Exploring the effects of war on state power in early modern Europe, this book asks if military competition increased rulers' power over their subjects and forged more modern states, or if the strains of war break down political and administrative systems. Comparing England and the Netherlands in
the age of warrior princes such as Henry VIII and Charles V, it examines the development of new military and fiscal institutions, and asks how mobilization for war changed political relationships throughout society.
Towns in England, such as Norwich, York, Exeter, and Rye, are compared
with towns in the Netherlands, such as Antwerp, Leiden, 's-Hertogenbosch and Valenciennes, to see how the magistrates' relations with central government and the urban populace were modified by war. Great noblemen from the Howard and Percy families are set alongside their equivalents from the houses
of Croÿ and Egmond to examine the role of recruitment, army command, and heroic reputation in maintaining noble power. The wider interactions of subjects and rulers in wartime are reviewed to measure how effectively war extended princes' claims on their subjects' loyalty and service, their ambitions
to control news and opinion and to promote national identity, and their ability to manage the economy and harness religious change to dynastic purposes. The result is a compelling but nuanced picture of societies and polities tested and shaped by the pressures of ever more demanding warfare.
1. Polities at War
2. Military Institutions and Fiscal Growth
3. Towns at War
4. Urban Military Resources
5. Life in Wartime
6. War and Urban Government
7. Towns in the Polity
8. War, Towns and the State
9. Nobles at War
10. The Military Resources of the
Nobility
11. Nobles in Command
12. Costs and Rewards
13. War and Noble Power
14. War and Noble Identity
15. War, Nobles and the State
16. Subjects at War
17. Obligations
18. Information and Response
19. The Trials of War
20. War and Identity
21. War,
Subjects and the State
Conclusion: War, State and Society
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Steven Gunn is a Fellow and Tutor in History at Merton College, Oxford. David Grummitt is a Research Fellow at The History of Parliament Trust. Hans Cools is an Assistant Professor in Early Modern History at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.
