Hercules Huncks
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Hercules Huncks was a colonel in
New Model Army The New Model Army or New Modelled Army was a standing army formed in 1645 by the Parliamentarians during the First English Civil War, then disbanded after the Stuart Restoration in 1660. It differed from other armies employed in the 1639 t ...
of Parliament during the
Wars of the Three Kingdoms The Wars of the Three Kingdoms were a series of conflicts fought between 1639 and 1653 in the kingdoms of Kingdom of England, England, Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland and Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland, then separate entities in a personal union un ...
. He was one of the king's guards at the execution of King
Charles I of England Charles I (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649) was King of Kingdom of England, England, Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland, and Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland from 27 March 1625 until Execution of Charles I, his execution in 1649. Charles was born ...
and is sometimes listed as one of his
regicides Regicide is the purposeful killing of a monarch or sovereign of a polity and is often associated with the usurpation of power. A regicide can also be the person responsible for the killing. The word comes from the Latin roots of ''regis'' ...
. However, he was not one of the king's judges, nor did he sign the king's death warrant; he was granted a pardon for his involvement in the execution. His military action in the war took place largely in Ireland.


Family

Hercules Huncks was born to an
armigerous In heraldry, an armiger is a (natural or juridical) person entitled to use a heraldic achievement (e.g., bear arms, an "armour-bearer") either by hereditary right, grant, matriculation, or assumption of arms. Such a person is said to be armig ...
family that traced its origins back to the 14th century in Gloucestershire, at Radbrooke. His father Thomas had inherited the manor of
Preston on Stour Preston on Stour is a village and civil parish in Warwickshire, England. History It is situated some four kilometres south of the town of Stratford-upon-Avon. The population of the civil parish as at the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 census w ...
(then in Gloucestershire) from his own grandfather, but in 1594, under financial difficulties, sold it. Thomas's wife was Katherine Conway, sister of Edward Conway, 1st Viscount Conway, Secretary of State in 1625, and it was through the connection with the Conways that the family retained any influence. The second Viscount Conway referred to Hercules as "Cousin Huncks".Hill, George. ''The Montgomery Manuscripts'', p. 252, note # 43
Montgomery
/ref> Thomas Huncks served under Edward Conway as a soldier for the Dutch States-General, for which he was knighted (as Hunckes) in 1605. At least two of his sons were also knighted - Sir Henry Huncks, sometime Governor of Barbados, and Sir Fulke Huncks - both colonels in the Royalist forces of Charles I. The sons had little choice but military careers, as Thomas Huncks could not afford to advance them in any other profession. In 1616, he wrote his brother-in-law Edward Conway that he could not afford to support his son Foulke outside a career as a soldier. Hercules, the fifth and youngest son, was baptised on 28 April 1601 at
Stratford-upon-Avon Stratford-upon-Avon ( ), commonly known as Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon (district), Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands region of Engl ...
. He married twice: first (as Hercules Honcksz ) in the Netherlands at Utrecht on 1 January 1630 to Elizabeth Boudeloot, and secondly in London to Frances Blundell, widow of Christopher Phillips, licence issued 10 May 1637. This marriage produced twin children - Edward and Levina - baptised at
St Martin-in-the-Fields St Martin-in-the-Fields is a Church of England parish church at the north-east corner of Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, London. Dedicated to Saint Martin of Tours, there has been a church on the site since at least the medieval pe ...
on 15 December 1641.


Soldier

The record of his 1630 marriage in the Netherlands indicates that by that time he had followed his father into the Dutch service as a soldier during the Wars of the Low Countries. In 1633 he was definitely in the service of the States of the United Provinces, as on 20 March 1633, his nephew "Joseph Archibald" (Archbold - son of his sister Elinor Archbold) was issued a pass to visit him in Holland. Huncks returned to the service of King Charles I during the
Bishops' Wars The Bishops' Wars were two separate conflicts fought in 1639 and 1640 between Scotland and England, with Scottish Royalists allied to England. They were the first of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, which also include the First and Second En ...
against Scotland of 1639-1640. In June 1640 "Captain Hercules Hunks" was under the command of the Earl of Northumberland in His Majesty's army, taking delivery of 100 men of Lincolnshire impressed for military service. However, he later became "one who had opposed with more than ordinary vehemence all those who were for the king." By August 1644, in the midst of the
Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...
between the king and Parliament, Parliament's Captain Huncks was a prisoner of war at Belvoir Castle, where he was exchanged for a Royalist officer. On 7 June 1647, Colonel Michael Jones landed in Ireland to take the island for Parliament, and Hercules Huncks was part of his army, as on 13 October 1648 his wife Frances was petitioning to receive his arrears of pay "from his service in Ireland, whither he has again returned to spend his dear blood for the good of that kingdom, while she has nothing left meantime for the maintenance of herself and her children." He had by that time been raised to the rank of colonel, and was appointed governor of Londonderry, replacing Lord Foliot.


