Siege of Colchester
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Siege of Colchester | |||||||
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Part of St Mary-at-the-Walls church was used as a gun battery during the siege, the later brick repair to the tower is still evident. | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Royalists | Parliamentarians | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Earl of Norwich Lord Capel Sir Charles Lucas Sir George Lisle | Sir Thomas Fairfax | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
4,000 | 5,000 (plus reinforcements) | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
1,000 | 500-1,000 | ||||||
The siege of Colchester occurred in the summer of 1648 when the
Background
On 21 May, the county of Kent rose in revolt against Parliament. Lord-General Fairfax led Parliamentary forces to Maidstone and on 1 June recaptured the town. Remnants of the Royalist forces commanded by the Earl of Norwich fled the county to rejoin the revolt in Essex.
On 5 June the Essex County Parliamentary committee in
Fairfax and his Parliamentary forces from Kent and the Essex forces under Thomas Honywood were joined outside Colchester by Colonel John Barkstead's Infantry Brigade from London on 13 June. In total, Fairfax now had more than 5,000 experienced troops and over one thousand cavalry. He decided to re-use the same tactics as he had recently employed against the Royalists in Maidstone by launching an immediate and full-scale assault.
The battle
The Royalists defended their position by placing troops on the outskirts of the town on Maldon Road, from where the Parliamentary army was approaching. The battle was fiercely fought as Barkstead's infantry attacked and were repulsed three times, the Royalists being well protected behind the hedges that lined the road. Finally the Parliamentary cavalry, significantly outnumbering the Royalist's horses, overwhelmed the Royalist flanks and the infantry were forced to retreat to behind the town's walls. Barkstead's pursuing men followed in through the gates, until a well planned counter-attack by Royalist infantry and cavalry routed them. Fairfax continued to attack and it was not until midnight that he finally called a halt and had to resign himself to the failure to take the town by storm. In the battle he had lost between 500 and 1,000 men while recorded Royalist losses were 30 men and two officers. This is almost certainly a gross underestimate of Royalist losses.
The siege
As the siege started, both forces were about equal in men and both had an expectation of receiving reinforcements. Norwich was negotiating with the Suffolk men and knew that the Scots and Langdale's Northern Royalist army were fighting for the Royalist cause, and that Earl of Holland, the commander of the Royalist forces in the South of England, was attempting to muster a relief force. Fairfax could expect detachments of the New Model Army to be sent to him as and when they became available.
The first priority for Fairfax was to secure the town from outside relief as well as excursions by the trapped men. He ordered the construction of forts to surround the town and sited his siege cannon to fire against the walls. His thinly spread men were soon reinforced when six companies of horse and
Inside the town, the local people found themselves trapped with an army with which most had very little sympathy. Colchester had been a staunch supporter of Parliament during the First English Civil War and any sympathy with the Royalist army soon vanished as the soldiers seized provisions from the town's people.
By 2 July the
On the night of 14 July, Fairfax ordered an attack on the Royalist fortification that lay outside the town walls. St John's Abbey and the house of Charles Lucas were captured despite fierce defence. The Royalist fortifications at St Mary's church were completely destroyed by artillery fire and with them the Royalists' main artillery battery.
Following the success of the battle to clear the town's suburbs, on 16 July Fairfax sent a trumpeter with a message offering surrender terms to the Royalists inside the town. Lucas's response was to threaten Fairfax that, if the trumpeter were to appear again with such a message, he would be hanged.
By this time Lord Norwich had heard of the failure of Earl of Holland to come to his relief. A detachment of the New Model Army under Colonel
Even though the Royalists still had 3,000 soldiers, Fairfax's position was too strong, and with almost daily reinforcements his forces totalled at least 6,000. Still Lord Norwich could hope that his position would eventually be relieved. He received a letter from Langdale, the Northern Royalist army commander, encouraging the Essex men and promising relief within two weeks. For Lord Norwich, it seemed there still was every reason for them to keep their resolve.
