Here we going again with the skulking

For those who get all their international news from CNN, they would’ve come across this article on the British (“Royal”) Navy keeping a close eye on Russia’s lone aircraft carrier as it chugs its way back to its Baltic home: http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/26/europe/britain-russia-aircraft-carrier/.

The quote receiving attention abroad was the UK Defence Secretary saying that “We are keeping a close eye on the Admiral Kuznetsov as it skulks back to Russia, a ship of shame whose mission has only extended the suffering of the Syrian people.” Of course for me, the money quote was not the “ship of shame” line – to be honest, I had to think for a minute which shame to focus on: the mission, the carrier design, or its operational performance in the Eastern Med? No, I smiled at yet another example of the British accusing their opponents of skulking about – why can’t everybody just be brave and downright like the British?

So, is Vladimir Putin the new Louis XIV? Discuss.

And the printing presses keep on churning

An early year bibliography review, including books soon-to-appear.

Forssberg, Anna Maria. The Story of War: Church and Propaganda in France and Sweden 1610–1710. Lund, Sweden: Nordic Academic Press, 2017.

Abstract: ”O God we thank thee” was sung in the churches of France and Sweden after military victories in the seventeenth century. To celebrate Thanksgiving was a way of thanking God, but also a way for the rulers to legitimize the ever ongoing wars. For the inhabitants it was both an occasion for festivity and a way of getting information about what happened in the battlefield. Yet the image given was selective. Bloody defeats and uneventful everyday life was replaced by spectacular victories and royal glory. Even though the rituals in the two countries were similar in some ways, there were also substantial differences. The propaganda formulated a narrative about what war actually was, and what role the rulers and their subjects should play. In the crisis of 1709 this narrative was profoundly challenged. The book investigates how war events were communicated to the inhabitants of France and Sweden in the seventeenth century by the Church, and especially through days of thanksgiving (called Te Deum in France).

For those who read French, there’s the edited collection Le soldat face au clerc. Armée et religion en Europe occidental (XVe-XIXe siècles), which includes chapters like:

• Boltanski, Ariane. “L’encadrement religieux des armées associées à la Ligue (1590-1592).” In Le soldat face au clerc. Armée et religion en Europe occidentale (XVe-XIXe siècle), edited by Laurent Jalabert and Stefano Simiz, 111–28. Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2016.
• Bourdeu, Étienne. “La monarchie, la dynastie ou la religion? Les Espagnols et la Ligue catholique (1618-1619).” In Le soldat face au clerc. Armée et religion en Europe occidentale (XVe-XIXe siècle), edited by Laurent Jalabert and Stefano Simiz, 229–44. Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2016.
• Burkardt, Albrecht. “Mercenaires et Inquisition romaine (XVIe-XVIIIe siècle).” In Le soldat face au clerc. Armée et religion en Europe occidentale (XVe-XIXe siècle), edited by Laurent Jalabert and Stefano Simiz, 209–28. Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2016.
• Chaline, Olivier. “Les clercs et les armes à l’époque moderne: quelques remarques.” In Le soldat face au clerc. Armée et religion en Europe occidentale (XVe-XIXe siècle), edited by Laurent Jalabert and Stefano Simiz, 97–110. Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2016.
• Galland, Caroline. “«Des missions aux armées et aux hospitaux»: les aumôniers récollets sous le règne de Louis XIV.” In Le soldat face au clerc. Armée et religion en Europe occidentale (XVe-XIXe siècle), edited by Laurent Jalabert and Stefano Simiz, 35–50. Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2016.
• Léonard, Julien. “Les pasteurs de Metz face au pouvoir militaire (XVIe-XVIIe siècle): des hommes de Dieu dans une ville de garnison.” In Le soldat face au clerc. Armée et religion en Europe occidentale (XVe-XIXe siècle), edited by Laurent Jalabert and Stefano Simiz, 65–82. Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2016.
• Lepri, Valentina. “Military Strategies Versus ‘Humanae Litterae’. The Rules of Domenico Mora, Chief of the Army in 16th-Century Poland.” In Books for Captains and Captains in Books: Shaping the Perfect Military Commander in Early Modern Europe, edited by Marco Faini and Maria Elena Severini, 65–76. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2016.
• Masson, Christophe. “Le rôle des ecclésiastiques dans les armées françaises d’Italie à l’époque du Grand Schisme d’Occident (1382-1411).” In Le soldat face au clerc. Armée et religion en Europe occidentale (XVe-XIXe siècle), edited by Laurent Jalabert and Stefano Simiz, 83–96. Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2016.
• Meyer, Frédéric. “L’impossible aumônerie militaire en France sous l’Ancien Régime.” In Le soldat face au clerc. Armée et religion en Europe occidentale (XVe-XIXe siècle), edited by Laurent Jalabert and Stefano Simiz, 51–64. Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2016.
• Muller, Claude. “Dieu et Mars: le clergé alsacien pendant la guerre de Succession d’Espagne (1702-1714).” In Le soldat face au clerc. Armée et religion en Europe occidentale (XVe-XIXe siècle), edited by Laurent Jalabert and Stefano Simiz, 129–44. Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2016.
• Nijenhuis-Bescher, Andreas. “«On a laissé quelques Couvens de Religieuses, mais chassé tous les gens de l’église»: la «Milice» des Provinces-Unies sous Frédéric-Henri d’Orange (1584-1647) bras armé d’un État confessionnel.” In Le soldat face au clerc. Armée et religion en Europe occidentale (XVe-XIXe siècle), edited by Laurent Jalabert and Stefano Simiz, 245–68. Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2016.
• Picaud-Monnerat, Sandrine. “L’armée et l’Église pendant la guerre de Succession d’Autriche: les campagnes de Flandre (1744-1748) vues du côté français.” In Le soldat face au clerc. Armée et religion en Europe occidentale (XVe-XIXe siècle), edited by Laurent Jalabert and Stefano Simiz, 145–62. Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2016.
• Simiz, Stefano. “Prêcher aux militaires: les sermons de l’abbé Demaugre vers 1775.” In Le soldat face au clerc. Armée et religion en Europe occidentale (XVe-XIXe siècle), edited by Laurent Jalabert and Stefano Simiz, 179–90. Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2016.
• Boniface, Xavier. “Conclusion. Armée et religion XVe-XIXe siècle.” In Le soldat face au clerc. Armée et religion en Europe occidentale (XVe-XIXe siècle), edited by Laurent Jalabert and Stefano Simiz, 269–76. Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2016.

