Furies: War in Europe, 1450–1700 1st Edition

by Lauro Martines (Author)

39 ratings

ISBN-13: 978-1608196098

ISBN-10: 1608196097

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We think of the Renaissance as a shining era of human achievementa pinnacle of artistic genius and humanist brilliance, the time of Shakespeare, Michelangelo, and Montaigne. Yet it was also an age of constant, harrowing warfare. Armies, not philosophers, shaped the face of Europe as modern nation-states emerged from feudal society. In Furies, one of the leading scholars of Renaissance history captures the dark reality of the period in a gripping narrative mosaic.

As Lauro Martines shows us, total war was no twentieth-century innovation. These conflicts spared no civilians in their path. A Renaissance army was a mobile city-indeed, a force of 20,000 or 40,000 men was larger than many cities of the day. And it was a monster, devouring food and supplies for miles around. It menaced towns and the countryside-and itself-with famine and disease, often more lethal than combat. Fighting itself was savage, its violence increased by the use of newly invented weapons, from muskets to mortars.

For centuries, notes Martines, the history of this period has favored diplomacy, high politics, and military tactics. Furies puts us on the front lines of battle, and on the streets of cities under siege, to reveal what Europes wars meant to the men and women who endured them.

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Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Unlucky were civilians of early modern Europe in the path of an army on the march or in a city under siege. No safer were soldiers, more apt to die from disease and starvation than battle. Vignettes of horror from the era’s maelstroms, grandly titled the Thirty Years’ War or the Dutch Revolt, abound in Martines’ treatment, which tries to raise ethical questions about panoramas of war. Discounting princes’ justifications for war, which come across as aristocratic brigandage in his text, Martines sets aside conventional military history of campaigns and leaders to show the hand of Mars on the peasants and villagers it touched. It coerced them into armies, but Mars’ royal sponsors failed to render promised pay and supplies. To square accounts, their generals instead let soldiers pillage the countryside and sack cities, examples Martines draws from eyewitnesses to plunder, arson, and killing. Ending by asking historians—he is a specialist on Renaissance Florence—to consider morality in their political and military works about the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Martines poises an agenda atop graphic historical envisioning of what he decries. --Gilbert Taylor

Review

“The misery of war is Mr. Martines's great theme. Rather than focusing on strategy and diplomatic maneuvers, he writes military history from the sharp end, from the victims' perspective. Whereas in our own day the constant focus on victims can be problematical, since it makes it hard for democracies to fight opponents who have no scruples, such an approach is entirely appropriate in dealing with the wars of past oppressors.” ―The Wall Street Journal

“A story that is as gripping as it is horrifying.” ―The Washington Times

“Lauro Martines's new book is a godsend…. made a pleasure to read by the author's nimble and darkly humorous prose, he has given us an unforgettable glimpse into a violent--and rarely seen--age.” ―Paul D. Lockhart, MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History

“The book's descriptive power is due to its excellent case studies drawn from primary sources…. Highly reommended.” ―Rebekah Kati, Library Journal

“Martines, best known for his work on the Italian Renaissance, makes a major contribution in this survey of war in 'early modern Europe.'” ―Publishers Weekly

Publisher : Bloomsbury Press; 1st edition (January 15, 2013)
Language : English
Hardcover : 336 pages
ISBN-10 : 1608196097
ISBN-13 : 978-1608196098
Item Weight : 1.47 pounds
Dimensions : 6.47 x 1.2 x 9.46 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #914,708 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,603 in Military History (Books)
- #2,463 in European History (Books)

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39 ratings

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Christian Potholm

“the notion of putting a city into a sack and going off with it”) and the plundering of the countryside are case in sharp and ev

