From the early days of the Civil War, Shrewsbury was of key strategic importance to the Royalist war effort, both in the Welsh Marches and nationally. The place Of Muster of the bulk Of King Charles' "Edgehill Army", Shrewsbury then became an important channelling point for the flow of recruits and supplies from North and Central Wales, as well as ensuring Royalist control of Northern Shropshire.

Shrewsbury, sited in a naturally strong defensive position had been an important strategic point since earliest times. Its situation was described by a Parliamentarian officer in 1645 as "a very strong town, well wall'd and compassed about .vith a navigate river in the form of a horse shoe the neck of land at the open (end) of the horseshoe, being not a bow shot (in width). On the east side on the top of a high hill a strong Castle, the river running directly along Close under the side of the hill. From the north West side of the hill there runs a strong wall, to a great ditch to the river on that side". However on the Outbreak of Civil War, Shrewsbury's medieval defences were in the customary state of disrepair common to most of its English Counterparts, and tile usual spasmodic attempts were made to strengthen and repair them.

In April 1643, the Town Corporation ordered that L120 a month be raised to pay the garrison, and that a further L130 be levied to pay the costs of strengthening the defences. In May, the Royalist commander in the area, Lord Capel, instructed Francis Bliley, recently appointed Governor, "to take a dilligent view of the towne and of the castle, walls, portes passes and bridges of, and acess to, the same". He was to strengthen the outworks, demolishing buildings where necessary

Some at least of this work was carried out. The Castle was partially repaired, the gates strengthened, and houses outside the Castle and the gates demolished. A ditch was dug to carry water from the Severn to the gate and a drawbridge constructed. Cadogan's Fort (a "mount") was built at the end of Frankwell, with guns mounted there and in the Castle. How well this work was done is open to question; some of the newly constructed defences fell down soon afterwards.

Prince Rupert's arrival on the Welsh Border had its customary effects on Shrewsbury. The Castle was apparently still regarded as in an unsatisfactory condition; Ottley was instructed to rectify this "in as such ammunition as from tyme to tyme shall be sent unto these parts for his Majestie's service there may lye drye and safe". A Court of Guard was to be established, and huts built to house the Castle garrison.

The Royalist defeats at Marston Moor and Montgomery, and the deteriorating situation along the Welsh Border, increased both the importance and vulnerability of Shrewsbury. Urged on by Lord Byron, Rupert dismissed Ottley, and, late in 1644, replaced him as Governor of Shrewsbury with a professional soldier, Sir Michael Earnley.

Earnley, a veteran of Ireland, who had brought his regiment over as part of the force sent to England in late 1643, was described as a "gallant gentleman who understood the office of a soldier by "long experience and dilligent observation". Unfortunately for the Royalist cause, he was also in ill-health, possibly suffering from consumption.

Earnley, on assuming command, took a tough line. Protests at his methods made by some local gentry and justices were met by temporarily barring them from the town. Relations between Earnley and the civil authorities were to remain bad; on 23rd January, Eaarnley wrote to Sir Francis Ottley complaining over a lack of promised provisions, "by meanes whereof I am in extreme hazard of a Mutiny which I can no lesse than conceive to be the ayme of those that brought me to this distraction". He urged Ottley and the other gentry to "take some present course that I may be presently supplied, otherwise I shall be enforced to suffer the soldiers to do as they may".

This threat may have been exaggerated deliberately, but by February the situation had worsened. Earnley's health had deteriorated so that he was "unable to perform all the offices of vigilence to which he had been accustomed". Furthermore, the defenders of the town had been considerably weakened by the departure of a number of troops to assist Prince Maurice in his operations to relieve Chester. The remaining garrison appears to have consisted of Earnley's own weak Regiment of Foot, possibly by this stage only a couple of companies strong, and the Shrewsbury Trained Band Regiment which had been commanded by Francis Ottley, together with possibly one company of Henry Tillier's Foot. A total strength of about 300 men seems likely.

OPERATIONS BEGIN

The local Parliamentarian commanders had been kept informed of the situation in Shrewsbury by a sympathizer in the town, ,a minister called Huson. He urged the Shropshire Committee to launch an attack on Shrewsbury, pointing out to them its vulnerable points. A brief flurry occurred on the night of February 8th, when 20 Parliamentarian firelocks made a brief raid on the Royalist Court of Guard under the wall, claiming to have killed 4 of the garrison and to have caused "great hurly burly".

On the night of February 14th/15th, a more serious assault was planned by the garrison of Wem but their advance was delayed by muddy roads, and seeing that they would not be able to attack before daylight, they abandoned their assault before they were spotted.

By February 18th it was clear that a large part of the garrison had been detached to assist Prince Maurice. The Shropshire Committee asked Sir William Brereton, commanding Parliamcntarian forces in Cheshire for assistance, and on 19th February he despatched to their support 400 Cheshire and Staffordshire horse, 300 Staffordshire foot, and a firelock company of his own Cheshire regiment of Foot. This force, commanded by Colonel Bowyer was also equipped with petards.

Brereton's contingent reached Wem on the same night, and on the 20th they were joined by Colonel Thomas Mytton with additional Shropshire troops. The combined force probably totalled about 1,200 men.

On February 21st, the Shropshire Committee ordered the attempt to begin.

