The War People
A Social History of Common Soldiers during the Era of the Thirty Years War

Pathbreaking book which reveals the intricate social world of ordinary soldiers, military women, and officers in seventeenth-century Europe.

Lucian Staiano-Daniels (Author)

9781009428408, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 19 December 2024

248 pages
23.5 x 15.9 x 1.9 cm, 0.51 kg

'The War People is an exciting and invaluable history from below that sheds light on the lived experiences of marginalized and forgotten people - common soldiers, subaltern officers, military wives, civilian peasants, local political officials - as they struggled through privation, famine, economic collapse, epidemics, and all manner of violence during the Thirty Years War. Through impressive social and microhistorical analyses surrounding the Mansfeld Regiment of Saxony, Staiano-Daniels brilliantly reconstructs the complex, evolving relationships between these colorful historical actors as their trajectories unfolded in the context of international religious warfare and the Military Revolution.' Christy Pichichero, George Mason University

This book uses the transnational story of a single regiment to examine how ordinary soldiers, military women, and officers negotiated their lives within the chaos and uncertainty of the seventeenth century. Raised in Saxony by Wolf von Mansfeld in spring 1625 in the service of the King of Spain, the Mansfeld Regiment fought for one and a half years in northern Italy before collapsing, leaving behind a trail of dead civilians, murder, internal lawsuits…and copious amounts of paperwork. Their story reveals the intricate social world of seventeenth-century mercenaries and how this influenced how they lived and fought. Through this rich microhistorical case study, Lucian Staiano-Daniels sheds new light on key seventeenth-century developments like the military revolution and the fiscal-military state, which is supported by statistical analysis drawn from hundreds of records from the Thirty Years War. This pathbreaking book unifies the study of war and conflict with social history.

List of figures
List of tables
Preface: money, dates, ranks, and measurements
Preface: the people
Acknowledgments
Introduction: the war people
1. Display all good will and keep moving: the Mansfeld regiment and the 1625–1627 campaign Hieronymus Sebastian Schutze and Hans Devil
2. The Italian dance: early modern Military finance and the Mansfeld regiment
3. Righteous guys: military society
4. The spinner-Lords of Saint Gallen: small group Cohesion and Military social networks as seen through a theft of fabric
5. The kind of people I know you will like: social structure in the Saxon Army and the Mansfeld regiment
6. Elizabeth Sanner and the dead men: Mansfeld interactions with their surroundings
7. To be happy doing what you want: the death of Victoria Guarde and the life of Theodoro de Camargo Hieronymus Sebastian Schutze, Felix Steter and Wolfgang Winckelmann
8. Making it in this thing: money and payment within Saxon regiments in the 1620s
9. And to my son the breaking wheel: the Mansfeld regiment falls apart
Conclusion: a beautiful regiment
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Military history [HBW]