paris, St. Bartholomew’s Day
There are few battles, Catholics win most of them, there’s supposed to be a ceasefire but it’s hard to control political actors far away. There was an uneasy truce until 1567 when the protestants tried to kidnap the king so that they could make him see the light and turn France to protestantism all in one go (not too crazy, similar thing happened in Scotland and England). All of the head warlords of the Protestant side of the war were in Paris for the wedding of Henry IV, so the Catholic heads of state decided to execute them all (they even got Admiral Coligny, the guy who trained Henry IV in battle tactics). They did that, but then the Catholic civilians came down and started killing Protestant civilians left right and centre. The Paris militia had to be brought out to stop the killing
Calvinist iconoclasm: they hated all the physical icons so they’d go into a catholic church and smash everything.
Local rural wars in rural France
The St. Bartholomew’s day massacre stops the Calvinist bandwagon in its tracks, starts retracting and makes the already disorganized war even more disorganized. Many armies are very makeshift and non-professional, they form up, are paid once, do small sieges and raids on various castles, capture livestock, burn things down, ransom people.
Inspiration of the Dutch example in southern France
Fortifications “à la huguenotte” made from earth held out against makeshift armies for short periods
Local leagues and local wars without central control mobilized entire populations, but only briefly
Gradual military exhaustion and economic exhaustion too
Periodic truces discussed official toleration for Protestants
King Henri III (1572-1589) veered back and forth between moderation (tolerance of Protestants) and repression (oppression of Protestants), unpopular with everybody
Polarization and growth of the Catholic League around the duc de Guise and great Catholic lords, foreign support
Monluc’s castle had towers in the corners that were bastion shaped, he would’ve had a small army as well. He had half his face blown off while attacking a castle and decided to retire and write his memoirs (became classic French literature).
Castle of the Duc de Biron in Aquitaine
In a Castle in rural Perigord, they had small windows that you could poke small cannons or muskets out of.
Town of Penne
Henry IV and the climax of the war, 1589-1594
From the assassination of the duc de Guise (leader of the Catholic League) to regicide of Henri III, 1588-1589: complete polarization
The problem of a Protestant king (Henry of Navarre) in France 90%
Intervention of the Spanish army of Flanders and the duke of Savoy on the Catholic side 1589-1593
Catholic conversion of Henri IV before Paris in 1593
Mopping up in the provinces 1594-1597, with amnesties
The Edict of Nantes, 1598, creating official toleration of the minority Protestants, very rare in Europe
Protestants retained numerous fortified towns under their own control, supported by Calvinist
3. War of royal sieges 1621-1628
25 years of peace and reconstruction after 1595 circa
The Regency favoured the “Grands” after the assassination of Henri IV in 1610; paying them to keep the peace
Louis XIII provokes new uprisings in 1620 by restoring the Catholic church to Bearn in southwest France
Royal successes and failures in the south of France (Midi): small Protestant fortresses surrender without a fight
Cardinal Richelieu led the siege of La Rochelle (seaport, massive fortifications, periodic support from the English navy) 1627-1628
Cleaning up in Languedoc, 1628-1629, to the Peace of Alès recognizing Protestant right to public cult, depriving them of any military autonomy
Rapid Protestant decline
Conversions to Catholicism multiply after 1620 once it was clear that the Roman church would not disappear
Mixed marriage was routine, the bride belonging to the minority religion (typically converts the night before the wedding), the children following father’s religion, if the children die, she might convert back (mothers kept the religion of their children)
Coexistence blunted Protestant propaganda efforts denouncing the superstitions of Popery
Protestants looked to the Edict of Nantes and to the King and his ministers for their protection from Catholic clergy
Some regions remained protestant for over 90% with few conversions, primarily in the south
Official toleration of the religious minority was the broadest in Europe, more than the Netherlands or Balkans
Siege of Penne
Blaise de Monluc, Commentaires
Enseigns, low ranking officer who carried the flag that identified the unit. Capture the flag and the unit dissolves.
In the classic French Wars of Religion, you’re usually dealing with armies of hundreds, not thousands.
Applied mouse-holing to capture the town.
lGascony is in deep southwestern France, where Monluc was from.
“Fort” in this text means “strongpoint”
Lutheranos = protestants, usually Calvinists, they were known for being under disguise
Various philosophies of war, one being “kill them all”, you find that as time goes on, massacring of Protestants is exceptional. Monluc wanted his reputation to be one of Protestant massacres, once captured a city with only 30-40 men by just talking to the governor and saying “you know what I’m capable of.”
Different types of documents: literary, administrative, statistical, iconographic, archeological
Narrative vs analysis
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Tutorial
Footnote in 1st reading (Army of Flanders)
The guy who made the toys wasn’t paid till 15 years after, tells you what the spanish army is like (never enough money)
AGS signifies the archive where it’s kept, E signifies the series that it’s in
BNM (Biblioteca Nationale Madrid) Ms. means manuscript
Relación de bilanço = budget report
You can publish old letters as a book (very common practice) to make it more accessible
Folio is a leaf that could have multiple pages on it.
Significant portion of the Spanish empire was based in Italy.
