Annual Booklist 2024 : Dr Adam Marks
Dr Adam Marks won the Templer Medal for his recent book England and the Thirty Years War (Brill). The study is particularly significant in showing the importance of continental military experience prior to 1642 as a basis for soldiering in the British Civil Wars. Dr Marks was awarded his PhD by the University of St Andrews and is now a Policy Executive for the Law Society of Scotland in Edinburgh.
1. Steve Murdoch and Alexia Grosjean, Alexander Leslie and the Scottish Generals of the Thirty Years’ War, 1618-1648 (London, 2014).
Field Marshal Alexander Leslie was the highest-ranking commander from the British Isles to serve in the Thirty Years’ War and cast a long shadow over warfare in the Britain and Europe. The Scotsman’s role in the army of the National Covenant has attracted some previous attention but this work by Steve Murdoch and Alexia Grosjean represents the culmination of both authors' extensive research in Scandinavian archives. It shows how Leslie rose to power in the Swedish army and then used that position to fight for Scotland in the 1640s. Their new assessments of his key role at battles such as Wittstock (1636) and Marston Moor (1644) alone make this valuable book but it is the research covering the broad tapestry of his life, his links to the continent, and his central role in running the Swedish army that make it such a worthwhile read.
2. David Parrott, The Business of war: military enterprise and military revolution in early modern Europe (Cambridge, 2012).
David Parrott’s work successfully challenges the notion that the business of war was exclusively the business of the state in the early modern period. Instead he provides a wonderfully readable and argued case for the role of enterprise, entrepreneurs and alternative structures in the waging of war. Whilst some of his conclusions may not be share by everyone, this is one of the more challenging books on early modern warfare of recent years and as such rewards someone looking to question the lines between private enterprise and the state. Unfortunately, in the modern era, questions about who is at war and what constitutes open warfare are becoming increasingly relevant.
3. P.H. Wilson, Europe’s tragedy: a history of the Thirty Years War (London, 2009).
The Thirty Years’ War is a vast conflict and so inevitably deserves an equally huge book to cover it. It was also the war that the very first British flagged regiment fought in. Peter Wilson’s work is (and will for some time I suspect) remain the definitive history of the Thirty Years’ War in English. I don’t entirely agree with the author’s slightly German-centric framing of the conflict (or with his conclusions on Britain’s involvement in the conflict) but these quibbles do not detract from a remarkable feet of scholarship. Though the length of the book will no doubt deter some it is very readable if you have the time.
4. Nadine Akkerman, Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Hearts (Oxford, 2021).
Elizabeth Stuart remains at the heart of the motives for English and Scottish military activity in the Thirty Years’ War and is the reason why we currently have the royal family we do. Nadine’s biography is based upon her incredible research into Elizabeth’s correspondence which she has also published as a number of sperate volumes of letters. That much of this was in a code that she had to crack first only adds to the achievement. The biography itself is a thoughtful and entertaining profile of ‘the Winter Queen’ and effectively tells the tale of Elizabeth’s life and the war being fought on her behalf.
5. P.E.J. Hammer, Elizabeth’s wars: war, government, and society in Tudor England, 1544-1604 (Basingstoke, 2003).
Paul Hammer’s work on English warfare in the reign of Elizabeth sets the scene for the 17th century conflicts that followed. He reveals Tudor England's innovative approaches to financing and waging war. Elizabeth's campaigns in the Low Countries and Ireland created military institutions which laid the foundations of the British army proper.
What you want to see published?
David Trim’s work on ‘Fighting ‘Jacob’s Wars’. The Employment of English and Welsh Mercenaries in the European Wars of Religion: France and the Netherlands, 1562-1610’ (PhD., King’s College, 2002) remains available as a thesis but I would love to see it converted into a monograph. The brigades became the central pillar of English military power and were used by Elizabeth, James and Charles to fight wars not only in the Low Countries but also across Germany, France and Spain and this origin story is one that deserves to be told.