Storming of Bolton
Storming of Bolton | |||||||
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Part of First English Civil War | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Royalists | Parliamentarians | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Prince Rupert | Alexander Rigby | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
2,000 cavalry 6,000 infantry | ca. 4,000 | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
Unknown | 78–2,000[a] |
The Storming of Bolton, sometimes referred to as the "Bolton massacre", was an event in the
Background
In
The major Royalist figure in
Fairfax's army and some Lancashire Parliamentarians under Colonel Alexander Rigby began the Siege of Lathom House, seat of the Earl of Derby, which was defended by his wife, the Countess of Derby.[6] However, Fairfax crossed the Pennines in late March to rejoin his father, Lord Fairfax, in Yorkshire.[7]
Campaign
The Royalists had intended to send the king's nephew and foremost field commander, Prince Rupert, to the northwest to retrieve the situation early in 1644. Rupert set up headquarters in
Rupert, accompanied by the Earl of Derby, marched north from Shrewsbury on 16 May. He added Byron's army from Cheshire and North Wales to his own small force, giving him a total of 2,000 cavalry and 6,000 infantry. To cross the Mersey he had to secure a crossing at either Warrington or Stockport. He chose the latter, and stormed it on 25 May. The town was not fortified, and after a brief contest outside the town in the late evening the defenders fled to Manchester.[9]
On hearing of the loss of Stockport, Colonel Rigby's forces abandoned the Siege of Lathom House and retired to Bolton, where the garrison was commanded by Colonel Shuttleworth.[3]
Storming
Late on 28 May, as Prince Rupert approached Bolton, he sent Colonel Henry Tillier, his quartermaster-general, with a regiment of cavalry and another of infantry to secure the town. They found the Parliamentarians retiring from Lathom House arriving in confusion. On hearing this, Prince Rupert hastened his march and attacked immediately, in pouring rain.[10] Nevertheless, the Parliamentarians manned a defensive line around the town with 4,000 men. Rupert's first assault, by the Regiments of Foot commanded by Colonels Ellice, Tyldesley, Warren and Tillier, and his own Regiment of Foot commanded by Lieutenant Colonel John Russell, was repulsed with 300 casualties. Russell was wounded and his Major was taken prisoner.[10]
Prince Rupert then ordered the regiment of Colonel Broughton to renew the attack. Led by the Earl of Derby,[9] they were successful, and fighting continued in the streets until the Parliamentarian forces were overcome or had fled. The Royalists claimed that there were 1,000 Parliamentarian casualties and that in addition to 50 officers and 600 other prisoners, the Royalists captured 20 standards, 20 barrels of powder and many weapons.[11]
The Parliamentarian commander, Colonel Alexander Rigby, escaped in the confusion, having learned the Royalist password.[12] He made his way to the Parliamentarian and Covenanter "Army of Both Kingdoms" besieging York, where he claimed that 1,500 of his total force had been poorly armed clubmen. He also claimed that he lost only 200 men, the rest of his forces having fled, but the commanders of the armies around York noted that "vulgar reports" were that they had been slaughtered.[13]
Causes
The storming was a particularly brutal episode in the Civil War and several factors may have contributed to the nature of the action. Unlike a formal siege, usually preceded by parleys and often ended at some point by a negotiated surrender, Rupert attacked suddenly to catch the Parliamentarians in temporary disarray. Without any possibility of negotiation, there was little protection from the "laws" or contemporary conventions of warfare for any of the garrison who did not surrender or flee immediately. As fighting took place in the streets of the town, the citizens would have been caught up in the fighting and because the battle took place at night and in heavy rain, it would have been difficult to distinguish between citizens and armed combatants. The Royalist soldiers were allowed to plunder the town after the fighting as a reward,[11] and citizens may have died during the ensuing rapine.