Staten-Generaal is the Dutch parliament
ARA is Amsterdam Royal Archives
BNP is Bibliotheque Nationale Paris, Lorraine is the name of who donated the manuscripts
BRB is Bibliotheque Royale Belge
Carbinier, short rifle so you can fire with one hand
Typical of all the kings all the time, they never have enough money
Cavalry was the strong suit of the French
Love gets a number of things right, but doesn’t get the bigger strategic picture because he wants to say good things about Henry IV.
The Thirty Years War and the 17th-century crisis 1610-1660
Introduction
The Spanish System & its allies in 1620, in ascendancy
Austrian Habsburgs had their limits, faced with a Turkish threat, and inability to draw money from German states
Ottoman threat sometimes got distracted their other sworn enemy, Iran
Alignments of adversaries after 1610: Savoy & Venice; German Protestants & France; Holland (signed treaty with Spain in 1609 to agree to stop fighting, though they also agreed the war wasn’t over) & England, all desiring to challenge the House of Austria
1: German Civil War
Religious polarization in Germany after 1608, Catholics and Protestants creating separate alliances
Ferdinand II swore to restore Catholicism in his lands 1618
Bohemia rebelled against Ferdinand, Calvinist states in Germany joined them, expecting foreign support from France in 1610, but Henry IV was assassinated, which put off fighting for another decade or so
Defenestration of Prague 1618
Emperor, duke of Bavaria, and other guy put together catholic army and fight decisively victorious battle at White Mountain near Prague, 1620 hugely important because it’s when the habsburgs take bavaria back
Spanish Army of Flanders under Spinola overruns the Rhine Palatinate in 1621, controls the Rhineland
Imperials and Bavarians (and Spaniards) defeated Danish intervention in 1626, they’re forced to withdraw, the imperial army marches all the way up to the baltic sea overrunning Northern Germany
1629, Edict of Restitution marks clear Habsburg victory, states that all the catholic lands lost from the church by 1625 had to be returned to the catholic church
Within habsburg lands, all the protestants had to convert or leave, which results in a couple hundred thousand refugees, however they refer to an agreement signed by their subjects: all subjects have to follow the religion of their prince
Eighty Years War, Part Two
End of the 12 Years truce between Spain and Netherlands, each side hoped for greater military success
Spanish intervened in Germany to help the Emperor
Ambrogio Spinola conducts great sieges in the Netherlands, overrunning a quarter of the Republic
Spain parried the French threat to Genoa in 1625
Spain's admirals are often Genoese
The Dutch and English stop to raid Cadiz on the way and get chased off by militia
Spain falters, 1628: loss of the Indies Fleet to the Dutch
Count Duke Olivares committed Spain to resolve the Mantuan Succession in Italy, 1628-1630
The Mantuan war distracted Spain and the Empire at a critical moment, France obtains base at Casale Monferrato
Olivarès is a big thinker but he hates compromises
Spinola was a former banker, with no military experience, but he was ready to supply an army if he was allowed to command it. The Emperor had no better offers, and he accepted it. Spinola turned out to be a very good commander and led them to many victories.
Gabions = basket full of dirt and stone, makeshift fortification for siege batter
About half the population of Mantua was killed by disease brought by imperials, so there weren’t enough men to man the ramparts and the city was stormed and sacked by the imperials.
2: War everywhere, 1630-1648
Swedish intervene under King Gustavus Adolfus in northern Germany in 1630 to achieve Protestant victory
Destruction of Protestant Magdeburg in 1630 by the Imperial Army, somehow caught fire and thousands of civilians died
Swedish breakthrough after battle of Breitenfeld, 1631-32
Count Wallenstein stops Swedish progress at Lutzen 1632
Wallenstein is assassinated in 1633 for secret negotiations with enemy
Combined Spanish & Imperial armies destroy ‘Swedish’ forces (North German and Scots) at Nordlingen 1634
King of Sweden fights at the front but didn’t wear a helmet due to a skin rash and was recognized and got got
Most protestant states made a compromise peace in 1635
France intervened everywhere to save the anti-Habsburg coalition, 1635, with little success at first
Germany torn asunder by warring armies, 1635-1648
Treaty of Westphalia, 1648, ratified the stalemate
Spain pushed to the brink of disaster
Initial Spanish successes against France 1635-1640
Olivares pushes the Union of Arms on the empire, ending the tax privileges of parts of the Spanish realms
Catalan revolt in 1640, calling in the French to help them
Portugal selects a king and secedes from Spain also 1640
Decisive defeat of the Spanish army of Flanders in the battle of Rocroi in 1643, destruction of infantry tercios
They’ve lost a number of smaller battles before, but nothing of this scale in a very long time
Sicily & Naples revolt against high taxes 1647-1648
Spanish war efforts rely on massive borrowing and the sale or long term lease of state assets
Gradual improvement of situation in years after 1648
3: Towards a French ascendancy 1648-59
Cardinal Mazarin provoked the Fronde revolt in France, 1649-1653, desiring to continue the war against Spain
He and the Queen Mother Anne of Austria prevail in 1652
Last phases of the Hispano-French struggle after 1655
An English expeditionary force on the French side helps tip the balance in Flanders in 1658
Dutch independence & maritime hegemony in Europe and across the globe makes them a rising power
Spanish exhaustion after peace with France in 1659, unable to re-conquer Portugal; final peace in 1668
Conclusions
Destruction of Germany, loss of 40% of its population, primarily by disease and non-renewal
Austria dominates Central Europe & southern Germany, imposing state Catholicism in all its territories
Terriciole - little people who work the land
Author is probably a landowner (padroni), on the city council
“Throw up forts,” that would’ve been à la huguenot, made of earthworks
Corvée labour
“Reduced Casalmaggiore to an extreme necessity of hay and livestock feed,” it was the dairy region, so hay and livestock feed would’ve been incredibly important for the oxen and cows, but the soldiers said that they needed it for their horses first.
