First Civil War siege of the Close, March 1643.

Summary. An inexperienced troop of Royalist soldiers occupied the cathedral and Close in December 1642. They enhanced the fortifications around the Close. A regiment of Parliamentarian soldiers besieged the Close in March 1643. Lord Brooke, their leader, was killed on March 2nd, Chad’s death day. His replacement came with more troops and they fired grenadoes from mortars over the walls. Three days of bombardment led to the Royalists surrendering. 

In December 1642, a troop of around 300 Royalist soldiers from Derbyshire led by Lord Chesterfield entered Lichfield and garrisoned in the Close. His army was a mix of local gentry and servants, most were ill equipped and untrained.[1] The cathedral served as a barracks with horses stabled in the cathedral. At the same time, Royalist contingents secured Tamworth, Stafford and Dudley. A red royalist flag was run up the central spire and must have angered townspeople as many, possibly most, supported the Parliamentarians.

Fortress cathedral

                                      Summary of the fortification of the Close.

A journal written by the Parliamentary army General, Sir William Brereton,^[2] stated at the beginning of the first siege, March 1643, the walls of the Close had been strengthened and loopholes pieced in the stonework, a deep and wide moat surrounded the Close, mounds were thrown up on the inner banks, double wooden doors, portcullises and drawbridges added to the gates and additional walls and bastions added. The west gate had two outer towers to make it a barbican and this would have strengthened the doorway, the weakest part of the fortification. Clarendon wrote,^[3] at the beginning of the Civil War “The Close in Lichfield was a place naturally strong, and defended with a moat, and a very high and thick wall; which in the infancy of the war was thought a good fortification”. On the second siege, April 1643, he added, “The cathedral church and all the clergymen’s houses was strongly fortified, and resolved against him (Prince Rupert). The wall, about which there was a broad and deep moat, was so thick and strong, that no battery the prince could raise would make any impression.”^[4] Fortress Lichfield was seen as formidable, perhaps, impregnable.

Two months after Chesterfield’s arrival, the Parliamentary commander for Warwickshire and Staffordshire, Robert Greville, Second Baron Brooke of Warwick, after removing Royalists from Warwickshire with a battle at Stratford-upon-Avon, August 1642, brought his private army of around 1200 foot-soldiers, wearing their distinctive purple uniforms, to Lichfield. They had some experience in warfare and were well organised in ten companies each led by an officer. Greville was an ardent Calvinist, Puritan and supporter of the ‘Levellers,’ and possibly the Scottish Covenanters. His army had distinguished themselves at Edgehill (then known as the battle of Kenton), October 1642, and helped defend London at the battle of Brentford, November 1642. Greville arrived on March 1 1643 and immediately placed his cannon opposite the south-east gate.[5] A medium-sized cannon called a demi-culverin, that fired balls with a 110 mm diameter, was fired at the gate, but made little difference.

Robert Greville. He previously said he would flatten the cathedral and then go on to do the same for St Pauls. He described cathedrals as ‘the haunt of anti-Christ’[6] Wikimedia Commons.

 

Demi-Culverin cannon. One used to attack the south-east gate was given a name of ‘Black Bess’. It fired a 9-pound cannonball.

 

 The central tower of the cathedral had minion cannons that were small bore, typically 76.2 mm or 3 inch diameter, and fired a 5-pound cannonball. On the walls were soldiers with muskets.[7] Then followed a freak event which has been a story to tell, and distort, ever since the morning of March 2. A sniper killed Robert Greville; it is one of the earliest recorded assassinations by a sniper. A much-repeated story has the sniper firing from the central tower, but this is improbable.

 

View from the central tower to where a cannon was positioned (near Speaker’s Corner). The distance is 170 m (185 yards). An owner of a civil war musket has privately said this distance might just have been lethal, but accuracy would be minimal. Much more likely was the sniper was on the curtain wall battlements or gate towers.

 

There are at least four different reports detailing the assassination.  

1. Edward, Earl of Clarendon wrote[8] Brooke lodged in a house within musket-shot from the Close. On the intended day of assault of the Close, he was sitting in his chamber with the window open. He was, from the wall of the Close, shot by a common soldier with a musket ball in the eye of which he instantly died without speaking a word. Clarendon was an arch Royalist so the narrative could be arranged so that the assassination appeared unfortunate.

Another version has Brooke killed by an unknown person with a brace of bullets[9] and another[10] claimed a large quantity of slugs was fired.

2. Brooke was looking out of a window in an upstairs room and directing his troops where to fire the cannon. He then descended from the upper room, and as he came out of a door was shot in the eye.[11] A version has the musket ball ricocheting from the door frame.
3. The third mentions being shot in the mouth with a musket ball made from church lead. The taking of lead from a church roof adds to the infamy and being shot in the mouth seems like perverse justice. The soldier who took the lead from the roof and fired his home-made musket was named as John Dyott, a local Royalist.  It supports the notion the shot came from the cathedral roof/tower.[12]  Harwood wrote, Lord Brooke, a General of the Parliament Forces, preparing to besiege the Close of Lichfield, then garrisoned for King Charles I  received his death wound, on the spot beneath this inscription (in Dam Street), by a shot in the forehead from Mr. Dyott a gentleman who had placed himself on the battlements of the great steeple to annoy the Besiegers.[13] A variation has Brooke removing his helmet before being shot.
4. Clayton[14] described Brooke as passing under cover from Market Street around the backs of houses in Dam Street and then through an entry close to where his cannon was positioned. He was wearing his purple tunic and a five-barred headpiece (his armour at Warwick Castle shows a three-barred helmet) and this made him stand out. John Dyott, a man born both deaf and dumb, was posted on the cathedral tower armed with a fowling piece or punt gun (it had a barrel around 2.1 m or 7 feet long and a calibre of 40 mm).[15] It was loaded with a lead ball made from lead taken off the cathedral roof. Brooke leaned forward to give instructions to his gunner and was shot in his left eye.

