War, Towns, and the State

Abstract

This chapter concludes the discussion of towns by drawing out the similarities and differences between the impact of war on towns in England and the Netherlands, stressing the geographical and political variations within each polity. Towns in the Netherlands were more independent than their English equivalents, yet in some respects, war brought them more directly under princely tutelage. The processes that developed the prince's ability to deploy urban resources for war, however, might also consolidate urban communities and the power of their magistrates over them, and might result in a concentration of power in provincial states, where urban leaders might combine to direct military policy in the interests of their towns.

War and the State in Early Modern Europe: Widening the Debate

“…In both polities the co-operation of town authorities was important to central government in organizing for war, but in the Netherlands intrusive heresy investigations served to alienate urban elites, while their English equivalents were entrusted with the implementation of religious change and empowered by the confiscation of ecclesiastical property. 71 Other varieties of change interacted with war in similarly complex but significant ways. Developments in military technology and organization and court-based political centralization combined to promote noble commanders who were more generals leading expert clienteles than warlords drawing on their landed influence to lead local society to war.…”