page_title: Mary Bankes
section_title: Siege
hierarchical_section_title: Mary Bankes / Siege
context_page_description: Mary, Lady Bankes née Hawtry was a Royalist who defended Corfe Castle from a three-year siege during the English Civil War from 1643 to 1645. She was married to Sir John Bankes, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas and Attorney-General of King Charles I.
context_section_description: In 1643, when civil war broke out in England, she assumed control of Corfe Castle when John Bankes had been ordered by the king to serve in combat in London and Oxford. She remained behind with her children, servants, and a force of five men. By that point, Corfe Castle was the last Royalist garrison on the Dorsetshire coast. In May 1643, a force of Parliamentarians, consisting of forty seamen, demanded the surrender of the castle's four pieces of ordnance. She, her maidservants, and her small group of soldiers retaliated with cannon fire and drove them away. Later, she gave up the ordnance in order to have some time to resupply the castle. 
  On 28 June, 500-600 parliamentary troops began their first siege of Corfe. Mary and her small group defended the Upper Ward and by heaving stones and hot embers from the battlements, managed to repel the assailants, killing and wounding over 100 men in August. In 1646, one of her officers, Colonel Pitman, betrayed her by leading a party of Parliamentarians into the castle via a sally gate. The Parliamentarians under the command of a Colonel Bingham reversed their jackets and were mistaken for Royalists.  As a result, she was forced to surrender the castle. However, because she showed such courage she was allowed to keep the keys of the castle, which are now held at Kingston Lacy near Wimborne Minster, Dorset. The castle was slighted the same year it was captured by the orders of the House of Commons.
  It is recorded that her sons Ralph and Jerome bought the manor of Eastcourt on her behalf. Upon her death, the manor passed to her daughter Joanna Borlase, who in her turn passed it on to her daughters and co-heirs.
caption: Corfe Castle, which Lady Bankes defended against attacking Parliamentarians
exif: {"Image Make": "FUJIFILM", "Image Model": "FinePix F700", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "QuickTime 6.5.1", "Image DateTime": "2004:09:27 13:37:38", "Image HostComputer": "Mac OS X 10.3.5", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image Copyright": "", "Image ExifOffset": "270", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1228", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8260", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/180", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "160", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2004:09:19 16:48:58", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2004:09:19 16:48:58", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "15/2", "EXIF ApertureValue": "5", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "341/50", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "17/2", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1280", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "960", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "1693", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "1693", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "3", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}