In the late 20th century, historical research on the 1632 Battle of Lützen, a major engagement of the Thirty Years War (1618-1648), came to a dead end after 150 years of mostly unfruitful discussions. This thesis examines the battle’s military material culture, including historical accounts and physical evidence in the form of archaeological finds from the battlefield to provide new insight into the battle’s events, but also to develop a methodology which allows a comparison between two very different sources: the eyewitness account and the ‘lead bullet.’ To achieve this aim, the development of 17th century firearms is highlighted through an assessment of historical sources and existing weapons and by an evaluation of various collections of ‘lead bullets’ from Lützen and other archaeological sites, thus providing a working baseline for interpreting bullet distribution patterns on the battlefield. The validity of bullet distribution patterns is also dependant on the deposit process during the battle and metal detector survey methodologies, which also provides vital information for battlefield surveys in general. In an overarching methodology, statements from battle eyewitnesses are evaluated and compared to bullet distribution patterns, in conjunction with the historic landscape, equipment and tactics. Together, these ultimately lead to a better understanding of the battle and its historic narrative, by asking why reported events actually did not happen at Lützen. This last element is also important for understand the reliability of early modern battle accounts in general. Overall, a more general aim of this case study has been to provide a better insight into the wider potentials of early modern battle research in Europe.

My thesis works as an experiment, or rather a series of experiments, in methods of thinking about historical material. These methods come from anthropology and engage with myths and ritual, with the concept of “complementary others”, and the concept of “schismogenesis" as it has been developed by Gregory Bateson and advanced further by Marshall Sahlins. My overall goal is not to re-describe a well-researched historical event, but to explore how different ways of analysis, using different analytical frameworks, could lead to valuable explanations of the same political-cum-cultural event. The phenomenon I engage with is the last Oecumenical Council, a major religious event in the history of Councils within already schismatic societies. For this reason, I treat this Council in particular, as a ritual, unprecedented in scale and ambiguous in its inception. I am examining the structure and the return of this Event in History, and the controversies and tensions in the diachrony of East and West. I do this not only through the notion of schismo-genesis and ritual, but specifically the notion of sacrifice as developed by Maurice Bloch, in which the journey from Constantinople to Italy becomes a historical metaphor of mythical realities, regarding the Emperor John VIII Palaiologos. And finally, I explore the significance of Bessarion and complementary others within the notion of transformation and alterity. What I establish through discussions of the historical material, which span eleven centuries of history, is first of all, that there is no event without a system; that means the journey can acquire the form of the ritual. I argue that the relation between the myth and the idea of unity is dialectical in nature; the Event of a Union, which could bring peace in the one Church of Christ, from this moment of realisation becomes a fabrication, a mystery to the witnesses, and all the other myths that will be developed on the way become even more imperative and melancholic, because they seek to express a negative and unavoidable truth. The Event doesn’t portray reality any more, it exists despite it and becomes an extreme position, almost like a dream, and it justifies the vision one wished to be possible, only to show that it is untenable: the “what if it could be”; the possibility of all parts being aspirations to the whole, oecumenicity as a goal rather than unity. Overall, this thesis is about the presence of the past in the present, in relevance to the future.

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The War of the Spanish Succession saw the culmination in the development of European warfare during the “Military Revolution” period, which saw European states fielding larger armies with geographically more ambitious strategies under the umbrella of the nascent eighteenth‐century phenomenon of the “Fiscal‐Military State.” By investigating the Austro‐British alliance at the diplomatic, strategic, logistical, and operational levels during the war, greater insight can be gained into the mechanics of alliance warfare and how two allies reconcile independent war strategies in order to achieve a common goal. This is done in particular by exploring British attempts to influence Austrian war strategy through the tools of diplomacy and logistics in order to bring it more in line with British war strategy, particularly in the region of southern Europe. The chronological approach adopted by this thesis will demonstrate how the course of a war can influence strategy and, in turn, facilitate or impede allied collaboration. The early years of the war saw unsuccessful attempts at Austro‐British collaboration due to the distance between the two allies and the limited contact between them. The 1703 crisis of the Austrian monarchy following financial collapse, rebellion, and a hostile Bavaria forced a dramatic revision of British strategy, culminating the Blenheim campaign of 1704. The expansion of the war into Iberia saw a broadening of Austro‐British military contacts, and the strategic situation in Italy was the source of greater collaboration. However, this expanded collaboration could prove diplomatically damaging when strategic or operational goals diverged. The later years of the war saw Austro‐British collaboration reach its peak, but Austria had to sacrifice much of the direction of its own war effort in the Mediterranean to Britain as the price for British support. The final years of the war saw British and Austrian war strategies diverge in light of the death of Joseph I.

