Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 The campaigns of the army, 1562–76
- 2 The camp and army of the king
- 3 The army in the field
- 4 “The footmen of the king”
- 5 The gendarmes
- 6 The artillery train
- 7 In search of a battle: Dreux, 1562
- 8 The defense of Chartres, 1567–68
- 9 A host of strangers: The army's presence on campaign, 1568–69
- 10 The destruction of an army: The siege of La Rochelle, 1573
- 11 Paying for war
- Conclusion: The limits to action
- Appendix
- Bibliography
- Index
- CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN EARLY MODERN HISTORY
1 - The campaigns of the army, 1562–76
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 January 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 The campaigns of the army, 1562–76
- 2 The camp and army of the king
- 3 The army in the field
- 4 “The footmen of the king”
- 5 The gendarmes
- 6 The artillery train
- 7 In search of a battle: Dreux, 1562
- 8 The defense of Chartres, 1567–68
- 9 A host of strangers: The army's presence on campaign, 1568–69
- 10 The destruction of an army: The siege of La Rochelle, 1573
- 11 Paying for war
- Conclusion: The limits to action
- Appendix
- Bibliography
- Index
- CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN EARLY MODERN HISTORY
Summary
THE DIMENSIONS OF CIVIL WAR
At first glance, the convulsions of violence that move across France during the Wars of Religion seem to deny the historian's compulsive need to impose patterns of order and meaning. Notwithstanding the title usually given to this period, much of its religious and civil conflict did not take the form of wars waged between conventionally operating military forces, nor were the wars fought exclusively over religious issues. The popular violence associated with persecution, repression, and massacres often did not wait for official declarations of war nor necessarily depend upon the presence or absence of formally organized armies. Even that most spectacular outbreak of violence, the 1572 Saint-Bartholomew's Day massacre, owed almost nothing to the formal military apparatus of the crown beyond the involvement of the king's French and Swiss guards in the killing in Paris.
This said, however, the fact remains that during these years of religious conflict formal warfare did come to dominate, both directly and indirectly, much of French life. During Charles IX's reign alone there were five openly declared periods of civil war in which the royal army fought a series of conventional military campaigns against the Huguenots. During those years much of the crown's attention and most of its resources were devoted to waging war.
- Type
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- Information
- The King's ArmyWarfare, Soldiers and Society during the Wars of Religion in France, 1562–76, pp. 6 - 37Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1996