Military and absolutism: The army officers of Denmark‐Norway as a social Group and political factor, 1660–1848

Lind, Gunner

doi:10.1080/03468758708579117

Cited by 63 publications

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“…My point of departure is the Danish conglomerate state, in many ways a part of the German world, but also shaped by the extreme degree of the militarization of the Nordic-Baltic area. 2 Despite the inevitable peculiarities of the Danish example, much of the following interpretation may be applicable to other European states, because international imitation, as Holberg hinted, was a core trait of European military culture.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Uniform and Distinction: Symbolic Aspects of Officer Dress in the Eighteenth-Century Danish State

Lind¹

2010

Textile History

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Dressing early modern military officers in uniform was socially complicated. The history of Danish army officer uniforms during the long eighteenth century demonstrates how style of dress and lifestyle together were shaped by a number of social forces: signalling distinction and social superiority despite the core message of service and belonging transmitted by uniforms, reducing the stresses between individual desire for flexibility in dress and the love of uniformity of a heavily militarized and centralized absolute monarchy, and finally finding a way to maintain the distinction of the military man when civilian uniforms became common during the last decades of the century. Many of these developments reflected common European patterns, but others were shaped by the conditions of the heavily militarized northern European states or by the peculiar political and social mechanisms of the Danish monarchy. Uniform and Distinction Basic Aspects of the UniformIf we disregard certain strange dress items mainly found in the cavalry, such as the full Hungarian dress of the Hussars, eighteenth-century army uniforms were standard urban male dress: coat, waistcoat, shirt, breeches, stockings and shoes. Cavalrymen wore boots when riding, but so did civilians. Military dress changed a lot during the century on a superficial level. Colours changed, and so did the shape of hats, coats, buttons, cuffs, and so on. Some changes reflected internal considerations in the military organization, others changing male fashion. The waistcoat replaced the casaque as partner of the coat during the first decade of the eighteenth century. During the last decade, the long coat became a shorter frock and trousers replaced breeches. But, despite these modifications of the basic parts and a considerable volatility in the details, the uniform was essentially the same. 3 Few concessions were made to the functional requirements of military service. The most important was the choice of material. Except for the shirt, everything was made of wool. Silk and velvet, high fashion for most of the century, were only used for decorative details. Gaiters -often worn by civilians for travel and long walks -were another concession to the requirements of the service. Hats were standardized in certain shapes, only or mainly found among military men, such as the three-cornered hat, which was assumed to be practical when shooting. All ranks wore swords, and enlisted men needed to be able to carry various bags. This required appropriate belts and straps.Thus, a number of details revealed that this was a military uniform despite the general resemblance to standard urban dress. Most important, however, was uniformity itself, the resemblance of military men to each other. Like all European armies, the Danish army was dressed according to the practice of hierarchical uniformity. Hierarchical uniformity implied that some traits were standard for the whole army, others for all units of a certain kind, such as all infantry or dragoons, and still others were specific for a c...

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Uniform and Distinction: Symbolic Aspects of Officer Dress in the Eighteenth-Century Danish State

Lind¹

2010

Textile History

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“…Lind, 2011, p. 86. 606 Kyhl, 1975Kyhl, 1976. 188 Military Revolution and the Thirty Years War 1618-1648…”

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Military Revolution and the Thirty Years War 1618–1648: Aspects of Institutional Change and Decline

Bäckström

2023

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Military Revolution and the Thirty Years War 1618–1648 investigates change and decline in military institutions during a period of protracted and destructive European warfare. Conceptual background is provided by the Military Revolution thesis, which argues that changes in military technology and tactics drove revolutionary transformation in the way states organised and waged war in the early modern era. This transformation of military institutions became evident during the long and destructive Thirty Years War in 1618–1648. The outcome of the Military Revolution was the centralised fiscal-military state that possessed a strong claim to the monopoly of violence within its territorial boundaries. The book examines how the Thirty Years War accelerated and even initiated transformation in four military institutions that defined land warfare: feudal cavalry services, militias, regular armies, and war commissariats. The regional scope of the investigation covers the Holy Roman Empire, France, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Denmark, and the Dutch Republic. The book combines military-historical inquiry with ancillary sciences of sociology and economics. It argues that the Military Revolution of the Thirty Years War stimulated institutions capable of increased complexification and specialisation while curtailing those that were locked in stasis and immutability. The institutional legacy of the Thirty Years War was the emergence of complex military organisations that are characteristic to the modern society and its self-renewing social subsystems. Previous scholarship on the Military Revolution has concentrated on military technicalities and the wider process of early modern state formation. This book proposes an alternative way of viewing early modern military transformations from the perspectives of institutions and systems. System-analytical survey of change and decline in the military institutions of the Thirty Years War introduces qualifications to the Military Revolution theory and offers a novel way of conceptualising early modern military history.

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‘We Alone Know’: How King Frederick VI of Denmark and His Regime Coped with Defeat in 1814

Bregnsbo

2023

Queenship and Power

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Military and absolutism: The army officers of Denmark‐Norway as a social Group and political factor, 1660–1848

Cited by 63 publications

References 3 publications

Uniform and Distinction: Symbolic Aspects of Officer Dress in the Eighteenth-Century Danish State

Uniform and Distinction: Symbolic Aspects of Officer Dress in the Eighteenth-Century Danish State

Military Revolution and the Thirty Years War 1618–1648: Aspects of Institutional Change and Decline

‘We Alone Know’: How King Frederick VI of Denmark and His Regime Coped with Defeat in 1814

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