HMGS East Historicon™ clear1x1.gif icons.gif
clear1x1.gif clear1x1.gif clear1x1.gif
clear1x1.gif
clear1x1.gif

Home Page
Convention Theme
Special Guests
Convention Committee
Convention Site
Convention Lodging
FAQs
Exhibitor Information
Registration
GM Event Registration
Events (PEL)
Past Conventions
Future Conventions

Convention Info

Email:
info@historicon.org

Copyright 2005

Historicon™ is a registered trademark of the Historical Miniatures Gaming Society - East Chapter (HMGS-East)

clear1x1.gif clear1x1.gif

“Pike and Shot”
Seventeenth Century European Warfare, 1600-99

Convention Theme – July 15th - 18th, 2010


Figures/Terrain by Bob Giglio/Jeff Hobbs; Photo courtesy of Jeff Hobbs

“Prepare to show yourselves the brave soldiers you are. Hold firm, stand by each other, and fight valiantly for your faith, your country, and your king. May God preserve you all.”
– King Gustavus Adolphus II, King of Sweden

“Moneys are the nerves of war.”
– King Charles I, King of England

“I loved war too much…”
– Louis XIV, King of France

While the seventeenth century falls into the Early Modern period of Europe, and was characterized by the Baroque cultural movement and the beginning of modern science and philosophy – including the contributions of Galileo, Descartes, Pascal, and Isaac Newton – Europe was torn by warfare throughout the century, by the Thirty Years’ War, the Great Turkish War and the English Civil War among others, while European colonization of the Americas began in earnest.

BACKGROUND

“You cannot take war across the countryside in a sack.”
– Seventeenth century saying

European religious divisions began the opening of the seventeenth century; divisions that led to assassinations and to widespread warfare, especially in the Thirty Years’ War (1618-48). This war devastated much of Germany, and for a while made Sweden a great power. It also profoundly affected France, Spain and the Netherlands. In France, Cardinal Richelieu and then Cardinal Jules Mazarin strengthened and centralized state power, though at times their policies came perilously close to disaster. In Spain, disaster struck, and the Spaniards lost their long war with the Dutch, who formed a prosperous independent republic. Spain also lost control of Portugal, and for a while it seemed that Catalonia too would break free from Spanish control.

During the seventeenth century strong centralized European states entered into worldwide international competition for wealth and power, accelerating the pace of colonization in America and Asia. The Dutch, French, Spanish, Portuguese, English, and others, all struggled to maintain and extend colonies and trading posts in distant corners of the globe, with profound and permanent consequences for the whole world. They also fought one another in Europe, where warfare grew increasingly complex and expensive. To gain an edge against other powers in war, European governments invested in research in military technology, and the seventeenth century was consequently “an age of military evolution”, enabling Europeans from then on to defeat most non-European peoples relatively easily in battle.

While the Thirty Years’ War raged on the continent, Britain became divided in its own Civil War that affected all of its kingdoms – England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales – in various related wars and actions that lasted from 1639-60. This “war without an enemy” was so profound that it saw the overthrow of a monarchy, beheading of a king, establishment of a standing army and commonwealth, and finally the restoration of the monarchy.

In the seventeenth century, Spain declined, but France rose to become the greatest power in Europe. In the second half of the century Louis XIV increased royal power at home and French power abroad, but at a very high cost in lives and cash. The France of Louis XIV threatened to dominate Europe, and to oppose him other powers laid aside their religious differences (which were becoming less important in the increasingly secularized and scientific atmosphere of the late 1600s) and joined forces against France. By the end of the century two powers in particular were rivaling France, namely Holland and England. Both benefited from the shift of Europe’s economic center of gravity from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. In both, agricultural and commercial changes were taking place that would soon pave the way for the Industrial Revolution.

Evolution of Warfare

“It is an ordinary thing in war, to study how to endamage an enemy;
and to distract his forces: to which purpose all possible means must be used.”
– John Cruso, 17th Century Military Theorist 1632

The numerous and incessant wars of the seventeenth century slowly led to conceptual and strategic breakthroughs that marked a path for modern warfare. Improvements in the design of fortifications and advances in firearms technology had subtle, but far-reaching, effects. Seventeenth century battles were crude slogging matches, fought at hideously close quarters amidst fogs of smoke from black powder weapons. Victors usually lost as many men as the vanquished and often were too disorganized, under-strength and exhausted to pursue. Sieges, which produced more predictable and tangible results, were much preferred to hazard of battle.

