Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Ever since the disappearance of the Amazons and the death of Joan of Arc, the business of war, so long as it keeps within the rules, has generally been the preserve of young, adult males. For a considerable period, soldiers were advised not to marry, or even forbidden to do so. In keeping with the views of his time, Vauban said: ‘men who are married are naturally less suitable for war than those who are not.’ Though married men tended to desert less frequently, they were thought to be understandably cautious in the face of danger and often indulged in lucrative activities which had no connection with their military duties. Accommodation had to be provided for wives who accompanied their husbands, and financial provision had to be made for widows and orphans, all of which represented a heavy financial burden for the army and the state. In seventeenth and eighteenth century England, a soldier needed the permission of his captain to marry and recruiters were not permitted to enlist married men. Louis XIV was an exception. He encouraged foreign soldiers to marry in France, on condition – after 1685 – that they were Catholics, to tie them to their adopted country. Members of the British Brigade in the Dutch service in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries also made numerous local marriages and this may have been officially favoured. Louis also encouraged the French guards, who always ... log in or subscribe to read full text