Northamptonshire and the Civil War
By Julia Moss
In the middle of the seventeenth century, much of England was thrown into a state of turmoil by the upheavals of the Civil Was, the armed struggle between Charles I and those who supported the claims of parliament. Miss Wake in her splendid book “The Brudenells of Deene” writes “Northamptonshire perhaps suffered more than other counties in these distracted times” and traces of the disruption can still be found in the slighted walls of Rockingham Castle. All over the county surviving accounts and records help to provide a glimpse of the way the conflict of the day affected people’s lives.
Northampton has been described as a “Strong Roundhead town” and one of the inhabitants, writing on 20 August 1642, described how “500 men and 100 women have wrought all yesterday and this night, carrying of earth to strengthen our walls”.
The gentry in Northamptonshire were divided between King and Parliament and there must have been many like Lord Montagu of Boughton, who saw faults on both sided. Although a strong Puritan, he felt obliges as a loyal subject to call out the militia for the King, in his capacity as Lord Lieutenant of the county. He was an old man of eighty, but this did not prevent Parliament from taking him prisoner and sending him to London, where he died in captivity.
Others, understandably, found it difficult to make up their minds and their final decision seems largely a matter of chance. At Kelmarsh, the squire, Mr. Hanbury, who had “made plate and horses ready to go in to the King”, was persuaded by the puritan, Colonel Hutchinson, to change his mind and join the Parliamentary general, Essex.
The armies of both sides plundered and pillaged as they passed through the countryside. A contemporary account describes how in January 1643
“Prince Rupert with his horse has plundered divers small towns in Northamptonshire and seized their horses and committed great evils”, while in March of the same year Parliamentarian soldiers pillaged Deene and destroyed furniture and pictures.
A few days earlier, on 19 March, a determined Parliamentary commander, Lord Grey of Groby, had seized Rockingham Castle from its owner, Sir Lewis Watson, an elderly and peace-loving gentleman of Royalist sympathies.
Rockingham Castle, situated in a dominating position high above the Welland, was an important stronghold and Lord Grey strengthened the defences of the keep in accordance with plans which still survive. The Parliamentarians held on to Rockingham until after the King’s surrender in 1664 and, before they left, they destroyed most of the walls and the keep, now the site of the rose garden. During much of that time, the governor of Rockingham Castle was Sir John Norwich, a great-nephew of Sir Lewis Watson’s, a fact which illustrates with sickening clarity the family divisions caused by civil strife.
When the Parliamentarian garrison finally left, Rockingham was in a very sad state. Not only did the Roundheads carry off moveables ranging from “a Cabinett wherein was a box of Masay gold with other jewills in it” to “six potthookes and 4 spittes”, they also destroyed much of the village and its surroundings, in order to deprive the Royalists of cover for attack. Trees were cut down or topped and, more important, almshouses, cottages and even the church were destroyed. When Sir Lewis, recently created Lord Rockingham, regained his property, he started repairing the damage, a lengthy task, which was continued after his death in 1653 by his heir Edward, second Lord Rockingham.
Burghley House, near Stamford, was another great house which suffered during the war. This “strong and stately stone-built house….surrounded with a strong stone wall”” had provided a refuge for a considerable force of Cavaliers, who had been driven out of Stamford by Cromwell’s troops. IN the summer of 1643, Cromwell besieged Burghley and a vivid account, written from the Parliamentary standpoint, has survived.
After an attack with cannon had failed to have any effect, Cromwell called a parley and offered the defenders their lives and liberty. When they refused, ”the valiant Colonell [Cromwell] gave present the order to storm and assault it with musketeers: whereupon the fight grew very hot… and thus the assault continued divers hours, till at last the Cavaliers’ courage began to fail, ours pressing on them fiercely and furiously, so that they sounded a parley from within the house”. This time, the terms were less favourable, as the defenders were granted their lives only and taken into captivity. Cromwell, however, is said to have behaved humanely and to have presented the widowed Countess of Exeter with a portrait of himself.
Far more important for the outcome of the war was the battle fought at Naseby, in the north-west of the county. This battle, which took place on 14 June 1645, resulted in a crushing defeat for the Royalists. A later vicar of Naseby, the Reverend J. Mastin, in his “History and Antiquities of Naseby”, published in 1792, wrote that the battle “Determined the fate of the Kingdoms and in the sequel cost the King his life”. The King’s army looked magnificent, but they were hopelessly outnumbered. There were 7,500 men facing 14,000 and with these odds against them the Royalist defeat was not surprising.
