European history between the Renaissance and the General Crisis of the 17th century is dominated by the spectacular triumphs of princes. The development of absolutism was a powerful threat to the liberties which towns had won in the Middle Ages and which were rooted in the aristotelian polis. This neglected story forms the subject of this study, which sets the victories of princely armies against a background of economic and social change, but points to the survival of European republicanism and its significance for the development of modern Europe and the modern West.