engleski

Who were those “terrible Croats“? On the Origins of Croatian Soldiers in the Thirty Years’ War

Although Croatian soldiers played a rather distinguished role in the course of Thirty Years’ War, this subject/topic is still very poorly researched in the Croatian historiography. Moreover, the whole of the 17th century is quite neglected by the Croatian historiography. There are very few research papers on the participation of the Croatian troops in the aforementioned conflict, as there are very few research papers/scientific works about the Thirty Years’ War in general. So, even though we may know the rough outlines about Croats/ the participation of soldiers from Croatian territories in the Thirty Years’ War, much has not yet been explored. For instance, one of the key dilemmas is related to the matter of origins of the soldiers who served in Croatian ranks. The question is how many men from Croatia proper actually served on the battlefields of Thirty Years’ War, and what were their origins, both socially and geographically? The number of Croatian soldiers grew as the war prolonged and some authors claim that that number reached more than 20000 during the 1630s. But although the number of soldiers from Croatian territories was indeed high and can be counted in the thousands, it is nevertheless unlikely that the reduced territories of 17th century Croatian-Slavonian Kingdom could muster such a force. Obviously, Croatian regiments, as other military units on all sides, were of heterogenic background, and (often) troops of different origins (German, Polish, Hungarians, Cossacks etc.) were also included and counted in the ranks of Croatian light cavalry. Indeed, the term “Croat” referred not only to soldiers from Croatian territories, but also to the type of units which conducted war in a certain manner. The second major issue is the fact that we still lack basic biographical information about the commanders and officers of Croatian descent in the Imperial armies. Furthermore, not only are their military activities Thirty Years’ War still insufficiently researched, but also their personal issues, political, military and other activities within the Kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia as a part of Crown of St. Stephen, and with the exception of the foremost individuals, are rather or completely unknown. And that pertains even to the most important figures in the Croatian ranks. About file and rank soldiers we have even less information. With all these historiographical “black spots” concerning the Croatian participation in the war, in my presentation I will address the question of geographical and social background of the soldiers coming from the Croatian territories and, based upon archival research, present new biographical information about certain commanders and officers who served in Croatian regiments.

Croats, Thirthy Years War, Croatia, Europe, war,

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