From Military Enterprise to Standing Armies: War, State and Society in Western Europe, 1600–1700

Much discussion of armies and state power pays insufficient attention to recent research into the character of early-modern central authority and its relationship to provincial and institutional elites. The creation or transformation of an army is not some act of will imposed by the ruler upon a passive body of subjects. Armies and military institutions represent the relationship between rulers and political elites, whether of traditional nobilities; provincial aristocracies; administrative, legal, or financial corporations; or fiscal-mercantile interest-groups. Like all aspects of political change in this period, the key issues are negotiation and compromise, building systems and institutions in which the aspirations of both ruler and all, or part, of the elites can be satisfied. For any military force, beyond the ruler’s immediate household troops or retainers, to come into existence requires willingness by these elites to ‘invest’ – socially, financially, culturally – in military activity and institutions. [Author]