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Browsing named entities in a specific section of George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 8. Search the whole document.

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Leodium (Belgium) (search for this): chapter 17
s, to write to the free cities and several of the states of the empire, that Great Britain had no more connection with the empire than Russia or Spain, neither of which powers was permitted to recruit within its limits; but she was only required to throw gauze over her design; her contractor was very soon ready with a small instalment of a hundred and fifty men; and promised rapid success when the enterprise should get a little better into train. Moreover the Chap. LVII.} prince bishop of Liege and the elector of Cologne consented to shut their eyes to the presence of English agents, who also had recruiting stations in Neuwied and at Frankfort. The undertaking was prohibited by the laws of nations and of the empire; the British ministers therefore instructed their diplomatic representative at the small courts to give all possible aid to the execution of the service, but not officially to implicate his government. In this way thousands of levies were obtained to fill up British re
Hannover (Lower Saxony, Germany) (search for this): chapter 17
ster of George the Third, receiving with her a dowry of eighty thousand pounds beside an annuity of eight thousand more, chargeable on the revenues of Ireland and Hanover. His education had been in part confided to Jerusalem, a clergyman who neither had the old fashioned faith, nor the modern want of it; and his governor had been three corps of artillery, taking care for every addition to make a corresponding increase in the double subsidy. To escape impressment, his subjects fled into Hanover; King George, who was also elector of Hanover, was therefore called upon to discourage the elopement of Hessian subjects into that country, when the demand for meHanover, was therefore called upon to discourage the elopement of Hessian subjects into that country, when the demand for men to enable the landgrave to fulfil his engagement with Great Britain was so pressing. It was also thought essential to march the troops through the Electorate to their place of embarkation, for it was not doubted, if the Hessians were to march along the left bank of the Weser, through the territories of Prussia and perhaps half
Poland (Poland) (search for this): chapter 17
nst their rulers; the sentiment of patriotism was merged in the obedience of the soldier, who learned that he had a master, but not that he had a country; and electors and landgraves and reigning dukes assumed the right of engaging in wars for their personal profit, and hiring out their troops according to their own pleasure. The custom became so general that, for the gain of their princes, and pay and plunder for themselves, German troops were engaged in every great contest that raged from Poland to Lisbon, from the North Sea to Naples; and were sometimes arrayed in the same battle on opposite sides. At peace the disbanded supernumeraries lounged about the land, forming an unemployed body, from which the hope of high wages and booty could at any time raise up armed bands. So soon as it became known that the king of England, unable to supply the losses in his regiments by enlistments within his own realm, desired to draw recruits from Germany, crowds of adventurers, eager to prof
The Hague (Netherlands) (search for this): chapter 17
troops. November, 1775—February, 1776. had the king employed none but British troops, Chap. LVII.} the war by land against the colonies must have been of short duration. His army was largely recruited from American loyalists; from emigrants driven to America by want, and too recently arrived to be imbued with its principles; from Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland; and from Germany. Treaties were also made for subsidiary troops. When Sir Joseph Yorke, the British ambassador at the Hague, proposed the transfer of a brigade from the service of the Netherlands to that of his sovereign, the young stadtholder wrote directly to his cousin the king of England, to decline what was desired. He received a reply, renewing and urging the request. In 1599 the Low Countries pledged to Queen Elizabeth, as security for a loan, three important fortresses which she garrisoned with her own troops; in 1616 the Dutch discharged the debt, and the garrisons were withdrawn from the cautionary
Scotland (United Kingdom) (search for this): chapter 17
gainst the colonies must have been of short duration. His army was largely recruited from American loyalists; from emigrants driven to America by want, and too recently arrived to be imbued with its principles; from Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland; and from Germany. Treaties were also made for subsidiary troops. When Sir Joseph Yorke, the British ambassador at the Hague, proposed the transfer of a brigade from the service of the Netherlands to that of his sovereign, the young stadthol the garrisons were withdrawn from the cautionary Chap. LVII.} towns except an English and a Scottish brigade, which passed into the service of the confederacy. William the Third recalled the former; and in 1749 the privilege of recruiting in Scotland was withdrawn from the latter, of which the rank and file, now consisting of more than twenty one hundred men, were of all nations, though its officers were still Scotchmen or their descendants. In favor of the loan of the troops, it was urged,
