Hopton and Waller: Friends Divided

Civil War is the most bitter and vicious kind of conflict. All the frustrations, the envy, family feuds, town rivalries, and personal enmities, come to the fore. It tears apart families, separates friends, and divides communities. It is always proof positive that we hate our neighbours far more than we could ever hate a stranger. This was no more so than in the fratricidal struggle that beset the West Country during the English Civil War, as men from Devon and Cornwall fought those from Wiltshire and Somerset. 

The Royalist army in the West Country was outnumbered and outgunned, but it was well-organised and well-lead. Its cavalry were lead by the dashing Sir Bevil Grenville and its Cornish infantry were the best and most feared in either army. At the Battle of Landsdowne they had temporarily halted the Parliamentary advance but at a terrible cost. In a headlong charge uphill the Royalist cavalry forced the Parliamentary army to withdraw but it was a Pyrrhic victory, of the 1,000 who made the charge 700 were shot down, including Sir Bevil Grenville who died soon after, and before long the Parliamentary army were besieging the Royalists in the unfortified town of Devizes. Unbeknown to the Parliamentarians, however, Prince Maurice, who had taken over from Sir Bevil, had escaped the siege and made his way to the Royalist capital at Oxford for reinforcements. On 13 July, 1643, the Royalist army emerged from Devizes to break the siege, at the same time, Prince Maurice had returned from Oxford with 1,500 cavalry and attacked the Parliamentary army from the rear. The Battle of Roundway Down quickly turned into a rout. The Parliamentary army was utterly destroyed, of 4,500 men, more than 600 were killed and a 1,000 captured. It was soon to be known by the Royalists as the Battle of Runaway Down. Not long after, the port city of Bristol fell to Prince Rupert of the Rhine following a prolonged and ferocious siege. Following the destruction of their army and the loss of so many local fighting men, Parliament was forced to reinforce what remained with troops from London. Often surly and uncooperative, they could be brave, but only when it suited them. The West Country was to remain a Royalist stronghold for the duration of the war.

I tell this story in brief only to highlight the true sadness of civil war. The Commander of the Royalist forces in the West Country was Sir Ralph Hopton, on the eve of the Battle of Landsdowne  had written to his dearest friend, Sir William Waller, who just happened to be the Commander of the Parliamentary army. Both were local landowners and had sat together as MP’s in the House of Commons. They were so similar in many respects that it is difficult to differentiate between them. Sir Ralph Hopton was the elder by a year, both were professional soldiers, both were Puritans, and both had voted in favour of the Grand Remonstrance (a list of grievances critical of the King’s personal rule). But this is where they parted, Hopton supported the King’s attempt to arrest his opponents in Parliament and when it came to war he would not take up arms against his Sovereign. Lifelong friends, Hopton and Waller now found themselves to be enemies. So Hopton wrote his letter to Waller requesting that they meet. Waller replied: