Introduction | Soldiers | Prisoners | Mobs and mob violence
Citizens | Sacks and sieges | The aftermath

Mobs and mob violence

Colchester 1640

When two strange Irishmen appeared in Colchester at the end of May 1640, rumours spread. It was whispered that Anne, the Catholic wife of Sir Henry Audley of Berechurch, or her fellow Catholic, Bestney Barker at Monkwick, was gathering together armed papists who apparently were to be led by the archbishop of Canterbury and the bishop of Ely. It was even said that the queen's mother, Marie de Medici, was expected.

Led by a drummer, a crowd of apprentices and other young men marched from the town towards Berechurch and Monkwick, intent on confronting the Catholics. However, most were stopped by the borough constables before they reached either house.

London

Bishops, in particular, became a focus of hatred and mobilisation. At one stage, in 1641, the archbishop of York was forced to barricade himself into Westminster Abbey in London as Parliamentarians clashed with his armed guard. The demonstrations against the bishops went on for three days.

Shepton Mallet

When Charles I decided to declare war on the Parliamentarians in 1642, he issued a ‘Commission of Array’ that empowered his supporters to raise an army. From his base at Wells in Somerset, the Royalist Marquess of Hertford issued warrants to the various ‘Hundreds’ requiring them to supply men and weapons. However, one of the deputy lieutenants of Somerset, a staunch Parliamentarian, responded by instructing the Hundreds to ignore the warrants and obey Parliament. At the same time, he convened a meeting to be held at Shepton Mallet on 1 August to discuss ‘measures for the preservation of peace’.

When the Royalists in Shepton heard of this, they became highly agitated. They sent a petition to the marquess claiming that the Parliamentarians were coming to ‘fire the houses and make the streets run with blood’. The marquess immediately instructed Sir Ralph Hopton, MP for Wells, and two others to take a force of 100 cavalry to Shepton Mallet, where they were to read aloud the Commission of Array.

When they arrived, they were met in the market place by Colonel William Strode, a prominent opposition leader, who demanded to know the reason for the Royalists' show of arms. Hopton attempted to read the Commission, but Strode interrupted, saying, ‘I come not to hear petitions, but to suppress insurrections,’ and demanded that Hopton leave town.

Hopton and his companions then attempted to arrest Strode. In the street brawl that followed, Strode was thrown from his horse, and the Cavaliers surrounded him with swords drawn. One of Strode's servants grabbed a pistol and threatened Hopton with it at point-blank range, but the gun was snatched away from him.

Once the violence was under control, Strode was handed over to the local constable, and Hopton read the Royalists' petition aloud to the growing – and increasingly angry – crowd. A messenger then forced his way through the throng and informed Hopton that a mass of villagers were coming to Shepton Mallet to support Strode. At the news, the MP gathered his men and left. On his way back to Wells, he gathered men to the king's cause by the simple method of beating or killing any who refused to join him.

Meanwhile, back in Shepton Mallet, Strode was released, and by noon, more than 2,000 peasants, tradesmen and labourers had arrived to join the Parliamentarians – many others were stopped en route by Hopton or other Royalist bands. The Shepton mob moved on Hopton's camp. Seeing himself vastly outnumbered, the Royalist commander disbanded his men and returned to Wells. Soon afterwards, the Royalists surrendered and evacuated that city in disgrace, encouraged on their way by some 3,000 Shepton Mallet men.

Colchester 1642

On the night of 22 August 1642, at St John's Abbey near Colchester, a mob attacked the house and family of the unswerving Royalist Sir John Lucas. Already unpopular for his vigorous collection of ship money, an inequitable naval tax imposed by Charles I, and for entertaining Marie de Medici in 1638, he was now suspected of stockpiling arms and ammunition.

When his plans to join Charles I became known, a drum was beaten and, led by grocer John Langley and brewer Henry Barrington, at least 2,000 of ‘the rude sort of people’ smashed their way into the Lucas house, sacked the property down to its last metal plates and woollens and then set about destroying it. In particular, they seized ‘much armour and many new pistols and carbines ready charged, new great saddles and other warlike furniture'. Sir John and his family were imprisoned in the moot hall, before being removed safely to London through the intervention of two MPs.

During the next few months, more large crowds inflicted serious damage on the properties of many suspected Catholics and opponents of Parliament in Essex and Suffolk. It wasn’t only the rabble who took part – ‘many of the better sort behaved themselves as if there had been a dissolution of all government.' These destructive interventions by mobs are known as the ‘Stour Valley riots’. Although the violence was short-lived, it was widely publicised and led many people to fear an impending collapse of social order throughout the whole country.

Canterbury

In 1642, Colonel Sandys' Parliamentarian troops vandalised Canterbury cathedral, lit their pipes with pages torn from service books and attacked a statue of Christ in Christchurch Gate. A year later, Puritan minister 'Blue Dick' Culmer spent three days creating Parliament-sanctioned iconoclastic havoc, including breaking the stained glass in the cathedral. In 1645, the cross in the Buttermarket was removed by Puritan mayor, who coined farthings from its lead roof.

When church services were banned on Christmas Day 1647, riots broke out, the mayor was assaulted, the prisons were emptied and free drink was enjoyed by footballers in the High Street. The populace declared the city for 'God, King Charles and Kent', but then county trained bands arrived and forced their capitulation. The following year, the rioters were tried by juries who refused to convict, bringing about the rising of the Kent gentry.

Lexden

There was little support for Presbyterianism among the townspeople of Essex, who apparently preferred independent congregational churches. Even preachers not disapproved by Parliament received rough treatment. In 1647, there were tumults all day in Lexden church when a group of extremists sang all 176 verses of Psalm 119 to stop the Presbyterian minister James Wyersdale from preaching.

Top

Scene from Channel 4's Blood on Our Hands