Burials During July to September 1645, Manchester’s parish church saw no christenings, only 748 burials due mainly to the plague rather than war. A constant reminder that plague homed in on war torn countries. Gunpowder Accidents Accidents with gunpowder were common. On requesting some candles, the Earl of Haddington and his staff officers must have been astounded when the maid placed them fully lit on a barrel of gunpowder! While mixing a batch of powder in his house for the King’s army, Edward Morton and his four children were killed when it exploded, only his lady wife survived. This the Roundheads attributed to the fact that she had tried to persuade him not to serve the King. After a jubilant Captain Starker had catured Hoghton Tower, he looked over the booty with his men. One of his men was so overawed that he lit his pipe to celebrate, but caused an end to himself, his captain and near sixty colleagues. Royalist Colonels The average age of 126 royalist colonels in the North of England was 35 years. Squealing Pigs According to tradition, under siege within Nunnery Castle in Wales, Colonel Richard Prater was so determined to prove he had more victuals that he actually did. He ordered the last pig to be slaughtered slowly so that the squeals gave the impression of an army of pigs. Drunk Comrades During the investment of Worcester, two colleagues within the town had become sizzled in the local inn. On leaving one night, Lieutenant Reynolds and Captain Hodgkins were so drunk that they decided to assault a party of thirty dragoons between them both. They charged and scattered them, but in the course of events, Hodgkins lost his sword and was reduced to fighting off the counter-attack with the butt of a musket until Reynolds managed to come to his rescue. Edmnd Jodrell When Edmnd Jodrell received an assessment from the Parliamentarians for £100, he sent £20 ad refused to part with more money. The assessment was signed ‘your faithful friends’ Jodrell was surprised when a matter of seven weeks later, he was presented with another for £300, this time signed ‘your very faithful friends’ Outraged, he refused to give anything and for refusing a friendly demand, he was thrown into prison, robbed of £150 worth of items and was forced to pay £50 for his release. Virgins of Norwich Frightened by rumours of raping, the virgins of Norwich raised enough money to equip a troop of horse to protect their bodies from the passion of the cavaliers. Lieutenant Tom Sandys After surrendering at Chewton Medip, Lieutenant Tom Sandys was shot by a Parliamentarian soldier in a flagrant disregard for the rules of war. Sir William Waller the Roundhead commander was so outraged at this act that he personally saw Sandys in the city of Bath and gave him his personal surgeon to attend him. Additionally Waller paid for Sandys' lodgings and left £10 on the condition that he gave himself up at Bristol once he had recovered. Sandys gave his word of honour but shortly after Bath was captured by the royalists and although now within friendly ranks once more, Sandy’s felt honour bound to surrender himself still. Despite his friends urging that his promise no longer stood, he referred the matter to his commander, the Earl of Caernarvon who agreed he should give himself up. Luckily for Sandys, Bristol was then captured by the royalists, so he was well and truly freed from his word. Plunder After subduing the Earl of Chesterfields house in Derbyshire, Sir John Gell and his officers begged Lady Chesterfield to give his men only half a crown each to stop any plundering. They realised that a plundering army soon loses any respect and effectiveness. Lady Chesterfield refused on the basis that she did not have enough money, so Gell even offered to lend her the money in an extraordinary proposal. The noble Lady refused all requests in a brave and haughty manner, resulting in a full plundering. POWs After the royalists captured Cirencester, only 16 out of 1100 enemy prisoners remained true to the Parliamentarian colours, the rest joining the king. Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper who turned coat several times left a brief account of a skirmish: The business was extreme hot for above six hours. We were forced to burn down an outgate to a court before we could get to the house, and then our men rushed in through the fire and got into the hall porch where with furse faggots they set fire on it and plied the windows so hard with small shot that the enemy durst not appear in the low rooms. In the meantime one of our guns played on the other side of the house and the gunners with fire balls and the grenadiers with scaling ladders endeavoured to fire the second storey but that not taking effect our soldiers were forced to wrench open the window with iron balls and forcing in faggots of furse fire, set the whole house in flaming fire, so that it was not possible to be quenched. And then they cried for quarter, but having beat diverse men before it and considering how many garrisons of the same nature we had to deal with, I gave command that there should be none given. Sir Philip Mockton Sir Philip Mockton described his war. ‘I had my horse shot under me as I caracoled at the head of the body I commanded.’ Now on foot with no spare horses, he ran towards the enemy with his men following ad his servant eventually found a replacement mare, ‘When I was mounted up on him, the wind driving the smoke so I could not see what was come of the body I commanded, which went in pursuit of the enemy. Back to Table of Contents -- King or Parliament # 5 Back to King or Parliament List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2004 by Mark Turnbull. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com