Richelieu's Army
Richelieu's Army
$67.00
USDIt is assumed widely that 'war made the state' in seventeenth-century France. Yet this study of the French army during the ministry of Cardinal Richelieu (1624–42) shows how the expansion of the war effort was not matched by army reform but by a reliance on traditional mechanisms of control. The army imposed a huge burden upon the French population, but far from being an instrument of the emerging absolutist state its demands contributed to weakening Richelieu's hold upon France and heightened levels of political and social tension. This is the first detailed account of the size, organization, recruitment, financing and control of the troops during this formative period of French history. The book also includes a detailed study of foreign policy during Richelieu's ministry, and places the training, deployment and fighting methods of the French army into the context of arguments for military change in early modern Europe. The title was runner up in the History Today Awards 2002.
- Was the first detailed study of a military history topic which is central to early modern European history
- Makes an archivally based challenge to the usual assumptions about the link between war and the development of the absolutist state, explaining the 'failure' of the French army before 1660
- Contributes to the 'demythologizing' of Cardinal Richelieu as the great reformer and administrator of French history
Reviews & endorsements
"...a remarkable study..." Journal of Modern History
"This is an immensely useful, exhaustively researched study..." The Journal of Interdisciplinary History
"The originality of this book lies in Parrott's mastery of the literature on seventeenth-century warfare written in all the major Western European languages. It is a triumph of scholarship that, by placing French developments in a wider European context, will have an impact well beyond the hexagone." H-FRANCE
"This massive study will remain a standard work on military administration for some years to come." American Historical Review
"Parrott's thorough research and cogent arguments make his work required reading for any serious student of military history or the French monarchy in the seventeenth century." Renaissance Quarterly
"More books promise far less than their titles, but Parrott delivers more. Interesting, clearly-argued and scholarly throughout, Parrott's book is a major work for those interested in early-modern military history and offers an important reassessment of French history. Journal of Military History
"An important work for anyone interested in the evolution of French military primacy from the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries." NYMAS Newsletter
"David Parrott's new book on military history goes a long way toward showing both the prevalence and persistence of decentralization in Richelieu's France, and the apparent absence of any overall strategy to change things very much." Seventeeth-Century News
Product details
March 2006Paperback
9780521025485
628 pages
229 × 152 × 35 mm
0.91kg
5 maps
Available
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Table of Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: war, government and society in France, 1624–1642
- Part I. The Military Context:
- 1. The French art of war during Richelieu's ministry
- 2. France at war, 1624–1642
- 3. The size of the French army
- Part II. The Administrative Context:
- 4. Paying for war
- 5. Recruiting and maintaining armies during the Thirty Years War: military enterprise
- 6. The French rejection of entrepreneurship
- 7. The civil administration of the army: the structures
- Part III. Responses and Reactions:
- 8. The management of the war effort, 1635–1642: commissaires de guerres and intendants
- 9. The ministry and the high command
- 10. The army and the civilian population
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index.
