In the early summer of 1644 both the Earl of Essex and Sir
William Waller’s armies had been closing in on the King’s Oxford
army.....
| 3 June |
Charles leaves Oxford and headed off via Woodstock towards Worcester. Essex & Waller follow. |
| 5 June |
Essex & Waller are at Chipping Norton and Stow-on-the-Wold respectively. They then divide; Waller follows the King whilst Essex sets off for Lyme in Dorset. Lyme was being besieged by Prince Maurice and had requested help. Essex heads south through Wiltshire, evicts a cavalry regiment out of Salisbury and heads for Blandford, Dorset. |
| 15 June |
Parliament, not happy with Essex's actions and try to recall him. As Lord General of Parliament's forces, Essex manages to change their minds. |
| 14 June |
Essex reaches Blandford. On hearing this, Prince Maurice abandoned the siege of Lyme and retreated to Exeter. Essex then took over Dorchester and Weymouth surrendered. As objective of relieving Lyme had been achieved. What to do now? At Weymouth, the Admiral of Parliaments navy; the Earl of Warwick, persuaded Essex to press on and relieve Plymouth which was under siege by Sir Richard Grenville. Essex agreed, especially as Warwick said that men would “flock in from all parts to our body”.
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| 3 July |
Essex reaches Tiverton. He waits there whilst 3 foot & 2 horse regiments go to enter Barnstaple and to wait for money & supplies. £20,000 and 2000 pairs of shoes arrive, along with the news that Waller had been defeated by the King at the battle of Cropredy Bridge. |
| 23 July |
Essex arrives at Plymouth, this has the desired effect and Grenville abandons Plymouth and retreats into Cornwall |
So far so good, but now things begin to go wrong. Cornwall had been staunchly Royalist, but Essex is persuaded by Lord Robartes and others to follow Grenville into Cornwall to destroy the Cornish army (which had fought so well in 1643) and to take control of the tin mines which were useful revenue for the King. Robartes (who had large estates in Cornwall and no doubt had a vested interest) also says that large numbers of Cornishmen would enlist for Parliament if the Royalists were defeated. What he bases this on is unclear as Cornwall had been a staunch Royalist county up until then (and as subsequent events would show, still was).
| 26 July |
Essex takes what would be a fateful step and crosses the River Tamar, the border between Devon & Cornwall. Grenvilles forces were pushed back but then news arrives that the King, fresh from his victory over Waller, is marching to link up with Prince Maurice (who you will recall had retired on Exeter) thus threatening Essex’s rear and his lines of communication & supply. Essex reaches Launceston at the same time as Charles & Maurice link up at Exeter. |
| 29 July |
Essex reaches Bodmin and sends a detachment to take the port of Fowey (pronounced Foy) in order to maintain contact with Warwick's ships. He sends to Parliament to ask Waller to fall on the Kings rear, but after the defeat at Cropredy Bridge all Waller could manage to send were some cavalry who only got as far as Somerset. Essex was now in hostile country, he has Grenville's forces in front of him and his own troops were already being harried from behind by the advance guard of Charles & Maurice's forces. |
| 2 Aug |
Essex moves south to Lostwithiel, the navy now his only contact with Parliament and supplies, his cattle had been driven off by the locals. |
| 4 Aug |
A large Royalist attack takes place and Essex loses several experienced senior officers including a Colonel and Lieutenant-Colonel from his own (and our!) regiment. |
| 6 Aug |
The King sends Essex a letter demanding his surrender. He does not reply. |
| 8 Aug |
Charles repeats his demands. |
| 10 Aug |
Essex replies declining to surrender. The situation was now grave though, he is trapped with the sea at his back and on a piece of land between the River Fowey and St Austell bay, and facing 3 opposing forces; the King, Prince Maurice & Sir Richard Grenville. To make matters worse the weather turns nasty with heavy rain and fog. Parliament had sent supplies and another £20,000 but because of the weather the ships could not bring either to Essex. |
| 17 Aug |
After days of a stand off between the two sides, deserters inform the Royalists that supplies & morale were low. Defenders from Colonel Weare’s regiment at Restormel Castle (above Lostwithiel) gave up the castle without a fight, which forces Essex back even closer to the sea. The only hope for Essex now was rescue by sea, but the wind is constantly blowing from the west and Warwick's ships simply could not get in. |
| 30 Aug |
It is decided that the cavalry should try & break out through the Royalist lines. This they did very well and 2,000 troops successfully made it intact back over the Tamar to Plymouth, and so men and horses live to fight another day. Not so the poor foot soldiers who in the rain and mud move the guns and wagons to Castle Dore (an iron age fort) which, it is decided, was the place to make a last stand. The Royalists launch an attack (the battle of Castle Dore), which is successfully repulsed by Parliament, but more of Colonel Weare’s men give up, and it is decided that surrender was now the only realistic option. |
| 1 Sept |
The Earl of Essex, Lord Robartes and other senior staff escape in a fishing boat to Plymouth. Essex later remarked, “Nothing but fear of slavery and to be triumphed on, should have made us gone”. Sergeant-Major General Phillip Skippon is left in charge to negotiate with the King. Skippon is made of stern stuff and wants to fight his way out but others prevail and a parley is called to discuss terms. These are agreed as follows:
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| 2 Sept |
The Earl of Essex's army marches out through the Royalist lines leaving behind 42 cannon, 1 mortar and all their pikes, swords and muskets. The King rides about the jeering Royalist lines to ensure that the officers keep their men under control and not plunder the Parliament soldiers, but to no avail. |
| 3 Sept |
From Plymouth, Essex writes to Parliament that Lostwithiel was “the greatest blow ever befell our party” |
The soldiers who surrendered are treated extremely badly by the vengeful Royalists as Richard Symonds of the Kings Lifeguard of Horse notes in his diary:
“They all, except here and there an officer (and seriously I saw not more than three or four that looked kike a gentleman) were stricken with such a dismal fear, that as soon as their colour of the regiment was passst, (for every ensign had a horse and rid on him and was so suffered) the rout of the soldiers of that regiment presst all of a heape like sheep, though not so innocent. So durty and dejected as was rare to see. None of them, except some few of their officers that did looke any of us in the face. Our foot would shout at them, and bid them remember Reading: Greenland House [1] (where others that did not condition with them tooke away all prisoners) and many other places, and then would pull their swords etc away, for all our officers still slash’t at them”
Following the assaults of the Royalists, the soldiers are also attacked by the Cornish civilians, some men being stripped to their skin and forced to march on in the cold and rain until they reach Devon.
The Royalist Secretary at War, Sir Edward Walker jokes to the king “Our souldiers freed them of the burden of their cloathes”. King Charles rebukes him saying “Fie, that is ill said, and was worse done”.