APPROACH MARCH

The Parliamentarian horse were under the command of Mytton, the foot were led by Lieutenant-Colonel Reinking, a Dutch or German professional soldier in the employ of the Shropshire Committee. The Parliamentarian rearguard seems to have consisted of Bowyer's Cheshire forces. Conditions for the night march were much better than on the previous attempt; Mytton wrote "the moon did shine till after twelve o'clock, which helped us so much in Our match, that we were within a mile of the towne before the going down of the moone".

It seems that the Parliamentarians, guided by Huson, who had slipped Out to join them, and a Captain of Firelocks named Wyllier, who had deserted from the Royalists about a month previously, were within a mile of Shrewsbury by between 3 and 4 a.m. There was no indication that their approach had been detected, but Mytton was anxious to launch his attack as quickly as possible.

THE ASSAULT

The Parliamentarian advance began at about 5 a.m. Moving towards the end of the Castle Foregate, the Parliamentarian horse halted to allow the foot to break in through the defences.

About 40-50 firelocks under Wyllier (like him Probably ex-Royalist soldiers from Ireland, who had joined Brereton after being captured at Nantwich), together with some 40 dismounted Shropshire horse under Lieutenant Benbow, advanced across the fields towards the Castle ditch. This was defended oil the townside by wooden palisades atop all earth rampart. At the same time, Reinking with another party including 8 carpenters, took a boat and rowed quietly down the Severn, passing the end of the palisade, and, come ashore, began to saw them down.

Until this point, the Parliamentarian soldiers had come to believe that the Royalist scurries must be either drunk or traitors, but the noise of the demolition work at last roused them, and the guards "after some pause, gave fire upon them". But the carpenters assisted by Benbow and Wyllier's men from the other side, had done their work, "and the soldiers helping one another got over, and slew the sentinells, and surprised the souldiers in the court of guard".

Mytton's despatch gives further details. As the dismounted troopers, armed with carbines and pistols, and supported by the firelocks and backed by musketeers coming up in the rear, began to force their way through the gap, shots were fired from Castle, and the alarm began to be raised in the town; "our men being at best twelvescore from that place in the wall where they entred but it pleased God to give them such courage and resolution, that they went with exceeding great speed, scaled the walls (presumably) the remains of the medieval defences) with light ladders we had caused to be made."

The attackers now split into two parties. One under Benbow ran Lip the batik near the Castle, and headed for the North and Castle Gates. The Castle Foregate was taken "Without Much difficulty," and after a quarter of an hour the drawbridge was lett downe and the gate opened, where Coll. Mytton, Coll. Bowyer and all the gentlemen of, this committee with the horse entered".

Meanwhile the main force of foot, about 350 men, under Reinking followed the path by the riverside to the bottom of Water Lane. This in theory was defended by a fortified gate, but it had been left open and unguarded, whether as a result of treachery or merely through laxity is unclear.

Reinking and his men advanced up Water Lane and then bore left to the Market Place, where the garrison had their main Court of Guard. Resistance was patchy; some of the defenders were running around in confusion, calling "Armes, Armes!", whilst others were surrendering. An attempted stand was made in the Market Place, apparently organised by a Captain John Needham. Reinking's men were twice beaten back, but were reinforced by their horse. A couple of the Parliamentarian troopers had their mounts shot from under them, but the Royalists surrendered after Needham and 5 of his men had been killed.

Other parties of horse were sent to seal off all approaches to the Castle, and to seize key Royalists. Earnley was taken in his shirt, as he struggled from his sick bed. As most of the chief officers slept in the town rather than endure the discomforts of the Castle, Mytton's men made virtually a clean sweep.

The Castle held out until about noon, amid scenes of growing confusion as the Parliamentarian soldiers began to loot the town. The Shropshire Committee admitted that "It was care to preserve the town from plundering, but the promises of a large reward would not satisfy the soldiers, and admitted to Brereton later in the day that "we are now staving off the souldiers from plundering".

The Royalists holding out in the Castle eventually surrendered, and were allowed to march off to Ludlow, after handing over those of the garrison purported to be native Irish. These were said to have included a Corporal Patrick Lacepaid "and 49 other Irish prisoners", of whom 13 were hanged next day.

The remaining Royalist strongpoint, Cadogan's Fort in the Frankwell suburb, surrendered soon after the Castle.

The Parliamentarians admitted to losing 2 dead in the affair, whilst killing Captain Needham and 5 of his men. The prisoners, as well as Earnley and a number of leading Shropshire Royalists, included 200 common soldiers, (many of Ottley's men probably succeeded in avoiding being held prisoner). Also taken were 14 guns, and considerable quantities of arms, powder and plate.

One Parliamentarian officer with sporting interests wrote of the capture of Shrewsbury, "it is good sport to see how we ferret these foxes out of their holes every day". But the consequences for the Royalists were more far-reaching. They had lost their principal stronghold in the Central Welsh Marches, and as well as its material effects, the loss of Shrewsbury struck a devastating blow to Royalist morale and support in a wide area of North and Central Wales. Blame for the debacle must rest in part on Prince Maurice, for so weakening Shrewsbury's defences, but in fact its loss was a symptom of the growing collapse of the Royalist war effort.

Sources

Dore, R.N. "Letterbooks of Sir William Brereton", vol. 1 1984.
Owen, H., and Blakeway, JB "A History of Shrewsbury", vol, 1825. (reprints and contemporary accounts and despatches)
Reid, Stuart, "Officers and Regiments ofthe Royalist Army

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