Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-nwzlb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-29T06:58:39.597Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

4 - From military enterprise to standing armies: war, state, and society in western Europe, 1600–1700

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

Frank Tallett
Affiliation:
University of Reading
D. J. B. Trim
Affiliation:
University of Reading
Get access

Summary

In 1633 the European conflict that had begun in 1619 was entering its fifteenth year. After the savagely fought battle of Lützen in November 1632, which had claimed the life of Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden but had failed to undermine Swedish military power in the Empire, the following campaign proved a lacklustre affair. Neither the imperial army under Albrecht Wallenstein nor the Swedish–German army wanted to risk another major encounter. The imperial army ended the 1633 campaign in winter quarters on the territories of its Habsburg overlord, Emperor Ferdinand II. Early in January 1634, forty-seven senior officers, each the colonel-proprietor of at least one regiment, assembled at Pilsen, south-west of Prague, to discuss orders from the court at Vienna. The most significant instruction was to decamp into quarters in adjoining German territories, tantamount to fighting a winter campaign against the Swedish troops presently occupying these areas. Following the repudiation of the court directives, dismissed as operationally impractical, the assembled officers each signed a document in which they subscribed to an oath of unconditional obedience to Wallenstein.

At the time, and in the debates that have persisted ever since about Wallenstein's ‘treason’, the significance of this oath has been linked to the fact that Wallenstein had created the largest mercenary army ever seen in Europe. In early 1634 it had an effective strength of around 45,000, and at its peak in 1629 it had numbered over 100,000 soldiers on paper.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×