Riformismo sub specie militari. Il governo della guerra e la giustizia militare nelle riforme di Francesco III d’Este

On the basis of new archival research the military organization is affirmed as one of the areas of greatest attention by Duke Francis the Third already a few years after the succession to his father Rinaldo, thanks to a series of provisions and regulatory interventions that follow each other in the course of thirty years. It ranges from the establishment of the ‘Magistrato di Guerra’ at the beginning of 1741 until the passage to the ‘Giunta Militare’ in 1770 and the close connection of the latter with the highest executive body, the ‘Tavola di Stato’ established only three years earlier, thanks to the application within the ‘Giunta Militare’ of the Secretary of State of the War Department. In the context of the more general military administration and its transformations over time, it’s specifically reconstructed the role played by the General Auditor of War and its progressive valorization as autonomous judge separate from the bodies entrusted to the government of the armed forces of the duchy.