The Rise of the Military Entrepreneur: War, Diplomacy, and Knowledge in Habsburg Europe

The Rise of the Military Entrepreneur explores how a new kind of international military figure emerged from the seventeenth century's political, military, commercial, and scientific changes, using private wealth, credit, and connections to raise and command armies. Suzanne Sutherland examines the influence of military entrepreneurs by examining their activities as commanders, diplomats, natural philosophers, information brokers, clients, and subjects on the battlefield. Raimondo Montecuccoli (1609–80) was a middling nobleman from the Duchy of Modena who became one of the most powerful men in the Austrian Habsburg monarchy and helped found a new discipline, military science.

Format: Hardback
Length: 276 pages
Publication date: 15 September 2022
Publisher: Cornell University Press

The Rise of the Military Entrepreneur explores the emergence of a new type of international military figure during the seventeenth century, which emerged from and exploited the significant political, military, commercial, and scientific changes of the time. These figures, known as military entrepreneurs, traveled rapidly and frequently across Europe, utilizing private wealth, credit, and connections to raise and command armies that rulers desperately needed. Their careers reveal the roles international networks, private resources, and expertise played in building and at times undermining the state. Suzanne Sutherland's book uncovers the influence of military entrepreneurs by examining their activities as not only commanders but also diplomats, natural philosophers, information brokers, clients, and subjects on the battlefield, as well as through strategic marital and family allegiances. Sutherland focuses on Raimondo Montecuccoli (1609–1680), a middling nobleman from the Duchy of Modena, who became one of the most powerful men in the Austrian Habsburg monarchy and helped found a new discipline, military science. The book explains how Montecuccoli successfully met battlefield, court, and family responsibilities while contributing to the world of scholarship on an often violent, fragmented political-military landscape. As a result, Sutherland shifts the perspective on war away from the ruler and his court to instead examine the figures supplying force, along with their methods, networks, and reflections on those experiences.

Weight: 598g
Dimension: 162 x 237 x 29 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781501751004