Renaissance Mass Murder

Stephen Bowd's book seeks to explain the civilian massacres that occurred during the Italian Wars .Bowd treats the slaughters-largely ignored by scholars-as a social and cultural phenomenon, following the interpretative lines set down by the historian Philippe Contamine and the sociologist Michael Walzer.Bowd's vantage is, as much as possible, that of the civilian/victim.He consciously eschews the traditional grand military narrative that inherently minimises the plight of non-combatants and argues his case from an impressive array of manuscript, archival, archaeological and even visual sources.The diverse materials give the study a complexity and nuance that is lacking in most treatments of the Italian Wars.Bowd expresses the hope that his analysis will help scholars understand better the history of human violence and civilisation (p.21).He positions his evidence, particularly his conclusion, in terms of modern understandings of warfare.The book is divided into four parts.The first ('Introduction and Overview') offers a lively, insightful and much-needed overview of the Italian Wars, beginning with the famous French invasion of Italy by Charles VIII in 1494.Bowd employs a wonderful quotation from Benito Mussolini, who framed his twentieth-century invasions of Africa and Spain with reference to 1494, which he saw as the nadir of Italian martial/national spirit, now revived by his imperial conquests.The quote effectively reminds the reader of the profound importance of the Italian Wars in Italian history.The second section ('War and Mass Murder: Practices') investigates the realities of civilian massacres.Boyd counts no fewer than thirty-three massacres (p.6), although precise figures for the number of dead are scarce.He carefully investigates why the mass murders happened, pondering in particular the role of 'anger' and so-called innate French 'fury'.Bowd explicitly moves away from what he calls the 'hydraulic' approaches that define massacres as merely irrational and looks instead at an array of factors.He examines the perspective of civilians, and uses archival, manuscript, archaeological and visual evidence (painting) to provide details, which include the mutilation of victims and differing treatment according to social status and gender.Bowd emphasises the role of women, not only as victims but also as active participants in warfare.There is an interesting discussion of women's role in 'shaming and dishonouring' male soldiers, along with Lucretian examples of virtuous female suicide.The section does well in achieving its stated aim, but draws little on literature of Italy from the prior century, which discusses notions of shame and honour and many topics noted here and later in the book.The third section takes a more theoretical approach.It begins with an apt quote from the French nobleman Philippe of Cleves, who accompanied King Charles VIII in 1494, and who argued that the invasion of Italy was a 'just' war, a correct means of resolving an otherwise unresolvable dispute.Bowd historicises this important notion of 'just war', which has roots in the Bible and in the work of Augustine of .Boyd argues that 'just war theory' held little comfort for non-combatants (p.126) and in fact promoted violence.This was also true of notions of chivalry, which remained operative in the period and did not include protection for civilians.Bowd investigates

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