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The Hero of Italy examines a salient episode in Italy's Thirty Years' War with Spain and France, whereby the young duke Odoardo Farnese of Parma embraced the French alliance, only to experience defeat and occupation after two tumultuous years (1635-1637). Gregory Hanlon stresses the narrative of events unfolding in northern Italy, examining the participation of the little state in these epic European events.The first chapter describes
the constitution of Cardinal Richelieu's anti-Habsburg alliance and Odoardo's eagerness to be part of it. A chapter on the Parman professional army, based on an extraordinary collection of company roster-books,
sheds light on the identity of over 13,000 individuals, soldier by soldier, the origin and background of their officers, the conditions of their lodgings, and the good state of their equipment. Chapter three follows the first campaign of 1635 alongside French and Savoyard contingents at the failed siege of Valenza, and the logistical difficulties of organizing such large-scale operations. Another chapter examines the financial expedients the duchy adopted to fend off incursions on all its
borders in 1636, and how militia contingents on both sides were drawn into the fighting. A final chapter relates the Spanish invasion and occupation which forced duke Odoardo to make a separate peace. The
volume includes a detailed assessment of the impact of war on civilians based on parish registers for city and country. The application of the laws of war was largely nullified by widespread starvation, disease and routine sex-selective infanticide. These quantitative analyses, supported by maps and tables, are among the most detailed anywhere in Europe in the era of the Thirty Years' War.
The Hero of Italy examines a salient episode in Italy's Thirty Years' War with Spain and France, whereby the young duke Odoardo Farnese of Parma embraced the French alliance, only to experience defeat and occupation after two tumultuous years (1635-1637). Gregory Hanlon stresses the narrative of events unfolding in northern Italy, examining the participation of the little state in these epic European events.The first chapter describes
the constitution of Cardinal Richelieu's anti-Habsburg alliance and Odoardo's eagerness to be part of it. A chapter on the Parman professional army, based on an extraordinary collection of company roster-books,
sheds light on the identity of over 13,000 individuals, soldier by soldier, the origin and background of their officers, the conditions of their lodgings, and the good state of their equipment. Chapter three follows the first campaign of 1635 alongside French and Savoyard contingents at the failed siege of Valenza, and the logistical difficulties of organizing such large-scale operations. Another chapter examines the financial expedients the duchy adopted to fend off incursions on all its
borders in 1636, and how militia contingents on both sides were drawn into the fighting. A final chapter relates the Spanish invasion and occupation which forced duke Odoardo to make a separate peace. The
volume includes a detailed assessment of the impact of war on civilians based on parish registers for city and country. The application of the laws of war was largely nullified by widespread starvation, disease and routine sex-selective infanticide. These quantitative analyses, supported by maps and tables, are among the most detailed anywhere in Europe in the era of the Thirty Years' War.
Introduction: the other Thirty Years' War
1: The moth & the flame
2: Duke Odoardo's army
3: The Duke of Parma's great adventure
4: Duke Odoardo's subjects
Conclusion
Gregory Hanlon is a French-trained behavioural historian whose work draws from a wide range of social and behavioural sciences. Over his career his work has embraced a variety of historical problems, including religious and military history. An anthropologist whose subjects are long-dead, he has written two books on closely-studied communities in 17th-century Italy and France and a book on the harsh realities of military campaigning.
The book ... is enormously rich in detail. ... Hanlon has made what
is undoubtedly a valuable contribution to existing scholarship on
war in the early modern period.
*John Condren, English Historical Review*
this fine piece of historical research goes beyond the specialist
interest of military and political history to consider the broader
impact of war on society.
*James Shaw, French History*
This work is significant because, unlike many recent studies of
early modern military issues, which have treated either operational
military history or war and society in isolation, it explicitly
links operational military history to its effects on society.
Historians of the Thirty Years' War and of the military Revolution
will find much of value in it. It is an important step in
establishing the Italian theater of the Thirty Years' War as a
subject worthy of its own synthetic overview.
*Jean-Claude Cheynet, American Historical Review*
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