A History of Modern Europe - From the Renaissance to the Present

Transforming Discoveries 33

Mercenaries, the original “free lances,” increasingly replaced feudal
levies (and urban militias, where they existed) in armies mobilized by rulers
to defend or expand their territorial interests. These might include Albani­
ans, Englishmen, Scots, Greeks, Poles, and Swiss pikemen. Mercenaries
received modest, though irregular, pay and expected acceptable rations and
the opportunity to pillage the towns they conquered. Assuming these condi­
tions were met, they seem to have deserted far less frequently than soldiers
recruited by states from their own populations.
Yet most states had some kind of conscription, whether a formalized draft
of men between the ages of fifteen and sixty or a hasty roundup when war
approached. Loyal nobles, royal officials, and paid recruiters provided sol­
diers. Peasants made up more than three-quarters of armies, as they did the
European population. Criminals also ended up in armies, often as the price
of their release from prison or from execution, though they might well carry
with them forever a branded letter as part of their sentence (such as the let­
ter “V” for the French word voleur—thief).
Conditions of military service were difficult at best. In addition to barely
adequate lodging and food, infractions of rules were dealt with harshly,
including the infamous and often fatal “running the gauntlet” through
troops lined up on both sides, dispensing blows with sticks or swords. Offi­
cers dispensed justice without trial or appeal, and sentences were carried out
immediately. The severed heads of deserters or other serious offenders were
impaled on pikes for several days at the entrance to a camp, sending a clear
message.
Except for royal guards, artillery units, and other specialized forces, uni­
forms were rare in any army, although most soldiers sported some type of
identification, such as an armband or a tunic bearing a national or regional
symbol like the English red cross, the barred cross of Lorraine, or the lion
of Lyon.
Epidemics and disease—dysentery and typhoid, among others—carried
off far more than did wounds received in battle. But casualty figures were
also alarming, however inaccurately kept. The wounded often died from
inadequate—even for the time—medical treatment and from neglect.

The Printing Press and the Power of the Printed Word

The advent of printing in Europe in the fifteenth century in some ways

marked the end of the medieval period. The invention of woodblock printing

and paper had occurred in China in the eighth century; both reached Eu­

rope from the Arab world via Spain in the thirteenth century. Before the

arrival of these technologies, monks and scribes had copied books on parch­

ment sheets; a single copy of the Bible required about 170 calfskins or 300

sheepskins. Because it was much cheaper than parchment, paper more read­

ily accommodated scholars, officials, and merchants. But the process of

copying itself remained slow. Cosimo de’ Medici, the Florentine banker and