Giant of the grand siècle : the French Army, 1610-1715 / John A. Lynn

Author: Lynn, John A. (John Albert), 1943-
Published: Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1997.
Physical Description: 1 online resource (xx, 651 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

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Contents

Part I. Context and Parameters: 1. Contexts of military change in the grand si?cle -- 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. Composition of the army -- 11. Recruitment -- 12. Discipline and desertion -- 13. Elements of morale and motivation -- Part V. The Practice of War: 14. Tactics and weaponry -- 15. Learning and practicing the art of field warfare -- 16. Positional warfare Epilogue: insights on state formation.

Summary

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.

Subject(s)

ISBN

9780511572548 (ebook)
9780521572736 (hardback)
9780521032483 (paperback)

Note

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

View MARC record | catkey: 34847664