Pistoleer: HellBurner

by Smith, Skye

  A hundred hands reached up high to grab hold of the floating ball, and float it did because there was no room for playing it on the ground, so the lads were all keeping it bouncing above the mob with the wallop of their fists and foreheads. It bounced a hundred times without once touching the ground, and held the interest of all for long enough to give the captain of the guard time to arrange for the release of the prisoners.

  Most of the mob did not even notice the tower door open or the six men in shackles who were marched out of it. At that moment Daniel had some of the lads around him hoist him high so that he could motion to the carriage driver to press forward through the mob and through the gates. To make sure that the progress of the carriage remained peaceful, his crew were taking the lead, and keeping their hands on the horses' bridles, and calling out to the mob to stand aside so that they could pick up the prisoners with the carriage.

  The hardest part of picking up the prisoners was the turning of the lavish carriage afterwards, because by then the entire courtyard of the palace was brimming with humanity, every one of them sporting their widest shoulders and their boniest elbows. By this time the guards had left the courtyard to slip inside the palace and were now posted inside every window and door, hoping and praying that the mob would now disperse.

  They needn't have worried. As soon as the six prisoners were safely inside the carriage, John Pym, still in his shackles, climbed up onto the seat beside the carriage driver and called for the football to be passed to him. Passing it to him saved the thing from being thrown through the biggest glass window in the palace.

  With the football under one arm Pym yelled out to the crowd, "You have freed us and we thank you! The apprentices of London have freed parliament from the illegal actions of the king and the archbishop. That deserves a drink and a toast to the bravery of footballers everywhere, for in these times of need and greed it seems that the task of keeping our leaders honest is falling more and more onto the shoulders of footballers."

  The men close enough to hear began to laugh and punch each other's shoulders, and eventually Pym's speech was carried through the mob by word of mouth. For a few moments there was confusion as those nearest the palace turned and tried to move towards the gate, while those outside the gate were still trying to gain the grounds. Eventually however, and in good cheer, the mob of footballers were turned about and with it the carriage and then everyone oozed safely out through the wreckage of the gates. By this time they were not only a joyous mob, but a thirsty one and the many alehouses of Southwark were going to do the grand business of an unexpected holiday on this night.

  With the prisoners now safely within the carriage there was not much room inside for anyone else other than the parliamentarians, so Daniel and his crew and their bows became a rear guard just in case of trickery by the archbishop's captain. The captain and some of his men were following them but did not feel safe getting with hailing distance of the carriage because of the dangerous-looking bowmen, so instead he hailed Daniel.

  "You are a brave man indeed to lead bowmen against muskets,” the captain called out.

  "There were carbines and pistols enough in the carriage to make sure that you would not survive the order to fire your muskets,” Daniel called back. "Your musketeers would have gotten off one shot, and one shot only, before my ten archers shot a hundred arrows back at them. The only thing that would have halted their nocking of arrows would have been the sight of the football players tearing your men from limb from limb."

  "They threatened the queen,” the captain called back. "Someone must swing for that. The king will insist on it."

  "Then hang the effing football."

  Pym stood up on the driver's seat and yelled out so that all around him could hear, "Nay, for the ball was innocent. Tell your king that if he needs someone to swing, then hang his archbishop for causing all of this. No one will avenge Laud, but if he harms any of the footballers who rallied to free us there will be vengeance. I will promise you that."

  The mob hearing the orator's words gave a rallying cry and the captain discretely stopped his horse to allow the sea of moving, laughing heads to stretch the empty road in front of him. Seeing his caution, the drummer twirled on a heel and gave him a drum roll, and then the pounding rhythm that was the military signal to retreat.

  The mob stayed together chanting slogans that would have chilled the archbishop's spine. They stayed close together all the way to Southwark, but then broke off in tens and twenties to either go to their lodgings to tell their masters of the wondrous football victory, or to go to their local alehouse to be bought drinks by those friends who had still been too sober to join the mob when it was being rallied. By the time the carriage approached the vicinity of London Bridge, the carriage and the ship's crew who guarded it were keeping their own company.

