Description
Book SynopsisEmperor Charles V (15001558) asserted his princely authority by deciding at times to lead his own armies to war, despite the misgivings of advisers. This 2002 book examines his campaigns from a military, political and economic perspective.
Trade ReviewReview of the hardback: 'This is a meticulous piece of scholarship … This is an important book. It draws together a mass of information gleaned from a wide range of European archives and, more significantly, offers a new perspective on Charles V and the modus operandi of the Habsburg dynastic empire.' Alastair Duke, Ashgate
Review of the hardback: 'Tracey must be congratulated on a book which not only deals with a key aspect of Charles's career - one which is not as fully treated in some other recent studies of Charles V - but which also makes available important work by European scholars, particularly on Naples, which is otherwise not easily accessible, and one which, finally, fruitfully adopts a comparative approach in order to draw some important conclusions about war, politics, and finance in sixteenth-century Europe.' Journal of Early Modern History
Review of the hardback: 'One must admire the comprehensive scholarship and depth of understanding that has shaped this work …'. Australian History Yearbook
Table of ContentsList of illustrations; List of tables; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; Introduction; Part I. Strategy and Finance: 1. The grand strategy of Charles V; 2. The Habsburg-Valois struggle: Italy 1515–28; 3. The search for revenue, I: the hard roads of fiscal reform; 4. The search for revenue, II: parliamentary subsidies; 5. The search for credit: Charles and his bankers; Part II. Impresario of War: Charles's Campaigns, 1529–52; 6. Finding uses for an army: Charles in Italy, 1529–30; 7. Crusades in Austria and the Mediterranean, 1532–5; 8. Failures in Provence and at Prevesa and Algiers, 1536–41; 9. Charles's Grand Plan, 1543–4; 10. The first Schmalkaldic War, 1546–7; 11. The second Schmalkaldic War and the assault on Metz, 1552; Part III. War Taxation: Parliaments of the Core Provinces of the Low Countries, Naples, and Castile; 12. Fiscal devolution and war taxation in the Low Countries; 13. Baronial politics and war finances in the Kingdom of Naples; 14. Town autonomy, Noble magistrates, and war taxation in Castile; Conclusions; Bibliography; Index.
