Military Life Writing in Early Modern Spain by Faith S. Harden (review)

This book is a welcome addition to the growing body of scholarship on subject formation and relationships between individuals and institutions in the early modern Spanish Empire, particularly because it examines those relationships from the former's perspective, rather than the latter's. Harden's title refers to the Golden Age dictum that individuals could achieve honor and fame through either military prowess or literary skill; in exploring the narrative and thematic preoccupations of military life writing in early modern Spain, she demonstrates that, in the case of soldier autobiographers, these two paths to honor could (and frequently did) coincide. The book examines the ways in which Spanish soldiers adapted the concept of honor in written narratives of their own lives, and how they used it as a currency for negotiating with audiences—whether the King, the Catholic Church, or the Spanish reading public—from whom they hoped to obtain some kind of favor. Ultimately, the author argues that military life writing constitutes an act of self-fashioning that, because it transcends social, generic, and geographical boundaries, affords valuable insights into the process of identity formation in early modern Spain (19).

The corpus of texts through which Harden analyzes this tendency—Diego García de Paredes's Breve suma de la vida (c. 1533), Diego Suárez Corvín's Discurso verdadero (c. 1592–1617) and Historia del Maestre (c. 1592–1617), Domingo de Toral y Valdés's Relación de la vida (c. 1635), Jerónimo de Pasamonte's Vida y trabajos (c. 1603), Miguel de Castro's Vida (c. 1617), and Catalina de Erauso's Historia de la Monja Alférez (1625)—reflects an impressive variety of social, professional, and geographical circumstances: the writers came from the common, hidalgo, and noble classes; served as mercenaries, career soldiers, Ottoman captives, and papal guards; and fought in Spain, Flanders, Italy, North Africa, and South America. The book convincingly establishes the concept of honor as the common thread connecting the miles gloriosus who prioritizes personal honor over professional loyalty (Paredes), the mediocre soldier who presents his experience and expertise as honorable service that merits a reward (Suárez and Toral), the miles christianus who proves his honor through his steadfast adherence to Christian norms (Pasamonte), and the pícaro who parodies the very concept of honor by using his elevated social circumstances to subvert the norms of honorable behavior with impunity (Castro and Erauso).

The introduction, "Arms and Letters," builds upon the work of historians Michael Roberts, Miguel Martínez, James Amelang, and Robert Folger to suggest that military life writing's particular preoccupation with honor arises from a confluence of political, economic, and cultural factors: the expansion of standing imperial armies and the corresponding "democratization" and professionalization of military service; the popular perception of soldiers not as self-sacrificing public servants but as workaday mercenaries with little moral integrity; the social and financial precarity of career soldiers, who received limited compensation; the explosive popularity of life writing, eyewitness accounts, and travelogues among early modern Spanish readers; and the emergence of an "economy of mercedes," in which soldiers could earn favors like grants and benefices from the monarchy through effective written representation of meritorious service (9–14, 18).

The first chapter, "Virtue, Honour, and Exemplarity," presents Paredes's Breve suma as a paradigmatic example of military life writing. The narrative, which recounts Paredes's colorful career in the papal guard and then the Spanish army, offers a model of masculine exemplarity based not on chivalric or Christian virtues, but rather upon physical strength, courage, and the preservation of one's personal honor. Paredes redefines mercenary soldiers' supposed faults—ruthlessness, amorality, and self-interest—as virtues: episodes of brawling, theft, and domestic violence demonstrate his vigor and valor, while his decision to desert the pope's guard after suffering an insult from his commander proves that he values his honor and reputation over his professional responsibilities (34–35).

Chapter 2...