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Abstract
The sea battles of the Anglo-Dutch Wars of the mid-seventeenth century generated large numbers of prisoners of war. Their incarceration and subsequent repatriation were the responsibility of a succession of appointed bodies, under Cromwell and subsequently under Charles II. Captives were incarcerated in prisons throughout southern England. Once these were full it became necessary to negotiate alternative habitations. This was complicated by the often blurred distinction between public and private-enterprise facilities in this period. Shortage of money, logistical problems associated with unpredictable prisoner numbers and the lack of facilities at improvised locations meant that the conditions under which many captives were held were frequently dire. This article views the provision of accommodation for prisoners of war in the light of the Military Revolution debate and demonstrates that the development of institutions and procedures for dealing with prisoners of war demonstrates that state formation in this period was an unplanned and non-deterministic process.
Notes
1 Roberts, The Military Revolution.
2 Parker, ‘The Military Revolution’, 195–214.
3 Rogers, The Military Revolution Debate.
4 Rodger, ‘From the Military Revolution’, 119–28; Guilmartin, ‘The Military Revolution’, 119– 28; Rommelse, ‘An Early Modern Naval Revolution?’, 138–50.; see also Sicking, ‘Naval Warfare in Europe’, 236–63, Glete, Warfare at Sea; and Harding, ‘Naval Warfare’, 96–117.
5 See for example Black, Beyond the Military Revolution.
6 Notable exceptions are: Ambuhl, Prisoners of War; Wilson, ‘Prisoners in Early Modern Warfare’, 39–57; Charters, ‘The Administration of War’, 87–99; Rommelse and Downing, ‘Diplomatic support to Dutch Prisoners of War’, 3–22; Rommelse and Downing, ‘Victims of an Ideological Rift?’, 649–69; Rommelse and Downing, ‘State Formation, Maritime Conflict and Prisoners of War’, 29–56.
7 Braddick, State Formation in Early Modern England, 1–46.
8 Sicking, ‘Naval Warfare in Europe’, 236–63.
9 Brewer, The Sinews of Power, xvii; Gunn, ‘War and the Emergence of the State’, 50–73; Howard, War in European History; Anderson, War and Society; Glete, ‘Warfare, entrepreneurship and the fiscal–military state’, 300–21; Asch, ‘War and State-building’, 322–37.
10 Davies, Pepys’s Navy; Wheeler, The Making of a World Power; Wilson, England’s Apprenticeship; Aylmer, The State’s Servants, 8–33; Aylmer, The Crown’s Servants, 1–49; Braddick, State Formation in Early Modern England, 427–37.
11 Greengrass, Christendom Destroyed, 552–60; Anderson, War and Society, 99–100, 111– 3; Parrott, Business of War, 110–1, 196–208; ‘t Hart, The Dutch Wars of Independence, 45–62; Braddick, State Formation in Early Modern England, 253–65.
12 Davies, Pepys’s Navy, 177–202; Brewer, The Sinews of Power, 34–6; Oppenheim, Administration of the Royal Navy, 348–9; Wheeler, The Making of a World Power, 48; Parrott, The Business of War, 21; Parrott, ‘From Military Enterprise to Standing Armies’, 74–95.
13 Blanning, The Pursuit of Glory, 36–7.
14 Jones, The Anglo-Dutch Wars, 107–18, 145–56, 179–88; Pincus, Protestantism and Patriotism, 87–100, 199–270; Rommelse and Downing, ‘The Fleet as an Ideological Pillar’, 387–410.
15 Kerling, ‘Nederlandse krijgsgevangenen’, 5–13; Shaw, ‘The Commission of Sick and Wounded and Prisoners’, 306–27; Rommelse, ‘English Privateering against the Dutch Republic’, 17–31.
16 Green, Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series (henceforth CSP Domestic) http://www. british-history.ac.uk 29 Sep. 1651; De Beer, The Diary of John Evelyn, 24 Sep.1667, vol. 3, 496–7; Anderson, Journals and Narratives, 20–1, 35–6, 40–1, 52–3.
