Part 1

_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 Newbury and Marston Moor, are now in the British Museum.

Dutch and German engineers also abounded on the parliamentary side. One of the best known is Lieutenant-Colonel John Rosworm, who fortified Manchester for the Parliament, helped to capture Liverpool Castle, and wrote a narrative called _Good Service hitherto ill-rewarded_, setting forth his difficulties in obtaining his pay. In Essex's army Philibert Emmanuel du Boys held the post of Lieutenant-General of the Ordnance, whilst in the New Model Peter Manteau Van Dalem was Engineer-General. The names of Cornelius and Chrystoph Van Bemmell appear in the Parliamentary Army Lists in 1648, and in 1649 Joachim Hane begins to be mentioned.

Fortunately, the English portion of Hane's career can be traced with tolerable fullness. He was born at Frankfort on the Oder, and was therefore by birth a subject of the Elector of Brandenburg. In his army, or in some other foreign army, Hane obtained his military education. Probably he was one of the many soldiers cast adrift by the disbanding which followed the peace of Westphalia, and obliged thereby to seek employment outside Germany. He appeared in England first in 1649, and was employed by the Council of State to report on the fortifications of Weymouth with a view to the building of a citadel there. He was also sent to Yarmouth to consult with the governor and the officers of the garrison on the erection of a fort[1]. In the following year Hane seems to have accompanied Cromwell in his expedition to Scotland, and he remained in Scotland with Monk when Cromwell marched into England. The surrender of Stirling Castle to Monk was mainly due to Hane's skill as an artilleryman. On August 13, says the diary of the siege, 'the morter-pieces were planted, and Mr. Hane, the engineer, plaid with one of the morter-pieces twice. The second shot fell into the middle of the Castle, and did much execution. Afterwards he played with the other great morter-piece and did execution.' On the 14th the garrison, who were not accustomed to shells, mutinied and forced the governor to surrender. Again, a fortnight later, at the siege of Dundee, the same narrative records that 'Mr. Hane, the engineer, plaid the morter-piece.' December following Hane was sent to Inverness to report on its possibilities as a fortress, and returned with the news that it was 'not fortifiable without a great deal of charges, nor tenable without a greater number of men than the town can possibly provide accomodation for.' The result was that instead of fortifying the town itself a fort large enough to hold 2000 men was built close by it. In 1653 Hane was again in England, though Colonel Lilburne, the Commander-in-Chief in Scotland, was writing letter after letter to the Lord-General to demand his return. Many officers, complained Lilburne, have been absent a long time from their charges: 'and in particular Mr. Hane, the Engineer, of whom wee have an exceeding great want, and I doe wonder hee should neglect this duty soe much as hee does, his absence being the losse of some hundreds to the State, and if wee should have any occasion to make use of a morter-piece without Mr. Hane, there is noebody to undertake that businesse that is fitt for itt[2].'

But the Lord-General turned a deaf ear to Lilburne's appeals. He had chosen Hane for a business of much more difficulty than planning forts, and of much greater danger than playing a mortar-piece. He was kept from his professional duties in Scotland to play a part in one of the obscurest and least known episodes of Cromwell's foreign policy. On October 11, 1653, Hane set sail for France on his mysterious mission, and spent the next five months in struggling with the dangers and privations related in this journal.

At that time the relations of France with England were still strained and unfriendly. It was still uncertain whether England would ally itself with Spain against France, or with France against Spain. Charles II was a pensioner at the French Court. In 1649 Louis XIV had prohibited the introduction into France of all woollen stuffs or silks manufactured in England, and the Republic had replied by forbidding the introduction into England of wines, woollen stuffs, and silks from France. French corsairs had made prey of English merchantmen, and English ships armed with letters of reprisal had retaliated on French commerce. At the close of 1651 war with France seemed much more probable than war with Holland. The Dutch war had aggravated the situation still further by leading to the confiscation of many French ships on the ground that they carried Dutch goods or contraband of war. In September, 1652, Blake captured a small French fleet sent to relieve and provision the garrison of Dunkirk, and that place in consequence fell into the hands of the Spaniards. At last, in December, 1652, Louis XIV, driven by necessity, recognized the English republic and sent M. de Bordeaux to negotiate with its rulers.

