""Small War" during the 16th century" Topic

Were there any period treatises dealing with how to conduct "small war" (skirmishes, ambushes, raids, reconnaissance, etc.)? If not, were there any special tactics generally employed in this kind of operations, during this century?

Have a look at Montluc's early memoires. There's some stuff about camisados in the early bits.

There is quite a lot of material about this sort of war in Lodovico Melzo's treatise on cavalry, apparently. It's summarised briefly in the article at link – but I know of no full translation.

I think the Perfect Captain may have good sources also.

Roger Williams, a veteran of the wars in the low countries, gives his opinions in this (actually I think someone else wrote them for him): link

It discusses the kind of stuff you are talking about.

Monluc ibid.

As Malatesta1500 noted, Roger Williams:

from here: link

"The service of all Light horsemen consists chieflie in the marching of great marches, (cavalgades, the strangers terme it) I mean, to surprise Companies a farre off in their lodgins, or marches; likewise to defeat convoyes, and to conduct convoyes, as much to say, direct it to spoyle necessaries that come to furnish their enemies, and to conduct necessaries to furnish their own campe or service. Also to scout and discover, to spare the armed men, I mean the Launtiers, and like horsemen; likewise both to conduct and spoyle foragers, with the like services."

Thanks guys! Were the germans not very good at "small war" during that century? I found a brief mention that the Landsknecht and Swiss could occasionally skirmish, but with few results. Is that correct?

Many professional military texts published during the 2nd half of the 16th Century discuss at least some aspects of the small, some covers it in greater detail than others. Managing what we today refer to as the "small war" was an essential skill and such things as outpost duties, to to arrange a march column, or how to defend your quarters from attack became essential knowledge. While their texts were published in the early 17th Century both Basta and Melzo based their manual on their experiences as commanders in the 2nd half of the 16th century. Both can be found free online with the help of Europeana and a bit of search. You do however need to read Spanish or Italian, IIRC at least one of them is available free in French as well.

In English, you can't go wrong with Francis Vere (FREE):

link

Thank you very much, guys! Does anybody knows if the northern (Sweden and Denmark) and eastern (Russia and Poland) european States would use translations of those western and central european military manuals, or if they would have had their own Military manuals?

Polish officers – especially from higher command – most likely had access to such manuals but they didn't use them. Eastern theatre of war was very specific, with completely different types of troops so ideas of guys like Basta couldn't be used to chase Tatars :) Poles and Lithuanians rather used vast experiance passed from generation to generation, with some of it in written form, like hetman Tarnowski's 'Consilium rationis bellicae' from 1558. It was of course different when Western-type troops were to be trained and used, for example Muscovites still used Johann Jacob von Wallhausen's manual when training their 'new pattern' troops in second part of 17th century.

Basta, Schwendi and several other writers certainly wrote quite a bit on the subject of fighting an 'Eastern' foe but it was instructions on how to do it with an Imperial/Habsburg army so while some ideas would probably have worked well for Polish troops others would not have. At times You certainly see some fairly similar solutions for the same problem but who learned from whom?

Thank you very, very much, guys!

Kadrinazi, is there any other polish military manual from that century, other than "Consilium rationis bellicae"?

Daniel, do you know if the swedes or the danes produced any native military manuals during this century?

Majority of hetmen published so called 'Artykuły wojenne' (articles of war) that – amongst many things – have wee bits and pieces about tactics. Andrzej Maksymilian Fredro published his idea of perfect army and tactics, called Militarium seu axiomatum belli ad harmoniam togae accomodatorum libri duo but it wasn't used in practice by actual military. In the end of 16th century there were also few published ideas how to organise army against Turks and Tatars – although not manuals as such (and written by members of clergy!) one can also find plenty of interesting information there.