And how about:

Strickland, Lloyd. “Leibniz’s Egypt Plan (1671–1672): From Holy War to Ecumenism.” Intellectual History Review 26, no. 4 (December 2016): 461–76.

In other words, war, religion and peace are becoming quite the topic, recall the parallel English publication of The European Wars of Religion: An Interdisciplinary Reassessment of Sources, Interpretations, and Myths, edited by Wolfgang Palaver, Dietmar Regensburger, and Harriet Rudolph. Ashgate, 2016. And that’s a good thing.

And since I’ve already cited one French book, I guess I can cite a few more items:

Chaline, Olivier. Les armées du Roi – Le grand chantier XVIIe-XVIIIe siècle: Le grand chantier – XVIIe-XVIIIe siècle. Paris: Armand Colin, 2016.

Denys, Catherine. “The Police and Justice Systems of Soldiers and Burghers in Eighteenth-Century Brussels.” In Militär und Recht vom 16. bis 19. Jahrhundert: Gelehrter Diskurs – Praxis – Transformationen, edited by Jutta Nowosadtko, Kai Lohsträter, and Diethelm Klippel, 1st ed., 171–86. V&R unipress, 2016.

Denys, Catherine. “Les ingénieurs du roi de France auprès de la couronne d’Espagne (1704-1715) / The Engineers of the King of France with the Ear of the Crown of Spain, 1704–1715.” Vegueta: Anuario de la Facultad de Geografía e Historia, no. 16 (2016): 67–92.

And now that I’ve created separate Zotero records for individual chapters, I can include a few from a previous mention:

• Breccia, Gastone. “Virtus Under Fire. Renaissance Leaders in a Deadlier Battlefield.” In Books for Captains and Captains in Books: Shaping the Perfect Military Commander in Early Modern Europe, edited by Marco Faini and Maria Elena Severini, 21–34. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2016.
• Faini, Marco. “The Holy Captain: Military Command and Sacredness in the Early-Modern Age.” In Books for Captains and Captains in Books: Shaping the Perfect Military Commander in Early Modern Europe, edited by Marco Faini and Maria Elena Severini, 117–34. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2016.
• Manfredini, Ilario. “The Image of the ‘Soldier Prince’ in Florence and Turin in the Second Half of the Sixteenth Century.” In Books for Captains and Captains in Books: Shaping the Perfect Military Commander in Early Modern Europe, edited by Marco Faini and Maria Elena Severini, 165–76. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2016.
• Tranquilli, Vittorio. “The Heroism of Jests in Francesco Andreini’s Le Bravure Del Capitano Spavento.” In Books for Captains and Captains in Books: Shaping the Perfect Military Commander in Early Modern Europe, edited by Marco Faini and Maria Elena Severini, 149–64. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2016.
• Vesiero, Marco. “‘Risistere Alla Furia De’ Cavagli E Degli Omini D’arme’. A Lost Book for a Condottiere by Leonardo Da Vinci.” In Books for Captains and Captains in Books: Shaping the Perfect Military Commander in Early Modern Europe, edited by Marco Faini and Maria Elena Severini, 103–16. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2016.

