Two Weeks in Summer Soldiers and Others in Occupied Hesse-Kassel, 14–28 July 1625

Abstract

The occupation of Hesse-Kassel during the Thirty Years War has been discussed by historians like John Thiebault. This paper revisits this topic with an analysis of letters exchanged between ordinary Hessian civilians and common cavalrymen in the Liga army in July 1625. While this occupation was indeed a crisis, the relationships between these soldiers and other people were also ambivalent and contingent, including kinship. Since these relationships were inextricably enmeshed in the interactions between early-modern armies and their surroundings, this article discusses war and the environment. These letters help reveal early-modern military operations on the smallest scale.