17 Little, ‘British Seamen in the United Provinces’, Little, ‘A Comparative Survey of Scottish Service’; CSP Domestic, 28 Feb.; 4, 11 Mar.; 15 Apr.1653.
18 Groenveld, ‘The English Civil Wars’, 541–66; Admiralty Committee, CSP Domestic, 11 July 1650; Committee for Prisoners, CSP Domestic, 19 Apr. 1652; Anderson, War and Society, 16.
19 De Beer, The Diary of John Evelyn, 20 Jun. 1665, vol. 3, 412; CSP Domestic, 7, 10 Jun. 1652; 11 May 1653; The King to the Lord General. CSP Domestic, 11 Jan. 1666.
20 Instruction to the Committee for Prisoners, CSP Domestic, 19 Apr. 1652.
21 CSP Domestic, 16 Sep. 1651; 19 May, 14 Jun. 1653.
22 Navy Commissioners to the Admiralty Committee, CSP Domestic, 1 Jul. 1653.
23 Oppenheim, A History of the Administration of the Royal Navy, 321–2; Neufeld and Wickham, ‘The State, the People and the Care of Sick and Injured Sailors’, 45–63.
24 Gardiner and Atkinson, Letters and Papers, vol. 6, 89–93; Gruber von Arni, Justice to the Maimed Soldier.
25 Anderson, ‘The Treatment of Prisoners of War’, 63–83; Neufeld, ‘The Framework of Casualty Care’, 427–44.
26 Watson, History of the British Standing Army; De Beer, The Diary of John Evelyn, 28 Oct. 1664, vol. 3, 387–8.
27 Shaw, ‘The Commission of Sick and Wounded and Prisoners’, 306–27; De Beer, The Diary of John Evelyn, 4–20 Feb. 1672, Vvol. 3, 602 (n. 1); Latham and Matthews, The Diary of Samuel Pepys; Hartmann, Clifford of the Cabal, 38; Kaufman, Conscientious Cavalier, 202.
28 Darley, John Evelyn, 150; Bucholtz, ‘Reymes, Bullen’, 517–8; Henning, ‘Reymes, Bullen’, 323–5.
29 Batey, ‘Cock, George’, 324; De Beer, The Diary of John Evelyn, vol. 3, 20 Jun. 1665, 411; 9 Jul. 1665, 415; 20 Mar. 1666, 432.
30 De Beer, The Diary of John Evelyn, vol. 3, 28 Oct. 1664, 394–6; Beattie, Crime and the Courts, 565–7.
31 Commissioner Thos Middleton to the Navy Commissioners, CSP Domestic, 9 Jan. 1665; The National Archives, Kew, Privy Council, 6/1, fo. 123, 28 Jan. 1665.
32 CSP Domestic, 17 Jun. 1652; 16,19 Mar. 1653; 28, 29 Sep., 10 Oct. 1653; The Earl of Bedford to Secretary Thurloe, Ely, 18 Jul. 1653, in Birch, A Collection of the State Papers of John Thurloe, vol. 1, 348–62.
33 Harwich, CSP Domestic, 21, 26 Jul. 1653; Southwold, CSP Domestic, 1 Sep. 1666; Dover, CSP Domestic, 23 Feb. 1653; Kaufman, Conscientious Cavalier, 200–2.
34 Only in the nineteenth century was central government administration by the Prison Commission introduced.
35 MacConville, A History of English Prison Administration, x, 5–15; Byrne, Prisons and Punishments, 24, 98–101; Bellamy, Crime and Public Order in England, 166–73.
36 Beattie, Crime and the Courts in England, 212–6.
37 The Dutch ambassadors in England to the States General, in Birch, A Collection of the State Papers of John Thurloe, vol. 1, 470–81; to the States General, 7 Nov. 1653, in Scheurleer, Verbael, 113–4, 125.
