Echoes of Central European Battlefields on the Eastern Adriatic Coast: The Thirty Years’ War Veterans Serving as capi da guerra under the Banner of St. Mark in Dalmatia during the War of Crete

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article focuses on some questions concerning the complex phenomenon of the perpetuation of early modern military activities through a case study of the presence of the capi da guerra, foreign military commanders in the Venetian service during the War of Crete situated in its province of Dalmatia and Albania. The fact alone that more than half of the capi da guerra engaged in the War of Crete were actually veterans from the Thirty Years’ War, many of them situated in Dalmatia, shows the significance of their impact on the Venetian army. These military entrepreneurs, the main actors in the exchange of military knowledge, combined with the growing internationalization of European armies of the time, both reflect and produce the dynamic exchange and adaptations of military innovations that affected the whole continent, including such borderland areas as the coast of the eastern Adriatic.