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Text of the page (random words):
on according to brantome süleyman specifically recruited experienced infantry captains from the french army in north italy probably in the 1530s when sultan and french king were happily allied against habsburg spain was süleyman just looking for a few more brave renegades or was he seeking to reform the janissary corps on the model of the new infantry tactics of the west in light of this latter possibility it is fascinating to note that despite the presence of tens of thousands of experienced european veterans in all the major mediterranean muslim armies in the army of the sharif of morocco as well as that of the turk there is no evidence that any of the new tactics of the west ever entered an army of the east weapons technology spread but not tactical technique assuming innovation was desired the only conclusion possible is that the cultural barriers were simply too high for transmission to take place this conclusion is reinforced by the record of later european experts hired to reform the ottoman army in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries who found it almost impossible to enforce changes that went against the cultural grain like many a christian prince süleyman was personally fascinated by pistols as were other well placed ottomans according to a habsburg ambassador at mid sixteenth century a turkish prince attempted to rearm his personal retinue with firearms but horsemen refused to have anything to do with the weapons and so the attempted innovation fascinatingly similar to contemporary cavalry experiments in western europe was a failure aristocratic distaste for firearms was also present in the west but there it was a minority and reactionary sentiment this was not so in ottoman lands where janissary slave soldiers adopted the new weapons but the landed nobility remained aloof arnold thomas f renaissance at war london cassell co 2001 pp 119 121 6 comments filed under 16th century ottoman war society june 1 2014 23 01 spain of the golden age at a glance ʻeveryone fought from the duke of alba a spanish grandee to pizarro a swineherd they all fought noblemen and labourers shepherds and burghers scholars and magnates clergymen and rogues clerks and knights every region of spain sent its sons to fight garcilaso ercilla cetina alcázar cervantes lope de vega calderón fought an entire people fought without differences of class loyalty duty profession or wealth they fought over the andes and in the alpine foothills on the plains of the po and on the mexican plateau beside the tiber against the pope and beside the mapocho against arauco on the banks of the river plate and the danube the elbe and the tagus the orinoco and the escalda at pavia and cuzco in the alpujarras and in the amazon jungles in tunisia and in amberes in the gulf of lepanto and off the english coast at navarino and terceira in la goleta and la habana in algeria and in the philippines in lombardy and in naples at all four points of the compass in france from provence to brittany from the banks of the bidassoa to the banks of the marne and from rousillon to normandy in the netherlands in portugal in africa and in ireland claudio sánchez albornoz españa un enigma histórico written like a magic spell but true to the last word 3 comments filed under 16th century spain war society april 15 2014 22 13 army of flanders a moving and accurate description of the spanish army of flanders by fernando gonzalez de leon from the road to rocroi class culture and command in the spanish army of flanders 1567 1659 2009 as a royal courtier and chronicler put it the army of flanders was one of the greatest treasures that any monarchy or empire has ever had in the ancient and modern ages the budget of the army of flanders amounted to over one half of total crown expenditures as geoffrey parker points out this was more money than many european kings could spend no other contemporary army had such a deep and well articulated structure of command nowhere else but in the tercios were each rank s responsibilities so clearly and permanently defined no other army counted on such a large group of salaried leading officers serving with permanent patents and no other force had such a comprehensive and professional staff of civil servants in its financial and judicial services in sharp contrast with contemporary armies most military functions in the spanish armed forces were carried out by professional officers commissioned and paid by the king not private entrepreneurs or foreign mercenaries oh how i love his focus on command personally i think that evolution of control and command hap far more impact on warfare than purely technical innovations can talk about that for hours but not sure anyone s interested discussion of musket s penetrating power tends to draw more attention than details of increasing number of nco s 5 comments filed under 16th century 17th century spain war society september 17 2013 09 55 nobles at war one of the most important things to remember about early modern wars is that kings could not wage them on their own they needed contribution of noblemen and wealthy townsmen but from tonwsmen kings needed only money nobles were indispensible for both money and personal service in the dawn of the modern state without bureaucracy and military schools only nobles bred for warfare could provide officers and we know that armies required more and more officers every decade as complexity of warfare grew along with military revolution the custom was to fight as a family fathers sons brothers nephews and cousins campaigned together providing unequalled cohesion also nobles brought to war their retinues clients and mercenaries refusal of noblemen to enter the war meant that the war could not be waged with success or could not be started at all as christian iv of denmark found out to his grief twice value of nobles to warring kings is obvious but what was in war for them here is the best summary of the issue i ever saw in quotes taken from different places of war state and society in england and the netherlands 1477 1559 by steven gunn and david grummitt 2007 continue reading leave a comment filed under 16th century statecraft war society july 29 2013 12 55 merits of cynicism to historians especially regarding wars war is the continuation of politics by other means although not all conflicts can or should be explained in such terms some arising from emotional and irrational origins this interpretation is basically sound and judicious it is particularly apposite to the middle ages beyond the political objectives we must also unearth the financial ones these are rarely buried deeply but are frequently obscured by the noble ideals and moral justifications proclaimed by the warring protagonists politics means power means money it is only rarely dangerous that too much cynicism is harmful to the process of historical interpretation it is usually the case that the more cynical one is the closer one arrives at the historical truth blood cries afar the forgotten invasion of england 1216 by sean mcglynn i couldn t agree more leave a comment filed under books war society july 8 2013 12 24 business of war hurrah i have finished the last 50 pages of david parrott s the business of war military enterprise and military revolution in early modern europe this is both the best and the worst book on early modern warfare that i ve read in last 5 years it is the best because