But in spite of this recognition the possibility of English intervention in the civil struggles in France was not ended. In September, 1651, the third war of the Fronde--the 'Fronde Espagnole'--began. Condé raised the standard of revolt in Guienne, and Bordeaux became the headquarters of the rebellion.

Not until August, 1653, was the royal authority re-established at Bordeaux. The rebellion was prolonged by Spanish help and by the hope of aid from England. Both Condé and the city of Bordeaux sent agents to London to solicit English intervention, and from time to time both Cromwell and the Council of State seemed inclined to accede to their requests. Condé's agents offered free trade with Guienne, certain favours towards the French Protestants, and even the cession of the island of Oléron. The City of Bordeaux instructed its agents 'to demand of the Commonwealth of England, as of a just and powerful State, assistance in men, money, and ships to support the city and commons of Bordeaux, now united with our lords the Princes; and not only to shelter them from the oppression and cruel vengeance which is in store for them, but also to effect their restoration to their ancient privileges, and to enable them to breathe a freer air than they have hitherto done. And as the said lords of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England will probably demand of them reciprocal advantages, they will let them first explain their pretensions, and afterwards, if necessary, they may grant them a port in the river of Bordeaux, where their vessels may find retirement and safety, such as Castillon, Royan, Talmont or Pauillac, or that of Arcachon if they wish, which they may fortify at their own expense. We may even permit them to besiege and capture Blaye, in which our troops will help them as much as possible. They may also make a descent upon La Rochelle and capture it if they please[3].' Besides appealing to the desire of the English Government for commercial advantages and territorial gains, Condé's emissary appealed to the desire which some of the statesmen of the Republic cherished to see free institutions established amongst their neighbours. 'What a great honour will it be for the Commonwealth of England,' said M. de Barrière, 'after it hath so happily and so gloriously established the precious liberty at home to send their helping hands unto their craving neighbours for the same, whose obligation for that shall be eternal and the acknowledgement of it real and perfect[4].'

There was a wide belief that the foreign policy of the English Republic was influenced by a general hostility to monarchy and a general desire to propagate republican institutions in Europe, which found expression in rumours of the sayings and the intentions of the heads of the Commonwealth. The English royalists talked of a design for the ruin of the kings and sovereigns of the earth, of which Cromwell was the author, and predicted that he would begin with France. When he returned from Ireland there was a rumour that he and his army would effect a landing in France. One report which Croullé, Mazarin's agent in London, sent to the Cardinal, represented Cromwell as saying that if he were ten years younger, there was not a king in Europe whom he would not make to tremble, and that as he had a better motive than the late king of Sweden, he believed himself still capable of doing more for the good of nations than the other ever did for his own ambition[5].' Marvell's verses to Cromwell on his return from Ireland prophesied similar exploits--

'As Caesar, he, ere long, to Gaul, To Italy an Hannibal, And to all states not free Shall climacteric be.'

But Cromwell had been obliged to turn his arms against Scotland instead of against France, and hardly was the Scottish war over, when all the resources of the Commonwealth were strained to the utmost by the war with Holland. In July, 1653, negotiations had begun, and the war seemed nearing its close, but at the same time Bordeaux was nearing its fall. Barrière, Condé's agent, wrote to the prince that the Republic would come to no resolution till it saw how the treaty with the Dutch ended[6]. It was still believed that as soon as Cromwell's hands were free he would intervene in France. 'Our General,' said a letter from England, 'conceives it not good for his army to be longer idle, and therefore hath told some of his myrmidons that if he could be assured the prince of Condé would aim at liberty really, as he calls it, he would within this month land his army in France[7].' In October, 1653, when Joachim Hane sailed for France, the negotiations between England and Holland had not yet been brought to a successful conclusion. The position of affairs had been altered by the subjugation of Guienne and the surrender of Bordeaux, but Condé had not made his peace with Louis XIV, and a revival of the revolt in Southern France was still a possibility.

Before Hane the English Government had sent similar emissaries to France, with the double object of finding out the real strength of the opposition and entering into communication with the disaffected. Thomas Scot, who had the management of the foreign intelligence during the Republic as Thurloe had during the Protectorate, drew up at the restoration a short account of his proceedings for the information of the Government of Charles II.

