Kaiser Bill's Bibliography
to the 30 Years War

Part 1

by Bill Boyle

I became interested in the Thirty Years War in 1991 and the following is a list of books I have found useful. This period is when the modern army was born. The armies developed went on to conquer 94% of the worlds' surface by 1914, so a study of army development during the Thirty Years War is watching the development of the tools of European supremacy.

The English Civil War also occurred concurrently with the war but is not directly covered by this bibliography. ECW books and military science books not directly relating to the Thirty Years War are included when useful to understanding the period or if I really like the author. The listings will include title, author, publisher and comments, when appropriate.

THE THIRTY YEARS WAR. Stephen J. Lee '. Rutledge. New York & London (199 1). Very good general overview. The first book to read if you can not keep track who is doing what to who and why.

THE MILITARY REVOLUTION, 1560-1660. Michael Roberts. Belfast Univ (1956). This is the address that forged the main theory about what happened to European warfare. Worthwhile in every respect, a model of what scholarship is supposed to be. Mr. Roberts theory is that a revolution occurred in warfare and society. A must read.

THE THIRTY YEARS WAR. Geoffry Parker. Barnes and Noble (1984). 1 bought this one for my personal library. This book cannot be too highly recommended. You could write a good set of rules for the period with just this book.

GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS AND THE RISE OF SWEDEN. Michael Roberts. Longmans and Co. This is the best single source , but who wants to use just one source. This is the book to write rules off. Clearly covers every aspect of the Swedish army and the Great Captain. If this period is for you, simply don't live without this book. Compares Spanish, Dutch, and Swedish infantry systems. Also discusses the cavalry. Great source for Breitenfield, the first clash between the Swedish and Spanish systems. READ THIS BOOK.

GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. T. A. Dodge. (1870s). Dodge was a US army officer. There is plenty of great material in this book. Oddly enough, the emphasis is on the King of Sweden. The book covers from 1600 to 1709. The frontpiece has a great road map of Central Europe for the period. Roberts book is probably more accurate whenever these two sources disagree.

THE ARMY OF FLANDERS AND THE SPANISH ROAD. G. Parker. This is out in trade paperback. The book is worthwhile but does not directly relate to the Thirty Years War. Covers Spanish problems and its participation the TYW very well.

EUROPE AT WAR 1600-1650. David Maland. Very readable and worthwhile. The books' premise is that Dutch/Spanish rivalry caused the TYW for the most part. This book covers tactical formations well, such as the change from 10 ranks to 6 ranks, leather guns and more.

THE THIRTY YEARS WAR. SR Gardiner. Scribner (1875). Great flavor of the period is captured by this book. Lots of good tidbits, such as particular regiments being mentioned at a battle, can be found in this book if carefully read.

THE MILITARY INTELLECTUAL AND BATTLE, RAIMONDO MONTECUCCOLI & THE THIRTY YEARS WAR. NY State Univ. Albany (1975). Very, very good. Covers Breitenfield, Lutzen, Wittstock, and Nordlingen. Also has Ramondos' own book on tactics included. Raimondos book has first rate advise on how to fight a battle that you could use on the wargames table.

THE GENERAL CRISIS OF THE 17th CENTURY. G. Parker. Rutledge & Kegan Paul (1978). Another competing theory on the 17th c. His premise is that the trace italienne caused an evolution but no "Roberts revolution" which did not really happen. The series of essays are good but do not directly relate to the TYW. Has a very good essay on how preconceived ideas (about revolution) can and has caused incorrect conclusions about what happened and why. Worth reading just for this essay.

THE HISTORY OF THE ART OF WAR. Hans Delbruck. in paperback. The early modern era covers the TYW. Read this if you have not. Frontages for infantry and cavalry well covered.

THEATRUM EUROPAEUM. Matthaus Merian.(mid 1600s). This is written in old German and I borrowed it on microfilm through interlibrary loan. Most All the old woodcuts from the TYW are from this chronicle. Even if you can't read Old German, you can pick out orders of battle and get an idea of the terrain the battles were fought on. Some hints on unit development can also be discovered by looking at the woodcuts. Personality portraits are also included. Although this type of chronicle was basically the 17th c. version of the newspaper, I believe it is still fairly accurate. It is at least more accurate than modern newspapers. I am certain that it has more factual information than some chronicles taken as gospel for the War of the Roses and the Norman Conquest.

THE ART OF WAR IN THE WESTEN WORLD. Archer Jones. (1987). A good over-view of warfare in the west. Has a good discussion of how the new types of units that developed in the TYW matched up against each other, with schematic representation. Also discusses the types of warfare, such as persisting, raiding, guerilla, etc, very well.

