POLITICAL HISTORY 



to do what Northampton had failed in, and on 3 April seized Birmingham, 

 and on the loth laid siege to the close and cathedral at Lichfield, which 

 surrendered after eleven days' resistance. It was during this siege that Charles 

 delivered his final terms, which asked too much for the Parliament to grant. 



Soon after the battle of Hopton Heath, Stafford was captured by a very 

 small force of Parliamentarians ; but the castle, under old Lady Stafford, 

 refused to yield. The successor to Lord Brooke in command of the associated 

 counties was the Earl of Denbigh, 295 who was appointed by Essex in June, 

 1643, and this command he laid down in April, 1645, in obedience to the 

 Self-Denying Ordinance. He joined the Parliamentary cause against the 

 wishes of many of his family, probably because he was convinced the cause 

 was just. He seems to have done his best to alleviate the miseries of war, 

 and inspired the feeling that his justice could be relied on for the redress of 

 injuries. On the occasion of some differences between Denbigh and ' some 

 of the country,' which caused his absence for a time, 4,000 Staffordshire men 

 presented a petition to the House of Commons that the dispute should be 

 ended and the earl sent down again amongst them, and letters of the time 

 show that his return to his command was eagerly looked for. 296 



There is a letter written by Essex in the summer of 1643, throwing 

 light on the feeling of the county at a time when all seemed going in favour 

 of the king, in which he says that then a formidable army could be raised 

 from the associated counties of Stafford, Warwick, &c., as the people were 

 then willing to rise, both because they feared the landing of the Irish in 

 Wales, and many Papists were flocking to that district ; but expedition was 

 necessary, or the people would return to their former coldness. 897 



After Rupert had retaken Lichfield he left a garrison at Burton before 

 returning to Oxford, which garrison was almost immediately captured by the 

 troops of the Parliament, and they in their turn were driven out by the 

 queen in July, 1643. Altogether, Burton changed hands six times during 

 the war. 



About this time the Duke of Newcastle ' came into our country,' 298 

 where he had considerable estates, miserably plundered it, raised great 

 sums of money, and made many recruits. 299 Wootton Lodge, the house of 

 Sir R. Fleetwood, one of the strongest places in the county, ' manned with 

 such a company of obstinate papists and resolute thieves as the like were 

 hardly to be found in the whole kingdom,' was captured by the Parliamen- 

 tarians. 800 In September, 1643, Sir William Brereton laid siege to Eccleshall 

 Castle, then garrisoned by ' the great cowstealers the lord Capell his forces,' 

 who sent to Hastings at Tutbury for relief. Hastings at once came to their 

 aid, but Brereton laid an ambush for him into which he was decoyed by an 

 assumed flight, suddenly attacked, and driven back to Tutbury. Hastings 

 was himself besieged in Tutbury Castle, 301 and the place would have fallen but 

 for the dissensions which were rife in the Roundhead army at that time, each 



195 This was Basil Feilding, second Earl of Denbigh. His father was mortally wounded in Rupert's attack 

 on Birmingham ; his brother, also fighting for the king, was killed at the second battle of Newbury. 



196 Hist. AfSS. Com. Ref. iv, 255. * Ibid. 262. 



198 Firth, Duke of Newcastle, 144. *" Shaw, op. cit. i, 57. 



300 Shaw, Hist, of Staffs, i, 57. 



301 The town appears to have been under the power of the Parliament, although the castle was held for 

 the king. Mosley, Hist, of Tutbury, 224. An excellent example of the divisions of the time. 



261 



