RAGLAN CASTLE: ITS DEFENCE AND SURRENDER. DEATH OF HENRY, MARQUIS OF WORCESTER.

From the close of 1645 to the middle of 1646 the military operations within and surrounding the strong fortress of Raglan were conducted with untiring energy. Parties from the castle were continually annoying the enemy, while they on their part pushing their works with vigour at several points caused many disasters, keeping the favourably situated garrison in a state of constant agitation and watchfulness; finding their course of operations gradually limited to acting entirely on the defensive, not being in sufficient force to disperse the stronger besieging army, against whom it is next to a miracle how they maintained their position so long, Raglan Castle having held out longer than any other.

The Marquis of Worcester, the last lord of Raglan Castle, usually occupied, as is supposed, a handsomely carved oak wainscotted parlour or sitting room in the ground floor of the south side of the castle, nearly the whole side of which was a large, handsome window looking over the moat towards the tall, massive tower or citadel. Over that chamber was his dining room, and from his table the various dishes would be conveyed to the grand banqueting hall, the most complete and spacious apartment within the present ruin.

The great state in which the noble Marquis was accustomed to live may be gathered from the following authentic account of the order of his household:—[A]

At 11 o’clock the Castle gates were shut and the tables laid—two in the Dining Room, three in the Hall, one in Mrs. Watson’s apartment where the Chaplains eat (Sir Toby Mathews being the first), in the Housekeeper’s room for the Ladies’ women.

The Earl came into the Dining Room attended by his gentlemen. As soon as he was seated Sir Ralph Blackstone, Steward of the House retired, the Comptroller, Mr. Holland, attended with his staff, the Sewer, Mr. Blackburn, the Daily Waiters, Mr. Clough, Mr. Selby and Mr. Scudamore, with many gentlemen’s sons, from £2. to £700. a year, bred in the castle. My Lady’s Gentleman Usher, Mr. Harcourt. My Lord’s Gentlemen of the Chamber, Mr. Morgan and Mr. Fox.

At the first table sat the noble family and such of the nobility as came there.

At the second table in the dining room sat Knights and honourable gentlemen attended by footmen.

Sir Ralph Blackstone, Steward.
The Comptroller. The Secretary.
The Master of the Horse, Mr. Delaware.
The Master of the Fish ponds, Mr. Andrews.
My Lord Herbert’s preceptor, Mr. Adams,

with such gentlemen as came there under the degree of a knight, attended by footmen and plentifully served with wine.

At the second table in the Hall, served from my Lord’s table and with other hot meat—The Sewer, with the gentlemen waiters and pages, to the number of twenty-four or more.

At the third table in the Hall—The Clerk of the Kitchen, with the Yeomen Officers of the House, two Grooms of the Chamber, &c.

Chief Auditor, Mr. Smith.
Clerk of the Accounts, George Wharton.
Surveyor of the Castle, Mr. Salisbury.
Ushers of the Hall, Mr. Moyle and Mr. Cook.
Closet Keeper.
Gentleman of the Chapel, Mr. Davies.
Keeper of the Record.
Master of the Wardrobe.Master of the Armory.
Master Groom of the Stables for the war horses, twelve.
Master of the Hounds.Master Falconer

Porter and his Men, two Butchers, two Keepers of the Home Park, two Keepers of the Red Deer Park, Footmen, Grooms, and other menial servants to the number of 150. Some of the footmen were butchers and bakers.

Out Officers.

Steward of Raglan, Wm. Jones, Esq. Governor of Chepstow, Sir Mich. Keneys, Bart. Housekeeper of Worcester House in London, James Redman, Esq. Bailiffs thirteen; two Counsel for the Bailiffs to have recourse to. Solicitor, Mr. Jos. Smith.

His Lordship appears to have been very indifferently informed respecting his son’s operations in Ireland. The conveyance of communications of any kind was difficult, hazardous, and uncertain. Of this a rather romantic instance occurs in the relation given of his adventures, by Allen Boteler, in his documentary evidence entitled:—“A most true account of my business from his Majesty at Oxford, intended for the most honourable the Marquis of Ormond, it being the last of my [engagements in?] these employments.” It is a long, prolix account, but sufficiently interesting from the facts it details to be given in extenso. He states:—

