Some error occured while loading the Quick View. Please close the Quick View and try reloading the page.
Presents the concept of martial culture as a way of integrating aspects of urban life that have hitherto been explored separately or neglected entirely.
Premodern towns in Europe were martial entities: fortified walls protected their inhabitants from outside threats; gates separated them from unwelcome strangers. Even towns that were not defined by their walls served as rallying points for assembling troops or provided the necessary infrastructure for martial events. Within the emerging European states, it was towns that brought together the bankers who financed the princes' warfare, gathered the artisans who furnished their armies, and opened the markets that distributed money, goods, and fighters. Overall, towns served as producers, organisers, and brokers of martial culture within the rapidly changing political world of late medieval and early modern Europe.
This book explores the complexity of urban martial culture in towns across the Holy Roman Empire, Italy, England, and the Low Countries. The contributors consider the city as a martial space; the people who owned and wielded weapons, from citizen militias to master-gunners; the weapons themselves and the vocabulary, production, and symbolism attached to them; the relationship between social standing and weapon use; and, finally, the place of urban martial culture within the broader dynamics of early modern state formation.
Premodern towns in Europe were martial entities: fortified walls protected their inhabitants from outside threats; gates separated them from unwelcome strangers. Even towns that were not defined by their walls served as rallying points for assembling troops or provided the necessary infrastructure for martial events. Within the emerging European states, it was towns that brought together the bankers who financed the princes' warfare, gathered the artisans who furnished their armies, and opened the markets that distributed money, goods, and fighters. Overall, towns served as producers, organisers, and brokers of martial culture within the rapidly changing political world of late medieval and early modern Europe.
This book explores the complexity of urban martial culture in towns across the Holy Roman Empire, Italy, England, and the Low Countries. The contributors consider the city as a martial space; the people who owned and wielded weapons, from citizen militias to master-gunners; the weapons themselves and the vocabulary, production, and symbolism attached to them; the relationship between social standing and weapon use; and, finally, the place of urban martial culture within the broader dynamics of early modern state formation.
Price: $145.00
Pages: 272
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Inc.
Imprint: Boydell Press
Publication Date:
23 February 2027
Trim Size: 9.21 X 6.14 in
ISBN: 9781837655922
Format: Hardcover
BISACs:
HISTORY / Europe / Medieval, European history: medieval period, middle ages, HISTORY / Military / Vehicles / Air, HISTORY / Europe / Renaissance, Medieval warfare (predating gunpowder warfare), European history: Renaissance
Introduction: An Urban Take on Martial Culture
Regula Schmid
Part I: Creating the Town as Martial Space
1. Medieval Urban Fortifications: Between Function and Staging
Armand Baeriswyl
2. Walking the Streets and Gathering in Squares: Civic Guarding and Defending in Late Medieval Basel
Elena Magli
3. Urban Space in Conflict: Observations on Late Medieval Cities and Towns in Westphalia
Karsten Igel
4. Civic Spaces Outside the City: Shooting Grounds in the Holy Roman Empire in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries
Jean-Dominique Delle Luche
Part II: Military Citizens and Martial Experts
5. Fighting for the Town: Military Duties in Fifteenth-century Fribourg en Nuithonie from the Citizens' Perspective
Mathijs Roelofsen
6. Vienna's Military Organization and Forces
Andreas Moitzi
7. Martial Experts in the Service of the Town: A Closer Look at the Master Gunners of Basel (1370-1530)
Daniel Jaquet
8. Sworn by the Sword: The Company of Masters of Defence, Oath-taking, and Martial Identities in Early Modern London
Jacob H. Deacon
Part III: The Power of Weapons
9. Toponymic Prefixes in European Staff Weapon Typology and Scholarship
Iason-Eleftherios Tzouriadis
10. Venice, Brescia and Gardone Val Trompia: Martial Culture in a Subject City and its Hinterland
Catherine Fletcher
11. B(e)aring a Blade: The Context and Significance of Civic and State Swords in Medieval England
Robert W. Jones
Part IV: Civic Life and Martial Habitus
12. Roman Knights of Cologne: The Martial Habitus of a Late Medieval Urban Elite
Markus Jansen
13. The Martial Self of Paul Hector Mair: Self-fashioning and Martial Arts Literature in Sixteenth-century Augsburg
Eric Burkart
14. Becoming Civil Again? The Precarious Lives of Former Fighters in Medieval Towns
Stefanie Rüther
Epilogue: Towns, States, and Martial Culture(s): Some Considerations Inspired by the History of the Urban Militias of the Former Low Countries
Marc Boone
Index of Places
Index of Major Battles and Wars
Regula Schmid
Part I: Creating the Town as Martial Space
1. Medieval Urban Fortifications: Between Function and Staging
Armand Baeriswyl
2. Walking the Streets and Gathering in Squares: Civic Guarding and Defending in Late Medieval Basel
Elena Magli
3. Urban Space in Conflict: Observations on Late Medieval Cities and Towns in Westphalia
Karsten Igel
4. Civic Spaces Outside the City: Shooting Grounds in the Holy Roman Empire in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries
Jean-Dominique Delle Luche
Part II: Military Citizens and Martial Experts
5. Fighting for the Town: Military Duties in Fifteenth-century Fribourg en Nuithonie from the Citizens' Perspective
Mathijs Roelofsen
6. Vienna's Military Organization and Forces
Andreas Moitzi
7. Martial Experts in the Service of the Town: A Closer Look at the Master Gunners of Basel (1370-1530)
Daniel Jaquet
8. Sworn by the Sword: The Company of Masters of Defence, Oath-taking, and Martial Identities in Early Modern London
Jacob H. Deacon
Part III: The Power of Weapons
9. Toponymic Prefixes in European Staff Weapon Typology and Scholarship
Iason-Eleftherios Tzouriadis
10. Venice, Brescia and Gardone Val Trompia: Martial Culture in a Subject City and its Hinterland
Catherine Fletcher
11. B(e)aring a Blade: The Context and Significance of Civic and State Swords in Medieval England
Robert W. Jones
Part IV: Civic Life and Martial Habitus
12. Roman Knights of Cologne: The Martial Habitus of a Late Medieval Urban Elite
Markus Jansen
13. The Martial Self of Paul Hector Mair: Self-fashioning and Martial Arts Literature in Sixteenth-century Augsburg
Eric Burkart
14. Becoming Civil Again? The Precarious Lives of Former Fighters in Medieval Towns
Stefanie Rüther
Epilogue: Towns, States, and Martial Culture(s): Some Considerations Inspired by the History of the Urban Militias of the Former Low Countries
Marc Boone
Index of Places
Index of Major Battles and Wars