By August, provisions in Colchester had all but run out. Cats, dogs and horses became the staple food. Fairfax refused to allow the townspeople to leave or even to let supplies in to them, despite repeated petitions from outside the town, pleas from Colchester Town council, and even from Lord Norwich. Fairfax's decision was despite the loyalty of the town to Parliament during the First Civil War. Eventually matters became so desperate that the citizens of Colchester were forced to eat soap and candles.[2] When the townswomen and children attempted to beg for food at the town gates, they were turned away with nothing by the besieging soldiers. In a last appeal to the humanity of the besiegers, the Royalist commanders sent 500 starving women to the Parliamentarian lines, hoping that they might acquire food by inspiring sympathy. Colonel Rainsborough undermined this plan by ordering the women stripped naked, to the great amusement of his army.[2]
On 24 August news reached Fairfax of Cromwell’s victory at the Battle of Preston. In celebration, the Parliamentary artillery fired salutes and Fairfax had kites flown into the town carrying news of the destruction of the Royalist army. That same day, talks were started to end the siege. Fairfax would not listen to any terms from Lord Norwich, but offered his own which were not open for negotiation. They were that common soldiers and junior officers were granted quarter; however, senior officers must surrender to mercy, whereby no guarantee was given as to how they might be treated.
On the morning of 28 August, the Royalist army laid down their arms. The gates were opened and the victorious Parliamentary regiments entered the town with Lord-General Fairfax at their head. The terms of surrender were that:
- The Lords and Gentlemen were all prisoners of mercy.
- The common soldiers were disarmed and issued with passes to return to their homes after they had sworn an oath not to take up arms against Parliament again. The town was to be preserved from pillage upon paying £14,000 in cash.[1]
Aftermath
The aristocratic Royalist leaders, Lord Norwich, Lord Capel and Lord Loughborough, were to have their fate decided by Parliament; Capel was beheaded for
Overnight Farre managed to escape, and it was discovered that Gascoigne was an Italian citizen, so he was spared the firing squad. However, by the order of Fairfax, Lucas and Lisle were executed in the evening of 28 August. Within days, pamphlets were produced extolling Lucas and Lisle as martyrs to the Royal cause, and today in the grounds of Colchester Castle there stands a monument marking the site of the execution.
References in popular culture
The siege is commonly believed to have inspired the nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty, which is said to have been the nickname of a large Royalist cannon strategically placed on the wall next to St Mary's Church. The Parliamentary bombardment of 14 July damaged the wall, causing "Humpty Dumpty" to be destroyed. Other stories attribute the name Humpty Dumpty not to a cannon but to a Royalist sniper, "One-Eyed Thompson", who occupied the belfry of St Mary's Church and was shot down by Parliament forces.[3] The nursery rhyme is first attested in 1797, but apparently the first time the rhyme was linked to the siege was in 1996 on the East Anglia Tourist Board's website.[4]
Fairfax is also spoken of in Milton's 15th sonnet.
Citations
- ^ a b The Civil War.
- ^ a b Williamson 1955, p. 175.
- ^ Alchin 2013.
- ^ Putting the "dump" in Humpty Dumpty.
References
- Alchin, Linda (2013). The Secret History of Nursery Rhymes. Neilson. ISBN 978-0-9567486-1-4.
- "The Civil War". Boxted Village Website. Boxted Village. Archived from the original on 14 October 2006. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
- "Putting the "dump" in Humpty Dumpty". bshistorian.wordpress.com. 11 October 2008. Retrieved 25 September 2016.
- Williamson, Hugh Ross (1955). Who Was the Man in the Iron Mask? and Other Mysteries. New York: Penguin.
Further reading
- Thompson, Alf. "The Siege of Colchester 1648, the Earl of Northampton's Regiment Orders of the Day". The Sealed Knot. 32 (2).
- Townsend, Rev G.F. (1874). The Siege of Colchester.
- Appleby, David (1996). Our Fall Our Fame – The Life and Times of Sir Charles Lucas.[ISBN missing]
- Plant, David (2 October 2006). "Siege of Colchester, Essex, 13 Jun–27 Aug 1648". BCW Project. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
- Williamson, Hugh Ross (1942). Captain Thomas Schofield.