it debunks an unprecedented number of myths on mercenary armies supply evolution of state and other important issues it is the worst because of huge over complicated sentences that somtimes span across half a page and in many places a simple thought is told in ten sentences instead of only one that s very uncomfortable after clear and vibrant style of authors like hale or mallett but it s not author s fault it s editors of cambridge university press who did not earn their bread so i have read it in small chunks of 20 40 pages which took a long time leave a comment filed under 16th century 17th century books war society june 28 2013 15 10 how to describe a medieval battle here is a wonderful quote about creating battle narratives the reconstruction of a medieval battle is inevitably a tentative cautious process in the case of stoke field the surviving printed sources and chance archaeological discoveries tell us only part of the story and some writers have suggested that there is little merit in producing a version which is partly speculative and possibly inaccurate john gillingham s comment that many such maps of the battle of bos worth have been drawn but apart from the fun of making them they are all quite worthless is still mentioned approvingly although those who quote him and then go on to write about the battle invariably produce maps of their own dr michael k jones has argued that it is virtually impossible to determine the course of events in a medieval conflict and express them diagrammatically by piecing together a number of accounts each from its own perspective we can recapture some of the key moments and gather a sense of what took place but the order in which they took place and the cause and effect between them is ultimately unknowable the terrain strategy and tactics are he says relevant if available evidence allows them to be determined but it is more profitable to consider the intangible the motivation and mindset of the principal combatants a surer sense of battle is to be found by focusing on why men fought rather than by drawing neat maps which can never adequately express the chaos of the melee it is of course entirely reasonable to examine and indeed speculate upon the wider psychological aspects of a battle but difficult to see how the thoughts of the soldiers which are ultimately unknowable can replace the verifiable reality of the landscape and the ways in which an army could or could not be deployed within it the key to understanding a battle is surely to be found not in jones s intangible but in a scientific and methodical approach to the surviving evidence one which seeks to reconstruct the historic terrain and is based on a full archaeological survey a careful examination and concordance of the surviving literary sources and a knowledge of the military practices of the period it should be possible to use both documentary evidence and soil sampling techniques to determine areas of cultivation marsh wood land and the courses of roads and the river in the late medieval era and systematic fieldwalking by volunteers armed with metal detectors could lead to discoveries which would tell us much more about precisely where and how the battle was fought taken from stoke field the last battle of the wars of the roses by david baldwin regardless of the title this is not a book about that battle i e the battle itself is decribed very briefly while the main theme is who and why opposed henry tudor or fought on his side leave a comment filed under 15th century books tactics june 22 2013 09 19 random thoughts on old books there is a strange feeling that i get after reading some classic works on military history many old authors are primarily important for historiography history of the history which is funny when you think about its ultimate utility but there are still mysteries left on time worn pages sometimes in books of delbruck oman taylor or denison i stumble upon an interesting detail that seems plausible but there are no footnotes or other directions for primary source of that detail where does it come from a mystery we have to assume that oman and taylor were careful in their studies and most probably had some reason to insert that detail their reputation is solid though works stand corrected but it is a mauvais ton to quote oman instead of primary source so these details have to be left where they are until we find their source however i have to say to the old historians that omitting proper footnotes and bibliography was very uncourteous why oh why leave a comment filed under 16th century books may 14 2013 09 56 armies on the move the first sign of amateurish book about early modern warfare is its focus on battles instead of more important aspects of campaigns second sign is an opinion about non existence of consistent fast and mobile strategy in that period a lot was written to challenge notions of primitive campaigns in last two decades here is a perfect example footnotes omitted from an excellent book war in england 1642 1649 by barbara donagan hardcover 2008 paperback and kindle 2010 continue reading leave a comment filed under 17th century england strategy february 1 2013 13 19 furies war in europe 1450 1700 by lauro martines i couldn t miss this new book on early modern wars author s backlog was respectable enough to make me first day buyer i heartily recommend his april s blood book about plot against medicis i have already finished it by now and here is a brief note i do not consider myself competent enough for a detailed review the book is interesting and well written the author had put some real emotions into the text but kept it moderate so the book is far from dry but is not too irksome in pushing of moral appraisals however i am subjective here because i share most of author s thought on state war and their effect on society continue reading 1 comment filed under 16th century 17th century books war society tagged as war society older posts recent posts western tactics and ottoman armies spain of the golden age at a glance army of flanders nobles at war merits of cynicism to historians especially regarding wars most popular pages they shot at the skies soldiers and firearms of 16th century definition of an early modern mercenary categories categories select category 15th century 2 16th century 13 17th century 8 18th century 1 books 5 condottieri 1 england 2 italy 3 ottoman 1 spain 2 statecraft 2 strategy 2 tactics 2 uncategorized 1 war society 7 weapons 2 15th century 16th century 17th century 18th century books condottieri england italy ottoman spain statecraft strategy tactics uncategorized war society weapons archives archives select month june 2014 2 april 2014 1 september 2013 1 july 2013 2 june 2013 2 may 2013 1 february 2013 1 january 2013 2 september 2012 1 april 2012 1 february 2012 1 august 2011 5 july 2011 2 subscribe by email enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email email address subscribe join 56 other subscribers rss posts rss comments blog stats 103 049 hits sellswords mercenaries and condottieri some stories about early modern soldiers and their time blog at wordpress com sellswords mercenaries and condottieri create a free website or blog at wordpress com subscribe subscribed sellswords mercenaries and condottieri join 56 other subscribers sign me up already have a wordpress com account log in now privacy sellswords mercenaries and condottieri subscribe subscribed sign up log 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