Douglas Miller - Armies of the German Peasants' War 1524-26

Douglas Miller's short book on the Armies of the German Peasants' War is, as the title suggests, a military account of the War and the people who fought it. For those studying the revolution of 1524/5 the book offers little more than other texts, but crucially, it does give an account of the military engagements and equipment that is usually absent from other works. Miller's book is based very much on the detail from the famous history of the rebellion written by Wilhelm Zimmermann. Sadly Zimmermann's account has never been translated into English, so a short summary of some of his military history is to be welcomed.

Miller's book begins with the context, and surprisingly for a book on military history, the author opens with a extended quote from Friedrich Engels' book on the Revolution, itself heavily indebted to Zimmermann. But Miller does not dwell for long on social, religious and economic contexts, diving quickly into an account of the formation of the peasant "bands", their makeup, armaments and organisation.

Miller points out that the bands themselves were democratically organised, and operated an unusual system whereby peasants would return to the fields after a short period of service. The harvest and farmwork had to continue and military forces based on peasant producers must acknowledge this. One Band from the Alsace operated with 8 days military service and then three weeks back at the farm. This gave the peasants a major weakness, undermining collective identify in the armies. Another problem for the peasantry was any cavalry at all.

Miller then describes the battles, and frames this mostly around the march by Truchsess, the commander of the Swabian Leagues forces. This is actually a remarkable military campaign, and in it he demonstrates far-sighted tactics and strategy, as he defeats various bands, and keeps them isolated from one another. Truchsess however is only one of several counter-revolutionary commanders that destroy the peasant bands. Miller doesn't spare us the scale of the murder.

Miller's account is excellent, though it paints a broad picture. But the book is also excellent for its images, maps and illustrations. The full colour plates by artist Angus McBride are excellent and I particularly like the one of Thomas Muntzer. Unusually the authors explain their sources and reasoning behind their depiction of the people in the paintings, something that was surprisingly interesting.

There were a number of minors errors I spotted - Thomas Muntzer was not captured at Muhlhausen, but at Frankenhausen for instance. But these can really be overlooked for the excellent other material. While the detailed maps of various engagements might only excite military buffs, one gets a real sense of the scale of conflict in this important 16th century revolution. Douglas Miller's book is a useful addition to the material.

Related Reviews

Scribner & Benecke - The German Peasant War 1525: New Viewpoints
Bak (ed) - The German Peasant War of 1525
Blickle - The Revolution of 1525: The German Peasants' War from a new perspective