ABSTRACT
Professor Roberts moves from the tactical changes which were the essential element in the 'Military Revolution, towards their main consequence, the development of a concept of strategy, which envisaged war upon a much broader scale, fought by incomparably larger armies. The exhaustion of numerous campaign theatres was compounded by the most notorious aspect of the Thirty Years' War—;the systematic ravaging and destruction of whole areas of territory in a bid to deprive the enemy of logistical support after the 'friendly' army had withdrawn. France provides an illuminating example of a state which rejected a purely entrepreneurial model for its army. Tactics and strategy in the Thirty Years' War are perhaps best characterised as being undermined by two persistent failures: in the one case, to break the dominance of the defensive; in the other, to cope with logistical inadequacy.