THE PURSUIT OF POWER. TECHNOLOGY, ARMED FORCE AND SOCIETY SINCE 1000AD. Univ Chicago (1982). WmHMcNeil. Discusses why changes occurred and why Europe became preeminent. McNeil wrote another book about how plagues has affected human development that was on the best seller lists a few years ago.

LOGISTICS: FROM WALLENSTIEN TO PATTON. Van Crevald. A must to help understand the very neglected but critical part of warfare, logistics. Not dry or boring in any way, this book will help make the mid to late war period understandable. Armies often moved to feed themselves and not for any military advantage. As a bonus, you see why Rommel failed in the desert, the Germans failed on the Russian Front, and why Patton failed in France. READ AND LEARN.

DE PRAEDA MILITARI: LOOTING AND BOOTY. F Redlich. Weisbaden (1956). Very useful on understanding soldiers motivations. Also covers the small wars between outposts. The techniques and motivations of the small wars covered. Brandshatzen and "patrias" concepts, ic medieval protection rackets, are examined.

THE THIRTY YEARS WAR. JV POLISENSKY. trans by R Evans (1971). Written by a Chech communist. Used to 'prove' marxist doctrine Some very good research on how the war effected a few small villages in Moravia. A classic example of good research being bent by preconceived notions to 'prove' the authors prejudices. Most striking is the degree of hatred toward John George of Saxony still evident. Don't read unless one of the above bad examples interests you.

THE PATTERNS OF WAR THROUGH THE 18TH C. L. Addington. Indiana. (1990). Has one chapter that covers from 1494 to 1721. Very good overview to use instead of Lees' book to get your feet on the ground.

WALLENSTEIN . Golo Mann . Holt, Rinehart& Winston. This definitive biography of Wallenstein is translated from German. A long, long book that is slow going and not much use to the wargamer. Covers the intrigue between the leaders well. When I finished this book I finally understood why the war lasted 30 years and was so terrible. They deserved it.

GREAT CAPTAINS UNVEILED. Liddel-Hart. Covers the careers of Genghis Khan, Sabutai, Marshall Saxe, Gustavus, Wallenstein, and Wolfe. Nice stuff if you're into Liddel Hart.

HISTORY OF THE ART OF WAR IN THE 16TH C. Sir Charles Oman. FABULOUS.

ON THE WRITING OF HISTORY. Oman.Dutton. 1940? Does not cover the Thirty Years War Some quotes from this book follows. "history is a way of looking at facts rather than a mere recapitulation of facts." one may dislike war just as one dislikes disease ( his point is that to understand one must study ). "history cannot make prophecies, but it can offer cautions and warnings". And another quote on defending the study of war, " what touches all is the business of all."

GREAT CAPTAINS. T.A.Dodge . Houghton Mifflin. 1889. Dodge published a series of his lectures on Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar, Gustavus, Frederick, and Napoleon. He discusses each career, examines their strengths and weaknesses and compares them to each other. Very worthwhile. Liddel-Hart obviously thought well enough of it to crib a title out of it. 11

THE SAMURAI: A MILITARY HISTORY. SR Turnbull. McMillian (1977). Turnbull is a cottage industry by himself He covers the samurai for the western audience. The"age of wars" in Japanese history is Japans TYW. The age of wars were fought with similar weapons and technique as the TYW and ended in the early 1600s. There was one big difference between the two wars, one guy did conquer all in Japan. Turnbull has conquered all when it comes to books covering Japanese military history before 1650.

WAR AND SOCIETY IN RENAISSANCE EUROPE 1450-1620. Leicester 1985. JR Hale. First rate book. Hale discusses the third major theory on what happened in Europe. Hales theory says that the old regimes adapted to give birth to Modern Europe when faced with crisis. The military changed also, reflected society. Although I prefer Roberts theory over Hales, this book is excellent and worthwhile in every respect.

ARMIES AND SOCIETIES IN EUROPE, 1494-1789. Indiana Univ. Andre Corvisier. Decent book that covers the ends of the time frame better than the middle. The TYW is not covered to well but a good source for 15th c. and 18th c. ok overall.

WAR AND SOCIETY IN THE 17TH C. Sir George Clark. Cambridge, 1958. Interesting to read but not too useful for TYW. The author and publisher for this book are first rate but the book has been overtaken by books published since 1958.

BALLISTICS IN THE 17TH C. AR Hall. Cambridge 1952. The most helpful part of the book is the appendix in the back of the book. Discusses mathernatic theory as opposed to actual use. However, the author goes to some effort to explain how to translate the theory and test data described into practical information. I relied heavily on this book to when writing my rules for the TYW' Recommended reading.

