Helion & Company

During the 17th century, Europe experienced only four years of general peace: 1610 and 1680-82. This scenario of almost continuous strife provided the terrain for the rise of the standing professional armies. The states were eager to avoid a repetition of the chaos and destruction that had plagued (...)

By Defeating My Enemies is a military biography of Charles XII of Sweden, the first written in English in over 50 years. It challenges several traditions created by historians of both the old and new schools of Carolean historiography and through a chronological review provides a balanced account (...)

The book describes and analyses the early modern Swedish army during the Thirty Years War after the death in 1632 of King Gustavus Adolphus. At this time, military operations were handled by field marshals under the overall command of the Swedish Chancellor, Axel Oxenstierna. The book expands our (...)

Conflicts between Christian powers and the Ottoman Empire displayed completely different characteristics compared to other contemporary wars fought in Europe, war without mercy being the norm. The tones adopted by Western literature to describe the Ottomans resemble the ones recently used against (...)

This book deals with a series of military operations that occurred in Portugal in 1762 and 1763, during the Seven Years' War, and which have been largely dismissed by the historiography. They are collectively called the Guerra Fantastica ,'Fantastical War', given the fact that the military units of (...)

During the 18th Century, the Electorate of Saxony was a rich state of the Holy Roman Empire. Northern Saxony was one of most fertile parts of Germany, though fertility diminishes toward the Ore Mountains of the south where Saxony long had important mineral production. The House of Wettin ruled (...)

This book covers an important part of British military history, namely the Trained Bands of the early Stuart period, 1603 - 1642. Both James I and Charles I tried to create a perfect militia during their reigns but how far did they get in achieving this aim? There is very little published about (...)

In October 1810, the Third French invasion of Portugal under Maréchal Masséna arrived at the Lines of Torres Vedras and his triumphal march into Lisbon came to an abrupt halt. Five months later a thoroughly demoralized and defeated French army retreated from Portugal and never returned.The Lines (...)