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In the last decades of the seventeenth century the Swedish king Charles XI launched a remarkable bid to stabilize and secure Sweden's position as a major power in northern Europe and as master of the Baltic Sea. This 1998 book gives an account of what was achieved through Charles's absolute rule and how he enjoyed the support of most of his subjects.

Neostoicism was one of the most important intellectual movements of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It started in the Protestant Netherlands during the revolt against Catholic Spain. Very quickly it began to influence both the theory and practice of politics in many parts of Europe. It proved to be particularly useful and appropriate to the early modern militaristic states; for, on the basis of the still generally accepted humanistic values of classical antiquity, it promoted a strong central power in the state, raised above the conflicting doctrines of the theologians. Characteristically, a great part of Neostoic writing was concerned with the nationally organized military institutions of the state. Its aim was the general improvement of social discipline and the education of the citizen to both the exercise and acceptance of bureaucracy, controlled economic life and a large army.

In contrast to previous approaches, this meticulously researched analysis of the royal army during the French wars of religion makes warfare the focus of attention. It represents an important contribution to the history of military forces, warfare, religion and society in early modern France.

This book examines the role of war and the development of the smaller German territories in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries through the example of the duchy of Wurttemberg. It is also the first comprehensive investigation of the relationship between developments within such territories and the structure of the Holy Roman Empire.

An assessment of the Stadholderate of the Dutch Republic. The author looks at the career of each Prince of Orange in turn, from William I ("The Silent"), to the last and possibly the saddest, William V, examining their personal lives and characters with the development of the institution.

This book uses the Breton experience to address two fundamental historiographical issues: the meaning of absolutism and the nature of early-modern French society. Professor Collins's main endeavour is to combine social and political/institutional history, so long separated in works on this field.

This 2001 book tells in detail the history of the States General of the Netherlands and its relations with the monarchy, first the dukes of Burgundy then the Spanish Habsburgs, in the later fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

In this detailed 1995 study, Henry Heller challenges prevailing approaches to the history of early modern France. He finds a surprising degree of economic, technological and scientific innovation, while contesting the view that the religious conflicts of the period can only be understood in strictly religious terms.

This is a 1995 study of one of the most unusual political entities in early modern Europe: the Freestate of the Three Leagues in the Grisons, a rural confederation of peasant villages in the Swiss Alps. New light is shed both on an early democratic state and on the role of community in the history of early modern democracy.

A social and cultural history of 'dishonourable people' (unehrliche Leute). This book examines an outcast group in early modern Germany which included executioners, skinners, grave-diggers, shepherds, barber-surgeons, millers, latrine-cleaners, and bailiffs, and shows how the pollution anxieties of early modern Germans structured social and political relations within 'honourable' society.

This is the first full-length study of Spanish attitudes towards death and the afterlife during the peak years of the Counter-Reformation. It includes detailed accounts of the ways in which the 'good' deaths of King Philip II and Saint Teresa of Avila were interpreted by contemporaries.

This book focuses on the history of Royal Prussia - the 'other Prussia' - which was part of the Polish state from 1454 to 1793. Analysing the rivalry between the multi national, constitutionalist Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and its dynastic neighbour Brandenburg-Prussia, it contributes to our understanding of nation-building and the formation of national identity.

The Swedish invasion of 1655 provoked the political and military collapse of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the second-largest state in Europe. Robert Frost examines the reasons for Poland's fall and the conduct of the war by the Polish government. In particular he addresses the crucial question of why attempts at political reform failed.

This book offers a new paradigm of the history of the German nobility in the early modern period. It shows that, contrary to the prevailing view, the nobility was not in a period of crisis but rather underwent a process of social stratification which, in alliance with the bourgeoisie, was the driving force in early modern Germany.

This book examines the relationship between the Reformation movement of the sixteenth century and the rural population of Germany. The experience of the Reformation by the average villager is described, and an attempt is made to understand the villagers in their own terms: their beliefs, their customs, and their forms of rule.

This 2000 book reappraises the reign of Philip III of Spain (1598-1621). It also analyses the career of the duke of Lerma, Philip III's favourite/chief minister, the first of a series of European royal favourites who influenced politics, court culture and the arts during the seventeenth century.

This book examines the history of a single French community over the full course of the civil wars.

This is a study of government finance in the kingdom of Naples, a Spanish dominion from the mid-sixteenth century to the time of the Thirty Years' War. It is unrivalled in the breadth, comprehensiveness, and sophistication of its analysis of an early modern fiscal system.

This is the only scholarly work in the English language on the city of Rome in the Age of the Enlightenment, and the only book in any language to treat this fascinating city in all its multifarious aspects.

This stylish and highly entertaining account of the origins of the Franco-Dutch War of 1672 is based on massive archival researches covering twelve countries. Professor Sonnino chronicles a story of bitter division, in the course of which the contrasting personalities of the king and of his most intimate advisors emerge in vivid detail.

The essays in this volume place the history of ideas and of literature in early modern France within their social context. They include the author's pioneering and authoritative analyses as well as particular studies of popular revolts.

This book examines the Duke of Anjou's ambivalent relationship with the politique struggle.

Based on the records of local police officials, this study of pre-Revolutionary Paris reveals a world which was far from anonymous. From the mass of individual disputes and incidents reported, there emerges a picture of a structured, largely self-regulating local community based first and foremost on neighbourhood ties.

Using a vast range of primary sources, this substantial and important volume provides a comprehensive analysis of the division and near-collapse of Habsburg authority during the 1550s.

Why was Louis XIV successful in pacifying the same aristocrats who had caused so much trouble for Richelieu and Mazarin? What role did absolutism play in reinforming or changing the traditional social system in seventeenth-century France? Here Professor Beik argues that the answers to these questions lie in the relationship between the regional aristocracy and the crown.

This study of the Lutheran Imperial City of Hamburg throws new light on the history of religious toleration. It reveals the relationship between high theoretical principles and practical problems of society and politics in Germany in the three centuries after the Reformation.

This book describes the role and organization of the land forces of a renaissance state over a long period. It thus provides a model against which the military development of other countries can be measured. Above all, it redresses the imbalance whereby only the naval forces of Venice have been studied seriously.

Filippo Strozzi (1489-1538), the Florentine aristocrat and banker, is usually remembered for the dramatic exploits at the end of his life. Forced into exile, he became an outspoken defender of the last Florentine Republic against the tyranny of the city's new dukes.

Drawing on hitherto unpublished sources James Casey explores two major themes in Spanish historiography - the consequences of the expulsion of the Moriscos (heavily concentrated in Valencia in the early seventeenth century), and the way in which the Habsburg Monarchy kept or lost control over its peripheral provinces.

This is an interdisciplinary study of a large Italian estate which belonged to the Medici Grand Dukes of Tuscany. The Medici administrators kept detailed records of the activities of their subjects and these have been used by the author to analyse the demographic, social, economic and political history of the village.