'I sent one Lewis de Bourgoyne (reteined by me as a domesticke to have helped me for the French tongue) into France, to view and returne mee the strength of all the ports usward. Hee began at Callis and went through all the Wash (?) to Bourdeaux, and there staid some time to dispose that people who then favoured the Prince of Condé's interest in contradistinction to the crowne of France, and likeliest to have given a footing to the English had there been occasion ministered of attempting them by land. Wee had some correspondence with the Prince of Condé by credentialls to Monsieur Barrière, and from Bourdeaux by some commissioners they sent over express, who came but a few weekes before our interruption, 1653; but that which to mee look'd most hopefull and important I was just then beginning a correspondence with Cardinal de Retz, commonly called the Coadjutor, Mazarine's rivall and antagonist, who pretended to fancy and favour the Commonwealth of England, as so; some lettres past, but not much donne beyond mutuall credence, and that also perish'd after Bourgoine's returne from Bourdeaux. Coll. Saxby (the old Agitator) was sent to Bourdeaux on the same errand by Gen. Cromwell and myself upon joint advice with good summes of money, but what harvest he made of his negociations Gen. Cromwell or his ministers could only tell who overturn'd us and succeeded in those concernments.'

Of Bourgoyne, beyond this mention of Scot's, nothing is known, nor is much to be gleaned from other sources concerning this correspondence with de Retz. A passage in the Cardinal's memoirs states that 'Vainc, grand parlementaire et tres confident de Cromwell,' came to see him with a letter of credence from Cromwell, and told him that his defence of liberty and his reputation had inspired Cromwell with the desire to form a close friendship with him. This emissary has generally been identified rightly or wrongly with Sir Henry Vane, but the identification is at least doubtful. Nor is it easy to fix the date at which this interview took place. It is placed in the narrative of the events of 1650, but is said to have occurred soon after the return of Charles II to Paris, that is about the end of October, 1651. Of Sexby's mission more is known. For a delicate diplomatic mission he was a very singular agent. A Suffolk man by birth, he had served four years as a private in Cromwell's own troop of Ironsides and in Fairfax's regiment of horse. He became notorious in 1647 as one of the leaders of the Agitators and as the spokesman of the extreme democratic party amongst the soldiers. He left the army for a time, but seems to have entered it again in 1649 and obtained commissions as captain and governor of Portland. Then he raised a regiment of foot and served for a short time under Cromwell in Scotland with the rank of Colonel, but in June, 1651, he was cashiered by a court-martial. The charge which lost him his commission was that he had detained the pay of seven or eight of the soldiers of his old company who refused to enter his new regiment; and though it was urged that 'as to his own intentions he did it for the public service,' it seemed a sufficient breach of the articles of war to secure his condemnation. His offence could scarcely have been considered as a mere act of embezzlement or he would not have been employed again. In a petition which Sexby presented to the Council of State in 1654, he gives a brief account of his mission. A secret committee of the Council of State, consisting of Cromwell, Scot, and Whitelocke, sent him to France in 1651. He was instructed 'to give an account of the state of that country, and the affections of the people, in order to prevent danger and to create an interest.' He took with him four gentlemen, was to have a salary of £1000 a year for himself and them, and stayed in France twenty-three months[8].

Of his doings in France the petition says nothing, but a curious illustration of his zeal for democracy has survived amongst the papers of Mazarin and Condé--a draft of a republican constitution drawn up in the name of the Princes of Condé and Conti and the City of Bordeaux[9]. On examination it proves to be a French translation of the _Agreement_ _of the People_ which Lilburne and the leaders of the English Levellers had published in May, 1649. It bears the title of _L'Accord du Peuple_, and the difference between it and its English original consists in the introductory engagement of the subscribers not to lay down their arms till they have obtained the liberties it defines and in the list of grievances to be redressed. It was intended to serve as a manifesto for the republicans of Bordeaux and Guienne, but a constitution too advanced for England had no prospect of acceptance in France. Lenet, Condé's confidential agent, endorsed it 'Memoires données a son Altesse de Conti par les sieurs Saxebri et Arrondel que je n'approuve pas.' 'Saxebri,' or 'Saxebery,' evidently denotes Sexby, and 'Arrondel' is one of his companions.

The two were back in England, as Barrière's letters prove, in the autumn of 1653. Arrondel's return is mentioned in a letter of October 24, and Saxebri's in one dated December 12. Both had doubtless returned before Hane set out.

It was now Cromwell's turn to send confidential agents to inquire into the state of France. Unlike Scot and the republican fanatics, it is evident that he cared little for the propagation of republican principles. What he cared about was the condition of the French Protestants and the propagation of the Protestant religion.

