Christopher Storrs presents a fresh new appraisal of the reasons for the survival of Spain and its European and overseas empire under the last Spanish Habsburg, Carlos II (1665-1700). Hitherto it has been largely assumed that in the "Age of Louis XIV" Spain collapsed as a military, naval and imperial power, and only retained its empire because states which had hitherto opposed Spanish hegemony came to Carlos's aid.
However, this view seriously underestimates the efforts of Carlos II and his ministers to raise men to fight in Spain's various armies--above all in Flanders, Lombardy, and Catalonia--and to ensure that Spain continued to have galleons in the Atlantic and galleys in the Mediterranean. These commitments were expensive, so that the fiscal pressures on Carlos' subjects to fund the empire continued to be considerable. Not surprisingly, these demands added to the political tensions in a reign in which the succession problem already generated difficulties. They also put pressure on an administrative structure which revealed some weaknesses but which also proved its worth in time of need. The burden of empire was still largely carried in Spain by Castile (assisted by the silver of the Indies), but Spain's ability to hang onto empire was also helped by a greater integration of centre and periphery, and by the contribution of the non-Castilian territories, notably Aragon in Spain and Naples in Spanish Italy.
This book radically revises our understanding of the last decades of Habsburg Spain. As Storrs demonstrates, it was a state and society more clearly committed to the retention of empire - and more successful in achieving this--than historians have hitherto acknowledged.

In recent decades, historians of early-modern Europe, and above all those who study the eighteenth century, have elaborated the concept of what has been called the 'fiscal-military state'. This is a state whose international effectiveness was founded upon the development of large armed forces, whose performance and supply necessitated both further administrative development and the provision of large sums, the raising of which involved unprecedented levels of taxation and borrowing by governments. The present collection of essays, by leading authorities in their individual fields, all of whom have published widely on their chosen topic, explores the subject of the fiscal-military state by focusing on its leading exemplars in eighteenth-century Europe: Austria, Britain, France, Prussia and Russia. It also includes a chapter on the Savoyard state (the kingdom of Sardinia), a lesser power whose career illuminates by comparison developments elsewhere. In addition, and rather unusually, a further chapter considers the fiscal-military state in a broader, comparative international context, in the arena of international relations. Each chapter provides a summary of the state of knowledge regarding the fiscal-military state debate insofar as it relates to the state under consideration. As well as contributing to that debate, they take matters further by systematically analysing the sources of wealth and income, and the way these were tapped, and the broader impact that this attempt to extract resources had on society and the state, both in the short and longer term. The differing patterns, and the variety of models of fiscal-military state makes for ease of comparison across Europe, making the volume an invaluable resource to both students and researchers alike.

This book deals with the crucial relationship between war and state formation in early modern Europe by considering the role of the Duchy of Savoy and the rise of this hitherto weak state into one of the regular members of the anti-French coalitions of the eighteenth century. Through his participation in the Nine Years War (1688-97) and the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-14), Victor Amadeus II, duke of Savoy, acquired a reputation for unrivalled 'Machiavellian' diplomacy on the international stage. The book puts this diplomacy in context, and considers how the duke raised men and money (at home and abroad), the administrative changes forced by war, the resulting domestic pressures, and how these were dealt with.

This book deals with the crucial relationship between war and state formation in early modern Europe by considering the role of the Duchy of Savoy and the rise of this hitherto weak state into one of the regular members of the anti-French coalitions of the eighteenth century. Through his participation in the Nine Years War (1688-97) and the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-14), Victor Amadeus II, duke of Savoy, acquired a reputation for unrivalled 'Machiavellian' diplomacy on the international stage. The book puts this diplomacy in context, and considers how the duke raised men and money (at home and abroad), the administrative changes forced by war, the resulting domestic pressures, and how these were dealt with.

An academic but accessible study of espionage and its impact, this is the first in a series of studies in early modern European history edited by leading historians.

This study of the work of Catholic school governors in England and Wales places their work in the context of contemporary school governance, and the extensive (but largely unknown to both scholars and students) literature of the Catholic Church pertaining to education. It identifies issues where the expectations of the Church might be in conflict with those of the state, and examines how the governors seek to resolve them. In doing so, it shows that in some significant areas the way that governors govern their school appears to be at variance with the views of the Vatican's Congregation for Catholic Education and the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales. Although there are many studies of school governance in general, this is the first that relates specifically to Catholic schools. It is therefore wholly innovative as to its content, and fills a substantial gap in current knowledge: it deals with both primary and secondary schools in varied social contexts, and looks extensively at the position of diocesan directors of education, a group hitherto entirely ignored by academic commentators. The book is significant, not only because of the number of pupils being educated in Catholic schools, but also because of their popularity with parents, their success in measuring up to the state's yardsticks, and because of the contemporary controversy surrounding the whole issue relating to what are described as 'faith schools'. Essential reading for anyone involved in Catholic education, this book will be invaluable for Catholic school governors and those in dioceses and Local Authorities involved in Catholic education and in governor training, as well as for all students undertaking undergraduate and postgraduate teacher training courses in England and Wales. It provides the historical context to the tension between the state and the Catholic Church, and treats fully the key contemporary issues confronting the Catholic ethos of schools. Christopher Storr is a Research Associate at the Centre for Research and Development in Catholic Education at the University of London. He has spent the whole of his working life in education, and was for almost 20 years Director of Education for the Archdiocese of Southwark, having previously served as a senior officer in the Essex, Kent and Inner London Education Authorities.