And lest we forget how nasty warfare really is:

• Hall, Dianne. “‘Most Barbarously and Inhumaine Maner Butchered’: Masculinity, Trauma, and Memory in Early Modern Ireland.” In The Body in Pain in Irish Literature and Culture, edited by Fionnuala Dillane, Naomi McAreavey, and Emilie Pine, 39–55. Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.
• Peters, Erin. “Trauma Narratives of the English Civil War.” Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies 16, no. 1 (Winter 2016).

The nastiness goes more than flesh-deep, as is indicated by the forthcoming Kuijpers, Erika, and Cornelis van der Haven, eds. Battlefield Emotions 1500-1800: Practices, Experience, Imagination. 1st ed. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017:

• Bähr, Andreas. “Magical Swords and Heavenly Weapons: Battlefield Fear(lessness) in the Seventeenth Century.” In Battlefield Emotions 1500-1800: Practices, Experience, Imagination, edited by Erika Kuijpers and Cornelis van der Haven, 49–69. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.
• Berkovich, Ilya. “Fear, Honour and Emotional Control on the Eighteenth-Century Battlefield.” In Battlefield Emotions 1500-1800: Practices, Experience, Imagination, edited by Erika Kuijpers and Cornelis van der Haven, 93–110. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.
• De Boer, Lisa. “The Sidelong Glance: Tracing Battlefield Emotions in Dutch Art of the Golden Age.” In Battlefield Emotions 1500-1800: Practices, Experience, Imagination, edited by Erika Kuijpers and Cornelis van der Haven, 207–27. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.
• Favret, Mary A. “Whose Battlefield Emotion?” In Battlefield Emotions 1500-1800: Practices, Experience, Imagination, edited by Erika Kuijpers and Cornelis van der Haven, 197–204. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.
• Füssel, Marian. “Emotions in the Making: The Transformation of Battlefield Experiences during the Seven Years’ War (1756–1763).” In Battlefield Emotions 1500-1800: Practices, Experience, Imagination, edited by Erika Kuijpers and Cornelis van der Haven, 149–72. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.
• Germani, Ian. “Mediated Battlefields of the French Revolution and Emotives at Work.” In Battlefield Emotions 1500-1800: Practices, Experience, Imagination, edited by Erika Kuijpers and Cornelis van der Haven, 173–94. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.
• Haven, Cornelis van der. “Drill and Allocution as Emotional Practices in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Poetry, Plays and Military Treatises.” In Battlefield Emotions 1500-1800: Practices, Experience, Imagination, edited by Erika Kuijpers and Cornelis van der Haven, 25–47. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.
• Kuijpers, Erika, and Cornelis van der Haven. “Battlefield Emotions 1500–1800: Practices, Experience, Imagination.” In Battlefield Emotions 1500-1800: Practices, Experience, Imagination, edited by Erika Kuijpers and Cornelis van der Haven, 3–21. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.
• Mainz, Valerie. “Deflecting the Fire of Eighteenth-Century French Battle Painting.” In Battlefield Emotions 1500-1800: Practices, Experience, Imagination, edited by Erika Kuijpers and Cornelis van der Haven, 229–47. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.
• Noak, Bettina. “Emotions, Imagination and Surgery: Wounded Warriors in the Work of Ambroise Paré and Johan van Beverwijck.” In Battlefield Emotions 1500-1800: Practices, Experience, Imagination, edited by Erika Kuijpers and Cornelis van der Haven, 71–91. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.
• Sandberg, Brian. “‘His Courage Produced More Fear in His Enemies than Shame in His Soldiers’: Siege Combat and Emotional Display in the French Wars of Religion.” In Battlefield Emotions 1500-1800: Practices, Experience, Imagination, edited by Erika Kuijpers and Cornelis van der Haven, 127–48. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.
• Shaw, Philip. “Picturing Valenciennes: Philippe-Jacques de Loutherbourg and the Emotional Regulation of British Military Art in the 1790s.” In Battlefield Emotions 1500-1800: Practices, Experience, Imagination, edited by Erika Kuijpers and Cornelis van der Haven, 249–67. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.
• Sturkenboom, Dorothee. “Battlefield Emotions in Early Modern Europe: Trends, Key Issues and Blind Spots.” In Battlefield Emotions 1500-1800: Practices, Experience, Imagination, edited by Erika Kuijpers and Cornelis van der Haven, 271–83. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.
• Verberckmoes, Johan. “Early Modern Jokes on Fearing Soldiers.” In Battlefield Emotions 1500-1800: Practices, Experience, Imagination, edited by Erika Kuijpers and Cornelis van der Haven, 113–24. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.