Reviewed in the United States on November 16, 2014

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Lauro Matines, Furies: War in Europe 1450-1700 (New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2013). Anyone seeking to discover the true horrors of war would do well to start with this powerful and penetrating study. The author gives valuable insights into the “total war” that engulfed many parts of Europe (“A War Mosaic”) during the period under review and shows us the horror of the ongoing “harrowing” of war. “Warfare during this period was directed overwhelmingly against civilians in town and country.” The sacking of cities (i.e. “the notion of putting a city into a sack and going off with it”) and the plundering of the countryside are case in sharp and even disgusting relief. You will not read this work and be unmoved. The level of depravity and desertions, the incredible down-drag in “the soft core of logistics: food,” the size of the armies plus their camp followers (an army of 20,000 combatants was really a traveling mob of 48-50,000 p. 161), the role of loot for one and all, the fragility of the armies (for famine, disease and combat cost armies 25% of their strength yearly, p. 170) and the insightful notion that states during this period were almost adjuncts to their armies are all cast in sharp relief. The true face of war is devastation and death conveniently claims the author. Also intriguing is the notion of how much human excrement and waste from cavalry and baggage horses providing a vast theatre of disease. A most imaginative and worthwhile work.

2 people found this helpful

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Ocean View Retiree

A unique and gritty picture of a turbulent time

Reviewed in the United States on March 4, 2013

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Dr. Martinez presents a vivid, often grisly recantation of the emergence of modern Europe from a perspective not often seen in historical narrative. Most compelling are the descriptions of the horrors endured by the common folk of the day. Nobody was exempt from the privations of hunger, sickness, violence, and death visited
on the population of the continent by the constant wars which the period. It's surprising that anyone survived , soldier or civilian.

Even the nobility, who initiated most of the turmoil, were not exempt from suffering from disease and bloody killing, though there was some insulation at the highest levels. Princes and sovereigns fell to the unending scourge. The book details the. nastiness common to every conflict, particularly of the sieges of the walled cities, thought to be impregnable. The details are exquisitely excruciating.

A good historical work; very enlightening. My only criticism is that an introductory timeline would have helped readers not well acquainted with the history of the period to put the incidents he describes in perspective.

7 people found this helpful

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Michael G. Simonetto

About the common man

Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2013

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Most books on warfare concentrate on the leadership, the battles and the politics. This book covers the fate of the unfortunate common men and women who had to live through the impact of large, under-supplied armies rampaging through thier villages, towns and cities. Also lays out to financial reasons why the armies where never given the supplies they needed, and the logistical issues, driven by cost, the lack of transport and other factors that made armies of this period behave like a plague of locusts wherever they went. Sounds boring, but it is kept lively by in-depth examination of various campaigns. Lots of information you will not find in most history books. Also reveals the medical, sanitation and disease challenges of large armies in this period. Drags a bit in a few sections, but if you want to understand how it really was, this is a good book.

3 people found this helpful

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Stephen Bailey

Documented here in great detail, with many telling anecdotes

Reviewed in the United States on May 27, 2016

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War is the health of the State...at the expense of the People.
Documented here in great detail, with many telling anecdotes, is early, modern warfare's effects on the lives of everyday men, women, and children. It can well be argued that what created Europe's rise to power in the world was not its sublime culture, but rather its technical proficiency at war.

3 people found this helpful

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Anton Tomsinov

A collection of grim curiosities

Reviewed in the United States on February 14, 2013

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I couldn't miss this new book on early modern wars because I try to read everything on that theme and author's backlog was respectable enough to make me first-day-buyer (I heartily recommend his April's Blood book about plot against Medicis).

The book is interesting and well written. The author had put some real emotions into the text, but kept it moderate, so the book is far from dry but is not too irksome in pushing of moral appraisals. However, I am subjective here, because I share most of author's thought on state, war and their effect on society.

That is not a truly new research, because most of the book is based on modern historical monographs and articles and most firsthand accounts are well-known to the connoiseur of early modern warfare. It not a systematical research but rather a collection of grim anecdotes. The fault of the book is that after description of some curious event the author usually doesn't tell whether is was a typical or a rare case. For example, he used Peter Wilson's book on Thirty Years' War (BTW, highly recommended) but failed to line up his conclusions against Wilson's who debunked several myths about that war.

