A (territorial) militia was and is a large-scale organization of armed subjects from town and countryside operating within the boundaries of a territory and commanded by the territoral sovereign; it might also include aristocratic cavalry and where appropriate fortifications. Its defining characteristic was the enrollment, training, and practice of the militarily qualified segment of the population. We are speaking here of a comparately short-lived variant of the military structures of the late 16th and early 17th centuries, which nevertheless existed at …
Militia, territorial(773 words)
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Pröve, Ralf, “Militia, territorial”, in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, Editors of the English edition: Graeme Dunphy, Andrew Gow. Original German Edition: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Im Auftrag des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (Essen) und in Verbindung mit den Fachherausgebern herausgegeben von Friedrich Jaeger. Copyright © J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH 2005–2012. Consulted online on 29 September 2023 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_SIM_023025>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20200128
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