Swordsmen: The Martial Ethos in the Three Kingdoms

by Roger B. Manning

Overview

Based upon a wide range of historical and literary sources, Swordsmen is a scholarly study of the military experiences of peers and gentlemen from the British Isles who volunteered to fight in the religious and dynastic wars of mainland Europe from the English intervention in the Dutch war of independence in 1585 to the death of the soldier-king William III in 1702. This apprenticeship in arms exposed these aristocrats to the chivalric revival, the military revolution and the values of neostoicism, and revived the martial ethos of the English aristocracy and reinvigorated the martial traditions of the Irish and Scots.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199261215
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	01/15/2004
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	8.74(w) x 5.54(h) x 0.82(d)

About the Author

Cleveland State University, Ohio (Emeritus)

Table of Contents

IntroductionPart I. Aristocratic Society and Martial Culture 1585-17021. Swordsmen, Gownsmen, and Courtiers2. Honour and Martial Culture3. The Regulation of Aristocratic Status4. Gentlemen Volunteers: The Military Education of the AristocracyPart II. Martial Culture and the Discourse of Violence 1585-17025. Private Warfare and the Language of the Sword6. Duelling and Martial Culture7. Duelling and Authority8. ConclusionBibliographyIndex

Editorial Reviews

"Roger Manning's Swordsmen is a thoroughly researched and richly detailed study of the remilitarization of the English aristocracy from the late Elizabethan years to the early eighteenth century. Thematically reiterative and full of interesting illustrative stories, it features the transition of the three kingdoms, England, Scotland, and Ireland, from second and third-rate European nations to a coalescing unified great power."—Renaissance Quarterly

"[An] elegant and reader-friendly book...Meanwhile Swordsmen remains consistently, interesting and thought-provoking, and leads the reader to look forward to the second volume of the enterprise."—Albion

"Swordsman is a valuable and worthwhile monograph that consolidates a convincing body of evidence for the re-emergence of a military ethos and culture of honor in early-modern Britain and Ireland. This book testifies to the growing scholarly appreciation of the importance of violence , warfare, and the upper-class culture of honor in the history of early-modern Europe."—H-Net Reviews

"This interesting study of a neglected topic focuses on the early modern British aristocracy in a period when, it has often been asserted, this class had largely abandoned their medieval ancestors' preoccupation with war and the code of chivalric honor. This is an innovative and interesting work. Recommended"—CHOICE

From the Publisher