Christopher Storrs presents a fresh new appraisal of the reasons for the survival of Spain and its European and overseas empire under the last Spanish Habsburg, Carlos II (1665-1700). Hitherto it has been largely assumed that in the "Age of Louis XIV" Spain collapsed as a military, naval and imperial power, and only retained its empire because states which had hitherto opposed Spanish hegemony came to Carlos's aid.
However, this view seriously underestimates the efforts of Carlos II and his ministers to raise men to fight in Spain's various armies--above all in Flanders, Lombardy, and...

This book deals with the crucial relationship between war and state formation in early modern Europe. Through his participation in the Nine Years War (1688-97) and the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-14), Victor Amadeus II, Duke of Savoy, acquired a reputation for unrivaled "Machiavellian" diplomacy on the international stage. This book puts that diplomacy in context, and considers how the duke raised men and money (at home and abroad), the administrative changes forced by war, the resulting domestic pressures, and how these were dealt with.

This book deals with the crucial relationship between war and state formation in early modern Europe. Through his participation in the Nine Years War (1688-97) and the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-14), Victor Amadeus II, Duke of Savoy, acquired a reputation for unrivaled "Machiavellian" diplomacy on the international stage. This book puts that diplomacy in context, and considers how the duke raised men and money (at home and abroad), the administrative changes forced by war, the resulting domestic pressures, and how these were dealt with.