Nevertheless, a rare perspective in assessing the information gives a lot of novelty to the book in proper elucidation of the chosen theme. The book is dedicated to taking "war and society" approach to the exteme. You won't find here anything about generals, weapons, tactics or battles. All that is left is the grizzly grizzliness of war: plunder, plague, mortality rate, hunger, sieges, sack, violence, fate of civilians and poor soldiers. As such, it is a wonderful overview, especially for those who still have illusions about Europe's past and European mentality. Certain European brutalities of warfare are unique and thus really shocking to look at from other historical experience.

The essence of the book may be captured in the following quote:
"The monstrosities of the early modern state were most visible in Europe's great powers. They put huge armies into the field, as we have seen, but could not afford to keep them there, save by means of theft and violence against their own people, not to speak of what their armies did to other peoples. They tended to treat their ordinary soldiers like the scum of the earth, broke every contract with them, and yet demanded their loyalty or were ready to see them flogged, mutilated, branded, shipped out as galley slaves, or hanged when they deserted. [...] When their armies went unpaid or hungry, the plunder and ravaging of rural communities was also a norm for the great powers. And they often proved to be largely worthless in their efforts to handle the mortal questions of wartime logistics."

Basically, that book is an expression of shock and awe that the author felt by touching a theme that was new for him. If you have read John Hales' old book on Warfare and society in Renaissance Europe, you will find little new here. So, that book gives us impressions of a newcomer who notices some things that seasoned veterans of research on Military Revolution tend to omit because of being too accustomed to that sort of cases.

30 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

JDavison

Ugly face of early modern warfare

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 16, 2013

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This is a thematic study of early modern warfare, dealing with aspects such as plunder, siege and social make-up of armies. The book is based firmly on primary sources. To the extent that the coverage focuses on any particular wars, the bulk of the material relates to the Italian Wars, Dutch Revolt, Frnech Wars of Religion and the Thiry Years War.

I found it very readable. The structure is quite innovative, in that it starts with a "Mosaic of War", citing various real stories, before proceeding to deal with various subjects. Some of the chapters did seem to merge or overlap slightly, e.g. "Plunder" and "Sacking of Cities", but the combination provides a vivid depiction of the nasty, dirty and impoverishing nature of early modern warfare.

As a thematic-based structure, the lack of narrative means it is probably not a good standalone or first read on the period, and it is probably better to come to this after reading something like Jeremy Balck's work on the period 1494-1660:
European Warfare, 1494-1660 (Warfare and History) or Matchlocks to Flintlocks: Warfare in Europe and Beyond 1500-1700

For British readers, there is not a lot on the Wars of the Three Kingdoms/English Civil War, as the focus is more on mainland Europe, but English and Scottish soldiers were widely travelled in the period so do crop up at various points.

All in all, I thought that this was a welcome addition to the reading list on the "Military Revolution" in European history.

4 people found this helpful

msk

Real stories behind the history

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 3, 2013

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Having been looking for a while for particular information on France in the 16th century, not dates and political records, but rather the human angle on historical events, I was delighted to find this book. Here are the stories behind the 'headlines', what it was like for ordinary people to be caught up in the wars that raged across Europe at this period. It isn't the most comfortable reading - some of the details are necessarily horrific - but they aren't gratuitous, and it is both well written and well organised. Highly recommended.

Rioruss

Poor

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 14, 2013

Verified Purchase

While this book is full of interesting facts, it is so poorly written a to be almost unreadable. As though it had initially been laid out in some foreign language before translation to English using Babelfish.

Disjointed chapters, paragraphs and even sentences with little relevance to what came immediately before. Struggling to get to the end of it.

Can't recommend it.

5 people found this helpful

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