page_title: Siege of Wardour Castle
section_title: Second siege
hierarchical_section_title: Siege of Wardour Castle / Second siege
caption_attribution_description: An engraving of Edmund Ludlow, taken from the first edition of the Memoirs of Edmund Ludlow, 1698.
context_page_description: Wardour Castle in Wiltshire was besieged twice during the First English Civil War; once in May 1643, and then again between November 1643 and March 1644. During the first siege, a Parliamentarian force of around 1,300 men led by Sir Edward Hungerford attacked the castle, which was the home of Thomas Arundell, 2nd Baron Arundell of Wardour, a prominent Catholic and Royalist. Arundell was absent, fighting for King Charles at the time of the attack, and the defence was led by his wife, Lady Blanche Arundell, in command of 25 soldiers. The siege was started on 2 May, and lasted for a week before the Parliamentarians forced Lady Arundell to surrender on 8 May. The Parliamentarians garrisoned the castle with 75 men, led by Colonel Edmund Ludlow.
  Henry Arundell, 3rd Baron Arundell of Wardour, the son of Thomas and Blanche, brought a Royalist force to reclaim the castle, and by November 1643, a tight blockade had been established. The castle was well-provisioned, and it was only when the Royalists exploded mines under the walls, creating large holes in the defences, that they forced the castle's surrender.
context_section_description: After the castle was captured in the first siege, Colonel Edmund Ludlow was appointed as the governor of Wardour Castle, and garrisoned the castle with 75 men, comprising his own cavalry troop and a company of infantry led by Captain Bean, from Hungerford's men. The first challenge to the castle was posed by the Earl of Marlborough, who had men posted at Lord Cottington's house in nearby Fonthill Gifford. To combat attacks on the castle, Hungerford's cavalry drove Marlborough's men from the area. while Ludlow removed the siege works his army had built around the castle and sunk a well.
  In a 1944 article in Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine, the historian H. F. Chettle suggested that Henry Arundell, who upon his father's death had become the third Baron Arundell of Wardour, established a siege "a fortnight after he [Ludlow] had settled in". In his memoirs, Ludlow said that Arundell arrived at the castle with some cavalry, and demanded that it surrender for the King. Ludlow refused, stating that he was holding it for Parliament, and "could not surrender it without their command". Arundell did not have sufficient men to enforce a siege, so withdrew back to join the bulk of Hertford's Royalist forces. Although there was no formal blockade of the castle, the country around it was controlled by the Royalists. 
  In his memoirs Ludlow recalled that two more approaches were made to the castle, one by a relation of Lord Cottington, and the other a friend of Ludlow's, Robert Phelips. Both offered generous terms for the surrender of the castle to the Royalists, but in each case Ludlow refused, saying that he was "resolved to run all hazards in the discharge of that trust which I had undertaken". In order to stay well provisioned, the garrison ambushed farmers on their way to market in Shaftesbury and took their produce, recompensing them at market rates. The Royalists attempted to retake the castle by infiltrating the garrison with a young boy, reckoned by Ludlow to be "not above twelve years of age." The boy was tasked with poisoning the well and beer; sabotaging the weapons; counting the number of men in the garrison; and escaping. He was caught by the Parliamentarians and, after being threatened with execution, confessed.
  Two brothers, identified by the historian F. T. R. Edgar as Captain Henry Bowyer and Lieutenant Francis Bowyer, had command of two troops of dragoons patrolling the area around the castle to defend against any sorties made by the garrison. In late October 1643, Lord Hopton planned to recapture Wardour for the Royalists, but was forced to change his plans after the Royalist capture of Winchester and his support in the Hampshire and Sussex campaigns was required. He was able to send reinforcements to the Bowyer brothers, Sir Charles Vavasour's infantry regiment. Ludlow's memoirs recount an approach by Captain Christopher Bowyer, who he says commanded the Royalist forces around the castle. Bowyer tightened the blockade of the garrison, and demanded again that it surrender, threatening that more troops and artillery were on their way. Ludlow refused, and another member of the Parliamentarian garrison, Captain Bean, shot Bowyer in the heel. Bowyer died of the infected wound a couple of days later.
  By mid to late November, Hopton met with Lord Arundell and Vavasour at Fonthill, where he learnt that Vavasour's regiment were mutinous. After hanging the ringleaders, Hopton requisitioned the regiment to join him in Winchester, and left a 300-strong infantry regiment led by Colonel George Barnes to maintain the siege. Barnes tightened the siege, keeping soldiers "within pistol-shot of it [the castle] night and day". Provisions within the castle began to run out; the well was dry by each evening, and they began slaughtering their horses for food. In December, Hopton sent Sir Francis Dodington with further reinforcements to aid in capturing the castle, including an engineer and some miners with him from the Mendip Hills. Dodington was a wealthy land-owner from Somerset, who had according to the historian M
caption: Edmund Ludlow held the castle for the Parliamentarians during the second siege.
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