SIDELIGHTS ON THE TYW Every now and then a goo tidbit will drop out of an old book written 150 to 200 years ago. You need to use care when using an old source for factual errors. Also it is important to get a feel if the author is partizan. This book has useful tidbits for the diligent digger. For example, this book has an account of Wallenstien leading a regiment of cuirassier at Sablat with distinction, a fact that Wallensteins' own massive bio omits. this kind of stuff is great when trying to recreate orders of battle.

THE CAVALIER ARMY: IT'S ORGANIZATION AND EVERYDAY LIFE. Peter Young and Wilfrid Emberton. Allen & Unwin. 1974 A pleasant worthwhile read with good pen and ink illustrations. Also, Peter Young's book MARSTON MOOR is masterful. Anything by MR Young is well worth your time. If you don't know who Peter Young is, go find out.

WAR AND SOCIETY IN EARLY MODERN EUROPE. F. Tallet (Routledge). Good overview with decent specific information. Areas covered are 1) the changing art of war, 2) recruitment, 3, life and death in the armies, and 4) the impact of war on society.

EUROPEAN WEAPONS AND WARFARE, 1618-1648. Eduard Wagner. Octopus press London. 1979. Good illustrations and chronicle of the TYW. First rate source with plenty of ideas on how to paint troops. Ordinance and kit completely covered. Many of the illustrations are cribbed from Theatrun Europaum. IF you find it, read it.

ARMS AND ARMOR OF THE ENGLISH CIVIL WAR. Royal Armories. 1990. David Blackmore. Discusses the types of weapons in detail with plenty of pictures The same weapons were being used on the continent during the TYW. As a matter of fact the best ECW weapons were shipped over from the continent. This is worthwhile but may be deeper than many may care to study. Pretty pictures of the weapons though.

FIREARMS & FORTIFICATIONS, MILITARY ARCHITECTURE AND SEIGE WARFARE IN THE 16TH C. Simon Pepper& Nicholas Adams. Univ Chicago, 1986. This is pretty deep stuff and only indirectly touches in the TYW. Examines how the trace itailanne changed warfare and in so doing supports Parkers'Theory.

TURENNE. Gen. Maxine Weygand. Harrap London. 1930 This is ok but no real hard information useftil for wargames. Very much oriented to the political aspects. Covers Turennes' life tolerably well. Seems to be written to stiffen the backs of France for the next war. Weygand commanded the French Army during the Battle for France, (post Dunkirk). The French fought better for him but he needed to write a lot better to stiffen those backs.

THE EVOLUTION OF WEAPONS AND WARFARE. Dupuy, 1980. The book covers the development of weapons from 2000 bc to 1973. Less b.s. than usual for Dupuy and actually worthwhile. From page 304 on their is a piece on assimilation of weapons by societies that is very good.

A HISTORY OF FIREARMS (to 1914). WYYCarman. 1955 Routledge & Kegan Paul. Weapons according to the Imperial War Museum Collection. Not very good and read only if it falls into your lap and you have nothing else to read.

MILITARY UNIFORMS OF THE WORLD IN COLOUR. Blanford Press. 1968. The TYW is barely and indirectly covered but this is as good as it gets. By reading the text you'll find out why. Still a very useful, jumping off point for possibly the more difficult aspect of TYW gaming. At best the troops wore the same colour coat. Field signs and passwords were used because of the lack of uniforms.

OSPREY SERIES. The series is limited to just a few-armies for the period but is very good when available.

MILITARY FLAGS OF THE WORLD. Terence Wise. Blandford Press. Poole-Dorset. 1977. Best single source for flags I know. The text also gives much I information and clues along with the pictures. In the front of the book it discusses how flags would be described . Armed with this information you can usually take a flag description from text and often come up with what the flag would look like. Also you can sometimes figure out the colors of flags seen in woodcuts based on information given in this book.

CERTAIN DISCOURSES MILITARY. John Smythe. (JR Hale editor) 1964. The longbow v.s. gun controversy in England in 1595. Esoteric.

AN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BATTLES. David Eggenberger. Constable England. 1967. Dover NY 1985. A good overview of battles from 1479bc to the present. Good book to start ( along with Dupuys) but beware. Zablat (Sablat ) for example, is incorrect in number of troops involved. Always try to get as many accounts as possible when writing scenarios and then come up with your own interpretation of the battle.

THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF MILITARY HISTORY FROM 350OBC TO THE PRESENT. Dupuy & Dupuy. Harper & Row. 1970. Very good basic reference work. A good starting point for any new period or wargames project. Not the usual Dupuy b.s. like he wrote about the Eastern front in WWII. Read this one first and then get more specifics from Eggenbergers book.

That's the list current to 6/6/94 and I hope you find it useful. I hope I've identified the books to avoid and those books I consider indispensable to the period. Enjoy and pikes forward!

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