Suffolk (United Kingdom) (search for this): chapter 17
disposed, could supply at least three thousand men, and the landgrave of Hesse Cassel five thousand; in November, 1775, Suffolk thus instructed Colonel Faucitt, the British agent: Your point is to get as many as you can; I own to you my own hopes ayielding to all the exactions of the landgrave, was their eagerness to obtain the troops early in February. Often, wrote Suffolk, as I have urged expedition, I must repeat it once more, nothing is so much to be guarded against as delay, which will mn additional special subsidy. Professing ostensibly to give an absolute refusal, lest he should wake up similar claims, Suffolk in fact prepared to grant the demand, or some equivalent, under an injunction of the most absolute secrecy. The prince'soldiers of his regiment might be animated with an attachment and zeal like his own; and attempting English, he wrote to Suffolk: May the end they shall fight for, answer to the king's upper Chap. LVII.} contentment, and your laudable endeavors, m
Kassel (Hesse, Germany) (search for this): chapter 17
edding furnished by the contractors was infamously scanty, their thin pillows being seven inches by five at most, and mattress, pillow, blanket, and rug, altogether hardly weighing seven pounds. The clothing of the Brunswick troops was old, and only patched up for the present; the person who executed the commission for purchasing new shoes for them in England, sent fine thin dancing pumps, and of these the greatest number were too small for use. The treaty with the hereditary prince of Hesse Cassel, who was the ruler over Hanau, met with no obstacle. His eagerness and zeal were not to be described; he went in person round the different bailiwicks to choose the recruits that were wanted; and he accompanied his regiment as far as Frankfort on their way to Helvoetsluys. Conscious of the merit of all this devotion, he pressed for an additional special subsidy. Professing ostensibly to give an absolute refusal, lest he should wake up similar claims, Suffolk in fact prepared to grant t
Quebec (Canada) (search for this): chapter 17
ted advantage. The landgrave freely consented that thirteen battalions should be prepared to march on the fifteenth of February; but so inefficient was the British ministry, so imperfect their concert, that though delay involved the loss of a campaign, the admiralty did not provide transports enough at the time appointed, and even in March could not tell when they would all be ready. The first detachment from Brunswick did not sail from England till the fourth of April, and Riedesel was at Quebec before the last were embarked; the first division of the Hessians did Chap. LVII.} clear the British channel till the tenth of May. The transports were also very badly fitted up; the bedding furnished by the contractors was infamously scanty, their thin pillows being seven inches by five at most, and mattress, pillow, blanket, and rug, altogether hardly weighing seven pounds. The clothing of the Brunswick troops was old, and only patched up for the present; the person who executed the c
Aach (Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) (search for this): chapter 17
Chap. LVII.} quence, two of the battalions destined for the British service were a regular force; the rest, in disregard of promises, were eked out by undisciplined levies, old men, raw boys, and recruits kidnapped out of remote countries. It is just to inquire if conduct like that of Ferdinand was followed by a happy life and an honorable death. His oldest son died two years before him; his two other sons were idiotic and blind; his oldest daughter was married to the brutal prince of Wurtemberg, and perished in 1788. The same intimate relations, which led George the Third to begin the purchase of mercenary troops with his brother-in-law, made him select Ferdinand's younger daughter Caroline,—a woman brought up in the lewd atmosphere of her father's palace, accustomed to the company of his mistresses, and environed by licentiousness from her childhood,—to become, at the ripe age of twenty seven, the wife of the prince of Wales, and eventually a queen of Great Britain. As to the
Geneva (Switzerland) (search for this): chapter 17
e married again, but lived with his second consort on no better terms than with his first. The landgrave had been scrupulously educated in the reformed church, of which the house of Hesse had ever proudly regarded itself as a bulwark; but he piqued himself on having disburdened his mind of the prejudices of the vulgar; sought to win Voltaire's esteem by doubting various narratives in the Bible; and scoffed alike at the Old Testament and the New. In his view, Calvinism had died out even in Geneva; and Luther, though commendable for having loved wine and women, was but an ordinary man; he therefore turned Catholic in 1749, from dislike to the plebeian simplicity of the established worship of his people. He had learnt to favor toleration, to abolish the use of torture, and to make capital punishments exceedingly rare; at the same time he was the coarse representative of the worst licentiousness of his age; fond of splendor and luxurious living; parading his vices publicly, with shamel
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