Stephen D. Bowd, Renaissance Mass Murder: Civilians and Soldiers during the Italian Wars

Review of: Stephen D. Bowd, Renaissance Mass Murder: Civilians and Soldiers during the Italian Wars

Italian Wars, 1494–1559

According to the Florentine historian Francesco Guicciardini, Italy enjoyed peace and plenty in the years around 1490. From 1494 it was plunged into what he and others regarded as a series of “calamities,” triggered by the French kings Charles VIII (r. 1483–1498) and Louis XII (r. 1498–1515), who claimed to rule the kingdom of Naples and the duchy of Milan, respectively. Francis I (r. 1515–1547) retained the claim to Milan, and the wars themselves continued through the reign of Henry II (r. 1547–1559). Rule over Naples was contested and secured by Ferdinand II of Aragon (r. 1479–1516) and maintained by his Iberian successors. Milan was an imperial fief, so was contested by Ferdinand’s grandson Charles V in his capacity as Holy Roman emperor (r. 1519–1556). The conflicts waged in Italy in the names of these various princes between 1494 and 1559 are collectively known as the Italian Wars. They include the War of the League of Cambrai (1508–1516), that of the League of Cognac (1526–1530), and the War of Siena (1552–1559). This article approaches the wars by means of Reference Works and Overviews specifically devoted to the Italian Wars, though it is also worth teasing information from histories of Renaissance Warfare. Contemporary Sources provide innumerable angles on a subject that can be difficult to define beyond events on the battlefield or the besieged city and are therefore subdivided into four types: Memoirs and Chronicles, Histories, Official Records, and cultural evidence, the last of which appears under the heading Art of War, Art and War. Some publications deal with individual episodes or short spans of time and therefore feature in a Chronology of War, itself subdivided at the death of Louis XII/accession of Francis I, 1494–1515 and 1515–1559. The biographical genre—Lives and Times—is the most obvious way of dealing with the leading protagonists, who tended to be Princes, but group studies are also relevant when one turns to Subjects and Citizens who contributed to the conflicts in some form or other. Some authors have confined their research to military history, including the recruitment of soldiers, their pay, and provisions, as well as their activities on the battlefield, but the Italian Wars witnessed so much overlap between the lives of Soldiers and Civilians that they are brought together in the penultimate section of the article, which then concludes with the miscellanies that are Collections of Papers.

«Volver a casa»: la logística de los prisioneros de guerra en las guerras de Italia (1740-1748) = «Coming back Home»: The Logistics of Prisoners of War in the italian Wars (1740-1748)

En este trabajo analizamos la logística desarrollada en torno a los prisioneros de guerra durante la Guerra de Sucesión Austríaca en sus campañas italianas, prestando especial atención a los años 1746, 1747 y 1748. En esos años se produjo la derrota del ejército franco-español en Piacenza (1746), y entre 1747 y 1748 tuvieron lugar los últimos intercambios de prisioneros de los ejércitos español, francés, sardo, austríaco e inglés como consecuencia de las negociaciones del Tratado de Aquisgrán. Para reconstruir este proceso se ha recurrido a estados de prisioneros, convenios de canje, correspondencia de comisarios de guerra y capitulaciones de plazas. Por lo tanto, se contextualiza una realidad social de la guerra menos conocida por la historiografía y se establece un punto de unión entre dos épocas para las que contamos con un mejor conocimiento de la cuestión: la Guerra de Sucesión y la Guerra de la Convención.AbstractIn this article we analyze the logistics developed for prisoners of war during the War of Austrian Succession in its different Italian campaigns, taking special consideration of the years 1746, 1747 and 1748: they include the defeat of the French-Spanish army in Piacenza (1746), and the last exchanges of prisoners of the Spanish, French, Sardinian, Austrian and English armies that took place between 1747 and 1748 as a result of the negotiations of the Treaty of Aachen. In order to reconstruct this historical process we have studied prisoners´ lists, their exchange agreements, war delegates´ letters and surrender agreements of military fortresses. Therefore, a social reality of war less known by historiography is contextualized in a period which connects the Spanish War of Succession and the War of the Convention, two contexts in which POWs are better known.

Parallel Aspirations

The early decades of the Italian Wars (1494–1559) had a dramatic impact on the political landscape of Italy and radically changed the nature of military conflict. This chapter explores the efforts of Francesco Gonzaga and Isabella d’Este to realize their youthful ambitions in a rapidly changing political environment. The marquis wished to make his name as a military strategist and warrior, while his wife aspired to try out her diplomatic talents. Both individuals enjoyed initial success in their respective endeavours, as they worked together effectively, if not entirely harmoniously, to maintain the Gonzaga regime on an even keel during the first French invasion of the Italian peninsula.