The town formed a militia to defend themselves against the Germans
Te Deum mass would involve processions with all the priests and friars and there would be incense and an orchestra (a city as big as this would probably have an organ).
These are friendly troops, fighting for the King.
Messieurs mean someone of status
“sieur de” is a soft version of Lord, someone of even higher status
Jurisdictional procurer, the feudal lord has a Catholic abbey and has someone take care of their legal business/fundraising/attends the meetings
Pioneers were those who dug and put up earthworks and fortifications, probably not volunteers in this case (they had to have a team of soldiers to take them to the work site)
Execute means to carry out a judicial decree, capital execution means to hang/cut someone’s head off
Inns would’ve also had stables/feed for the horses
Military Entrepreneurs
Introduction
War was a business, the livelihood of many people
Book by Fritz Redlich, “Military Enterprises during the Thirty Years War” (1964); the study of private enterprise
States encouraged elites to invest their private fortunes in the prince’s service, recouping their investment after
Long evolution towards state control over armed forces and their supply, particularly in Germany
The war could not have been fought for so long on the tax revenues of states alone or of borrowed money
Spain & France sought greater state control over war, the latter with civilian army intendants administering money
1: Condottieri and their ilk
Condottieri - someone who takes out a recruiting contract for the government
Recruiting contracts for captains and companies, practiced since the late Middle Ages, especially in Italy
Cash up front to pay soldiers’ signing bonuses
Nobles made ‘gifts’ of companies to their warlords, in exchange for command; Spinola provided a whole army
It’s good to have actual military pros on retainer to do the work for the prince, the dienstgeld is the money that keeps them around, having captains on the prince’s retainer
Savoy, Tuscany and other states could produce armies quickly by resorting to these well-connected nobles
Manners of rewarding loyalty and good service to military recruiters; fiefs, advantageous marriages, place at court
Booty, ransom & extortion was part of the system
Human morality is based on reciprocity.
2. Military enterprise in the Age of Wallenstein
1500 enterprisers in Germany and their background, 1620-1650, studied by Redlich, a business historian (he made a collective biography)
Starting out as (mostly) nobles seeking adventure, sometimes younger sons without much personal property
Not only sending them out with enough money to keep them alive, but also keep the army alive
Networks of cash and credit put a unit together
Supplying the army was a lucrative business for some
Imposing contributions on civilians, both friendly and enemy, was a common practice permitted by the state
Soldiers follow the winner (Gustavus, Wallenstein) for pay, plunder and survival, desert from losers
If you wanted to get soldiers to rally to you, you have to be a really good soldier, otherwise you’ll have a deserting army
About a third of these enterprisers were not German, biggest were Italians, but they intermarried over several generations, huge dowries, not because of pure blood
Even peasants practiced this intermarrying
The peasants don’t own the farms, the people who live in the town own the farms around the town
Skimming off the top
Recruiting contracts allow extras for captains, who must keep their soldiers healthy and happy, reward the best
Captains and colonels pocket pay of deserters & casualties
Colonels increase their control over regiments, obtain greater influence with stingy governments
Successful colonels accumulate multiple regiments, but must lead at least one of them personally on campaign
Officers sell leaves and promotions, and safe-conducts
Cities were required to fund armies operating nearby
Kickbacks from munitionnaires to select on over another, or to close their eyes to irregularities
Colonels needed to recoup their investments to avoid ruin
Military destinies
Clear winners: ALdringen, Galasso, Piccolomini, thrived during the Thirty Years’ War in the Emperor’s service
Risks and perils: Montecuccoli, Mansfeld, captured in battle and forced to pay ransoms from their revenues
The military lifestyle appealed to many, especially in their youth, and so drew money from their families to continue
Social requirement of living nobly in the field and being seen as having the funds justifying their promotion
Many junior officers were killed or crippled in battle
Circa 15% of the military enterprisers were killed in actions or died on campaign of disease
3: The state over the entrepreneur
Gradual changes wrought by the standing army after 1660
States supply and standardize equipment for troops, to the best of their ability (often plagued by lack of funds)
Captains administer companies in place of colonels, feeding and supplying their men, seeing to their needs
Orderly promotions derive from faithful service
Perks of colonels do not disappear (rewards for clients)
Regular prisoner exchanges, so ransoming disappears
The risk: “reforming” a unit after it dwindles too much
The Prince as enterpriser: Bavaria, Lorraine, Savoy etc., offered their state army to a paying ‘ally’
Recruiting officers document
Tercio - big infantry style regiment, pikes and musketeers
Nov 11 is the technical end of the harvest year, so it's pretty important.