  When London Bridge was first sighted, Henry ordered the driver to stop, and then waited until Daniel caught up so everyone could hear him as he said, "My carriage is too fine not to be identified, and London is no longer safe for it, or any man now riding in it. If the guard on London Bridge has been forewarned about what happened in Lambeth, then they will be waiting for us, and they will hold us. I suggest that instead of risking the bridge, that we all make for our country homes. We will be far safer on our own estates where we can organize our own men to defend us, than in our city townhouses."

  Pym, now free of his shackles, called down from the driver's seat, "But our estates are all to the north of the Thames. The next bridge after this one is not until Kingston. By the time we reach there it may also be forewarned."

  "Then we will take the shortest route to Oxford using the southern roads,” Henry replied. "Those that do not wish to travel with me in my carriage are welcome to hire a boat to take them across to London, but take heed that each of our town houses will be watched." He paused to give the others a chance to gauge his invitations. "What about you, Daniel? It was a mistake for you to walk so close to that captain. He knows your face, and he knows that you led the only armed men in the mob. The archbishop could hang you for that."

  "Don't worry about me. My crew were in London because my ship is at the quays. We'll just keep walking along the south bank until we are across from the quays and then hire a boat to take us across. We are Rotterdam bound to collect on an admiral's promise and his navy's debt."

  His words triggered an old dream in Oliver's mind and he called out, "May I travel with you, Daniel? My family expected me to be in London for months, so they will not miss me for another month. I have never been to the Netherlands, and it is time that I saw it for myself."

  "Aye, you can and there will be an oar with your name on it. We can send word to your family on the first ship we meet that is making for the Wash."

  "And I, I will come too,” said Robert, "I have affairs that still need sorting in Rotterdam."

  "Of course, old friend. You are welcome on my ship at any time."

  The two groups of men thus parted with much shaking of hands and patting of backs. Henry and the leaders of the Reform party, the foremost opposition parliamentarians in the kingdom, were heading for Oxford by carriage and from there to their own estates. They were already planning a campaign of pamphlets to spread the word of what Archbishop Laud had tried to do in Lambeth.

  Meanwhile the two unknown backbenchers, Oliver Cromwell and Robert Blake, set out with Daniel on a sea voyage to Rotterdam on the coastal ship, the Freisburn and their adventures together continued.

  * * * * *

  * * * * *

  THE PISTOLEER - HellBurner by Skye Smith Copyright 2013-14

  Chapter 22 - Appendix - FAQ

  The reference material in this Appendix is organized like an FAQ. Here is a list of the questions that are answered below.

  1. Where can I read about the non-fiction events and characters?

  2. How can I tell which characters are historic and which are fictional?

  3. What was a Pistoleer?

  4. What wa
s a Hellburner?

  5. Is Robert Blake a fictional character?

  6. What was a Dragon?

  7. What were the differences in pistols of the era?

  8. What was aqua vitae?

  9. What was the 'Good Old Cause'?

  10. Why is a novel about the Civil War set in the Fens?

  11. How widespread was the practice of enclosure (privatizing for profit) of public land?

  12. Who are the Frisians of the Fens?

  13. What did religion have to do with Stuart politics?

  14. What were the main religious groups of Britain?

  15. Who were the Pilgrims who settled Massachusetts?

  16. Without a sitting parliament, how did the Presbyterians control politics?

  17. What was the First Bishop's War?

  18. Why was the Battle of the Downs fought in English waters?

  19. Why were the Dutch so involved with the Civil War?

  1. Where can I read about the non-fiction events and characters?

  First try "bcw-project.org", the robust and well-organized British Civil War website.

  If you can't find it at BCW then do a keyword search on Google. If a relevant BCW or Wikipedia article is listed, then other articles in the list will also be relevant. If not, then add more keywords and search again.