Seventeenth century generals floundered amidst uncertainty caused by inadequate intelligence and inaccurate, or non-existent, maps. Communications were poor and exceptionally slow, making the coordination of operations across wide theatres difficult if not impossible. Generals and monarchs frequently gave the impression of not knowing what they were doing. Strategy was vague, operations uncertain, and methods conventional and unimaginative. Nothing in the fields of strategy and operations was revolutionary or modern.

However, change did occur, primarily in weaponry – the pike was largely replaced by the plug, and then the socket, bayonet; tercios and pike squares evolved towards the linear battalion; and cavalry regained some of its battlefield importance, but while battle tactics and formations adjusted to accommodate these developments, they did not radically alter.

The art of war underwent an enormous transformation in the seventeenth century to become a truly the pike and shot era. Gunpowder technologies – mobile and effective cannon and reasonably useful small firearms (arquebuses, muskets, and pistols) – had a profound effect, both in the technology of war and its social organization. Feudal castles or medieval town walls could be knocked down with little effort with modern, mobile cannon. This advantage did not last long of course, as military engineers quickly replaced high medieval walls with thick, squat, star-shaped fortifications studded with bastions, which eventually were developed into an entire style of design named after its creator – Vauban (some of these were such well-built defenses against artillery that they stood up to the German blitzkreig in WWII!) These fortifications were largely urban, not personal like the medieval castle. The country seats of the provincial nobility became Renaissance manors, while military actions were fought over towns.

Even more significant than cannon was the use of smaller firearms: the arquebus, and later, the musket. Although lacking the accuracy and range of the old missile weapons (bow and crossbow), a firearm is easy to learn to use. This meant that a relatively untrained social dreg could be made into a more-or-less useful soldier with relatively little training and expense.

The arquebus, a relatively lightweight firearm that used the slow-burning match as a firing mechanism, eventually gave way to the heavier musket. The arquebus fired a one-ounce ball and had a range of about 100 yards, while the matchlock musket fired a 2 ounce ball and had twice the range. The matchlock musket was heavy enough that a musketeer required a forked stick to rest the barrel on when firing the weapon. This extra accoutrement made reloading a complicated procedure, but the increased firepower made it worthwhile at the time. These muskets gave way to a shorter and more streamlined version that did not require a musket rest. The matchlock mechanism eventually gave way to the firelock (flintlock) that used a flint and where the use of cartridges became the norm over the previous ‘collar of bandoliers’.

In the seventeenth century, uniforms were widely adopted and governments continued to improve their supply of armies. During the second half of the century both field armies and national establishments grew considerably in size. Fashion also changed. In the early part of the century the model was the Dutch Army, but Sweden assumed this mantle during the 1620s, and retained it until defeat at Fehrbellin in 1675. Thereafter the French Army of Louis XIV was emulated across much of Western Europe.

The seventeenth century – when the flintlock musket replaced the matchlock; the pike gave way to the plug (and then the socket) bayonet – was truly a period of evolutionary military warfare, designed specifically for fighting in Western Europe, though the new techniques were not adopted by either Poland or the Ottoman Turks. Yet regardless of these military evolutions, soldiers still fought at close quarters and battles were more akin to the hand-to-hand struggles of the Middle Ages than the centuries that followed the period of the ‘Pike and Shot’.

European Wars of the Seventeenth Century, 1600-99

“…there did hardly one week pass in the summer half year,
In which there was not a battle or skirmish fought, or beating up of quarters…”
– Capt. Richard Atkyns, Prince Maurice’s Regt. of Horse (English Civil War)

The following is a list of seventeenth century European wars that encompass the convention theme for 1600-99, along with links to briefly explain them (where available from Wikipedia and other sources).

Games

“Keep your faith in God, but keep your powder dry.”
– Oliver Cromwell

Naturally there will be many games representing the entire period of European seventeenth century warfare – both on land and at sea – as there was hardly a season, let alone a year, in which Europe was at peace. It is a great period for the wargamer, the last where body armor was still worn on the battlefield, and combat was up close and personal with musket, pike and sword, between some of the most colorful armies that ever marched across Europe!

Special Guests

“One for all, and all for one!”
– ‘The Three Musketeers’ by Alexandre Dumas

It is too early to determine who might be invited, but the Convention Committee is already working on this! The Military Seminar Series will have a bevy of speakers to represent the seventeenth warfare theme in general, as well as seminars on other military periods and wargaming – not to be missed!

Links

The following are only just some of the links for information about this period of military history. More will be forthcoming as the convention approaches.

General:

Thirty Years’ War:

France against Europe – The Wars of Louis XIV, 1678-97:

Marshal Vauban Website:

Pike and Shot Society:

clear1x1.gif
clear1x1.gif
clear1x1.gif