Execution of King Charles I

In January 1648/9, following the
Trial of Charles I The trial of Charles I was a significant event in English history that took place in January 1649, marking the first time a reigning monarch was tried and executed by his own subjects. Following years of conflict during the English Civil War, ...
, Colonel Huncks, with Francis Hacker and Robert Phayre, was one of the senior army officers delegated to supervise and carry out the king's execution, and the king's
death warrant An execution warrant (also called a death warrant or a black warrant) is a writ that authorizes the execution of a condemned person. United States In the United States, either a judicial or executive official designated by law issues an ...
was addressed to those three officers. However,
Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English statesman, politician and soldier, widely regarded as one of the most important figures in British history. He came to prominence during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, initially ...
decided that an additional warrant explicitly addressed to the executioner was necessary and ordered Huncks to write and sign it. He refused. According to Hunck's own testimony at the trial of his fellow-officer
Daniel Axtell Colonel Daniel Axtell, baptised 26 May 1622, executed 19 October 1660, was a religious radical from Hertfordshire, who served with the Parliamentarian army during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. He was in charge of security during the trial of C ...
, Cromwell called him a "froward, peevish fellow" and wrote out the warrant himself. Finch, Heneage. ''The Indictment, Arraignment, Tryal, and Judgment, at large of twenty-nine Regicides'', pp. 143–144. 1739
Finch
/ref>


Irish Conquest

Following the execution of the king, Parliament moved to send the army to complete the conquest of Ireland, offering allotments of confiscated Irish lands to settle the pay of the English soldiers, which were greatly in arrears. Cromwell accepted command of this expeditionary force on 30 March 1649. Colonel Huncks was in the vanguard of the force, commanding both a regiment of foot and a regiment of horse. Two of his companies were sent in advance to reinforce Londonderry in July, and the rest sailed with the main body of the army to Dublin, where the regiments of the vanguard, including Huncks', joined the forces of Parliamentary governor Colonel Jones for the decisive victory of the
Battle of Rathmines The Battle of Rathmines was fought on 2 August 1649, near the modern Dublin suburb of Rathmines. Part of the Irish Confederate Wars, an associated conflict of 1638 to 1651 Wars of the Three Kingdoms, it has been described as the 'decisive battl ...
on 2 August 1649. Following the conquest, Huncks did receive a land grant, o
Monkstown Castle Cork
which he sold, and by 1651 he was appointed Governor of Derry.


Restoration

On 15 October 1661, following the
restoration of the monarchy Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state. This may refer to: *Conservation and restoration of cultural property **Audio restoration **Conservation and restoration of immovable cultural property **Film restoration ** Image ...
, those persons deemed guilty of the former king's death were tried for treason. Huncks testified at the trial of Axtell, formerly his colleague as a guard of the king, that Axtell had urged him to sign the warrant to the king's executioner, which he had refused to do: "The ship is now coming into the harbor, will you strike sail before we come to anchor?" Both Axtell and Francis Hacker, who had signed the order to the executioner, were executed. On 17 January 1661, a pardon was issued to Hercules Huncks:
Sir Geoffrey Palmer, Attorney-General, and Sir Heneage Finch, Solicitor-General, in their report on his petition consider him a penitent person and hope well of him in the future. He shall have the benefit of our Declaration in relation to his arrears and lands, notwithstanding a clause therein which excepts from its benefits all who were 'of the guard of halberdiers assisting to put the bloody sentence of death in execution upon the 30th January, 1648'


Peace

He returned to Ireland, where he resided at
Lisburn Lisburn ( ; ) is a city in Northern Ireland. It is southwest of Belfast city centre, on the River Lagan, which forms the boundary between County Antrim and County Down. First laid out in the 17th century by English and Welsh settlers, with t ...
in Ulster, the seat of his Rawdon kinsmen, close connections of the Conways, who had been granted extensive lands in the area, from which they took the title Viscount Killultagh. His daughter Levina married Hugh Montgomery of
Ballylesson Ballylesson () is a small village and townland in County Down, Northern Ireland. In the 2001 Census it had a population of 108 people. The village lies within the Lagan Valley Regional Park and the Lisburn City Council area. Places of interes ...
in County Down; they had a son Hercules Montgomery. Hercules Huncks died at Lisburn in 1676. Administration of his estate was granted in 1676 at Lisburn, Ireland.Administration: Ireland, Abstracts of Wills and Marriages Ancestry U
Ancestry UK
/ref>


Notes


Sources

* Finch, Heneage. The Indictment, Arraignment, Tryal, and Judgment, at large of twenty-nine Regicides. 1739. * Gardiner, Samuel R. History Of The Great Civil War Vol. 4 (1647–1649) London: Longman, Green & CO., 1905. * Gardiner, Samuel Rawson. History of the commonwealth and protectorate, 1649-1656. New York : AMS Press, 1965. * Ludlow, Edmund. ''Memoirs'', vol. 2. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1894. C D Firth, ed. * Manganiello, Stephen C. ''The Concise Encyclopedia of the Revolutions and Wars of England, Scotland, and Ireland, 1639-1660'', Scarecrow Press 2004, * McNally, Michael. "Ireland 1649-52: Cromwell's Protestant Crusade (campaign) DF Osprey, 2009. {{DEFAULTSORT:Huncks, Hercules 1601 births Roundheads New Model Army Wars of the Three Kingdoms Regicides of Charles I Recipients of English royal pardons 1676 deaths