 

17th-century matchlock musket

 The Civil War was the first in England to use propaganda spread by pamphlets to exaggerate the feats and belittle the enemy. Since the assassination occurred on Chad’s Death Day, March 2, it led to some believing Chad was intervening, so giving it quasi-divine justification. More likely is that after a cannon bombardment of the south-east gate there was a reply from the besieged of a fusillade of musket shot and one ball killed Brooke. Almost certainly the shot came from the battlements on the south-east wall.

 

The Parliamentarians brought in reinforcements led by John Gell from Derbyshire raising the besiegers to 2000 men. Gell was at one time a supporter of the king and then turned puritan opposing the king’s attempts to encourage high Anglicanism. It was said Gell used hostages to front his troops and avoid further sniper attack. The hostages were paraded along Dam Street which exposed them to sniper fire. The outcome was a sniper wounding Edward Peyto, Brooke’s deputy, who died some weeks later. Another senior officer was also killed. Exposing hostages was not repeated. This either, indicates great accuracy of the Royalist snipers, or is yet another distortion.

A scaling of the north wall with ladders was rebuffed. After collecting much flammable material from residents (tar, pitch, hemp, rosin), they tried to set fire to the west gate, but failed under fire to place the material. At one point, the drawbridge on the west gate was lowered and attackers were repelled. A small Royalist group based at Rushall arrived to harry the besiegers, but retired after losing 60 horses. They tried a second time at night but to no avail.  

A large army of 3000, horse and foot, led by William Brereton arrived to assist the siege. Brereton was the commander of parliamentary forces in Cheshire, Shropshire, Lancashire and Staffordshire. He advocated total reform of the Anglican Church. On March 4, the Parliamentarians brought a mortar from Coventry to fire ‘grenadoes’ over the walls. These were hollow metal balls (perhaps ceramic at the start), around 250 mm (10 inches) across, filled with gunpowder and having a slow-burning fuse sticking out. The mortar lobbed them high with the intention of getting them to land in the south-west corner of the Close. Very many, possibly several hundred, were sent over the walls, causing much damage accompanied by considerable noise. The grenadoes shattered into metal shards; it was an indiscriminate terror weapon. Many missed the target and many failed to explode, with some even being sent back. 

A mortar at Goodrich Castle

After 3 days, Chesterfield, hopelessly outnumbered and almost out of ammunition, pulled down his flag gave instructions to a trumpeter to sound a surrender and later opened the gates. Residents of the Close were pardoned, but Chesterfield and his leaders were detained. Chesterfield was led to the tower and kept until the end of the war.

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[1] S. Shaw, The history and antiquities of Staffordshire. Volume 1 ed. (London: 1798) described Chesterfield as more remarkable for his loyalty to the king than in the arts of war.

[2] J. McKenna, A Journal of the English Civil War. The Letter Book of Sir William Brereton. (North Carolina and London: 2012), 59, 99. J. W. W. Bund, The Civil War in Worcestershire, 1642-1646 and the Scotch invasion of 1651. (Birmingham: 1905), 30, confirmed the Close was fortified by the Royalists before the first siege, 1643.

[3] E. Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, The History of the Great Rebellion and Civil Wars in England in the Year 1641, (Oxford: 1816), Volume 6, 454.

[4] Ibid. Volume 7, 34.

[5] According to Shaw (1798).

[6] He owned the elaborate and well-furnished Warwick Castle. W. Dugdale, Monasticum Anglicanum. London: 1673) described him as ‘strangely tainted with fanatic principles’.

[7] W. Gresley, The siege of Lichfield: A tale illustrative of the Great Rebellion. (London: 1840).

[8] E. H. Clarendon, The history of the rebellion and civil wars in England. Vol. 4, 221. His account was written between 1646–48, but not published until 1702–4. The narrative is taken from an edition (Oxford: 1807).

[9] T. Lomax, A short account of the City and Close of Lichfield. (Lichfield: 1819).

[10] H. S. Ward, Lichfield and its cathedral: a brief history and guide. (Bradford and London: 1892).

[11] W. Dugdale, Monasticum Anglicanum (London: 1673).

[12] It is thought this narrative was spun in a propaganda pamphlet and has been extended with time. It is repeated by A. Dougan, One shot, one kill. A history of the sniper. (London: 2004).

[13] T. Harwood, The history and antiquities of the church and city of Lichfield. (London: 1806), 503.

[14] H. Clayton, ‘Loyal and Ancient City. The Civil War in Lichfield’. (Lichfield, self-published: 1987), 22.

[15] Such a musket was not generally used until the 19^th century, so it must have been self-made with an eccentrically long barrel (after 1630 they were normally 1m long). The calibre indicates a large lead ball and would have caused extensive damage. Such a musket still exists with the Dyott family.