The Sieges of Leicester 943 & 1645

By Rupert Matthews

A book dedicated to the three sieges of Leicester in 943 and in the summer of 1645, events that saw much of the medieval city razed to the ground and hundreds of citizens killed.
Leicester spent most of the English Civil War at peace, a garrison town for Parliament in the Midlands. Then in May 1645 Royalist Prince Rupert arrived and laid siege to the city. After conducting a skilful siege, Rupert’s men assaulted the town and burst in to butcher the garrison and loot the houses and churches. Rupert marched off, leaving his own garrison. The Royalists had barely repared the walls when a Roundhead army arrived, laid siege and then stormed the town in their turn, adding more bloodshed and destruction.
This book follows the standard pattern set by others in the Bretwalda Battles series. The reasons for and course of the war in question are outlined, then detailed analyses of weapons, tactics and strategies are given with particular reference to this battle. The course of the battleis then followed, with comment on what there is to see at the site today. Short biographies of the commanders are also given. The aftermath of the battle, its effects and importance to the progress of the war are then described.

Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1 The Viking Wars
Chapter 2 The Siege of Leicester 943
Chapter 3 The English Civil War
Chapter 4 Siege Warfare in the English Civil War
Chapter 5 The Sieges of Leicester 1645
Chapter 6 Aftermath

About the Author

Rupert Matthews has written over 180 books, mostly on history or military subjects for a wide variety of publishers. He has made a particular study of English battlefields, having walked across dozens of them, handled replica weapons and studied dozens of contemporary accounts.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bretwalda Books
• Release date: May 31, 2013
• ISBN: 9781909099609

Rupert Matthews

Rupert Matthews has written over 150 books for different publishers, achieving significant sales in a variety of markets both in the UK and abroad. His works have been translated into 19 languages and have been shortlisted for a number of awards. Rupert has been a freelance writer for 20 years, working in-house at a major book publisher before going freelance.

Book preview

Bretwalda Battles

The Viking Wars & the English Civil War

The Sieges of Leicester 943 & 1645

by Rupert Matthews

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Published by Bretwalda Books at Smashwords

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This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

First Published 2013

Copyright © Rupert Matthews 2013

Rupert Matthews asserts his moral rights to be regarded as the author of this work.

ISBN 978-1-909099-60-9

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Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1 The Viking Wars

Chapter 2 The Siege of Leicester 943

Chapter 3 The English Civil War

Chapter 4 Siege Warfare in the English Civil War

Chapter 5 The Sieges of Leicester 1645

Chapter 6 Aftermath

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Introduction

The city of Leicester is today a busy, vibrant and thriving city. It is the largest city in the East Midlands, and the tenth largest in the UK as a whole. The city has a population of 330,000, but that goes up to over 700,000 if the suburbs are included.

The population of the city is young, with a third of the population aged under 25 - a much higher proportion than the national average. The large student population partly accounted for this, but a high birth rate also helps. The economy of the town traditionally relied on shoemaking and hosiery, but since the 1950s engineering has boomed in importance. Several large companies making heavy tools and machinery are based here, benefitting from the large engineering department at Leicester University and the nearby Loughborough University.

This is a busy, prosperous and modern city looking to a future of peace and plenty. But Leicester was not always like this. Three times war has come to Leicester in its most brutal and bloody form. War is never pretty, but siege warfare has a well deserved reputation for being particularly nasty with civilians routinely suffering as badly, if not worse than the combatants.

Three times Leicester has been put under siege, and three times Leicester has fallen to the attacking army. The worst bloodshed came in the wake of the second siege, fought in May 1645. Hundreds of civilians were put to the sword as the Royalist soldiers ran amok after storming the city defences. By comparison the sieges of 943 and June 1645 were almost gentle affairs, but they still caused significant damage.

Some of the marks left by the sieges can still be seen today. The great medieval Abbey lies in ruins, bullet marks can be seen on the remaining stretches of town wall and loopholes penetrate the medieval walls of the Newarke. But time is a great healer. Leicester came through its bloody sieges battered but still existing. For generations Leicester continued in its traditional role as a county town providing a market for local agricultural produce. Then in the early 19th century coal was found nearby, the railway arrived and the industrialization of the city began in earnest. It might almost be that bloody war never came here. Almost.

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Chapter 1

The Viking Wars

Signs and portents filled the skies over England in the spring of 793, or at least so men said with hindsight. Dragons were seen flying overhead, whirlwinds smashed barns and houses to rubble and lightning storms swept the land with unparalleled ferocity. If men wondered what all this meant they did not have long to wait. On June 8th a chronicle records, the ravaging of heathen men destroyed God’s church at Lindisfarne through brutal robbery and slaughter. A monk in France recorded the event as it was reported there Never before has such terror appeared in Britain as we have now suffered from a pagan race. The heathens poured out the blood of saints around the altar, and trampled on the bodies of saints in the temple of God, like dung in the streets

Lindisfarne was the most famous monastery in Northumbria, the English kingdom that stretched from the Humber to the Forth. It had been founded in 635 by Irish monks to convert the pagan northern English, a job completed with commendable swiftness. The monastery had become a treasury of holy books, relics and