Soldiers' Lives through History - The Early Modern World

Two distinguished historians tell the story of the early modern soldier of Europe, a figure often misunderstood, in the period spanning from 1494 to 1789.

He was the freebooting Landsknecht of the sixteenth century, swaggering in dilapidated finery through the ruins he and his kind created.

He was the mercenary of the Thirty Years War in the seventeenth century, rootless and masterless, brutalising civilians for a few coins, destroying civilisation's works for the pleasure of it.

He was the uniformed automaton of the eighteenth century, initiative beaten out of him, fit to do no more than endure battles and floggings until he pitched into an anonymous grave. Often told in the soldiers' own words, or those of their contemporaries, nine chapters rich in description and detail cover the following topics: the bloody and influential battles of the period; where the soldiers came from and how they were recruited; gunpowder, cannons, new fortresses, and siege warfare; the relationships between the leader and the led; morale and motivation of ordinary soldiers; women and children with the regiment; camp life for soldiers and camp followers; disease, medicine, and sanitation at camp; soldiers and veterans in town; and Europeans at war in Asia and the Americas.

A timeline provides context for the dates, events, and places discussed in the book; there are extensive endnotes and a comprehensive and topically arranged bibliography of recommended print and online sources.

A thorough index completes the book.