Sieges of Taunton
The sieges of Taunton were a series of three blockades during the First English Civil War. The town was of strategic importance because it controlled the main road from Bristol to Devon and Cornwall. Loyalties in Somerset were divided at the start of the FirstEnglish Civil War; many of the prominent landowners and those living in the countryside favoured King Charles I. Most of the towns were Parliamentarian, predominantly due to their Puritan beliefs.
About Sieges of Taunton in brief
The sieges of Taunton were a series of three blockades during the First English Civil War. The town was of strategic importance because it controlled the main road from Bristol to Devon and Cornwall. Loyalties in Somerset were divided at the start of the FirstEnglish Civil War; many of the prominent landowners and those living in the countryside favoured King Charles I. Most of the towns were Parliamentarian, predominantly due to their Puritan beliefs. The Earl of Essex sent a Parliamentarian force, led by Colonel Sir Robert Pye with Lieutenant Colonel Robert Blake as his second in command, to reclaim the town. They took the town without a fight, and surrounded the castle. On the eastern side of the town, which did not have any walls, Blake dug the most vulnerable trenches and erected a barricade across the Eastern gate and across the street. He had an army of about 1,000 men, and blockade the roads to support the Earl’s campaign in Devon and. Cornwall. His remaining forces retreated back in early September 1644, leaving only Plymouth, Lyme Regis and Taunon in the Parliamentarian control in the West Country. The last siege was in July 1645, when Thomas Fairfax marched his army to relieve the town of its Royalist garrison. The Royalist forces under Major William Reeve surrendered and retreated to Bridgwater, leaving Blake to hold the town after the capture. The Battle of Lostwithwithwith in early 1644 was a total defeat for the Royalists, leaving the town under the control of the Parliamentarians.
The Parliamentarian defence tied up Lord Goring and his 10–15,000 troops, who would have otherwise been available to fight for King Charles at Naseby, where historians believe they could have tipped the battle in favour of the Royalist. In 1646, the town was taken by Prince Maurice’s army, who took it in a surprise attack. The battle was the first time the town had been taken by a Royalist army in more than a century. The Siege of Lost withwith was the last time the Royalistic forces had been forced to retreat from the town in more that a year. The siege ended in September 1646 with the surrender of Prince Maurice, and the capture of the city by the Parliamentary army of Sir Ralph Hopton and Sir Richard Grenville. It was followed by the Siege of Chard in 1647, when the Earl of. Essex’s army was forced to withdraw from Dorset and Cornwall and the town came under Parliamentary control. The Second Siege was in March 1645 and lasted until April 1645. The third and final siege took place in late March 1646. It lasted until the end of that year, with the town held by a garrison of 800 men commanded by Colonel John Stawell, but the garrison had been reduced to just 80 men to defend the castle by then. The castle was then surrounded by a small perimeter of earthen trenches and several forts, and Blake was able to hold it.
You want to know more about Sieges of Taunton?
This page is based on the article Sieges of Taunton published in Wikipedia (as of Oct. 30, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
