The 80 Years' War (also known as the Dutch War of Independence) was the foundation of Dutch nationhood, and during the course of the conflict one of its main leaders – Maurice of Orange-Nassau – created an army and a tactical system that became a model throughout Europe. This study, the first of a two-part series, focuses on the Dutch infantry. It examines how Maurice of Orange-Nassau attracted volunteers and students from across Europe, introduced innovative new training methods such as common drill movements, and standardised the organisation and payment system of the army to make it more than a match for the occupying Spanish. His successes inspired officers and generals across the continent to copy his methods, including many English officers who went on to fight in the English Civil Wars. Featuring full-colour artwork and rare period illustrations, this book examines how the Dutch infantry was transformed into a fighting force able to defeat the might of Imperial Spain.

Throughout the 16th Century, the Spanish had an aura of invincibility. They controlled a vast colonial empire that stretched across the Americas and the Pacific, and held considerable territories in Europe, centring on the so-called 'Spanish Road'. The Dutch War of Independence (also known as the 80 Years' War) was a major challenge to their dominance. The Dutch army created by Maurice of Nassau used innovative new tactics and training to take the fight to Spain and in so doing created a model that would be followed by European armies for generations to come. The second in a two-part series on the Dutch armies of the 80 Years' War, focuses on the cavalry, artillery and engineers of the evolving armies created by Maurice of Nassau. Using specially commissioned artwork and photographs of historical artefacts, it shows how the Dutch cavalry arm, artillery, and conduct of siege warfare contributed to the long struggle against the might of the Spanish Empire.

The great European conflict known as the Thirty Years War was only the final phase of a war in the Netherlands which was to last 80 years. In the course of this the Dutch rose up successfully against their Spanish rulers and established a Republic in the early 16th century which was the envy of its contemporaries. This volume brings together papers by 11 leading military historians from the Netherlands who discuss the processes by which the Dutch organised and financed the military apparatus which was eventually to defeat the leading land and maritime power of their day, and to maintain the position of Holland as a world power until well into the 18th century. Articles cover military matters such as changes in strategy and tactics and issues such as the financing of the war, effort, the navy, privateering and the arms trade.

The tiny new state of the United Provinces of the Netherlands won its independence from the mighty Spanish empire by fighting and winning the Eighty Years' War, from 1568 and 1648. In this long conflict, warfare on water played a much bigger role in determining the ultimate victor. On the high seas the fleet carved out a new empire, growing national income to such levels that it could continue the costly war for independence. Yet it was in coastal and inland waters that the most decisive battles were fought. Arguably the most decisive Spanish siege (Leiden, 1574) was broken by a fleet sailing to the rescue across flooded polders, and the battle of Nieuwpoort in 1600, the largest successful invasion fleet before World War II, was one of the most decisive battle in western history. Using detailed full colour artwork, this book shows how the Dutch navies fought worldwide in their war of independence, from Brazil to Indonesia, and from the Low Countries to Angola.

The Eighty Years War follows the history of how the mightiest European power of the sixteenth century was finally brought to defeat. In 1648 the Spanish empire agreed to a peace treaty that ended decades of fighting and resulted in the division of the Low Countries and the creation of the Dutch Republic. From the outset, the conflict between the Dutch insurgents and their Spanish sovereign lord captured the imagination. Through eighty years of warfare, the provincial states and the Calvinists gained the upper hand in the north and the Spanish rulers and the Catholic church rose in the south. Against all expectations, Philip II and his successors failed to win a conclusive victory over their rebellious Dutch subjects, and Spain was compelled to admit military defeat at the negotiating table in M nster and recognize the breakaway Dutch provinces as a sovereign state. The birth of the new state was to no small degree determined by the balance of military power on land and at sea, and this book, illustrated in color throughout, offers insight the military factors at play in the creation of the Dutch Republic. Filling a gap in the current scholarship, The Eighty Years War investigates the relationship between maritime and land-based developments in the fields of weapons technology, tactics, and organization in the period from 1568 to 1648.

