Giant of the Grand Siècle: The French Army, 1610–1715
Cambridge University Press
Edition: Illustrated, 9/18/1997
EAN 9780521572736, ISBN10: 0521572738
Hardcover, 672 pages, 24.1 x 16.5 x 4.4 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English
An 'invisible giant', the seventeenth-century French army was the largest and hungriest institution of the Bourbon monarchy. Combining social and cultural emphases with more traditional institutional and operational concerns, this book examines the army in depth, studying recruitment, composition, discipline, motivation, selection of officers, leadership, administration, logistics, weaponry, tactics, field warfare and siegecraft. The portrait that emerges differs from what current scholarship might have predicted. Instead of claiming that a 'military revolution' transformed warfare, Lynn stresses evolutionary change. This work also offers surprising insights into absolutism and the relationship between the monarchy and aristocracy. Questioning widely held assumptions about state formation and coercion, Lynn argues that this standing army was primarily devoted to border defence and only rarely to internal repression.
Preface
Acknowledgements
Part I. Context and Parameters
1. Contexts of military change in the Grand Siècle
2. Army growth
Part II. Administration and Supply
3. The military administration
4. Food and fodder
5. Providing other essentials
6. The tax of violence and contributions
Part III. Command
7. The costs of regimental command
8. The culture of command
9. The high command
Part IV. The Rank and File
10. Army composition
11. Recruitment
12. Discipline and desertion
13. Elements of morale and motivation
dependence and loyalty
Part V. The Practice of War
14. Weaponry and tactics
15. Learning and practising the art of field warfare
16. Positional warfare
Epilogue
insights on state formation
Bibliography
Index.