Henry Gage (soldier)
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Sir Henry Gage |
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Portrait by John Weesop
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| Born |
29 August 1597 Haling, Surrey |
| Died | 11 January 1645 (aged 47) Oxford |
| Buried | Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford |
| Service/branch | Army of Flanders; Royalist Army |
| Years of service | 1619–1625, 1630–1644; 1644–1645 |
| Rank | Colonel |
| Commands held | Governor of Oxford |
| Battles/wars | Siege of Bergen-op-Zoom (1622), Siege of Breda (1624), Siege of Saint-Omer (1638), Siege of Basing House (1644) |
| Awards | knighted |
| Spouse(s) | Mary Daniel |
| Relations | Thomas Gage (clergyman) |
Sir Henry Gage (29 August 1597 – 11 January 1645) was a Royalist officer in the English Civil War.
Gage was born at Haling, in Surrey, the son of John Gage and Margaret Copley. The family were Catholic and long intermarried with other prominent Catholic families, including that of Sir Thomas More, the former Lord Chancellor.
At the age of twelve Henry was sent abroad for a Catholic education at the English Jesuit College in St Omer, where he was a student from 1609 to 1614. After spending three years at the English College, Rome, from 1615 to 1618, Gage decided the priesthood was not for him. At the age of 22 he became a professional soldier in the Army of Flanders.
In 1619 Gage enlisted as a gentleman pikeman in the Army of Flanders and initially served in the garrison of Antwerp. In 1622 he obtained a commission as captain of a company in the regiment of the Earl of Argyll. He distinguished himself during the Siege of Bergen-op-Zoom (1622) and the Siege of Breda (1624). In 1625 he was serving as captain in Sir Edward Parham's regiment, but during the Anglo-Spanish War (1625–30) he returned to England rather than serve against his native country. During these years his translation of Herman Hugo's Obsidio Bredana, a Latin account of the Siege of Breda, was published in Ghent by Judocus Dooms under the title The Siege of Breda.
After 1630 he raised 900 men and returned to Flanders as colonel of his own regiment. He played an important role in breaking the French Siege of Saint-Omer (1638).
He was known for his ability and was described by Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, as "a man of great wisdom and temper, and one among the very few soldiers who made himself universally loved and esteemed". He was also noted for his piety (he attended Mass daily) and in the later years in the Low Countries and in England had as his chaplain the Jesuit Peter Wright, later to be sentenced to death on the evidence of Henry's own brother Thomas Gage, an ex-Catholic renegade. In 1630 Gage was given the rank of Captain-commandant of the English regiment in the service of Spain.
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