The duchy of Milan is part of the Spanish empire at this time
The prince is the head of the judicial system, so they could ask creditors to wait if the officer has debts.
Charm is mentioned a lot because you want leaders who can inspire and lead their men.
Parma is where the duchy is based, where the court spends most of its time, not as military
The great families of cities come in multiple branches. Sometimes they’d marry cousins to make the dowries a manageable size.
Many of the folks who get accused of murder are often upper class.
Memoirs of James II
Vedette - scout
Cravats - Croats
Eating the country
Letters home to Siena
For cavalry, a soldier is called a trooper.
Letter home to dad, he wants to get more money.
Vienna was the most Italian city outside of Italy.
Standing armies of Europe
Introduction
The Loyalty of mercenaries was dubious and they were expensive even if they were very efficient
The enduring inefficiency of militias in battle, not worth the trouble of arming and feeding them
Peasant militias were only effective within castles; in the open, if they were charged by cavalry they’d just drop their weapons and run as fast as they could
That money could be better spent elsewhere
Kings yearned for a “national” army obedient to the prince alone, led by a docile aristocracy
After the 30 years war, there was widespread devastation that led to some very bad PR for the princes, in their inability to properly defend their lands
These armies were considered a better solution for the defense of the realm and protection of its subjects
1: Origins of the standing army
Spanish tercios in Italy and Flanders became permanent organizations after the 1560s, but not very numerous
François I formed 5 standing regiments of the 1530s, alongside by 5 or 6 others maintained in peacetime
Called them “legions,” inspired by ancient Rome, but nowhere as large
Early modern world loved tradition, very quickly these units were considered at the top of the hierarchy and were never dissolved (unlike usual wartime strategies, where you’d dissolve them at the end of the war to help pay off debts, and then recruit a new one at the beginning of a new war)
Household troops and Life Guards at the court were crack units manned by aristocrats at every level
Even the rank and file are nobles, the idea being that when they join them when they’re young, they can be a pool that officers can be trained from
Effects of the 30 Years’ War in central Europe gave rise to a desire for a dissuasive and protective force
You could post them in fortifications on that Turkish frontier which was always getting attacked
The Emperor maintained as many troops as he could afford at the end of the Thirty Years’ War, keeping most officers
The standing armies multiply everywhere after 1650
2: Smaller states & military power
The Piedmontese army, instrument of state power and tortuous alliances, created in 1664: the duke of Savoy dreamed of royal status and conquest of his neighbours
Fucking italians, never finish a war on the same side they started on
Saxony’s elector Frederick Augustus and his royal ambitions in Poland required his own army
The birth of the Prussian army after 1655, obtained by Friedrich the Great Elector from the Junker assembly
Great Britain; British civil war in the 1640s, in part over the fear that the king would have a standing army of catholic irishmen, war ended with the king being executed, and Oliver Cromwell taking over with a military dictatorship and a standing army. After his regime falls apart, the king returns (Charles II) and also establishes a standing army but it’s a lot smaller and there are standing armies in all the different British territories, simply to hold it, not invade or do anything else. After his reign, his brother James bulks up the standing army.
Now that we have democracies, no one who is untrustworthy is ever elected.
German duchies and military expansion in the age of Louis XIV: Bishop of Munster, Duke of Wurttemberg
Denmark and Sweden now had permanent armies in view of their ongoing rivalry in the Baltic
3: Advantages of the standing army
Permanence of administrative structures for supply & recruitment
Logistical continuity, regular purchases of arms and munitions
Standardization of weapons and dress: the birth of the uniform after 1650, on the basis of the regiment, not the army
Red was the most expensive
Permanent bases and magazines established in fortresses, along with the modern barracks in major garrison towns
Barracks were very unhealthy, quite a bit of crowding, and disease spread rapidly
Care for meritorious soldiers in retirement: the Invalides at Paris after 1674, and a multiplication of military hospitals
They wore uniforms with different colours, and you had to use a CV to get in
Regularization of French officer promotion via the Ordre du Tableau
Ministers of War and regular correspondence through them multiplied, allowing administrators to keep better track of money and men
Specialists regularly inspect troops, fortifications, supplies on site
Soldiers were disproportionately urban, peasants weren’t used as cannon fodder
British and also French impressed soldiers, where they’d go into towns and kidnap men and make them into soldiers. One French tactic was the commander asked men to go up to his wife’s bedroom and there would be men behind the door with bags and they’d put them over the men’s heads and put them in a boat off to toulouse lmao.
Now men are being actually trained instead of being thrust into the thick of battle as they would’ve before. There’s also an increasing amount of mathematics involved.
