J.R. Hale, War and Society in Renaissance Europe, 1450-1620 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985).
Biography: John Rigby Hale was a British historian and translator known for his emphasis on Renaissance studies. Educated at Oxford, Johns Hopkins, and Harvard, he eventually became a Fellow of the British Academy and Professor of Italian History at University College, London and Oxford. Authored, edited, translated dozens of works.
Overview: A compelling exploration of warfare and society between the end of the Hundred Years War and the beginning of the Thirty Years War.
Central Thesis: Though expanding commerce and developing statehoods enticed rulers to consider peace as a possible, even preferable alternative to war, Hale observes how organized violence nevertheless continued in every year. Yet, war during this transitional period was primarily a social phenomenon “largely…non constitutional, only marginally a political issue.” (252)
Scope of Book:
- Cites Lorenzo Valla’s Formula from 1440 as the reasons for wars in the period: Thirst for glory, expectation of booty, fear of an over powerful neighbor, to redress wrongs, and come to the aid of friends. Or as he summarizes: from the relationship and mood of the decision-making authority between greed, fear and altruism. (22)
- Recruitment during this time was difficult. Many were cajoled and others joined out of desperation, but nonetheless arguing that for many there was a positive attraction in an ‘alternative society’, an ‘itinerant mass’ larger than most European towns and operating under its own distinctive norm. It remained difficult while military establishments expanded. Problem not solved by bureaucratic innovation, but by money.
- Also, a retreat from military values occurred among the nobility as many began to appreciate the benefits of peace. Aristocrats knew the military service was becoming unattractive—not because gunpowder was ungentlemanly or cavalry was becoming irrelevant—but because most classes of society were beginning to see the comforts of steady income and office, not just the aristocracy.
- He discusses the impact of war on the economy, inconclusively, given the absence of the statistics necessary for a very complex econometric exercise, but suggesting the main factors involved in the argument about whether war stimulated more economic activity than it prevented or destroyed.
- Military reformation: Covers the social reactions that came with evolving military techniques and organization (emergence of gunpowder especially). Leads to new treatises on arms, tactics, and even behavior (superstition a big part of society—be pious to combat popular belief gunpowder associated with black magic). Superstitions died hard.
- Gunpowder and portable firearms and artillery changed everything.
- Soldier and his equip, formations, wounds. Led to fortifications. Firearms could be used by anyone.
- For a period however, the pike and halberd still maintain a place on the battlefield due to slow nature of firearms and to deal with Cav.
- Government—costs of war increase. Higher taxes result.
- Size of armies: “Finally, gunpowder was chiefly responsible for the most significant military development of all: the increased size of armies.” (47)
- By 1500 every monarch heavily invested in portable guns.
- First convincing demonstration that field artillery could determine a battle: 1512 near Ravenna when Spanish gunfire forced the entrenched French out of their positions.
- Soldier and his equip, formations, wounds. Led to fortifications. Firearms could be used by anyone.
- Since State’s power of compulsion still relatively weak, prince needed more than elite acceptance, but soldiers to bolster leadership. Condotta—military entrepreneurs—helped contract mercenaries, supplemented with native troops, to create small permanent forces.
- Commoners, too, felt this way—nobody wanted to leave family and hearth. Cash was poor incentive—loot a better one, but no soldiers became “wealthy.” The size of the army was determined by government’s ability to pay—taxation increased.
- Since funding and manning a war was repeatedly mediated, it deeply affected society. Regimes became more inventive to fund wars—concealing costs, spreading them around, avoiding revolt, squeezing the economy.
Commentary: The renaissance is a difficult period. As Hale shows—lots of wars waged by lots of states, proto-states, empires, and other monarchs. Hale breaks it down well in plain language to show the evolution of warfare and society during this period.