Mastin, writing 150 years later, realised the importance of the battle, but at this time this great event appears to have made little impression on the village. According to Mastin “Very little tradition of it is left in the village, nor does the register of the parish make mention of it”, which is considered “an omission utterly inexcusable in a resident clergyman”. An old man told Mastin that he remembered his grandfather saying that as a boy of nine or ten he had “kept cows in the field during the whole of the time of the battle”. He had also been present when the dead were buried by local people in shallow graves, which at that time could still be seen.
At Purlieu Farm, Naseby, there is now a Battle and Farm Museum, where o model of the battle can be seen, together with swords, helmets, muskets, a flintlock and other relics found in the field of battel. The museum also contains a collection of everyday objects, ranging from butter pats to vintage tractors, which help to shed light on the conditions under which country people lived in the not-so-distant past.
South of Naseby is Holdenby House, which also has close associations with the Civil War, for it was here that Charles I was held prisoner by Parliament during the first half of 1947. Holdenby House with its beautiful gardens had been built by Sir Christopher Hatton, who was Lord Chancellor to Queen Elizabeth. Norden wrote of Holdenby that “the state of the same house is such, and so beautiful that it may well delight a prince”, and it was in fact bought as a royal residence by James I. Both James I and Charles I paid frequent visits there, so when Parliament suggested Hodlenby to Charles as a place where He might go as a prisoner on parole, he was going to a familiar house. He used to walk in the gardens and ride over to Harrowden and Althorp to play bowl. However, his stay there came to an abrupt end in June 1647, when Cornet Joyce arrived with an escort of soldiers to take him into the custody of the army.
After Charles I ‘s execution, Holdenby House was sold to Trustees of the Crown Lands and shortly afterwards was demolished. Now all that remains of the original building are two fine archways and a part of the old north wing, which was incorporated into a new Holdenby House, built in the 1870’s. Traces of the Elizabethan gardens, which were once so much admired, can still be seen.
There are only a few of the places associated with this troubled period in England’s history. Many of the other towns and villages have their own stories. According to tradition, Cobthorne, one of Oundle’s finest houses, was built by a Cromwellian soldier, Major Butler. At Harringworth, the parish records show that in 1646 thirty-six soldiers of Cromwell’s regiment were billeted in the village for seven days, though there is no evidence of any impact which they may have made on village life. Occasionally, there is a pleasant glimpse of the unexpected. Bridges, in his “History of Northamptonshire”, wrote of the scholarly Lord Brudenell, imprisoned in the Tower of London for his Royalist and Catholic sympathies, that he “employed his leisure hours in making abstracts and collections from the records kept there”.
By Julia Moss
In the middle of the seventeenth century, much of England was thrown into a state of turmoil by the upheavals of the Civil Was, the armed struggle between Charles I and those who supported the claims of parliament. Miss Wake in her splendid book “The Brudenells of Deene” writes “Northamptonshire perhaps suffered more than other counties in these distracted times” and traces of the disruption can still be found in the slighted walls of Rockingham Castle. All over the county surviving accounts and records help to provide a glimpse of the way the conflict of the day affected people’s lives.
Northampton has been described as a “Strong Roundhead town” and one of the inhabitants, writing on 20 August 1642, described how “500 men and 100 women have wrought all yesterday and this night, carrying of earth to strengthen our walls”.
The gentry in Northamptonshire were divided between King and Parliament and there must have been many like Lord Montagu of Boughton, who saw faults on both sided. Although a strong Puritan, he felt obliges as a loyal subject to call out the militia for the King, in his capacity as Lord Lieutenant of the county. He was an old man of eighty, but this did not prevent Parliament from taking him prisoner and sending him to London, where he died in captivity.
Others, understandably, found it difficult to make up their minds and their final decision seems largely a matter of chance. At Kelmarsh, the squire, Mr. Hanbury, who had “made plate and horses ready to go in to the King”, was persuaded by the puritan, Colonel Hutchinson, to change his mind and join the Parliamentary general, Essex.
The armies of both sides plundered and pillaged as they passed through the countryside. A contemporary account describes how in January 1643
“Prince Rupert with his horse has plundered divers small towns in Northamptonshire and seized their horses and committed great evils”, while in March of the same year Parliamentarian soldiers pillaged Deene and destroyed furniture and pictures.
A few days earlier, on 19 March, a determined Parliamentary commander, Lord Grey of Groby, had seized Rockingham Castle from its owner, Sir Lewis Watson, an elderly and peace-loving gentleman of Royalist sympathies.
Rockingham Castle, situated in a dominating position high above the Welland, was an important stronghold and Lord Grey strengthened the defences of the keep in accordance with plans which still survive. The Parliamentarians held on to Rockingham until after the King’s surrender in 1664 and, before they left, they destroyed most of the walls and the keep, now the site of the rose garden. During much of that time, the governor of Rockingham Castle was Sir John Norwich, a great-nephew of Sir Lewis Watson’s, a fact which illustrates with sickening clarity the family divisions caused by civil strife.