At least two of the attacking Royalist regiments (Warren's and Broughton's) had been raised in England in 1640 to serve in the
Effects and subsequent events
After storming Bolton, Rupert's army rested at Bury, where it was reinforced. He then advanced on Liverpool and opened a siege and bombardment on 6 June. At midday on 10 June, having made breaches in the earth walls with cannon fire, the Royalists launched an assault which was beaten back. During the following night, the Parliamentarians abandoned the town and left aboard ships in the harbour, leaving their colours on the remains of the walls as a ruse.[14] When Colonel Henry Tillier's regiment (another unit recently returned from Ireland) advanced into the town the next morning, they found 400 remaining defenders "of the meaner sorte", many of whom were killed, only some being given quarter.[14]
The only remaining major Parliamentarian foothold in Lancashire was Manchester, which was heavily defended and could not have been captured without a prolonged siege. Rupert was instructed by King Charles to hasten to the relief of York which he relieved on 1 July. The next day, he offered battle to the besieging armies and was decisively defeated at the Battle of Marston Moor. He withdrew to Lancashire, and subsequently went south to rejoin the king.[15]
Lord Byron was left to hold the north-west. On 19 August, his cavalry was defeated at the Battle of Ormskirk, and the Royalists abandoned Lancashire. Bolton was recaptured, without any noteworthy fighting, in September. On 18 September, Byron's army was destroyed while attempting to prevent a Relief of Montgomery Castle. Parliamentarians commanded by Sir John Meldrum recaptured Liverpool on 1 November. Meldrum spared the garrison, including soldiers returned from or recruited in Ireland, despite a Parliamentarian Ordinance of no quarter to the Irish.[16] Lathom House was besieged again from July 1644, but held out until 2 December 1645.[17]
Death of the Earl of Derby
At the end of the
See also
- List of massacres in the United Kingdom
Notes
- ^
Will Coster has looked at the figures and states:
"Estimates for the dead at Bolton have ranged from two hundred up to two thousand. Even the lower figure would have made this the worst massacre in the war for loss of life. However the parish register of the town gives the names of only seventy-eight individuals, noting "All those of Botonn slayne on the 28 of May, 1644", which seems to imply that the list is comprehensive. Perhaps more significantly, all three individuals mentioned as murdered in the anonymous parliamentarian eyewitness account published three months later were also named in the register. However, the parish register may exclude defending troops not from the town, who are known to have been present, and those buried elsewhere. The parliamentary account mentions the number of 1,200 or 1,500 murdered. Such a figure is given credence by the fact royalist accounts speak of 1,600 or even two thousand killed. But these versions my have taken their lead from parliamentary propaganda. It is only the seventy-eight named individuates including two women, but at least some soldiers, that can be said with any certainty, to have been killed."[1]
References
- ^ Coster 1999, pp. 96–97.
- ^ Tincey 2003, p. 33.
- ^ a b c "British Civil Wars site". BCW Project. Retrieved 28 May 2021.
- ^ Young & Holmes 2000, p. 113.
- ^ Young & Holmes 2000, p. 174–176.
- ^ Lewis 1848, pp. 30–33.
- ^ Young 1970, p. 218.
- ^ Young & Holmes 2000, p. 182–183.
- ^ a b Young & Holmes 2000, p. 190.
- ^ a b c Young 1970, p. 196.
- ^ a b Young 1970, p. 193.
- ^ Young 1970, p. 190.
- ^ Young 1970, p. 183.
- ^ a b Young 1970, p. 194.
- ^ Young & Holmes 2000, p. 203.
- ^ Young & Holmes 2000, p. 225.
- ^ Young 1970, p. 165.
- ^ Casserly 2010, p. 158.
- ^ Clews 2011.
- ^ Farrer & Brownbill, pp. 243–251.
Sources
- Casserly, David (2010), Massacre, The Storming of Bolton, Amberley Publishing, ISBN 978-1-84868-976-3
- Clews, Nic (25 January 2011), Bolton's Social history[better source needed]
- Coster, Will (1999), "Massacre and codes of conduct in the English Civil War", in Levene, Mark; Roberts, Penny (eds.), The Massacre in History (illustrated ed.), Berghahn Books, pp. 96–97, ISBN 978-1-57181-935-2
- Farrer, William; Brownbill, J, eds. (1911), "Great Bolton", A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 5, British History Online, retrieved 26 May 2017
- Lewis, Samuel (1848), "Lathom", A Topographical Dictionary of England, British History Online, pp. 30–33
- Tincey, John (2003), Marston Moor 1644: The Beginning Of The End, Osprey, p. 33, ISBN 1-84176-334-9
- ISBN 1-900624-09-5
- ISBN 1-84022-222-0
Further reading
- Clarke, Allen (1988) [1891], John o'God's Sending or The Lass at "The Man and Scythe", Bolton Print Co. Ltd, ISBN 1-871008-04-2– A fictional story written about the events of the Bolton massacre
- Royle, Trevor (2004), Civil War: The Wars of the Three Kingdoms 1638–1660, London: Abacus, ISBN 0-349-11564-8
- ISBN 978-1-4212-4940-7)
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