Charles Morgan (General)

Sir Charles Morgan ( 1575 - 1642 ) was an English army officer. He was the son of Edward Morgan from Monmouthshire and Frances Leigh from London . In the Dutch uprising , he distinguished himself as a capable officer. In 1626 the English Privy Council commissioned him to lead a military intervention in support of Christian IV. Of Denmark, the uncle of the English King Charles I. Morgan had little success in Denmark, as he found himself with constant problems in securing Confronted provisions and pay for his troops. He spent his last years in the Netherlands as governor of Bergen op Zoom .

In Dutch service

Morgan began his military career in the Netherlands during the Dutch uprising . There he married Elisabeth, the daughter of the secretary of Wilhelm the Silent , Philips van Marnix . Morgan was involved in the joint Anglo-Dutch campaign in which the Spanish city of Cadiz was conquered in 1596 . Under the command of Sir Francis Vere , Morgan fought in the Battle of Nieuwpoort in 1600 and helped defend the city ​​of Ostend in 1601 . Morgan left the besieged city in 1603 to be knighted in England by James I of England . Sir Charles returned to Ostend and was there when the city was handed over to the Spanish on September 20, 1604.

Justice of the Peace in Wales

After the fall of Ostend, Morgan went to his native Wales and served as a justice of the peace in Monmouthshire . The Bishop of Hereford , Robert Bennet, accused him of recruiting, d. H. Opponents of the Anglican Church for being overly indulgent and thereby encouraging Catholic rioting. When Morgan traveled to London despite the ongoing unrest in South Wales, he was subsequently briefly detained for neglecting his duties as a justice of the peace.

Back in the Netherlands

Morgan returned to the Netherlands in 1607 and stayed there during the Twelve Years' Armistice . After resumption of hostilities, in 1622 he commanded the English troops at the siege of Bergen-op-Zoom. In 1624/25 he defended the city ​​of Breda . The Venetian ambassador in The Hague praised Morgan's military skills and described him as one of the most capable officers of the Dutch campaign.

The Danish campaign

In 1626 Charles I's uncle , Christian IV of Denmark , suffered a heavy defeat in the Battle of Lutter against the troops of the Catholic League under Marshal Tilly . The English Privy Council then appointed Morgan as colonel in a campaign in support of the Danish king. Morgan initially recruited 5,013 mercenaries, three quarters of whom were Scots, the rest English and Welsh. When the soldiers embarked from Enkhuizen for Denmark in March 1627 , more than half deserted. Because many of his officers also left their men, Morgan blamed the desertions on the inexperience of the men he had recruited. After arriving at the theater of war, Morgan had a ski jump built on the Weser , from which he prevented Tilly's supplies from the nearby city of Bremen . While he and his soldiers moved to the area where the Weser and Aller confluence in June, he increased their number again to 4,913 through forced recruitment, but his people were only paid sporadically. In July, for example, Morgan described his regiments as too "mutinous" to be able to defend themselves against enemy attacks. By September its troop strength had melted down to below 2,000 men, a quarter of whom were unfit for duty. Then his regiments were replenished with 1,700 Dutch mercenaries. When the military situation deteriorated, Morgan agreed with the British ambassador to abandon the defense line on the Weser. He withdrew with his troops to Stade .

There, in 1628, the food for the soldiers was equal to Morgan's cat and dog food. The diary- writing mercenary Peter Hagendorf comments: "On holy easter day we could not have mundt fol brodt". Meanwhile, Tilly took the outer fortifications of Stade and then besieged the city. In one failure, he killed 500 of Morgan's people. In March, short of provisions and no money, Morgan wrote to George Villiers , 1st Duke of Buckingham, asking for Stade's relief. The king answered him and promised to send troops. Finally Christian himself crossed the Elbe in three ships in front of Stade, but because of the distance he could not reach the Tilly besiegers with his cannons. After the Danish ships left without having achieved anything, Morgan surrendered and on May 5th turned the city over to Tilly. The sick and wounded were brought to Christian's Glückstadt Fortress , while Morgan and his remaining soldiers were allowed to leave for the Netherlands. There he was temporarily placed under arrest because of the debts he had accumulated in paying his men. In June Morgan returned to England with his troops. In an audience with the king in July, he emphasized the need for pay and provisions for his men. Eventually Morgan was ordered to return to Denmark. On October 31st he arrived in Glückstadt with 1,200 men. Due to disputes with the city governor, his troops did not go ashore until December 1st. Again Morgan was having trouble paying his people. In England, Parliament was unwilling to allow any further troops to be sent to Denmark. Instead, it proposed a public fasting day. In March, Morgan rallied the English, Scottish, and Dutch troops who had wintered in Denmark. This increased the number of soldiers under his command to 4,750. From Glückstadt, Morgan landed with ships on Nordstrand , which were under the command of Friedrich III. , the Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp, and conquered the island. In June, King Christian announced an armistice and Morgan's troops were released to Holland with a small farewell ceremony.

Last years

Following the Danish campaign, Morgan returned to serve in the Netherlands. In 1631 he was briefly held captive by Dunkirk privateers. During the siege of Breda (1637) he fought for the Prince of Orange Friedrich Heinrich . Morgan spent his final years as governor of Bergen op Zoom, where he died in 1643.

literature

• Furgol, Edward M .: "Morgan, Sir Charles". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , Oxford University Press, January 2008.
• AV Judges: Philip Burlamachi: A Financier of the Thirty Years' War. In: Economica . No. 18, November 1926.
• EA Beller: The Military Expedition of Sir Charles Morgan to Germany, 1627-9. In: The English Historical Review . 43, No. 172, October 1928.
• Peter H. Wilson, Europe's Tragedy, A History of the Thirty Years War, Allen Lane Penguin Books, ISBN 978-0-713-99592-3 .
• Jan Peters (ed.), Peter Hagendorf - Diary of a mercenary from the Thirty Years War, V&R unipress, ISBN 978-3-89971-993-2 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Beller, page 529
2. ^ Wilson, p. 322
3. ^ Wilson, 419
4. ↑ Beller, page 533
5. ↑ Peters, p. 38
6. ^ Wilson, p. 420
7. ^ Beller, page 534
8. ^ Judges, p. 297
9. ^ Wilson, p. 423
10. ^ Beller, page 539