When the Parliamentarian garrison finally left, Rockingham was in a very sad state. Not only did the Roundheads carry off moveables ranging from “a Cabinett wherein was a box of Masay gold with other jewills in it” to “six potthookes and 4 spittes”, they also destroyed much of the village and its surroundings, in order to deprive the Royalists of cover for attack. Trees were cut down or topped and, more important, almshouses, cottages and even the church were destroyed. When Sir Lewis, recently created Lord Rockingham, regained his property, he started repairing the damage, a lengthy task, which was continued after his death in 1653 by his heir Edward, second Lord Rockingham.
Burghley House, near Stamford, was another great house which suffered during the war. This “strong and stately stone-built house….surrounded with a strong stone wall”” had provided a refuge for a considerable force of Cavaliers, who had been driven out of Stamford by Cromwell’s troops. IN the summer of 1643, Cromwell besieged Burghley and a vivid account, written from the Parliamentary standpoint, has survived.
After an attack with cannon had failed to have any effect, Cromwell called a parley and offered the defenders their lives and liberty. When they refused, ”the valiant Colonell [Cromwell] gave present the order to storm and assault it with musketeers: whereupon the fight grew very hot… and thus the assault continued divers hours, till at last the Cavaliers’ courage began to fail, ours pressing on them fiercely and furiously, so that they sounded a parley from within the house”. This time, the terms were less favourable, as the defenders were granted their lives only and taken into captivity. Cromwell, however, is said to have behaved humanely and to have presented the widowed Countess of Exeter with a portrait of himself.
Far more important for the outcome of the war was the battle fought at Naseby, in the north-west of the county. This battle, which took place on 14 June 1645, resulted in a crushing defeat for the Royalists. A later vicar of Naseby, the Reverend J. Mastin, in his “History and Antiquities of Naseby”, published in 1792, wrote that the battle “Determined the fate of the Kingdoms and in the sequel cost the King his life”. The King’s army looked magnificent, but they were hopelessly outnumbered. There were 7,500 men facing 14,000 and with these odds against them the Royalist defeat was not surprising.
Mastin, writing 150 years later, realised the importance of the battle, but at this time this great event appears to have made little impression on the village. According to Mastin “Very little tradition of it is left in the village, nor does the register of the parish make mention of it”, which is considered “an omission utterly inexcusable in a resident clergyman”. An old man told Mastin that he remembered his grandfather saying that as a boy of nine or ten he had “kept cows in the field during the whole of the time of the battle”. He had also been present when the dead were buried by local people in shallow graves, which at that time could still be seen.
At Purlieu Farm, Naseby, there is now a Battle and Farm Museum, where o model of the battle can be seen, together with swords, helmets, muskets, a flintlock and other relics found in the field of battel. The museum also contains a collection of everyday objects, ranging from butter pats to vintage tractors, which help to shed light on the conditions under which country people lived in the not-so-distant past.
South of Naseby is Holdenby House, which also has close associations with the Civil War, for it was here that Charles I was held prisoner by Parliament during the first half of 1947. Holdenby House with its beautiful gardens had been built by Sir Christopher Hatton, who was Lord Chancellor to Queen Elizabeth. Norden wrote of Holdenby that “the state of the same house is such, and so beautiful that it may well delight a prince”, and it was in fact bought as a royal residence by James I. Both James I and Charles I paid frequent visits there, so when Parliament suggested Hodlenby to Charles as a place where He might go as a prisoner on parole, he was going to a familiar house. He used to walk in the gardens and ride over to Harrowden and Althorp to play bowl. However, his stay there came to an abrupt end in June 1647, when Cornet Joyce arrived with an escort of soldiers to take him into the custody of the army.
After Charles I ‘s execution, Holdenby House was sold to Trustees of the Crown Lands and shortly afterwards was demolished. Now all that remains of the original building are two fine archways and a part of the old north wing, which was incorporated into a new Holdenby House, built in the 1870’s. Traces of the Elizabethan gardens, which were once so much admired, can still be seen.
There are only a few of the places associated with this troubled period in England’s history. Many of the other towns and villages have their own stories. According to tradition, Cobthorne, one of Oundle’s finest houses, was built by a Cromwellian soldier, Major Butler. At Harringworth, the parish records show that in 1646 thirty-six soldiers of Cromwell’s regiment were billeted in the village for seven days, though there is no evidence of any impact which they may have made on village life. Occasionally, there is a pleasant glimpse of the unexpected. Bridges, in his “History of Northamptonshire”, wrote of the scholarly Lord Brudenell, imprisoned in the Tower of London for his Royalist and Catholic sympathies, that he “employed his leisure hours in making abstracts and collections from the records kept there”.
