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Dr. Stephen Bowd studied and Medieval and Renaissance studies now teaches at the University of Edinburgh. We talked about his latest book on military mass murders committed during the Italian Wars of the early 16th century.
0:46 – Stephen talks about how he got into writing on massacres during the italian Wars.
2:25 – The book covers the years 1494 to about 1530.
3:18 – The book is broken into sections on mass murder events, what the soldiers thought of murders, what the civilian thought, theories behind mass murder in war, and comparisons to other mass murders.
6:37 – Stephen talks about massacres associated with military activity and those that were between military activities.
9:05 – Stephen talks about the attitudes of soldiers towards civilians.
11:15 – Stephen talks about the nationalities of the various armies involved in these massacres.
13:45 – Stephen talks about the plunder taken in towns during these wars.
15:00 – Stephen talks about the sack of Rome.
16:19 – Stephen talks about the levels of lawlessness in these massacres and seiges. But there also sometimes plans drawn up for these massacres.
19:30 – Some soldiers feared that peace talks would lead to less plunder for them after the siege or battle ends.
21:47 – Stephen talks about what weapons were used for these massacres.
23:38 – Stephen talks about the numbers of people massacred.
26:30 – Stephen talks about women who trained in arms to defend their towns.
41:00 – Stephen talks about Machiavelli’s views on the murder of civilians.
45:52 – Stephen talks about Protestant-Catholic divisions and these massacres.
48:27 – Stephen discusses how these massacres shape art and the Renaissance.
55:55 – Stephen’s work can be found by googling “Shadow Agents of War.”
Links of interest
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Guests: Stephen Bowd
Host: Cris Alvarez
Tags: military, history, military history, conflict, war, interview, non-fiction book, German landsknechts, italian wars, massacres, soldiers, French, Barbarians, Spanish,
Institute of Historical research, Hugo Grotius, Machiavelli, Rome, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci