ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a new and more rigorous calculation of French army expansion 1610-1715. With the discounted figures in hand, it is possible to make certain judgments concerning the pattern of military expansion during the grand siecle. As strange as it may seem, historians are forever muddying the distinction between the troops marshaled for a single battle and the army as whole. Military expansion can still go awry should it fail to establish a proper baseline against which to measure growth after 1610. The chapter has charted the dimensions and development of one of those giants that dominated warfare by 1700: the army of France. On the whole, earlier, traditional notions of French army growth have fared well in these pages, even though particular figures have been questioned or redefined. The two-step concept of French military expansion, first substantial under Richelieu and later spectacular under Louis XIV, emerges in a modified form, but still intact.
