James Ramsey
James Ramsey also James Ramsay , nicknamed the Black (* 1589 in Scotland ; † June 28, 1639 in Dillenburg ) was a major general in the service of the Protestant Union and its successor organizations during the Thirty Years' War .
Life
James Ramsey, also called Jacob Ramsey in earlier sources, came from Scotland, as did his cousin of the same name, James Ramsey, Count of Dalvaste. To distinguish it from its cousin, he was nicknamed the Black in contrast to the aforementioned the Fair . James Ramsey, like other members of his family, entered Swedish services in 1614. In his 2,000-strong infantry regiment , four family members last served as officers and three as musketeers. In 1624 he was appointed lieutenant colonel. At Bernstein in the Lower Saxon-Danish War, Ramsey was captured by the imperial family under Wallenstein , which ended after the Peace of Lübeck. In the first Battle of Breitenfeld , Ramsey commanded the Swedish vanguard in 1631. At the intake of Landsberg am Lech in 1632 by the Swedes James Ramsey was involved as a major general of his Musketierregiments. After further employment in southern Germany and an injury near Würzburg, James Ramsey was appointed commander of the Swedish fortress of Hanau on October 2, 1634 . If Ramsey went to Gelnhausen, the Palatinate Gelnhausen was sacked and destroyed on his orders . After four years of almost uninterrupted war, Ramsay was wounded and taken prisoner on February 23, 1632 and was arrested as a prisoner by Ludwig-Heinrich von Nassau-Dillenburg at Dillenburg Castle . On June 28, 1639 James Ramsey died unreleased at Dillenburg Castle. His embalmed body, which could not be transferred to the widow in St Andrews in Scotland for financial reasons , was not permanently buried until August 18, 1650 in the choir of the Dillenburg town church .
Ramsey as a literary figure
Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen used the real figure of James Ramseys as the brother of the mother of his novel hero Simplicius Simplicissimus and inserted him repeatedly from the middle of the first book to the second book as Gubernator Ramsay in the plot of his novel.
literature
- Jonas Berg, Bo Lagercrantz: Scots in Sweden. Nordiska museet (Stockholm, Sweden), Royal Scottish Museum, 1962, p. 44ff.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Matthew Glozier: Scottish Soldiers in France in the Reign of the Sun King. Brill, 2004, p. 28
- ↑ Simplicius Simplicissimus: Grimmelshausen and his time. Westfälisches Landesmuseum, Münster 1976, p. 47.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Ramsey, James |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Ramsay, James; Rammsey, James; Ramsay the Black; Ramsey the Black |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Major general in the Swedish service in the Thirty Years War |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1589 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Scotland |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 28, 1639 |
| Place of death | Dillenburg |