But let’s give the Spanish Habsburgs their due:

Martínez, Miguel. Front Lines: Soldiers’ Writing in the Early Modern Hispanic World. S.l.: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016.

Abstract: In Front Lines, Miguel Martínez documents the literary practices of imperial Spain’s common soldiers. Against all odds, these Spanish soldiers produced, distributed, and consumed a remarkably innovative set of works on war that have been almost completely neglected in literary and historical scholarship. The soldiers of Italian garrisons and North African presidios, on colonial American frontiers and in the traveling military camps of northern Europe read and wrote epic poems, chronicles, ballads, pamphlets, and autobiographies—the stories of the very same wars in which they participated as rank-and-file fighters and witnesses. The vast network of agents and spaces articulated around the military institutions of an ever-expanding and struggling Spanish empire facilitated the global circulation of these textual materials, creating a soldierly republic of letters that bridged the Old and the many New Worlds of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.Martínez asserts that these writing soldiers played a key role in the shaping of Renaissance literary culture, which for its part gave to them the language and forms with which to question received notions of the social logic of warfare, the ethics of violence, and the legitimacy of imperial aggression. Soldierly writing often voiced criticism of established hierarchies and exploitative working conditions, forging solidarities among the troops that often led to mutiny and massive desertion. It is the perspective of these soldiers that grounds Front Lines, a cultural history of Spain’s imperial wars as told by the common men who fought them.

Mawson, Stephanie J. “Convicts or Conquistadores? Spanish Soldiers in the Seventeenth-Century Pacific.” Past & Present 232, no. 1 (August 1, 2016): 87–125.

Navarro-Loidi, Juan. “Cadet Selection for the Royal Artillery in Spain, 1764–1808.” Vulcan 4, no. 1 (August 1, 2016): 27–51.

Luengo, Pedro. “Military Engineering in Eighteenth-Century Havana and Manila: The Experience of the Seven Years War.” War in History 24, no. 1 (January 1, 2017): 4–27.

And can I get a ‘Hell Yeah!” for the Oirish?

• O’Neill, James. “A Kingdom near Lost: English Military Recovery in Ireland, 1600-03.” British Journal for Military History 3, no. 1 (November 3, 2016)..
• O’Neill, James. “Three Sieges and Two Massacres: Enniskillen at the Outbreak of the Nine Years’ War, 1593-5.” Irish Sword 30 (November 1, 2016): 241–49.

[Insert your own British Isles transition here, preferably something about Brexit, because I’ve got bupkis]:

Peters, Kate. “The Quakers and the Politics of the Army in the Crisis of 1659.” Past & Present, May 16, 2016.

And, most surprising of all, I just learned that my very own regional public university has hired someone who actually studies early modern (Spanish) military culture, so her work deserves a shout out as well:

• Nájera, Luna. “Masculinity, War, and Pursuit of Glory in Sepúlveda’s ‘Gonzalo.’” Hispanic Review 80, no. 3 (2012): 391–412.
• Nájera, Luna. “The Deployment of the Classics in Early Modern Spanish Military Manuals.” Sixteenth Century Journal 46, no. 3 (Fall 2015): 607–27.

Phew, I’m tired. I better go have a lay-down.

No wonder we historians are bad at math – they keep changing the answers

Apropos an old thread on naming wars based off their duration (and how complicated that really is), this story appeared recently on my History News Network feed. It’s neither early modern nor European, but it’s been a busy six months.

Story from the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/11/world/asia/china-japan-textbooks-war.html?_r=0

Professor: “How long was the Eight-Year War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression”?
Student: “Eight years.”
Professor: “Wrong. Fourteen.”

My main thought: while it’s nice that there’s an official name for wars, just imagine the need to change all those references and Library of Congress subject headings. Ugh.