Prisoners in Early Modern European Warfare

The place of prisoners in early modern European warfare is acknowledged as an under-researched subject. The topic merits a few pages at best in general discussions, with the partial exception of the captivity of British and German soldiers during the American Revolutionary Wars. This brief sketch concentrates on identifying general trends and key questions. It ranges from the late fifteenth into the early nineteenth centuries, with the main focus from roughly 1580 to 1760. Discussion is restricted to Europe, excluding the European experience elsewhere in the world, but it includes conflicts against the Muslim Ottoman Turks.