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| - Very little is known of Stefan's career, however he was mentioned as a gentleman of Moravia, and subject of Bohemia, in a letter from the Regent of the Netherlands to Henry VIII in 1544. He spoke in Polish to sailors of a fleet of Charles V in 1539. He seems to have first offered his services as armourer and architect to Henry VIII in 1535; giving a note to the Duke of Suffolk to pass to Thomas Cromwell and the King. Stefan was part of the design team for the device forts at Sandgate and Camber Castles, and the gun emplacements made of earth on the Downs. In November 1540 he went to the Pale of Calais. The French ambassador in London, Charles de Marillac, heard of this and reported to Francis I of France that the 'German' engineer had gone to design new bulwarks. Stefan 'the Almain' crosse
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| - Very little is known of Stefan's career, however he was mentioned as a gentleman of Moravia, and subject of Bohemia, in a letter from the Regent of the Netherlands to Henry VIII in 1544. He spoke in Polish to sailors of a fleet of Charles V in 1539. He seems to have first offered his services as armourer and architect to Henry VIII in 1535; giving a note to the Duke of Suffolk to pass to Thomas Cromwell and the King. Stefan was part of the design team for the device forts at Sandgate and Camber Castles, and the gun emplacements made of earth on the Downs. In November 1540 he went to the Pale of Calais. The French ambassador in London, Charles de Marillac, heard of this and reported to Francis I of France that the 'German' engineer had gone to design new bulwarks. Stefan 'the Almain' crossed the border into Ardres for a day to spy out the French fortification there for Henry VIII. However, "Stefan the Almain" was not completely trusted by the Privy Council, who instructed Henry FitzAlan, the Deputy of Calais, that "in no wise they should suffer him to view the town of Calais or to see the secrets of the same." In 1541, Stefan was directing work on new fortifications at Carlisle, and after a dispute with Thomas Gower, he was promoted to sole surveyor of the works. He was sacked by the Privy Council two years later for having, "lewdlye behaved himself," and spent a great treasure to no purpose. Stefan may have been the military engineer mentioned by Eustace Chapuys as returning to the Scottish border in January 1542 after having planned and commenced a line of defences. On 17 July 1543 Stefan came before the Privy Council at Oatlands Palace and was reminded of his promise to make recompense for any faults. Stefan then went abroad. On 20 August 1544 Stefan contacted the English ambassador in Brussels, Sir Edward Carne. He offered information on Scottish recruiters who were looking for military experts for the war with England. Stefan said the Scots had made an offer to the uncle of Hans, a German plumber working at Hull, and he hoped Carne would write to Henry VIII in his favour if he found out more. Stefan then went to Antwerp and Lübeck, and wrote to Henry VIII in 1545, asking for his old job back. He suggested a scheme for bringing fresh water to Nonsuch Palace. The last letter included a woodcut picture of a coin; and another of a combined horse and windmill, titled, Eine wunderlicte roswintmulle, Emden, 1545. Stefan offered new chemical discoveries and the design of a water pumping mill;
* the secret of smelting tin and lead ore with coal rather than charcoal,
* making Roman vitriol, used in the manufacture of black cloth, in England,
* making saltpetre in one place without fetching ingredients,
* an art unknown to Vitruvius, Archimedes, and Ctesibius, a horse driven water pumping mill, a marvel fit for 'Non-Such' Palace. Stefan said he would have tried out the last idea at at his own house in England. He probably meant St Thomas's Mills at Stratford, London, which Henry had given him, then taken away in 1544. Stefan seems not to have found work, but he did come back to England. On 9 January 1547, the Imperial ambassador in London, François van der Delft, wrote to Mary of Austria to ask what he should do about Haschenperg. Stefan and his wife had come to London thinking that Mary's letters would get his job back. Van der Delft suggested he should not intercede between Henry VIII and his servant. Stefan then became a steward of Jan Dubravius, Bishop of Olmütz, in Bohemia. Despite the circumstances of Stefan's dismissal from English royal service, and the shortcomings of some his buildings, B. H. St. J. O'Neil found it likely that his presence in the royal works account for some of features of the Henrician forts that correspond most closely to models proposed by Albrecht Dürer.
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