ABSTRACT
War is quite rightly seen as one of the major scourges of earlymodern society, but any precise assessment of its impact is difficult, not just because much of the necessary data-mortality levels, numbers of troops, figures on economic output, and so on-is either non-existent, or unreliable, but also because no two wars were alike. Extended conflicts, civil wars, the skirmishing, raiding and prisoner-taking of the guerre de châteaux and wars embittered by religious hatred, were all likely to produce their own characteristic effects which to some degree preclude generalization. Most striking, of course, is the direct impact of war on civilians caused by the presence in the immediate locality of an army, a raiding party or a garrison, though even in this respect it is often easier to describe than to analyse. Marching troops, moving heedlessly through fields and orchards, trampled crops underfoot and destroyed hedges and fences, and in addition to this ‘accidental’ damage civilians suffered losses as a result of theft, requisitioning and the deliberate destruction of property and livestock in pursuit of a scorched-earth policy. Even wellorganized billeting of troops in households took a heavy toll of a community’s resources; as James Turner noted, this
proves oft the destruction of a country: for though no exorbitancy be committed…yet when an army cannot be quarter’d but close and near together, to prevent infalls, onslaughts and surprisal of an enemy, it is an easie matter to imagin what a heavy burthen these places bear.1