The Eighty Years' War began as a limited Dutch rebellion seeking only religious tolerance from their Spanish overlords, but it quickly escalated into one of the longest wars in European history. Spain's failed invasion of 1599 and the mutinies that followed convinced Dutch leaders that they now should go on the offensive. This campaign pitted two famous leaders' sons against each other: Maurice of Nassau and Archduke Albert VII. One led an unproven new model army, the other Spain's 'unbeatable' Tercios, each around 11,000-men strong. The Dutch wanted to land near Nieuwpoort, take it and then march on to Dunkirk, northern home port of the Spanish fleet, but they were cut off by the resurgent and reunited Spanish army. The two forces then met on the beach and in the dunes north of Nieuwpoort. This book uses specially commissioned artwork to reveal one of the greatest battles of the Eighty Years' War – one whose influence on military theory and practice ever since has been highly significant.

Dagomar Degroot offers the first detailed analysis of how a society thrived amid the Little Ice Age, a period of climatic cooling that reached its chilliest point between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. The precocious economy, unusual environment, and dynamic intellectual culture of the Dutch Republic in its seventeenth-century Golden Age allowed it to thrive as neighboring societies unraveled in the face of extremes in temperature and precipitation. By tracing the occasionally counterintuitive manifestations of climate change from global to local scales, Degroot finds that the Little Ice Age presented not only challenges for Dutch citizens but also opportunities that they aggressively exploited in conducting commerce, waging war, and creating culture. The overall success of their Republic in coping with climate change offers lessons that we would be wise to heed today, as we confront the growing crisis of global warming.

Throughout the 17th century large parts of Europe were depopulated during the wide-ranging and savage wars of religion and dynasty, involving all of the major powers. This was therefore a key period in the development of 'modern' infantry tactics, such as the use of pole-arms and muskets together hence the popular expression 'pike and shot'. These infantry tactics involved different national schools on thought and practice, and were tested bloodily in great battles. This title covers the Dutch-Spanish wars of independence, The Thirty Years' War and the English Civil Wars.

This title explores and illustrates the armies of France, and six countries allied against Louis XIV, in a wide-ranging Continental conflict that ushered in more than a century of European warfare. Formed in 1689, the 'Grand Alliance' or League of Augsburg was a military coalition of the Holy Roman Empire, the Dutch Republic, Britain, Spain and the Duchy of Savoy, to resist Louis XIV's rich, powerful and expansionist France. The first stage of the nine year conflict that followed also coincided with the so-called 'Glorious Revolution' in Britain (1688–91), when the throne passed to the Dutch Protestant leader, William of Orange, the head of a multi-national Dutch, Danish and English army, which finally expelled James II's Jacobite and French forces from Ireland. The long war on the continent was notable for the first widespread use of regimental uniforms and flintlock muskets with bayonets, plus the sophisticated use of siege warfare under the great French engineer, Vauban. The final Treaties of Ryswyck (1697) brought the war to an end and marked Louis XIV's political zenith, and also the ascendancy of both the Dutch and British as first-rate global powers. This fully illustrated title explores the armies which fought the War of the Grand Alliance, examining their strength, organization, uniforms and weapons, and explaining their campaigns and major battles.

The Italian Renaissance marked a period of political and military turmoil. Many regional wars were fought between the states ruled by Milan, Venice, Genoa, Florence, the Papacy, Siena and Naples. For more than 50 years starting in 1494, major foreign powers also exploited these divisions to invade Italy; both France and Spain made temporary alliances with city states to further their ambitions, and early in the 16th century the Emperor Charles V sent armies from his German realms to support the Spanish. These wars coincided with the growth of disciplined infantry – carrying not only polearms and crossbows but also handguns – which proved capable of challenging the previously dominant armoured knights. The widespread use of mercenaries ushered in the early development of the 'pike and shot' era that succeeded the 'High Middle Ages'. During this period costumes, armour and weapons varied greatly due to their national origins and to the evolution of tactics and technology. This masterfully illustrated study offers a fascinating insight into the many armies which fought in Italy during this turbulent period, explaining not only their arms and equipment, but also their structure and successes and failures on the battlefield.