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Introduction | Soldiers | Prisoners | Mobs and mob violence
Citizens | Sacks and sieges | The aftermathPrisoners
On Christmas Day 1643, Royalists surrounded the church in the village of Barthomley, near Crewe in Cheshire, which was occupied by at least 12 Parliamentarians. The Cavalier soldiers set the building alight, then stabbed or slit the throats – 'most barbarouslie and contrary to the Lawes of Armes' – of the escaping Roundheads, even though they had agreed to surrender.
During his trial in 1649, Charles I was charged with responsibility for the Barthomley massacre, despite the fact that he had been many miles from the area when the incident took place.
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In 1644, Hopton Castle on the Welsh border in Shropshire, with its garrison of 30 Parliamentarians, was besieged by Royalist forces for three weeks. Eventually, the defenders struck a deal with the Royalists: they would surrender the castle if their lives were spared.
As they exited the fortress, their leader, Colonel Samuel Moore, was dragged away, to be imprisoned in Ludlow Castle. The rest of the men were tied back to back and had their throats cut, their bodies unceremoniously dumped in the moat and later covered with soil. The Royalists also attacked two maids who had been working in the castle. One was killed, while the other, wounded, was sent to the garrison at Brampton Bryan Castle in Herefordshire to deliver the sinister message: ‘You're next.’
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During the siege of Colchester in 1648, negotiations were conducted for the mutual release of prisoners. Lord Fairfax, the leader of the Roundhead army besieging the town, wanted certain Parliamentary committee men released. He offered the Royalist commander, the earl of Norwich, a list of Royalist captives and suggested a one-for-one release of prisoners. Norwich refused on the grounds that not one name was known to him – he was being expected to deliver important Parliamentarians while he would get only low-ranking men in return.
On 19 June, Fairfax retaliated by issuing an order that, of the Royalists his forces had captured in Essex, one in every 15 unmarried men and one in every 10 married men would be shot. In addition, one in every five men captured in Kent (where Fairfax’s army had just been to put down a rebellion) would have the same fate. The captives drew lots and Fairfax’s order was carried out.
Following a later, unsuccessful, Royalist break-out from Colchester, during which the king’s men suffered severe losses, it was recorded that the Parliamentarians cut off the hands and fingers of the dying and the dead to obtain rings, and that, having offered mercy, they proceeded to maim and kill prisoners.
On hearing of this, Norwich bitterly complained to Fairfax, who did not deny the actions. Instead he suggested that it had been in retaliation for the Royalists firing 'poisoned bullets'. Norwich in turn denied this claim, but did accept that his men fired roughcast balls because they didn’t have anything else.
Plague | Fire | War | Treason | Travel guide | History
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