Books to read to get up on my history of the period.

[Andy1972]

I have read a very dry book about the Thirty Years War awhile back.. I am wondering for you better read folks about this period... What are some good books about the battles, people and places.. TYWand ECW.. This is a total new time period for me. I will get around to the 1500's i am sure sometime... That period i am totally ignorant.. I know a supposed family ancestor Ulrich Zwingli died at the battle of Cappel? in 1531 or 32?

[timmy1]

Andy

To take the second part first. Following the Augsberg Confession in 1530 (find out about that and you know most of what you need about German history for the next quarter century) there was a Swiss battle called Kappel in 1531. I don't know much about it but the Wikipedia article below may be a good start point. If Zwingli is one of your ancestors, you have a VERY important ancestor and should be really proud of him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_war_of_Kappel

For the military stuff on the 1500s, thought very dated, I would recommend starting with Sir Charles Oman's 'A History of the Art of War in the 16th Century'. It does have a very Europe Centric view but as a starting point I have found no better (and I have been looking these past 30 years). While reading it remember that there have been many revisions to the ideas he presents but trying to understand the Military Revolution without having read Oman might be tough.

Feel free to post specific questions here, there are very many knowledgable people on the forum.

Regards
Tim

[timmy1]

Andy

For the 30YW and the ECW, finding books that cover the military aspects of the whole of each war in one volume might be tough. Two good books to understand the causes of the wars and what occured might be a good start point. Others here may have specific recommendations.

TYW - Geoffrey Parker's The Thirty Years' War is the best one volume history I have read. He understands the military side and has a superb bibliography. However unless you read German (I don't) some of the key books will be unavailable to you.

ECW - The best single volume that explains what really caused the war and what was really occuring is Robert Ashton's The English Civil War: Conservatism and Revolution 1603-1649. While not totally a military volume, if you try to read something like C. V. Wedgewood's books you will totally fail to understand why anyone ever opposed the King, at least Ashton does that. As for military books there are literally hundreds. I tend to use Philip Haythornthwaite's The English Civil War 1642-1651: An Illustrated Military History. I make no claim to it being the best but it is the cheapest single volume that explains the war from a military perspective (and has nice piccies).

[david53]

Andy

For the 30YW and the ECW, finding books that cover the military aspects of the whole of each war in one volume might be tough. Two good books to understand the causes of the wars and what occured might be a good start point. Others here may have specific recommendations.

TYW - Geoffrey Parker's The Thirty Years' War is the best one volume history I have read. He understands the military side and has a superb bibliography. However unless you read German (I don't) some of the key books will be unavailable to you.

ECW - The best single volume that explains what really caused the war and what was really occuring is Robert Ashton's The English Civil War: Conservatism and Revolution 1603-1649. While not totally a military volume, if you try to read something like C. V. Wedgewood's books you will totally fail to understand why anyone ever opposed the King, at least Ashton does that. As for military books there are literally hundreds. I tend to use Philip Haythornthwaite's The English Civil War 1642-1651: An Illustrated Military History. I make no claim to it being the best but it is the cheapest single volume that explains the war from a military perspective (and has nice piccies).

TBH as Tim says most of the real good books are in German I struggle through them but its well worth reading as most of the referenced works in english written books are them. I am at present struggling through the book on the early campaigns of Mansfeld.

But a good book not for the referenced facts but to get a feel of the period is a book of Memoirs written by Sydnam Poyntz @A True relation of these German Warres 1624-1636 published by Ken trotman Publishing a great book just to get a single persons idea of work in a mercenary army.

A good book I have just finished is Scotland and the thirty years war 1618 - 1648 good for looking at Scots in the armies of the period.

another good reference is a PHD thesis from Glasgow university its on their web site Scots Merceneries in Danish and Swedish armies in the 30 years war, you can download it for free.

[Andy1972]

Thanks guys!

[mellis1644]

For the ECW, just the military side of things, you can do worse than read: ALL THE KING's ARMIES by S Reid and/or ENGLISH CIVIL WAR: An Illustrated Military History/ P Haythornthwaite. The former is much more recent and has the latest (and sometime slight controversial) views/opinions vs. the latter more traditional book. However the later has nice colour plates.

Be aware there has been a lot of research and changes in views in this area over the years and so you can tell the age and style of a books by that at times. There are many other books but both these 'read well' and yet are informative books as well.

This is a good list of books as well:

http://www.caliverbooks.com/pageviewer. ... ECW%20Misc

[david53]

BTW try and watch the Last Valley its about the 30 Years War not saying its good its a personnal thing.