38 Warrant to the High Sheriff of Kent, CSP Domestic, 7 Jun. 1665; Ibid, 14 Jun. 1672; Kerling, ‘Nederlandse krijgsgevangenen in Engeland’, 5–13.
39 Warrant to pay Sir George Carteret, Treasurer of the Navy, CSP Domestic, 28 Jan. 1665; De Beer, The Diary of John Evelyn, 8 Feb. 1665, vol. 3, 397; 27 Mar. 1672, vol. 3, 610–1.
40 CSP Domestic, 29 Sep. 1651; De Beer, The Diary of John Evelyn, 24 Sep.1667, vol. 3, 496–7.
41 Rommelse and Downing, ‘Diplomatic Support to Dutch Prisoners of War’, 3–22.
42 CSP Domestic, 23, 28, 29 Sep., 31 October 1665; De Beer, The Diary of John Evelyn, 17 Sep. 1665, vol. 3, 418; Evelyn to Sir William Coventry, 2 Oct. 1665, in Bray, Diary and Correspondence of John Evelyn, vol. 3, 173–5.
43 Overmans, ‘In der Hand des Feindes’; Parker, ‘Early Modern Europe’; Roelofsen, ‘De periode 1450–1713’; Rommelse, The Second Anglo-Dutch War, 187–8.
44 Rommelse and Downing, ‘Victims of an Ideological Rift?’, 649–69
45 Latham and Matthews, The Diary of Samuel Pepys, 7 Oct. 1665, vol. 6, 255–6; Shaw, ‘The Commission of Sick and Wounded and Prisoners’, 306–27; Evelyn to Pepys, 23, 30 Sep.; 3, 12 Oct. 1665, in De la Bédoyère, Particular Friends, 36–42; Anderson, The Treatment of Prisoners of War in Britain’, 63–83; Walker, The Depot for Prisoners of War.
46 Horath, ‘In Cartellen’, 141–70.
47 CSP Domestic, 10 Jun., 6 Oct.1652; 11, 20 May 1653.
48 To the States General, 25 August 1653, in Scheurleer, Verbael, 93–95; Bevernink and Van de Perre to the States General, Westminster, 23 Sep. [1653], in Gardiner and Atkinson, Letters and Papers, vol. 6, 70–1.
49 Warrant to the Commissioners of Sick and Wounded, CSP Domestic; Warrant, CSP Domestic, 4 May, 25 Aug. 1665; CSP Domestic, 11 Jul. 1666; Warrant on G. Downing’s account, CSP Domestic, 14 Jan. 1667; T. Heinsius to Sir John Sayer, Whitehall, CSP Domestic, 15 Jan. 1667; T. Heinsius to John Carlisle, CSP Domestic, 28 Jan. 1667; Warrant for the release of the ship Pied Cow of Amsterdam, CSP Domestic, 8 Feb. 1667; ‘The Commission of Sick and Wounded and Prisoners’, 306–27.
50 Rotterdam. Robert Custis to the Commissioners for the Sick and Wounded, CSP Domestic, 8 Jun. 1672; Harwich, CSP Domestic, 17 Jul. 1672; CSP Domestic, (undated) October 1672.
51 Neufeld, ‘The Framework of Casualty Care’, 427–44.
52 De Beer, The Diary of John Evelyn, 19 Sep. 1665, vol. 3, 418–9.
53 Braddick, State Formation in Early Modern England, 96–100, 427–37.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Gijs Rommelse
Gijs Rommelse is Head of History at the Haarlemmermeer Lyceum at Hoofddorp, the Netherlands. He is the author of The Second Anglo-Dutch War (1665–1667): International raison d’état, mercantilism and maritime strife (2006) and (with Roger Downing) A Fearful Gentleman: Sir George Downing in The Hague, 1658– 1672 (2011). A full list of his publications can be found on: http://gijsrommelse.weebly.com/
Roger Downing
Roger Downing, following a career in industry, is now an independent researcher with an interest in the rivalry between England and the Dutch Republic in the seventeenth century.