I'm extremely interested in learning anything from the 1600's - 1700's and more specifically, the 30 Years War. I'm looking for any and all books suggestions that will help me understand this era better. Thanks in advanced for any suggestions! I absolutely love this subreddit.

For example, I was recently reading about Henry VIII and his wives. All of their portraits look so similar other than slight differences. Very angular faces and features. His wives look virtually identical, save for their hair color. Was this a style preferred by nobility then? Or was it the style of artist at the time? We know artist can paint more realistic portraits and these don't seem realistic. Or maybe my eyes are to untrained to recognize the differences?

Just curious: I have noticed a loose correlation between various European epicenters of cheese, and Irish-founded monasteries. I know that during Charlemagne's time the Irish monks were the educated ones in the Frankish administration, that he used Irish monks as 'plants' in non-Frankish communities, and I know that the Irish were accomplished cattle farmers.

How much were northern European agricultural practices (particularly secondary production) informed by traditional Irish practices?

I know there were confederate guerrillas operating in the border states, but were there union guerrillas operating in the south?

I recently saw a clip from a documentary about a country (that was post war I believe) who insisted its population of woman become pregnant and would actually tax the women who were not pregnant. This obviously caused a chain reaction of unwanted pregnancies and children raised in unloving environments which had a very negative effect as that younger generation grew older.

What country was this and can you tell me anything else about it?

We usually see portraits of slavery in the United States during the 19th Century in movies and books, but how was slavery in the United Kingdom, France and Germany? Did they treat slaves the same way Americans did?

I've never understood how this works.

*there

Many sources suggest Hitler's constant micro management of his generals, the battles, and overall military decisions almost always ended up in disaster. Is there any point in which a decision he made turned out for the better?

Did it differ from the rest of the United States at the time? Were they perhaps more behind in some ways or more ahead of the times in others? What was the role of the pastor in the village and women?

Do you think there were, if any, major causes in German society and politics pre-1914 that may have either directly or indirectly lead to the Rise of Nazism in Germany?

Roman reactions to loss of a standard and the lengths they went through to get standards back seem extreme, and I can't think of any modern analogue to wrap my head around. When / why did this practice start?

A couple of related questions:

• What did a legion which had lost its standard do? Did they just get a new one?
• Do we know anything about the ultimate fates of the standards?

*edit: I'm referring to the Legionary Eagles (Aquilae), and events like Augustus negotiating their return 30 years after the Battle of Carrhae, which he seemingly had little personal or familial connection to, or Germanicus fighting to retrieve eagles lost in the Teutoburg Forest. I avoided saying "Eagles" initially, because I know they had predecessors which were not eagles.

I've never seen anything about this when reading about WW2/the holocaust, and I was wondering if there was actually any reason behind this. Obviously the Nazi regime didn't value the lives of Jews, Romanis, etc, so why did they seem to not consider using people that they considered to be inferior as soldiers rather than sending Germans (as in who the government viewed as German) into battle?

I understand that the groups targeted by the Nazis probably couldn't have made it so the Germans that they cared about would be entirely left of the war effort, but those extra people would have been helpful.

Was it because of how the targeted ethnic groups were viewed that they weren't used in battle (not being as capable as the Aryan race when it comes to war)?

I searched and took a look at the FAQ and I couldn't find anything about this, but I'm pretty tired, so I'm sorry if I missed something.

Since Adolf Hitler was Austrian, he would've spoken German with an Austro-Bavarian accent. However, my German teacher once commented that Hitler tried his best to get rid of this accent and speak in a more "standard" way. Is this true? I don't speak much German and can't really distinguish accents when hearing Hitler's speeches.

I've tried finding a solid source of infomation about this as I was trying to compare salaries of commissioned officers in various armies of the period. I'm not trying to make a very comprehensive list but at least find some information on the salary of junior, mid level and senior commissioned officers.

• What was the approximate active duty salary of:

1. A lieutenant?

2. A Captain or Major?

3. A colonel?

• What would be the salary of a private in the same regiment?

• How would this compare to a civilian of similar status?