Peacetime advantages of standing armies
Regiments developed their own traditions over decades or even centuries, building an esprit de corps
Experimentation and modernization of equipment done on a set timetable, in appropriate facilities
Peacetime military exercises led to tactical innovations
Creation of navies and their depots, with specialized warships and facilities: Toulon and Brest, Den Hoek, Chelsea and Portsmouth, Pasaje and El Ferrol in Spain
All would require buildings, places to make cords, cables, sails, they’ll need bakeries, cannon founderies, the list goes on
These navies spend most the time escorting convoys, during war time, you’ll need quite large convoys to protect them from corsairs
Navies served to escort convoys of precious merchant ships across the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, the Baltic
France developed its own standing navy under Colbert in the 17th century
Assisting the Civil Government
Troops and ships were mobilized each time contagion struck, to set up a cordon sanitaire around the stricken district, saving millions of lives after 1690
Troops served as labour details for government projects, such as the gardens of Versailles or constructing inland navigation canals, economically precious
Small garrisons scattered across the state intervened to hunt outlaws and imposed law and order, in the absence of a modern police force; homicide rate collapsed after 1650
Troops also imposed religious uniformity across Europe, such as the dragonnades of Louis XIV
If you couldn’t pay your taxes, soldiers would be billeted in your house
They also billeted them in Protestant houses, and it actually successfully converted households to Catholicism (lmao wtf)
Toulon used galley convicts to do dock work
Conclusion
Expansion of the peacetime army occurred after 1660 in most of the larger European states, but not all small ones
Close supervision of the military machine by war ministers, not always professional soldiers
Foreign mercenaries – usually Germans – remained indispensable to all the major armies
Militias don’t disappear, but continue to assist regular troops, and constitute a replacement pool
18th century states began to disarm civilians
You’ll find the right answer by looking at many different documents from many different places, not just one document. Documents may tell you different things, and when you incorporate more perspectives into your research, it loses its fuzziness and the picture achieves a lot more clarity.
Historians don’t come up with any new things, they build off the foundations and revise the work of those who came before.
If you want to get above the base level, you need to use numbers and different languages.
Military Institutions in the Golden Age to 1600
The spahi method of fighting on horseback in loose order
Sultans rewarded warriors with a timar in conquered lands
The timar system in the empire and Turkish garrison towns diminished the emphasis on central taxation
Janissaries and the devshirme appear in the 15th century
Christian boys are “taxed” periodically from lands under the sultan's control, converted to Islam, and trained to fight on foot.
Local infantry levies near the border bulk up the army
Contingents of subject princes (Moldavia, Wallachia, Transylvania, etc) are forced to participate in campaigns
Left to local princes but are subject to the power of the sultan
Aren’t explicitly taxed by the sultan, but they offer “tributes” (gifts you have to give and if you don’t you’re in trouble) of provisions like wheat and cattle
Irregular troops arrive for plunder: Tatars (nomads from Ukraine), Kurds, Mamelukes from Egypt, not paid from the treasury
Renegades (renounce god) from the West: technicians from Italy & Germany experts in artillery, siegecraft
If you murder someone in Sicily, just cross the Mediterranean to North Africa, convert to Islam, and you’re good.
The area around Algiers submitted themselves willingly to the Sultan so that he would send troops to protect them from Spain and in return they would send him ships.
Ottoman campaigns
Istanbul mobilization of the Sultan and palace troops, beginning with the planting of the horsetails
The janissaries would plant standards and that would be the sign for the warlords to gather like that
Janissary barracks were prominent in the capital city
Guns great & small cast in the foundries of the capital
Misconception that the Ottomans preferred big guns, they also had smaller field pieces as well
The long march to the frontiers in the spring, 800 km
Local populations along the road were forced to carry out corvée labour to move provisions and feed the men
Clouds of skirmishers preceded the great host, to tie down enemy forces and deprive them of initiative
These skirmishers capture as many slaves as they can
Western artists weren’t let into the Ottoman courts until the 18th century, so during the 18th century there was a huge explosion of pictures coming out of these places.
Warfare on the Danubian frontier
Strategic stalemate in western Hungary, 1530-1683
Garrisons and ghazis in the Balkans: Buda, Belgrade, Sarajevo and others based in palanka forts carry out raids on the Christian frontier
Spreading marshlands reduced much of Hungary to a wet desert, sectioned by the great rivers, Danube, Tisza
Revolts and refugees in the Balkans created the Austrian military frontier in the late 16th century: Grenzers
Croatian warlords animate eternal resistance to Turks, with their vassals organized into warrior bands called haiduks (non professional militiamen)
Croatians were supported by German troops and money levied in the Austrian borderlands
Marsigli - Italian nobleman who went to Istanbul to study Turkish and the culture, joined up in the military as an engineer, got captured a bunch of times, swapped sides for a bit, worked in England as a translator, and then made a book about what it’s like to fight the Turks
Habsburgs & Hungarians
Breakup of medieval Hungary in 1528 into Habsburg, Ottoman and Transylvanian territories
Transylvanian princes were Magyar lords (Magyar is the ethnic group behind Hungary) appointed or approved by the sultan and were forced to pay tribute
Hungarian diets and assemblies kept a leash on Vienna, and paid little in the way of taxes to the Empire
Habsburgs made demands on Hungary: hereditary rule, royal absolutism, more taxes and Catholicism
Noble revolt on the Hungarian rim was easily touched off
Barrier of fortresses garrisoned by Germans kept down Magyars, kept back Turkish forays
Nobody really knows who exactly lived in Transylvania since records weren’t kept, there were a whole bunch of different ethnic groups living there side by side
Ottomans collected the heads of their enemies and stacked them in major cities for propaganda purposes
The Tatars would transport prisoners of war across the rivers by tying them to the tails of horses and the captives would have to try to keep their head above the water. The illustration is from Marsigli’s book and it’s accurate because he went through it himself.
