The present volume is a contribution to understanding early modern warfare in terms of privatisation and commercialisation: topics which have attracted the interest of a number of international researchers in recent years. It is the product of the research project on “Military Entrepreneurship & Entanglement: Structures, Interests and Fields of Action in the Transnational Relations of the Corpus Helveticum in the Early Modern Period”. The project, which was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), focuses on Swiss military entrepreneurs who recruited, paid, and equipped mercenaries for foreign powers and commanded them in battle. However, the mercenary business is only one aspect of the business of war in the early modern period. In order to grasp the multifaceted business practices of early modern military entrepreneurs and to define the figure of the military entrepreneur more precisely, an international conference was planned in Bern for the summer of 2020. It would have brought together current research debates on the actors and forms of military entrepreneurship, as well as the transnational fields of action involved in it. David Parrott, the leading expert on the topic, was invited to give the keynote speech. The conference was meant to offer both established researchers and young scholars a platform for getting to know one another and networking. Last but not least, we hoped to intensify cooperation with the ERC-project on “The European Fiscal-Military System 1530–1870” under the direction of Peter H. Wilson (Oxford), with which a fruitful exchange had developed in recent years, by meeting in person at the conference. But, unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we had to cancel the conference. We decided – for organisational reasons – not to postpone the meeting to a later date. Instead, we started working on the present volume, which had been planned from the beginning. We appreciate very much that almost all our colleagues who would have spoken at the conference agreed to contribute. Fortunately, Regula Schmid, head of the SNSF project on “Martial Cultures in Medieval Towns” at the University of Bern, also agreed to write her planned conference commentary based on the contributions to the volume. Several of the essays benefited from valuable linguistic and substantive clarifications thanks to her expert comments and suggestions. With Michael Depreter, we were also able to win another contributor for the book. Our authors deserve our deepest gratitude.
The sponsors of the conference also showed understanding for the decision to cancel it. Due to the extraordinary situation in the summer of 2020, our institutional partners proved to be extremely accommodating and readily agreed to a reallocation of funds. We would like to thank the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences (SAGW), the Swiss National Science Foundation
The realisation of a scientific undertaking of this magnitude – the planning of an international conference and the publication of a collective volume – is unthinkable without the help of the highly competent and motivated staff of a well-organised historical institute. We would like to thank Therese Dudan, former secretary of the Swiss History Department at the Institute of History of the University of Bern, and especially her successor Carole Mast, for their efficient support in the many administrative, organisational, and financial tasks connected with the conference and the book publication. We would also like to thank Noah Businger and Daniel Kleis for their careful editing of the contributions, and thanks to Noah as well for the preparation of the index.
Bern, February 2024
Philippe Rogger and André Holenstein