THE TOWN WELL FORTIFIED
◗ David Flintham ◗ Helion & Company (2023) ◗ £29.95 ◗ 244 pages (softback) ◗ ISBN:9781804513484 ◗ helion.co.uk
More than a thousand places, ranging from the rival capitals, Oxford and London, and important ports and cities, such as Portsmouth and Gloucester, to medieval castles and manor houses, were fortified between 1639 and 1660, and over half of them experienced some sort of military action. In England, 189 places were besieged – some more than once – between 1643 and 1648 but there were only 28 battles.
Number 110 in Helion’s Century of the Soldier 1618-1721 series (subtitled: The Fortresses of the Civil Wars in Britain, 1639-1660) does not offer narratives of particular sieges as did books such as Sieges of the English Civil Wars by John Barratt (Pen & Sword, 2009) or Sieges of the Great Civil War by Peter Young and Wilfred Embleton (Harper Collins, 1978).
Instead, it describes to what extent fortress construction in the British Isles had been influenced by European practice before the Civil Wars; provides information on the foreign and British engineers who served the opposing sides; explains the theory and practice of the design and construction of fortifications; and examines how the local topography influenced their siting and design during the conflict.
The author also discusses the strategic and tactical importance of fortifications and their influence on the war efforts of both sides, describing the concept of ‘protected corridors’ which were important for the logistical support of field armies as they connected key locations and enabled the movement of supply columns.
Separate chapters examine the ‘sconce’ an earthwork fortification with four bastions, the most well-known being the Queen’s Sconce at Newarkon-Trent; the fortification of London and Oxford; and the Protectorate Citadels and Forts built in Scotland, the Scilly Isles and Ireland.
Numerous black and white illustrations include reproductions of prints of fortresses and plates from contemporary military manuals, together with modern diagrams showing the design and construction of fortifications. There are over fifty photographs of ruins and surviving traces of Civil War fortifications.
The first of three appendices contains a four-page Summary of Fortified Sites by County, a table which lists the number of fortified towns, castles, fortified manor houses, artillery forts, and ‘other types’. The second offers a table giving a survey of Civil War defensive ditches with their widths and depths; a survey of the measurements of Civil War bastions, accompanied by a useful full-page extract from the 1783 plan of the fortifications at Donnington Castle with labels showing the aspects used to determine the size of a bastion; tables of known fourbastioned forts and comparisons of their sizes; and tables listing known five and six-bastioned forts. The last provides a two-page glossary of fortification terms. A fourteen-page bibliography concludes the book; there is no index.
Readers interested in the history of artillery fortification, who are more familiar with the late-seventeenth and eighteenth century designs and siegecraft techniques of Vauban (described in Christopher Duffy’s Fire and Stone, recently republished by Helion), will appreciate the author ’s examination of English practice in the earlier period.
Wargamers tend to focus on battles with miniature armies, for obvious reasons. However, this very readable book argues that the control of territory and major communication routes by the garrisons of fortified places was actually more significant than defeating hostile armies in pitched battles during the War of the Three Kingdoms, and therefore this should be reflected when designing wargame campaigns.