Elizabeth's Wars

Between 1544 and 1604, Tudor England was involved in a series of wars which strained government and society to their limits. By the time Elizabeth became queen in 1558, England and Wales were likened to 'a bone thrown between two dogs' - the great European powers of France and Spain. Elizabeth's Wars tells the story of how Elizabeth I and her government overcame early obstacles and gradually rebuilt England's military power on both land and sea, absorbing vital lessons about modern warfare from 'secret wars' fought on the Continent and in the waters of the New World. Elizabeth herself was a reluctant participant in foreign wars and feared the political and material costs of overseas combat - misgivings which proved fully justified during England's great war with Spain in the 1580s and '90s. Nevertheless, Elizabeth's armies and navy succeeded in fighting Spain to a standstill in campaigns which spanned the Low Countries, northern France, Spain and the Atlantic, as well as the famous Armada campaign of 1588; whilst in Ireland the last Irish resistance to total English domination of the country was finally crushed towards the end of Elizabeth's reign. Combining original work and a synthesis of existing research, Paul E.J. Hammer offers a lively new examination of these long and costly, but ultimately successful, wars - military exploits which were to prove impossible acts to follow for Elizabeth's immediate successors.

ISBN 0333919432   Volumes 1 ISBN13 9780333919439 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 316 Publisher Palgrave Macmillan   Published in Basingstoke Imprint Palgrave Macmillan   Series editor Black, Jeremy (Lecturer in History, University of Durham), Black, Jeremy (Lecturer in History, Unive Format Paperback   Series ISSN 0955-832 Publication date 27 Jun 2003   Series title British History in Perspective S. Library of Congress DA355.H26   Height (mm) 196 DEWEY 942.055092   Width (mm) 129 DEWEY edition DC22   Spine width (mm) 24 Pages 344   Academic level Tertiary education, General

		List of Maps
		List of Tables
		Technical Terms and Conventions
		Acknowledgments
		Introduction		1
1		The Glory of War: operations and developments, 1544-1558		9
		War with Scotland, 1542-44		14
		The Invasion of France, 1544		16
		War on Two Fronts, 1544-46		20
		The Cost of Henry's Wars		25
		Somerset's war, 1547-49		34
		Military Exhaustion, 1550-57		43
		Mary's War, 1557-58		48
2		The Burden of War: operations and developments, 1558-c.1572		54
		False Dawn: Scotland 1559-60		57
		Fiasco in France, 1562-63		62
		The Cost of War, 1559-69		67
		Ireland, 1534-76		70
		Public Investment and Private Enterprise		78
		Spain and the Spectre of War, 1567-72		81
		The Low Countries, 1572-74		87
3		The Spectre of War: operations and developments, c.1572-1585		93
		Militia Reform and the Demands of Training		97
		England Besieged, 1577-84		104
		The Low Countries, 1578-84		111
		The Outbreak of War, 1584-85		115
4		The Perils of War; operations and developments, 1585-1588		121
		The War Goes Sour, 1586-87		132
		The 'Enterprise of England', 1585-88		137
		More...

'This is an excellent book which students will find clear and helpful. It copes well with the familiar dilemma of military history, dealing with the realities of combat but never losing sight of their wider social, political and diplomatic contexts.' - Steven Gunn, Merton College, Oxford 'This study makes a worthwhile contribution not only to our understanding of sixteenth-century government but to England's military history and will do much to set the record straight.' - Contemporary Review

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