G. Mortimer – författare

Albrecht Wallenstein was a legendary military commander and generalissimo of the Habsburg forces, yet was eventually assassinated on the orders of Emperor Ferdinand II. This accessible modern biography of Wallenstein for the English-speaking reader dispels the many historical myths surrounding this central character of the Thirty Years War.

Albrecht Wallenstein was a legendary military commander and generalissimo of the Habsburg forces, yet was eventually assassinated on the orders of Emperor Ferdinand II. This accessible modern biography of Wallenstein for the English-speaking reader dispels the many historical myths surrounding this central character of the Thirty Years War.

The Thirty Years War - the first great pan European war, and until the 20th century the most terrible - ravaged Germany, but myth, propaganda and historical controversy have obscured its true nature. Another perspective is provided by the private diaries, memoirs and chronicles of soldiers and citizens who recorded their own experiences. War at the individual level is discussed and described using these sources, which are extensively quoted in their own words.

Key military developments occurred in the Early Modern period, during which armies evolved from troops of medieval knights to Napoleon's mass levies. Firearms impelled change, necessitating new battlefield tactics and fundamentally altering siege and naval warfare. The size and cost of military forces expanded enormously, and new standing armies underpinned the growing absolutist power of princes. Academic experts from both sides of the Atlantic review these developments, discussing the medieval legacy, Spain, the Ottoman Turks, the Thirty Years War, Prussia, the ancien regime and the Napoleonic Wars, together with sea power, the American Revolution and warfare outside the West. JEREMY BLACK Professor of History, University of Exeter, UK FRANCIS D.COGLIANO Senior Lecturer in American History, University of Edinburgh, UK ALAN FORREST Professor of Modern History, University of York, UK JAN GLETE Professor History, Stockholm University, Sweden FERNANDO GONZALEZ DE LEON Associate Professor of History, Springfield College Massachusets, USA RICHARD HARDING Principal Lecturer, University of Westminster, UK RHOADS MURPHEY Reader in Ottoman Studies at the Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham, UK CLIFFORD J. ROGERS Associate Professor of History, United States Military Academy, West Point, USA DENNIS E. SHOWALTER Professor of History, Colorado College, Colorado Springs, USA PETER H. WILSON Professor of Early Modern History, University of Sunderland, UK