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SUMMARY:Muster Rolls and Polynomial Functions: A Historical and Statistica
 l Study of Mid-Eighteenth-Century Hapsburg Armies - Ilya Berkovich (Peterh
 ouse\, University of Cambridge)
DTSTART:20101026T163000Z
DTEND:20101026T180000Z
UID:TALK27098@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Ilya Berkovich
DESCRIPTION:Muster rolls were introduced in Europe from the second half of
  the seventeenth-century as part of a broader trend to shift the responsib
 ility for maintaining troops from semi-independent military entrepreneurs 
 to the control of a centralised state-apparatus. These documents\, submitt
 ed at given time intervals to the ministry of war\, contained the names of
  men serving in a specific unit\, their numbers and condition. While their
  original function is largely fiscal\, the rolls also include material on 
 individual soldiers who served in the army. Moreover\, when figures from n
 umerous muster rolls are combined\, they contain much information on milit
 ary mobility\, units' strength\, desertion and even discipline.\n\nAll thi
 s presents a wealth of data which can contribute greatly to the understand
 ing of social and cultural realities of eighteenth-century military forces
 . However\, when used to study the conditions of an army as a whole\, rath
 er than that of an individual unit\, the use of muster rolls is not easy a
 t all. For instance\, how the material contained in documents covering dif
 ferent units of varied size\, and over inconsistent time periods\, could b
 e united into a single comprehensible model\, which\, in turn\, could be s
 ubjected to a consistent statistical analysis?\n\nThis paper will present 
 a database devised following the study of 150 individual muster rolls cove
 ring the Austrian army under the reign of Empress Maria Theresa. The mater
 ial which was included\, the way it was organised and studied will all be 
 discussed. The talk will conclude by presenting some of the results this a
 nalysis\, and the ways those can be integrated in broader discussions on d
 iscipline\, motivation and service conditions in the armies of old-regime 
 Europe.
LOCATION:Seminar Room N7\, Pembroke College
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