3: Ottoman resurgence & over-reach
Invasion of Venetian Crete and the endless siege of Candia (modern Heraklion), 1645-1669, reinforced by sea
Venetians blockaded the Dardanelles & destroyed fleets 1650s, pushing the Ottoman regime to collapse
Reorganization of the empire under the Koprulu Grand Vizirs after 1656, repression of tax revolts & corruption
Successes in Candia, Hungary (1669) & Poland (1673), 1663-1673
The Vienna campaign of 1683: failure of the supreme effort against Germany due to Polish intervention
Holy League (Austria, Poland & Venice) drove back the Turks in Hungary, Poland and Greece simultaneously
Prince Eugene of Savoy forces the conclusion of the war, 1697-99, to the Peace of Karlowitz, first Ottoman defeat
The concept of drill was a Western idea that the Janissary musketeers didn’t adopt.
Half of the Venetian army were rented Germans
Conclusion
The wars provoked massive population decline in the Balkans following rebellion & migration of Christians
Ottoman engineers never learned to build bastioned forts
Janissaries and Spahis relied on traditional assault tactics in the face of increased European firepower
Casualties were increasingly lopsided in Western favour and Ottoman armies shrank as Imperial armies grew
Eugene captured Serbia in 1716-1717, but the Ottomans recovered the Morea from the Venetians
Ottoman improvements led to a recovery of Serbia in 1737-1739, followed by a long stability on the frontier
Introduction: France as arbiter of Europe
France in 1660, young Louis XIV & Mazarin, with 20 million inhabitants; all of Europe counted 70 million
Spanish exhaustion after Thirty Years War, bankrupt
Anglo-Dutch wars at sea allowed French naval buildup
French alliances in Germany (Brandenburg), Sweden, Netherlands, England, Piedmont, Venice & Turkey
Plotting the Spanish succession: Louis XIV expected the Bourbons to inherit most of the Spanish empire when King Charles II of Spain finally died
Cardinal Jules Mazarin, chief minister 1643-1661
Philip was flamboyantly gay. He still had 5 kids though, I won’t go into the details of how that happened.
Jean-Baptiste Colbert, finance minister & navy minister
Tireless worker
Father was a cloth merchant
Took care of Mazarin’s affairs
Someone hugely important who comes out of nowhere
Also interior minister
French navy ship of the line under construction
Shipyards could produce a new one every year
Mediterranean naval arsenal at Toulon
When the ship isn’t being used, they gotta take care of it by taking the sails, mast, and cables out and putting it somewhere safe
French invented huge mortar that could be used to bombard towns from the sea
French expansionism 1667-1685
Politics precedence 1661-1665; humiliation of Spain, Austria, pope
French developed seapower; Dunkirk, Brest, Toulon & colonies
War of Devolution, 1667-68; aid to Portugal against Spain
The low countries devolve to Louis as part of the dowry for the queen
The Dutch war, 1672-1678, unprovoked, almost entirely successful
Success against Spain – in Franch-Comté (conquered), Sicily (partly occupied), advances in Catalonia & Flanders 1674-1678
Vauban built a great barrier of fortresses around France, which shielded the French interior from the damage of military operations
Creeping annexations in Germany after 1680: the Reunions in Alsace and the Rhine Palatinate, purchase of Casale Monferrato
Spain was isolated, 1683-84 after Turkey invaded Austria, so Louis seized Luxembourg and Flemish border towns with little opposition
Revocation of the Edict of Nantes 1685, 150,000 Huguenot refugees
France’s standing armed forces
The standing French army (exclusive of the navy and militias) rarely sank below 60,000 men after 1660, usually paid on time and in full
The king benefitted from the talent of numerous generals with long experience of field operations and sieges; Turenne, Condé
This army was dispersed across the kingdom in fortresses and castles in a manner which prevented the outbreak of local revolts
French ministers formalized the sale of army commissions in a way that encouraged noblemen to invest heavily into their own units, certain to receive compensation when they withdrew from the army
Years of government surpluses under Colbert allowed the king to eliminate much of the public debt, rationalize taxation
France was financially able to field ever larger armies, upwards of 200,000 men and over 100 ships of the line by 1680
Louis XIV accompanied the army in the field most years, but left the operational details to his marshals: he never saw a battle
Halting French aggression 1689-1697
William III of Orange, Spain and the Empire establish the League of Augsburg, 1686, to thwart French expansion
Destruction of the Palatinate by France, 1688-1689, to intimidate German states coalescing against him
English Revolution & Irish reconquest, 1688-90, placed British assets under Dutch control
The defection of Piedmont in the Alps, which joined Spain and Austria against France in Italy, 1690
Great indecisive campaigns in the Netherlands 1689-1696
Ebbing of Spanish strength in Catalonia in 1696
French seapower eventually stumbled against combined English, Dutch and Spanish navies
King was also fighting the Turks
French Rollback in Flanders
Spanish Netherlands army was garrisoned by French troops mostly,
Spanish Civil War 1704-1715
Castilians rallied king Philip V,
The Classical Campaign, 17th-18th century
1: Preparing for campaign
The size of armies in the late 17th century precluded living off the countryside, only small contingents can do so
Raiding and small war picked up over the winter, just to keep the men active and collect intelligence
Troops scattered over a vast area far from the “theatre”
Officers go to court (those who could afford it) to seek promotion or at least keep themselves visible
New commissions, promotions, new recruiting of soldiers
There’s an assumption that as soon as a war is over, regiments disappear
Soldiers came disproportionately from towns