  2. How can I tell which characters are historic and which are fictional?

  As a rule of thumb, if the character is a Parliamentarian, has a title, or a military rank of captain or above, then they are historic and so are their families. If the character is a member of the Wellenhay clan, or goes unnamed, they are fictional.

  3. What was a Pistoleer?

  Pistoleers were mounted infantry. In the 1600's the infantry were armed with long, heavy, slow-to-load muskets. Muskets were too clumsy to be used by mounted men, so instead they carried a pistol. Since mounted men generally had more money to spend on weapons, the design and craftsmanship of the pistols was far ahead of that of muskets.

  The gunpowder-based battles (mass slaughters) of the Eighty Year Dutch War of Independence proved that heavy cavalry was not cost effective. The full cavalry armour was heavy and expensive and required a large expensive horse to carry it. The main cavalry weapons of lances and sabres had become less and less successful against an evolving infantry which now protected their musketeers from cavalry attacks with eighteen foot long pikes, and the pike square defensive formation.

  Pistoleers rode lighter, cheaper horses, wore only enough armour to protect chest and back, and were more likely to carry a multipurpose axe than a cavalry sabre. Their main weapons were pistols, not lances, although many also carried a carbine ... a short musket. They evolved in the protestant Dutch army because that army was short on cavalry. Historically the cavalrymen of a kingdom's army were recruited from the ranks of the wealthy nobility, however the Netherlands was a republic. The young Dutch nobility either did not answer the call to arms or rode with the armies of the Catholic Hapsburg Empire.

  When mounted, pistoleers had the speed, range, and maneuverability of light cavalry, yet once dismounted they could also fight as infantry. During a large battle they were often kept back as a strategic reserve, but before the battle they would be used as couriers, scouts, and skirmishers. Whereas lancer cavalry were foiled by the long pikes of the infantry, pistoleers were not. Their pistols had enough range to pick off prime targets within a pike square.

  The weakness of the Pistoleers was that normal pistols were single shot, and reloading them on a moving horse was slow work. For this reason a pistoleers carried more than one gun, and one of them would be a Dragon. A Dragon was a blunderbuss pistol ... a scatter gun, the sawed-off shotgun of the era. While a normal pistol was a weapon for a targeted attack on one man, the Dragon was a weapon that could disable a group of men.

  The tactic of using mounted pistoleers armed with pistols, dragons, and carbines as irregulars was formalized into the Harquebusier squads, named after the French word for carbine, 'harquebus'. The harquebusiers became the Cuirassiers in France, the Reiters in Germany and the Dragoons in England. During the British Civil war they were called 'flying squads'.

  4. What was a HellBurner?

  A Hellburner was the ultimate fireship of the 16th century. Most naval battles included the use of fireships, which were light ships loaded with oiled paper, called blankets. They were set alight and then sailed into the enemy fleet, so that their fires would spread, and burn high and hot, and would be difficult to douse. A Hellburner, on the other hand, was the weapon of mass destruction of the era. Its holds were packed with gunpowder, and the gunpowder was encased in stones and brick and rubble and anything else that would contain the explosion before being launched as deadly shrapnel.

  The first recorded use of a Hellburner was in 1585 by its inventor, the Italian artillery engineer Federigo Giambelli. He was on loan from Queen Elizabeth Tudor to the protestant Dutch who were defending Antwerp from a siege by the army of the Catholic Hapsburg Empire. Giambelli created two Hellburners, and then aimed them towards the long floating bridge that the imperial army had created to reach Antwerp. Only one of them reached the bridge, but when it exploded it ripped the bridge and eight hundred soldiers to pieces.

  That one Hellburner fireship was still notorious in 1588 when the Empire assembled an invasion army in Flanders to be taken by a fleet of barges over to England. Spain sent its Armada to Flanders to defend these barges. When an English fleet sent ordinary fireships towards the anchored Armada, the Spanish so feared that they were Hellburners, that they axed their anchor lines and fled out into the Dover Straits. Axing the anchor lines was the beginning of the end of the Armada of 1588 and the end of the threat of a Spanish invasion of England.

