Henry Ginn of Anstey (Soldier in Thirty Years War) d. 1625

Years ago,in the early 1990s I was researching in what was then the dusty old Public Record Office in Chancery Lane in London, now the National Archives in Kew.  I was working through some old militia and army records of the 16th and 17th centuries and I came across Henry here.  I can still remember it, because what happened to Henry, indeed the fact we actually know what happened to Henry, is astonishing.

I suspect that not many have heard of the Thirty Years War.  Knowledge of Ernst von Mansfeld is doubtless equally sparse.  I hadn't heard of him either.

The Thirty Years War was between the Catholic states of Europe (chiefly Spain) and what was known as the Protestant Union (mainly Denmark, Sweden, some German states with a little help from the English).  The war lasted from 1618-1648 and completely devastated what we know as Germany.  It was the bloodiest war (by far) of the 17th century and was a truly savage one, largely fought  by mercenaries.

The leader of the Protestant Union was Frederick the 5th, the Elector (King) of the Palatinate of the Rhine (centred on Heidelburg).  Frederick (very important this) was married to the daughter of our King James 1st, who was thus sister to Charles (later Charles the 1st) who adored her.

The Spaniards were known for their fine professional army, and they were very successful in the early years of the war.  By 1624 they had taken the whole of the Palatinate of the Rhine, and the Elector and his English wife had been forced to flee to Protestant Holland.  In 1624, with the Spanish virtually completely victorious there was an armistice.  The Protestant armies, almost completely mercenaries, were left without pay.  Enter Count Ernst von Mansfeld.

Mansfeld was the illegitimate son of a German aristocrat.  He was ruthless, ambitious and totally without scruples.  By 1618 he was an accomplished mercenary general, and in the early years of the war had honed his talents.  1624 found him in trouble.  He was in Holland, with an unpaid army, composed of men who knew what to do with leaders who had not paid them.  Some of his men were deserting, others were indulging in that common hobby of mercenaries - devastating the countryside.  Desperate for funds and men, Mansfeld thought that England would help him.  Had not the King's own daughter been humiliated by the Spaniards?

So, in the Spring of 1624 Mansfeld came to England.  Ironically, he met James 1st in Hertfordshire, at Theobalds Park in Cheshunt.  James 1st was obliging, playing right into Mansfeld's hands.  Mansfeld was promised £240,000 and an army of 12,000 Englishmen.

                                          Ernst von Mansfeld

The trouble was that James was short of the cash, and could not pay to hire mercenaries.  Legally, he could not raise the men from the county muster because they were only obliged to fight in home defence.  However, the law did not bother James that much, nor did it have much importance for his son, the ill fated Charles Stuart.  So it was agreed that the 12,000 men be forcibly "pressed" from the counties of England.

In late 1624 the Earl of Salisbury (Hertfordshire's Commissioner of Array, or Colonel of the Muster) received an order from James 1st for the "speedie impresse and levie" of 300 men for "Count Mansfeld's Expedition to restore the Palatinate". 

                          Dutch tile showing a Pikeman of the time

The press gangs went out.  They roamed all over Hertfordshire seeking the "most able men", the single, the young, the well fed and fit.  Yeomen's sons were always highly favoured for the army.  They were well fed and strong and independently minded.  Oliver Cromwell was later to highly value such men for his infantry and Yeomanry cavalry "they know for what they fight" he said "and they fight for what they know". In the towns however the press gangs were less fussy, rounding up every itinerant and vagrant they could find.

No less than 4 men were taken from Anstey, including Henry and his first cousin John Baucock.  Henry was 31, in the prime of life and doubtless had a little familiarity with weapons.  He was his father's heir, but not the only son, which was probably crucial in their deciding to take him.

On 19th December 1624, the 300 men were mustered at Hertford.  They were divided into two companies: the first of 200 men under Lieutenant James Dawson and Captain Crane.  The second company of the remaining men was under Lieutenant Francis Bowyer and Captain Worley.  The Anstey contingent were in the first company.

The men were to march at least twelve miles a day to Dover, for which they would be paid the sum of 8d a day.  Thus at about Christmas 1624 the Hertfordshire men marched into camp.  They found chaos.  Some of the county forces had been there for a couple of months.  They had not been paid or properly fed and were pretty mutinous.  Some of the most disorderly had been looting Dover.  The men were ill trained and in no way ready to fight a professional army.  Indeed, some of their own professional officers referred to them as an army of “raw and poor scoundrels”

Luckily, the Hertfordshire men were some of the last to arrive.  Thus they were fresh and fit when on 11th January 1625 the English fleet set sail.

The plan was for the fleet to sail to Calais, where they were to join up with a French army.  However the French never knew which side they were on, and not only did they not turn up, they also refused to let the English land.  This was very bad news.  The ships were vastly overcrowded, it was bitterly cold.  Fever started to break out below decks, while men froze above.

The fleet slowly edged northwards up the Channel, finally anchoring off Flushing in Holland.  The Protestant Dutch wanted the English to help them defend the besieged fortress of Breda, but James 1st would not allow it.

So the English army  stayed at sea and rotted.  Eventually the Dutch allowed them to land, but the English were sick.  The Dutch allowed them a modicum of food and some blankets, but the English were in a bad way.  An officer reported home - "we search for victuals, and bury our dead".  These last were now occurring at some 50 per day.

                                         Breda in 1625

All through the winter the English stayed put.  We can gain some idea of how desperate things were by the fact that many deserted to the Spanish army, the same Spaniards whom many Englishmen considered the Devil's own servants on earth.  By the Spring of 1625 there were only some 5,000 men in fighting condition.  James 1st died that spring, and the new King Charles 1st ordered the remains of the English army to the defence of Breda, a fortress which was already in a bad way and though held by the Dutch, under siege by the Spanish General Spinola, below

Two English generals, both members of the Vere family (Horace and Robert - below) took charge of what remained of the English troops.

On 13th May 1625, before dawn, the Vere's led some 7000 Englishmen (including some professionals) in an attack on the Spanish siege works.   They had to attack on precarious causeways over canals and though initially successful, the professional Spanish troops counter attacked and beat them off with very heavy loss.

In June 1625 Breda surrendered to the Spanish.  It is said that at that point only some 600 of the men that had gone out with Mansfeld were still alive.  The Dutch remembered the reputation of Mansfeld's armies, and hurried the English across the border into the German states.

It is of course very likely that Henry Ginn had died before this, 95  per cent of the English army clearly had.

Mansfeld recruited again  and took his army, presumably including some surviving Englishmen into some of the German states and Silesia (now Poland).   He fought his way across Central Europe, but eventually died, in mysterious circumstances at Sarajevo in Dalmatia in the summer of 1626.  What remained of his army melted away.

 

                              A medal struck for Von Mansfeld

Did Henry get to see Dalmatia?  I doubt it.  He clearly never saw Anstey again, the whims of the King and the religious wars of the day costing him his life.

Some very few of the twelve thousand  Englishmen that went to war may have come back, and I am reminded of the words of Wilfred Owen of WW1, considering whether the men who fought at Mons and Ypres would survive:

A few, a few, too few for drums and yells,
May creep back, silent, to still village wells
Up half-known roads.

And I remember Henry - he was 31