Diderich Beckman - Our Incomparable Engineer: The fortifications of Oxford, Malmesbury and the fall of Hillesden House in the English Civil War 1643 -1646.

A detailed study of fortifications in the English Civil War, revealing design debates behind Oxford’s defenses and the defenses of Hillesden and Malmesbury.

Our Incomparable Engineer is a biography of the Swedish military engineer, Diderich Beckman; it explores the contentious issue of who designed the defences of Oxford, previously attributed to Bernard de Gomme and others, and examines the defences of Hillesden House and the town of Malmesbury during the Civil War.

Oxford was the Royalist capital during the First Civil War and the most vital strategic Royalist stronghold. It was not closely besieged until just before its surrender on the King’s orders. Previously, it was threatened twice, but the Parliamentary commanders recognised that its defences were too strong to attack without significant casualties.

The defence and fall of Hillesden House (to Oliver Cromwell) has been a subject of much debate for many years. The author addresses this debate and provides a cogent explanation of what happened.

The strategically important town of Malmesbury was besieged and captured no less than four times. Just before the fourth siege, Beckman was sent to design defences to augment an already very defensible site. The redoubtable Parliamentary Colonel Massey captured the town before the defences were complete.

Our Incomparable Engineer, drawing on many years of research using both Swedish and English archives, will appeal to those interested in the English Civil War and fortifications.

Paul Beckmann is a practising Landscape Architect with many years’ experience, particularly in drawing by hand, which gives him a very particular insight into historic maps and plans, especially terrain. As a member of the Fortress Study Group and a Landscape Architect, he approaches the subject of the defences and their design in a perhaps more pragmatic way than many previous academics have done. Paul has written a number of articles published in FORT the journal of the Fortress Study Group, as well as in other journals. He is currently writing the biography of Sir Martin Beckman, the more famous half-brother of Diderich Beckman.