ABSTRACT
Soldiers need to be persuaded into fighting. For this reason, says Northumberland, it is incumbent upon generals to demonstrate their 'esteeme' for war and to praise it as the most worthy 'and greatest of all other actions'. This must be conveyed to troops in speeches assuring them of the enhanced reputation in which nations that go to war are held. The 'greate matter' of war should be promoted by suppressing its difficulties and the 'good effect' of civil government. Instead, generals must employ the Machiavellian ruse of laying bare the defects that have accumulated in peacetime government in order to restore the military calling to its maximum glory. By the power of his oratory, a general must appeal to the imaginations of his soldiers in depicting the glory of those times, and convince them that only by a return to them can the hope of a nation be fulfilled. 'Sutche tymes must be immagined, and laid open stealing vnder hand, how slight soe euer the probabilities be' of the reinstatement of war as a prestigious occupation. It is up to a general to actively promote war to the men he commands. If he does so convincingly, they will have no trouble in swallowing the hook if their commander presents it persuasively enough, 'weeke Judgements being easely deluded with sutche things as partiallyte perswades, and self louing most affect'. Northumberland's desire is to enhance the prestige of war, and in order to do this he mobilizes the commonplaces of his day - that the common soldier is easily swayed, particularly if you appeal
to his appetites and emotions; that this can easily be achieved through rhetoric; that rhetoric must be employed to persuade the men serving you that they are engaged in a worthy occupation. In order to enhance the prestige of war, a general, must persuade his men 'in his ordenayry speaches' that they are engaged in an activity that above all proclaims their valour (that virtue exceeding all the rest, which 'apperes the most shining') and their merit. For this reason, learning must give way to the sword, and books to soldiers' acts.137