Making plans: General Staffs in the 17th-18th centuries
Reports of spies, diplomats, models & maps
The French made a bunch of models of terrain
Teaches young officers the basics of fortification and how to lay a siege
Around the 17th century the maps suddenly become a lot better because of astronomical calculations
Assembly points for each army for the spring campaign
Moving and stocking war material in advance
Vienna in the 18th century was Europe’s most musical court
2: Moving around
Armies could not move before the horses had been purged on fresh grass after their winter fast - end of May
Louvois developed well-stocked advanced magazines that allowed the French army to advance first, in the 1670s
Campaign objectives were not always limited, but armies had to halt after four or five days to bake bread
They ate more than a kilo of meat a day in the winter quarters, also veggies and stuff
wheat bread was what gave them the most calories on the march.
There were private enterprises called sutlers that accompanied armies and made food that the soldiers might want to buy; modern one for the CAF is Tim Hortons
Rates of march over normal territory circa 15 km day or 60 km per week, marching not possible every day
Calculate a march path to ensure fresh fodder, avoid “eaten” areas
Organization of the army on the move: Vanguard, Main Body, Artillery & wagons, Rearguard; soldiers could not leave their posts
Vanguard and rearguard uses a lot of dragoons
Further out you have a lot of scouts all around to try to find where the enemy army is
Generals relied on information from local guides, who knew whether or not the roads and fords were viable; maps are much better than before but were still often rudimentary
If the guides lead you into a trap you shoot them on the spot.
Scouting, foraging, skirmishing against enemy cavalry occurred daily
Camp life
Soldiers were not always equipped with tents, and so built huts with makeshift materials: only officers had proper tents and furnishings
Officers planted the camp near water and laid out the companies in rows, where the men set up their cooking fires (1 for 8 or 10 men)
Camps might be fortified by entrenchments every evening
Dug by the vanguard, they were also supposed to dig latrines but they evidently didn’t
There were no latrines until the late 17th century, so soldiers did their necessities wherever they could, with little bashfulness
Camps were supposed to move whenever the air became “corrupted”
Camps were impossible to hide, since sutlers set up shop with their wagons to sell comforts to the men, and buy their booty
Army camps attracted civilians and clergy, including spies
Spies are only efficient if they are multilingual
They were protected by scouts and pickets, who might desert
War of Maneuvre
Flying columns seized objectives on the march route
“Stealing a march” put the enemy at a disadvantage
Keeping the supply lines open to the rear was a priority
Screening castles and fortresses necessary to prevent enemy from sallying forth from them to seize supply convoys
Blockades and defensive lines/earthwork fortifications kept a strong enemy at bay, but surrendered the initiative to him
Crossing great rivers required ample preparation, boat bridges, exploration of marshy ground, fords
Characteristics of mountain campaigns: small forces can block larger ones, concentration is difficult
Manoeuvre or battle?
The political context and orders from monarchs; generals rarely had a completely free hand with the army they commanded
Long marches were famous events celebrated as victories: Marlborough to Bavaria 1704, Eugene of Savoy across northern Italy 1706, Vendome across central Spain 1710
Fortresses guarded the supply routes, making it difficult to go around them if they were well garrisoned
Battle was always risky, generals preferred the indirect approach of sitting on enemy supply lines instead
Moving under duress: escaping from a victorious enemy or retreating to restore supply lines was difficult; men and equipment went astray
Armies cut off from supplies often lost a large proportion to desertion and sickness, worse losses than a battle
3: Occupying territory
Defensive campaigns relied on field fortifications, sometimes dozens of km long
Commanders relied on big garrisons and mobile relief forces
Offensive campaigns sought to occupy towns, which were bases of supply and finance controlling the district
Rulers sometimes punished territories by plundering them methodically: the Palatinate, Piedmont, Bavaria, Ireland
Behind the lines: heavy baggage & siege trains, militia escorts, patrols to collect deserters
Return of cool weather made it difficult for baggage to move, and grass for fodder stopped growing
Back into winter quarters after late October at the latest, leaving only limited raids possible in winter
Conclusion
Rare breakthroughs into deep enemy territory for the lack of time, and winter campaigning was rarely possible
Prisoners often exchanged after campaign, it was too much trouble to keep them
The Classical Siege, 17th-18th century
1: The Age of Vauban
More powerful & more mobile guns in the 17th century
Creation of siege trains moving separately from the army, sometimes counting over 100 heavy cannon and mortars
Siege train could stretch on for kilometres
Mortar, named after mortar and pestle, bomb put in empty shell and fired out of shell
Fairly crude and not very effective most of the time due to wick problems
More elaborate fortifications were required to keep attackers at a distance: outworks multiply
Could be a ravelin, could be a redoubt
Mines and counter-mines were still normal siege methods
Fewer and better fortresses, each requiring larger garrisons
Vauban completed the French barrier around the borders, and several advance bases near enemy territory
Each base was roughly 30-40 km from each other so they could help defend each other
Moat technology hasn’t developed that much, the reason why it worked for the Dutch is because they have no problems with different elevation.
