Cornwall and the Civil War

At the start of 1643, the Royalist position in Cornwall was threatened by the advance from Devon of two parliamentary armies under the Henry Grey, 1st Earl of Stamford and Colonel Ruthin. Sir Ralph Hopton, commanding the Cornish Royalists, whose most charismatic leader was Sir Bevill Grenville of Stowe, decided to strike at Ruthin before he could join forces with Stamford. Hopton found the Parliamentarians deployed on Braddock Down, near Boconnoc, midway between Lostwithiel and Liskeard on 19 January 1643.

Hopton launched his troops in a furious charge which swept all before it. Ruthin’s men fired barely a single volley at the advancing Royalists. Between 1,250 and 1,500 Parliamentarians were captured, together with their baggage train and ammunition, and as many as 200 were killed.

Cornwall was once more firmly in the hands of the Royalists, and Hopton marched into Devon and resumed the siege of Plymouth with his forces occupying surrounding towns to seal off the city by land. The Battle of Braddock Down had rejuvenated the Cornish Army and confirmed their faith in Hopton’s leadership.

The battlefield landscape remains to this day, dominated by the opposing slopes of Braddock Down. Although it was later drained and divided into smaller fields, it is still easy to imagine the grassy downland over which the battle was fought.

The victories for Hopton with the Cornish army provided the impetus for campaigns in Devon and Somerset.

Taunton and Bridgwater were taken by the Cornish army, but Sir Bevil Grenville was killed at the Battle of Lansdown in Somerset and Hopton was seriously wounded.

Hopton had marched against Sir William Waller’s army which occupied a commanding position on the top of Lansdown Hill. Grenville’s Cornish infantry stood firm even when the Royalist cavalry was routed in the early stages of the battle, then Grenville led a counter-attack against the Parliamentarian position at the top of the hill.

The Cornishmen succeeded in gaining the hilltop and forcing the Parliamentarians to withdraw, but Grenville was killed in the assault. His Cornish soldiers refused to fight under any other leader and returned home, carrying the body of Sir Bevil. It was buried in a tomb in Kilkhampton Church.

Bristol fell to Hopton’s Royalist troops, followed by Exeter. On December 13, the Royalists began a heavy bombardment of the northern defences of Plymouth but with little effect. Sir Richard Grenville, 1st Baronet, having previously declared for Parliament, invited his troops to follow him into the King’s service and parliament proclaimed him a traitor.

Essex had been misled into believing that he could expect substantial support from the people of Cornwall. When he had reached Bodmin on 28 July, he found that there was no chance of supplies or recruits, and he also learned that the Royalist army was at Launceston, close to his rear, blocking his line of retreat.

He withdrew to Lostwithiel, covering the port of Fowey, hoping for support or evacuation by the Parliamentarian fleet. Essex had previously arranged to rendezvous at Fowey with the Parliamentarian fleet under the Earl of Warwick, but no ships appeared, Warwick being unable to leave Portsmouth because of westerly winds.

King Charles’s army had been reinforced as it marched, and outnumbered that of Essex by nearly two to one. The first clashes took place on 2 August, but little action took place for several days, as the King waited for all his forces to arrive and Essex waited for the fleet. On 13 August, the Royalists began to attack in earnest, occupying several outposts on the east bank of the River Fowey, making it even more difficult for help to reach Essex. A Parliamentarian attempt to send a relieving force under Lieutenant General Middleton was defeated at Bridgwater in Somerset.

On 21 August, the Royalists attacked Essex’s positions north of Lostwithiel, capturing the ruins of Restormel Castle. Royalist cavalry threatened to cut the Parliamentarians off from Fowey. Essex realised that there was no hope of relief and ordered his cavalry to break out of the encirclement. Under Sir William Balfour, they broke through the Royalist lines on the night of 31 August, eventually reaching Plymouth 30 miles to the east.

The increasingly demoralised Parliamentarian infantry fell back towards Fowey in pouring rain. They were forced to abandon several guns which became bogged down in the muddy roads. On 1 September, the pursuing Royalists captured Castle Dore, another ruined fortification which the Parliamentarians were using to anchor their lines. Essex left Sir Philip Skippon, his Sergeant Major General of Foot, in command while he himself escaped to Plymouth in a fishing boat.

On 2 September, Skippon, having been told that his infantry were unable to break out as the cavalry had done, and having been offered generous terms by the King, surrendered 6,000 infantry and all his army’s guns and train. The disarmed soldiers marched to Portsmouth in continuing bad weather, being continually robbed and threatened by local people. About 1,000 died of exposure and hunger, and 1,000 more deserted or fell sick. Charles meanwhile wheeled about and marched toward London.

This was a setback for Parliament in Cornwall, and the last major victory for the Royalists.

In 1646 the Prince gave Lord Hopton command of the Royalist forces, Hopton advanced from Stratton towards Exeter, reaching Torrington but was confronted by Fairfax’s men, and fell back to Stratton. The Parliamentarians proceeded into Cornwall, reaching Launceston on February 25, and Bodmin on March 2nd. Hopton’s army was in disarray but he refused to surrender. He camped for some nights at Castle-an-Dinas while considering the possibility of surrender. News at Bodmin of an imminent Irish invasion damaged the Royalist cause locally and Fairfax sent a summons of surrender to Hopton who replied on March 8th that he was willing to negotiate terms. Fairfax agreed and on March 15th 1646 both sides met at Tresillian Bridge. Hopton agreed to move his army to St Allen as a gesture of trust and goodwill allowing Fairfax to occupy Truro.

The Prince of Wales sailed from Falmouth to the Isles of Scilly, and from there he escaped to Jersey; the garrisons at Restormel, Falmouth, Little Dennis and St Michaels Mount fell in the following months. In May Charles surrendered to the Scots who handed him over to England. Pendennis Castle, on the 17th August 1646, was the last Royalist stronghold on the English mainland to fall.