### permanent army
A regular army of 100,000 in permanent service, established in the second half of the 17th century in absolute monarchies. From the beginning of the 16th century, after cavalries had been replaced by mercenary armies, the main objective of European empires was to form a permanent army. This change was brought about by the 30-year war (1618-1648), which transformed Europe. After this the organisation of standing armies began in France, Spain and the Habsburg empire. By the end of the 17th century the imperial standing army consisted of 65,000-80,000 soldiers, in which there were several Hungarian and Croatian regiments from the end of the1680s. It is worth mentioning, however, that in the second half of the 15th century in Hungary King Matthias Hunyadi had already made some attempts to organise a permanent mercenary army (1458-1490), but after his death it was soon dissolved. Although the border fortress army was also a standing army at a later date, their way of life did not allow it to become a real standing mercenary army. PG