Late 17th century is saturated with mathematics and geometry; surveying.
2: Besieger
Basic requirements in camp and labour teams were enormous, the largest engineering projects of the time
Blockading and investing the target fortress was the object of maneuvering, keeping the objective secret
It could take several days for the army to take up position
Lines of circumvallation & contravallation were dug by the labourers, facing towards the fortress, and then outward to fend off a relief force
Besiegers established several camps for the troops, mutual support
Engineers site batteries and approaches, discussing it with the senior commanders (who were rarely engineers)
Long-range fire from several angles tries to dismount fortress guns
The engineers then open the sap close to their camp at the edge of the enemy’s cannon range, organizing teams of sappers and their guards
Reducing the fortress
To the covered way, digging day and night, fending off sorties
Guns do little damage beyond 600m range; must move up closer
Placement of batteries in the parallels and firing to intimidate the defenders, notably ricochet fire, as well as mortar fire under 300m
Special assault troops, the grenadiers, were detailed to storm the covered way, which exposed the attackers to musketry & grenades
Cannon were brought up to the edge of the covered way, or saps were dug across the moat and under the ravelin to eliminate cross-fire
Dams were built upstream in order to drain the wet moat of all water
Cannon at close range or mines made the breach in the main wall or especially along the face of a bastion at least 20 metres across
Rubble underneath the breach had to be sufficient to allow men to clamber across in large numbers, led by a forlorn hope
Commanders offered terms to the garrison to surrender, in order to avoid an assault in which garrison could be killed and town sacked
3: The besieged
Information on the attacker is crucial for the governor, who commands botht he garrison and the civilians
Expulsions of useless mouths and inventories of materials
COmposition of the garrison and their duties, those who fight and those who repair damage and patrol the streets
Some cannon were held back to avoid being knocked out
Defending the outer limits beyond the covered way done by musketeers, sometimes in special redoubts
Art of the sortie: hit and run, aiming to fill in trenches and damage the guns, chasing off the sappers
It’s more of a tactic of slowing them down
As the enemy gets closer, they are no longer vulnerable to fortress cannon fire, which goes over their heads
Gotta rely more on your musketeers
Enemy at the gates
Musketeers fight from the covered way as long as possible
Surprise! Counter-mine chambers can destroy enemy works and personnel close to the fortress walls
The enemy put pots of water in the tunnels to detect when there were people digging nearby
Emergency repairs to damaged walls are undertaken every night, the defense requires great stores of lumber, obtained sometimes by demolishing nearby houses, cutting down trees on the bastion walls
Sheltering from the cannonballs & mortar bombs becomes difficult: no place to hide outside the casemates
Morale of townsmen, the weakest link, who fear that the city will be taken by assault and sacked; often hostile
It is infrequent for the defenders to dig in behind a breach and fight off an assault of enemy troops - except for Turks
If you don’t bring down everything outside your fortifications before the siege period, the enemy will use that to hide and dig in
The enemy close up
Difficulty of hitting enemy close to the wall, permitting the miners to work almost undisturbed
DIfficulties maintaining the perimeter after the assault on the covered way and the loss of the ravelins
Withdrawal into a citadel, evacuating the city
City isn’t captured till the citadel falls
Strategies of delay: picking off engineers, waiting for change in the weather, hoping for typhus in enemy camp
Extended rain could increase chance of disease that could inflict many more casualties than the garrison could ever do; typhus could kill as many as 20% of the soldiers.
Hoping for a relief army, most decisive of all
Holding the breach against an onslaught: why bother?
Negotiating good surrender terms of the defenders, a specialized process that can yield rewards
When attacking Turin in 1706, the commanders in the field decided to attack the strongest part (the citadel) which goes against the general rule of never attacking the strongest part
Conclusion
Shorter sieges due to more intense bombardments
Larger garrisons needed to hold the outworks
Contemplating a return to mobility after 1720, allowing smaller places to fall apart, as not worth defending
Fortresses became fewer in number but remained significant obstacles until the end of the Napoleonic wars
After 1840, towns were defended by ring of outlying forts