Depuis les années 1980, des épaves de grands navires construits à clin de la fin du Moyen-Age ont été découvertes sur les littoraux des mers septentrionales et occidentales. Elles ont régulièrement suscité individuellement un intérêt de la communauté scientifique en regard de leur architecture, puisque la fin du Moyen-Age correspond historiquement à l’apparition puis à la diffusion et à l’adaptation de la construction navale à franc-bord d’origine méditerranéenne en Europe du Nord et de l’Ouest. Pourtant, la comparaison des différentes épaves entre elles pour étudier les développements de la construction navale à clin de cette période est très récente et généralement rattachée à l’analyse des épaves nouvellement trouvées.Cette thèse étudie l’ensemble des navires de plus de 20 m de long susceptibles, par leur architecture, d’avoir évolué en haute mer sur les routes du commerce lointain. En regard du contexte technique et historique, cette étude est limitée géographiquement aux mers nordiques et chronologiquement au Moyen-Age tardif et au début de la période moderne.Le navire résulte à la fois des technique de construction navale et de la demande de ses commanditaires. Durant la période d’étude envisagée dans la thèse, les marchands, qui sont également les affréteurs, constituent les principaux armateurs avec les gens de mer, marins et capitaines, qui régulièrement sont propriétaires en totalité ou en partie des grands bâtiments.De ce fait, le contexte historique, affectant les activités de commerce et de transport, contribue à expliquer les développements de la construction navale. De plus, l’analyse technique des épaves permet de comprendre comment les charpentiers de marine ont pu répondre à la demande de ces propriétaires. Pour cela, la reconstitution des épaves, comme celle de l’Aber Wrac’h 1(France), est essentielle, car les données relatives à la construction, la conception et la forme des navires fournissent des éléments de comparaison scientifique fiables en regard des typologies chronologiques et régionales et permettent de replacer le navire dans son contexte historique et socio-économique. / Since the 1980s, several wrecks of large clinker ships adting from the late Middle Ages were found on the coasts of Northern and Atlantic seas. The scientific community was regularly interested in the architecture of each site as the late Middle Ages historically corresponds to the appearance, dissemination and adaptation of the carvel shipbuilding from the Mediterranean in Northern and Western Europe. Yet the comparison of the different wrecks themselves to study the development of the clinker shipbuilding of this period is recent and usually linked to the analysis of newly found wrecks.This thesis explores all vessels over a length of 20 meters, which were able, according to their architecture, to sail on open seas for long-distance trade. Due to the technical and historical context, this study is limited geographically to the nordic seas and chronologically to the Late Middle Ages and early modern period.The ship results from the shipbuilding technology and the demand of its owners. During the late Middle Ages, the merchant class, which was the principal user, was also the main shipowner with the seafarers, sailors and captains, who regularly owned all or part of large vessels.Therefore, the historical context, affecting trade and transport activities, helps to explain the developments in shipbuilding. Therefore, technical analysis of wrecks allows understanding how the shipwrights and carpenters could meet the demand of those owners. Hence, there construction of the wreck, such as Aber Wrac’h 1 (France), is essential because the data about the building, design and shape of the vessels provide reliable scientific information for comparison in terms of chronological and regional typologies and help to place the ship in its historical, environmental and socio-economic context.