Stefan von Haschenperg Stefan von Haschenperg was a military engineer employed by Henry VIII of England in the 1540s . Career . 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 Castle s , 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 ; 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 . Works . At Camber , Stefan appears in the accounts for the second phase of work in 1539 and 1540 as a frequent visitor ; ' Master Stevyn the devysour . ' There was accommodation for him on site in the ' Devisour ' s Chamber . ' In these works Haschenperg used flammable pitch to seal basement floors and even some of the roofs . His additions were quickly altered by subsequent works ; however Martin Biddle characterised his work as , ' horrifyingly over - complex in its internal circulation , the result presumably of a wish to divide the castle into self - contained sectors in the event of enemy penetration , ' and added that Camber phase II and Sandgate are naive in comparison with Walmer , Sandown , and Deal Castle s . Haschenperg constructed the earthen gun emplacements on the Downs between the latter castles . Stefan worked at Sandgate Castle at the same time as Camber , and signed the accounts , though he was not always present . Haschenperg disagreed with other officials over the roofing materials . Stefan preferred tar and pitch rather than less flammable lead . In November 1540 Stefan was sent to help site artillery emplacements in the Calais marshes . As a foreigner he was not wholly trusted and his colleagues were asked not to let him view the secrets of the town . Stefan produced a map and subsequently six bulwarks were built as part of a larger project devised by Henry VIII . They were called ; " Hooke ' s " , " Crabbar ' s " , " Bootes " , " Ballingham " , and " Andren " bulwarks . Stefan joined the work at Carlisle on 4 June 1541 in joint authority with Thomas Gower . He immediately complained to the Privy Council about the mismanagement of the works and the behaviour of Sir Thomas Wentworth , Captain of the Castle . The Council found for Stefan , and Gower was sent to Berwick . Over the next year and a half , £5000 was spent . Stefan lowered and strengthened the old castle keep to make it an artillery platform . New work included the half - moon battery which covered the inner bailey , and two small bulwarks or caponier s in the outer moat . Then the medieval Botcher gate in the town wall was replaced by the fortress called Carlisle Citadel . On 1 December 1542 , Stefan was called to London and asked to bring the plans of next year ' s works . At the same time , Thomas Wharton and the Bishop of Carlisle were asked to view and report on his proceedings at Carlisle . With accusations of mismanagement , before these works were completed , on 17 July 1543 the Privy Council recalled his promise to recompense the king for any wasted resources and asked him to make sureties for payment ; " Steven , Allemaigne , having hadde charge long tyme off certeyne off the Kinges Highnes ' buyldinges and fortifications , for as muche as itt appered he hadde lewedlye behaved himselff in the sayde charge , and hadde spent the King a great tresour , and all to no purpose , . . . was this day called before the Cownsell . By 17 November 1543 , the Privy council ordered that Stefan was to be replaced by John Rogers and a new Clerk of works . His English career was over . Stefan ' s design for the citadel at Carlisle was criticized by Francis Knollys in June 1569 . He thought its three artillery platforms were vulnerable to attack because " it flanketh not itselffe very well , . . . , and the cownter skarffe serveth to cover the approach of the enemies . " The platforms for mounting the guns were made of timber and decayed , so Knollys suggested filling the masonry walls with earth . The scrap value of the lead recovered from the platform would leave a profit of £200 .