To Cromwell, as to most of his party, one of the worst sins of Charles I was that he had induced the Huguenots to revolt against Louis XIII, and then left them to be crushed by his forces. Englishmen abroad were accustomed to be taunted with their desertion of their co-religionists. 'I have heard,' wrote John Cook, 'fearful exclamations from the French Protestants against the King and the late Duke of Buckingham for the betraying of Rochelle; and some of the ministers told me ten years ago that God would be revenged of the wicked King of England for betraying Rochelle[10].' One of the arguments which agents of the Huguenots of Guienne used when they appealed to Cromwell was 'that the churches of these parts have endured a very great brunt by the deceitful promises which have been made to them by the former supreme powers of Great Britain[11].' To this argument Cromwell was particularly accessible. He said that England had ruined the Protestant party in France and that England must restore it again[12]. In the twenty-second article of the draft-treaty which he proposed to Mazarin in July, 1654, he demanded the right of superintending the execution of the edicts in favour of the French Protestants and seeing that they were scrupulously observed--a demand which naturally met with a refusal from Mazarin[13]. To obtain information of the condition of the French Protestants and of their political attitude Cromwell despatched to France about the close of 1653, or early in 1654, a Swiss who is often mentioned by Burnet, namely, Jean Baptiste Stouppe. Burnet describes him as 'a Grison by birth, then minister of the French church in the Savoy, and afterwards a brigadier-general in the French armies: a man of intrigue but of no virtue.' Condé, continues Burnet, had sent over 'to offer Cromwell to turn Protestant: and if he would give him a fleet with good troops he would make a descent on Guienne, where he did not doubt he should be assisted by the Protestants; and that he should so distress France, as to obtain such conditions for them and for England as Cromwell himself should dictate. Upon this offer Cromwell sent Stouppe round all France, to talk with their most eminent men, to see into their strength, into their present disposition, the oppressions they lay under, and their inclinations to trust the Prince of Condé. He went from Paris down the Loire, then to Bordeaux, from thence to Montauban, and cross the south of France to Lyons: he was instructed to talk to them only as a traveller, and to assure them of Cromwell's zeal and care for them, which he magnified everywhere. The Protestants were then very much at their ease: for Mazarin, who thought of nothing but to enrich his family, took care to maintain the edicts better than they had been in any time formerly. So Stouppe returned and gave Cromwell an account of the ease they were in, and of their resolution to be quiet. They had a very bad opinion of the Prince of Condé, as a man who sought nothing but his own greatness, to which they believed he was ready to sacrifice all his friends and every cause that he espoused. This settled Cromwell in that particular. He also found that the Cardinal had such spies on that prince, that he knew every message that had passed between them: therefore he would have no further correspondence with him: he said upon that to Stouppe _stultus est, et garrulus, et venditur a suis cardinali_[14].'

Burnet's account of Stouppe's mission seems tolerably accurate[15]. The attitude of the French Protestants was such as he describes it to have been. The want of secrecy with which Condé's intrigues were conducted was a real obstacle to the negotiations. In his letters to Condé, Barrière himself says as much, and in one dated Aug. 14, 1654, he relates that Cromwell had complained to the Spanish Ambassador that Bordeaux was well acquainted with all his negotiations with Condé's agents.

But the story that Condé offered to become a Protestant can scarcely be true. It was rather Cromwell who suggested that he should convert himself to Protestantism as a step to the political headship of the Huguenots. In a conversation on the affairs of the Protestants in France the Protector, according to Barrière's report, had said: 'A! s'il y avoit moyen que M. le Prince se fist de nostre religion, ce seroit le plus grand bien qui peust jamais arriver a nos eglises, car pour moy je le tiens le plus grand homme et le plus grand capitaine non seulement de nostre siecle, mais qui aye esté depuis longtemps: et il est malheureux d'estre enguagé avecque des gens qui ont si peu de soin de luy tenir les choses qu'ils luy ont promis[16].' Some eighteen months earlier Condé was reported to have spoken in somewhat similar terms of Cromwell, drinking his health openly at Antwerp, 'as the wisest, ablest and greatest commander in Europe[17].' But it may well be that the reports of the views of the French Protestants which Stouppe brought back from France changed Cromwell's views, and that a more intimate knowledge of French politics altered his estimate of the prince's capacity.