We shouldn't think of this period as one in which there are conscript or volunteers, ar volunteer armies paid for by states from of their own subjects. And that e we have a kind of mixed economy of fighting here, of public private initiatives and business men of nobles who are using their resources to raise troops. These could also be cross confessional armies as well. That's to say, catholics fighting in protestant armis, or vice versa. You these people are moving from one area to another dependent on opportunities and circumstances and people they owe their allegiance to. Does there ever seem any logic in it? Yes, there is logic. I mean, this is the thing, the
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the war in Europe which begain in 1618 and continued on such a scale and with such devastation that its like was not seen for another three hundred years. It pitched Catholics against Protestants, Lutherans against Calvinists and Catholics against Catholics across the Holy Roman Empire, drawing in their neighbours and it lasted for thirty gruelling years, from the Defenestration of Prague to the Peace of Westphalia of 1648. Many more civilians died than soldiers, and famine was so great that even cannibalism was excused. This topic was chosen from several hundred suggested by listeners this autumn.
The image above is a detail from a painting of The Battle of White Mountain on 7-8 November 1620, by Pieter Snayers (1592-1667)
With
Peter Wilson
Chichele Professor of the History of War at the University of Oxford
Ulinka Rublack
Professor of Early Modern European History at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of St John’s College
And
Toby Osborne
Associate Professor in History at Durham University
Producer: Simon Tillotson