Fortress Builder Bernard de Gomme, Charles II's Military Engineer

This is the first study dedicated to the military engineer Bernard de Gomme, builder of many English citadels and forts. Very heavily illustrated and produced in a large format, it includes reproductions of many of de Gomme's original plans and drawings. Bernard de Gomme started his English career when Prince Rupert recruited him as a fortifications expert at the beginning of the English Civil War. After the Restoration, he became Surveyor-General of the Ordnance Office. Though Dutch in origin, he was the contemporory equivalent of Louis XIV's great engineer Vauban. De Gomme personifies the development of English military engineering during the late seventeenth century, at a time when bastioned fortification in Europe was at its most sophisticated. De Gomme's life and work are the central elements of the book, but the book also provides an education in seventeenth-century military fortification theory and practice.

Andrew Saunders is an authority in the field of military architecture, both of early medieval castles and later artillery fortifications, in which he acquired an international reputation. His other books include “Fortress Britain: Artillery Fortification in the British Isles and Ireland” (1989); “Exploring England’s Heritage: Devon and Cornwall” (1991); “The English Heritage Book of Channel Defenses” (1997); and numerous official guide books to castles and fortifications.