Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of maps
- List of tables
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Note on the text
- List of abbreviations
- Maps
- 1 ‘Then was then and now is now’: an overview of change and continuity in late-medieval and early-modern warfare
- 2 Warfare and the international state system
- 3 War and the emergence of the state: western Europe, 1350–1600
- 4 From military enterprise to standing armies: war, state, and society in western Europe, 1600–1700
- 5 The state and military affairs in east-central Europe, 1380–c. 1520s
- 6 Empires and warfare in east-central Europe, 1550–1750: the Ottoman–Habsburg rivalry and military transformation
- 7 Ottoman military organisation in south-eastern Europe, c. 1420–1720
- 8 The transformation of army organisation in early-modern western Europe, c. 1500–1789
- 9 Aspects of operational art: communications, cannon, and small war
- 10 Tactics and the face of battle
- 11 Naval warfare in Europe, c. 1330–c. 1680
- 12 Legality and legitimacy in war and its conduct, 1350–1650
- 13 Conflict, religion, and ideology
- 14 Warfare, entrepreneurship, and the fiscal-military state
- 15 War and state-building
- Bibliography
- Index
12 - Legality and legitimacy in war and its conduct, 1350–1650
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of maps
- List of tables
- Notes on contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Note on the text
- List of abbreviations
- Maps
- 1 ‘Then was then and now is now’: an overview of change and continuity in late-medieval and early-modern warfare
- 2 Warfare and the international state system
- 3 War and the emergence of the state: western Europe, 1350–1600
- 4 From military enterprise to standing armies: war, state, and society in western Europe, 1600–1700
- 5 The state and military affairs in east-central Europe, 1380–c. 1520s
- 6 Empires and warfare in east-central Europe, 1550–1750: the Ottoman–Habsburg rivalry and military transformation
- 7 Ottoman military organisation in south-eastern Europe, c. 1420–1720
- 8 The transformation of army organisation in early-modern western Europe, c. 1500–1789
- 9 Aspects of operational art: communications, cannon, and small war
- 10 Tactics and the face of battle
- 11 Naval warfare in Europe, c. 1330–c. 1680
- 12 Legality and legitimacy in war and its conduct, 1350–1650
- 13 Conflict, religion, and ideology
- 14 Warfare, entrepreneurship, and the fiscal-military state
- 15 War and state-building
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Introduction
This chapter considers the circumstances in which war was held to be legitimate and what was permissible in its conduct. It is a time-honoured premise that ‘in times of war the law sleeps’, yet this has only ever been true in part. There has always been a requirement for the protection of individuals or groups, both military and civilian, and for the regulation of combat. The variety of experiences at what has been called the ‘sharp end’ of war can mislead commentators when they come to assess how far such regulation achieved its aims. Especially in the case of chivalry there has been criticism for its failure to realise its high ideals, as if this somehow undermines the credibility of practitioners' intentions. This might be considered unreasonable in the context of modern attempts to restrict or control violence in warfare through the Geneva Conventions, which can still often be more honoured in the breach than the observance. A further issue for discussion is whether attitudes towards the legitimacy of violence changed across the divide between medieval and early-modern – in particular, in the period c. 1350 to c. 1650. In simple terms, did things get worse in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, perhaps as a result of the wars of religion in western Europe? Were there more unfortunate victims of warfare in the Thirty Years' War than 300 years earlier in the even-longer-running Anglo-French conflict, the so-called Hundred Years' War?
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- European Warfare, 1350–1750 , pp. 264 - 277Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010