On 18 January 1722 a soldier named Gil Hallfaste died in the remote Aragonese town of Estadilla. He was stated to belong to the Company led by ‘Don Bernardo Macsuini’ (Bernard MacSweeney) in the 1st Batallion of the Hibernia Regiment. The burial record states that the deceased soldier was about 50 years old, a Flemish…
Life after combat has never been easy for the wounded warrior and is not today either, as some of the stories of young men returning from Iraq or Helmand Province show us only too well. But next Remembrance Day (or Veterans Day, if you’re in the US) spare a thought for Captain Juan Meyer. On…
Some references to Flemish soldiers in 18th century Zaragoza, in belated tribute to Belgium having at last established a new government.The diocesan register of marriage licence applications for the year 1730 includes a well-travelled scrap of paper pertaining to a well-travelled man-at-arms. Headed ‘Extractum ex Registro Baptismali Exemptae Cathedralis Ecclesiae Sancti Bavonis’ it transcribes the…