REPRESENTATION OF WAR IN EUROPEAN CULTURE OF THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD

Abstract

This article examines the representation of war in European early modern culture as a key element of political and cultural thought rather than as an autonomous experience of violence. It argues that in the context of the gradual erosion of medieval sacralized models of authority, war became a crucial symbolic and discursive resource through which legitimacy, sovereignty, and political order were articulated. Instead of focusing on the bodily or traumatic dimensions of warfare, early modern cultural forms predominantly interpreted war in functional and normative terms, linking it to the capacity of rulers to establish, maintain, or restore order.
The study analyzes a range of cultural media characteristic of the early modern period, including chronicles, panegyrical poetry, sermons, pamphlets, and theatre. These genres are shown to perform distinct but interconnected functions: legitimizing sovereign power, embedding war within religious and moral frameworks, and shaping political and pedagogical interpretations of violence. Particular attention is paid to the personalization of war in early modern representations, where military conflict is primarily attributed to the will, authority, and responsibility of the monarch, while armies and societies appear largely as instruments or audiences of power.
The article also highlights the coexistence of affirmative and critical modes of representation. Alongside triumphalist narratives that present war as a justified means of securing stability, early modern theatre and didactic discourse introduce reflective perspectives that question human ambition, the moral limits of authority, and the fragility of political order. Nevertheless, even these critical approaches do not conceptualize war as a collective trauma or a national experience, but rather as an integral component of political reasoning.
It is concluded that early modern representations of war emerge within a broader transformation from a homogeneous sacral social model to a competitive political configuration, in which order becomes the primary value. The ability of the ruler to manage violence and preserve stability–often through war itself–functions as a central criterion of political legitimacy, distinguishing early modern cultural interpretations of war from both medieval sacral paradigms and later national or traumatic models.