Titre

War and Society in the Duchy of Savoy at the end of Middle Age (XIV-XV c.)

Auteur Roberto BIOLZI
Directeur /trice Prof. Bernard Andenmatten
Co-directeur(s) /trice(s)
Résumé de la thèse

Of all the subjects of history, war is definitely the more studied one. However, no specific survey exists on the Savoy states in the XV century, the key transitional period for the military history of Europe. My study looks into three rules: the one of Amééde VII (1383-1391), followed by Amédée VIII (1391-1439), and the princedom of his son Louis I (1440-1465). Amédée VII, le Comte Rouge, is the Savoyard sovereign who institutionalized the treasury of war. His successor, Amédée VIII, was admired by his contemporaries for his diplomatic skills, as demonstrated by his negotiations during the Hundred Years War, Amédée made considerable efforts towards providing his Duchy with a proper standing army, marked by an administrative structure that was based on a periodic and regular assessment of the forces at his disposal. Despite this, his period of rule stands out for its rather modest number of wars, and an exponential increase of the wealth of the general treasury, the central economic engine of his state. Amédée's rule is largely characterized by the expansion of the Duchy by means of new territories in northern Italy and the annexation of Piedmont. Whereas Louis I rule has not been deeply studied yet, despite its important consequence on the history of the Savoyard states. In contrast with his predecessors, Louis I rule will mark the end of the golden age of the Duchy, by plunging it into a severe economic crisis that will last until the middle of the sixteenth century. One of the purpose of my thesis will be to explain how the wars pursued by Louis I crucially contributed to the decline of the Duchy. In order to demonstrate this, I will mainly avail myself of the evidence provided by the accounts of the war treasurers between 1434 and 1449. In the second part I will concentrate on the involvement of the nobility of Savoy with these wars. The Sabaudian armies of the fifteenth century mainly consisted of companies commanded by the nobility with feudal origins. The accounts of the Duchy have enabled me to analyze the presence of these nobles in the Duchy's wars, and to work out their income across a fifteen-year period. My analysis of the data leads to interesting new insights: the Duke, although he would not engage his combatants by means of annual contracts, could have at his disposal a very elevated number of nobles ready to participate in nearly all of his military campaigns. In this manner, the nobility could increase its revenues by means of the military salaries distributed by the treasury. This will lead to the central question I seek to answer: did the Duchy really need its nobles to conduct war, or was it rather the nobility, in a prolonged state of crisis, that became dependent on the continued pursuit of warfare to ensure its own survival? The third and last part of my thesis touches on the classic aspects of military history, and yet those that do not achieve unanimous backing from the specialists. As an example, I can evoke the study of the evolution of the tree-horses lance (spear), or the tactic role of the infantry and the increasing importance of firearms and theirs influence on the battlefields. A comparison between a typology of the ducal-army with other contemporary European armies.

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