  In 1639 a combined Spanish and Portuguese Armada was sent with reinforcements and supplies to the Empire's army in Flanders, but once found by the Dutch navy, they took along the English south coast. At the time, England was officially neutral in the brutal Thirty Years War between protestant Dutch and Germans and the Catholic Empire. The Armada demanded that the gun forts around Deal and the English navy protect them from the Dutch fleet.

  After a few weeks of blockading the Armada, the Dutch fleet sent fireships towards the anchored Armada. Thus began the Battle of the Downs. The Armada's commanders so feared that the fireships might be Hellburners, they axed their anchor lines and set sail, only to be picked off one by one by Admiral Tromp's Dutch fleet.

  5. Is Robert Blake a fictional character?

  The heroism and adventures of Robert Blake are too unbelievable to be fiction. The man went on to become the father of the modern British Navy. Not much is heard of him because, like most republican leaders, his heroism was expunged from history by the royalists after the Stuart regime was reestablished under Charles Two.

  With Blake there is the added problem that no recording has survived about his actions for the fifteen years between graduating from Oxford and winning a seat in the Short Parliament at the age of forty. The Victorians claimed that he was the English factor of the Morocco Company who freed a number of English slaves in Morocco, but since then historians have realized that the factor was a different man with the same name, likely Blake's uncle.

  6. What was a Dragon?

  A dragon was the pistol version of a blunderbuss (from the Dutch donderbuis - thunder pipe). It was a short range, large caliber gun designed to fire multiple shot rather than a single ball - so, the sawed-off shotgun of the era. Early barrels were of brass, so they were not be loaded with debris such as nails for that would soon ruin the barrel. The muzzle was flared, not so much to spread the shot, but to make it easier to load the loose shot.

  Double-barreled dragons were rare. The barrels were usually arranged over-under so that both priming pans and flints could be on the right side of the gun. The under barrel therefore tended to be shorter. Dragons migrated from Holland to England around the time of the Civil War, and quickly became the defensive gun of choice for coach dr
ivers, country squires, and ship's officers, as well as for highwaymen and pirates. The word dragoon for mounted infantry is derived from dragon.

  7. What were the differences in pistols of the era?

  The guns of the 1630's and 40's had the same theory of barrel, whether pistols or muskets. The barrels were single shot and muzzle loaded with loose powder and balls or debris. The barrel had a flash vent that led sideways to a flash pan. Lighting a small amount of powder in the priming pan sent a flash through the vent to the main charge in the barrel. Yes, there were endless combinations of barrel length and bore, but they all worked the same way whether pistol, carbine, musket, or blunderbuss.

  The gauge of the bore was determined by the weight of the largest lead ball that could fit in it. For instance, a 12 gauge was where there were 12 lead balls to a pound. If a ball got stuck in the barrel, the barrel would explode so therefore the actual balls that were fired were smaller, so you would shoot a 14 to the pound ball from a 12 gauge unless your barrel was absolutely clean and true. The smaller ball would rattle and bounce down the barrel and often left the muzzle at an angle to the true aim depending on the last bounce.

  Two things improved the aim, but both slowed down the loading process because the barrel had to be cleaned properly. You could use a tighter fitting ball, and if you were using a tighter ball you could rifle the barrel. Rifling is the spiraling grooves inside a barrel. The spiral spins the ball, and a spinning ball compensates for imperfections in the ball that ruin the aerodynamics. Since slowness of reload was the flaw in muzzle loading guns, the use of smaller balls was the norm.

  The innovation through the years was due to the design of the 'lock', the mechanism that lit the flash pan powder, as well as kept the flash powder intact and dry while waiting to be used. It is no coincidence that lock and clock are similar words, for the best of the locks were sprung loaded, complex, and made by clockmakers. There were three general types of locks, the matchlock, the cocklock, and the wheellock