The Journal of Joachim Hane: containing his escapes and sufferings during his employment by Oliver Cromwell in France from November 1653 to February 1654Hane, Joachim
History
The Journal of Joachim Hane: containing his escapes and sufferings during his employment by Oliver Cromwell in France from November 1653 to February 1654
Hane, Joachim
France -- Foreign relations -- Great Britain; Great Britain -- Foreign relations -- France
_THE
JOURNAL OF JOACHIM HANE_
_CONTAINING HIS ESCAPES AND SUFFERINGS
DURING HIS EMPLOYMENT BY OLIVER
CROMWELL IN FRANCE FROM
NOVEMBER 1653 TO
FEBRUARY 1654_
_EDITED FROM THE MANUSCRIPT IN
THE LIBRARY OF WORCESTER COLLEGE, OXFORD_
_BY C. H. FIRTH, M.A._
_OXFORD_
_B. H. BLACKWELL, 50 & 51 BROAD STREET_
_LONDON_
_T. FISHER UNWIN, PATERNOSTER SQUARE_
_M DCCC XCVI_
OXFORD: HORACE HART
PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY
INTRODUCTION
Joachim Hane, the author of the following journal and the hero of the
adventures recorded in it, was a German engineer in the service of the
Commonwealth. During the Civil War there were many foreign soldiers in
the armies both of the King and the Parliament. Readers of Carlyle's
_Cromwell_ will remember 'Dutch Dalbier,' from whom, according to
Carlyle, 'Cromwell first of all learned the mechanical part of
soldiering'--a soldier who first served the Parliament but met his death
at St. Neots in 1648 while heading a royalist rising against it. Another
Dutchman in the Parliament's service was Vandruske, who like Dalbier
went over to the royalist cause, and ended by seeking his fortune in the
service of the Czar. A third of these foreign adventurers was Sir
Bernard Gascoyne, or Bernardino Guasconi, a Florentine, condemned to
death with Lucas and Lisle at Colchester, but spared to be rewarded by
Charles II and to be employed by him as English envoy at Vienna. There
were many others of less note in the two armies, but it was not merely
as fighting men that the services of foreign soldiers were desired and
valued. What made officers bred abroad necessary to both parties was
their knowledge of the scientific side of warfare, a subject of which
home-made royalist and parliamentary colonels knew little or nothing.
Each party found these scientifically trained soldiers indispensable as
engineers and commanders of artillery. When the king first established
his headquarters at Oxford, and proceeded to fortify the town, he
appears to have had no qualified engineer in his army. According to Wood
the first fortifications about the city 'were mostly contrived by one
Richard Rallingson, Bachelor of Arts of Queen's College,' who was
rewarded by Charles with promotion to the rank of M.A. Such amateur
engineers might be employed at a pinch, but the chief engineer in the
service of Charles I was Sir Bernard de Gomme, another Dutchman, whose
career is excellently sketched by Mr. Gordon Goodwin in the _Dictionary
of National Biography_. The plans of the castle at Liverpool and the
citadel he designed for Dublin, with his diagrams of the battles of
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account