The most complete memoir or primary account in English of two of the most important phases of the Thirty Years' War, Monro's Expedition is a regimental history, a guide to would-be mercenary officers, a social history, and a window into an earlier era. Although the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) ended three and a half centuries ago, it continues to intrigue readers as one of the most devastating wars in modern European history. Initially a religious/political confrontation, the conflict soon expanded into a continent-wide series of wars. Monro's account of his experiences is one of the most important primary sources of the period. From the creation of new tactical formations to improved military technology, the sheer magnitude of the crisis required new methods of waging war. Firsthand accounts by the combatants themselves are virtually non-existent, as rank and file soldiers were rarely literate, and their officers were only slightly more educated. Monro was a Scot who wrote proudly of his Scottish regiment and of his Scottish soldiers. Brockington's account retains the original spelling and punctuation and includes the original pagination within the new text for the benefit of readers searching for information cited elsewhere. Glossaries provide ready reference for place names, proper names, and archaic terms.

This study of Scottish soldiers in France in the age of the Sun King provides fascinating information about the visicitudes suffered by the brave personnel of the regiment of George Douglas, Earl of Dumbarton. Hardly the heirs of an 'auld' alliance amity, they became the playthings of a king intent on transforming the nature of war in his era.

Focusing on the impact of Continental religious warfare on the society, politics and culture of English, Scottish and Irish Protestantism, this study is concerned with the way in which British identity developed in the early Stuart period.

This volume deals with the entanglement of Scotland in the Thirty Years War (1618-1648), discussing both the diplomatic and military aspects of the conflict that led to Scottish involvement in the heart of the Holy Roman Empire. To the Scots, the war was linked to the fate of the Scottish princess, Elizabeth of Bohemia, rather than the politics of central Europe per se. In three sections, the 12 authors have illuminated the political processes that led to the participation of as many as 50,000 Scottish troops in the war. The official alliances of the Stuart regime, the independent diplomacy of the Scottish Parliament and the actions of numerous well placed individuals at various European courts are all shown to have had a bearing on this important episode of European history.

Historians have long believed that the European continent experienced a profound period of social, economic, and political crisis during the seventeenth century. This era saw the last stages of the great confessional wars; problems of a more general nature, such as economic depression and population decline, also plagued most European societies. Out of the ashes of the century's social, economic, and political dislocation arose a new political force, namely, the centralized state. To participate in long-term warfare, expand their economies, and create strong armies, monarchs throughout Europe modernized their state apparatuses and in the process developed professional military administrations. Like other northern and eastern European countries that lacked the requisite population or resource base, Sweden relied on immigrants to supply the necessary technical skills and manpower to modernize its state apparatus and economy. In Military Migration and State Formation, Mary Elizabeth Ailes focuses on British officers and their descendants in order to examine larger issues, including the role of the military in promoting elite migration, the opportunities that state building provided to elite foreigners, and the roles that immigrants played in promoting the expansion of the Swedish state. Additionally, Ailes's research demonstrates that international diplomacy did not rely solely on the negotiation of treaties and the conduct of official diplomatic visits. Foreign relations between states also developed on an informal level through the contacts that migrants maintained with their families and friends in their homelands and the social contacts they created in their new homes.