“On Friday night being the 22nd of February, 1646, I was conveyed to Abbington by Sir George Lisle, and a party under his command, and from thence near Cisseter, where I parted from them, took a guide and went to Sir William Pooles, from whence by night I was carefully guided to Sir Robert Poyntz’s at Acton, which his Majesty conceived to be the safest way; there by Sir Robert was I exceedingly welcomed as coming from his Majesty, and in that employment, and for the space of five days I was concealed in Sir Robert’s house whilst he did continually employ some of his trusty servants to endeavour a way for my passage over Severn, which both by land and water was very strongly guarded; yet having disguise from him I hired a boat for Black Rock, and passed as a grazier, and a farmer, a friend of his with me, to assist me; but no sooner had we landed but we had, by a grazier, intelligence that in the village, and in all that country of the Moors, were Parliament forces driven by his Majesty’s party from Newport and Carlisle. Thereupon the farmer brought me to a church on a rock [a] few yards from the sea side, into which rock I conveyed my dispatches, and myself and horse into the porch, whilst the farmer bought [brought?] me a guide, a man of his acquaintance, well known to the enemy’s party but honest to his Majesty’s; and after night he conveyed me through their guards by the name of a butcher of Bristol, and on the break of day, three Parliament officers, newly landed at Gouldcliffe from Bristol, seeing me riding fast, charged me in a lane and questioned me who I was for; and I answered that it was then no time to ask impertinences, by my being here you may judge who I am for; I intended for Newport or Carleon in business for the States, but my guide tells me that there is my Lord Charles Somerset with 300 horse, for God’s sake tell me how I shall avoid them. Whereupon they being as much affrighted with my word, as I with their summons, hastily pointed me out a way, and ran themselves another way into the Moors. By this means I came to Carleon, from whence the King’s party were marched two days before; and being then within four miles of Raglan I came (as I thought) undiscovered to Colonel Richard Herbert’s, and finding the passage full of dangers, by reason of Langibby Castle and many soldiers quartered in the way, I sent to the Lord Charles, desiring a convoy, and acquainting him with what business I was in. His Lordship returned me answer that by one of the clock, the next day, by a windmill on Christ Church hill, a party should meet me punctually; and so there did, but it was of the enemy, who having foot with the horse made me distrust and betake myself to a wood adjoining; and when they were past, no convoy coming, nor intended, as it appeared afterwards, I returned to the Lady Mary Herbert’s, who then lay in, and some intelligence being given to the enemy, so soon as it was dark, a party being sent to take me, my Lady Mary secured the despatches in or under her bed, commanded a servant of hers to go with me, called my horse hers; and [I] going on foot all night in most bitter weather and bad way, full of danger, I came to the Castle about the day’s dawning, where I presently appeared myself to my Lord Charles, made my relation, and besought him for a present convoy. His answer was that that house was their own, and not as other garrisons, they must look on their own securities, and had done more than they had thanks for, but would bring me to his father, so soon as he was ready. His Lordship did so, and in the first place my Lord asked me whether in my despatches I had any letters from his Majesty to his son Glamorgan. I answered, not that I knew of, but there might be within the Lord Marquis of Ormond’s; on that I delivered to his That message I well remember and so will his Majesty, I having set it down so soon as I went out of the bed chamber. Lordship his Majesty’s most gracious and comfortable message concerning my Lord his son, with thanks for their former loyal expressions; unto which my Lord Marquis answered that it was the grief of his heart that, he was inforced to say that the King was wavering and fickle, and that at his Majesty’s last being there, he lent him a book[B] to read in his chamber, the beginning of which he knows he read, but if he had ended, it would have showed him what it was to be a fickle prince; for was it not enough, said his Lordship, to suffer him, the Lord Glamorgan to be unjustly imprisoned by the Lord Marquis of Ormond for what he had his Majesty’s authority for; but that the King must in print protest against his proceedings and his own allowance, and not yet recall it.

But I will pray for him, and that he may be more constant to his friends, saith my Lord; and so soon as my other employments will give leave, you shall have a convoy to fetch securely your despatches; that I daily pressed and expected, sometimes it was delayed with fair language and sometimes with such as was very unwelcome to me, both from the father and the son; it being invectives against his Majesty and the Lord Marquis of Ormond, and after fourteen days delay,[C] I advised with Colonel Ratcliffe Jarrard, Colonel Thomas Butler, Major Hugh Butler, and William Watkins, Receiver General for South Wales, being all Protestants, and of the Council of War, who agreed in opinion that the delay was of purpose, and caused by jealousy, conceiving that if I got over before Captain Bacon who was then attending for a despatch to his Lord the Lord Glamorgan, my despatch might tend to the prejudice of his said Lord. On this I took occasion to wait on my Lady Glamorgan, and remembering her of the King’s gracious intentions towards her Lord, I besought her assistance, to which she answered that my going so hastily was not material whatsoever I considered of it, for that there were others gone with duplicates of business to her Ladyship’s knowledge, of whom her cousin Will. Winter was one, and he had no relation to the Lord Marquis of Ormond, but was her husband’s friend. To which I answered that my Lord was her Lord’s very good friend, as I was very much his servant, but if his Majesty’s business be done I care not by whose hand it is; but I thank your honour, for now I know wherefore I am stayed here; and from her Ladyship I went to my Lord Charles, and told him that by his neglect his Majesty might be undone, and that to acquit myself I must lay the blame on those that deserved it; but if his Lordship would yet give way Captain Spite would undertake to do the business with twenty horse. His Lordship answered, that he took my importunity ill, but would impart it to the Council of War, and take their advice, which he did indeed, but that caused so general a knowledge, that the country was laid for me and my business, as I had very good intelligence; and thereupon the Protestant party showed themselves to be much discontented, insomuch that Colonel Butler, Major Butler, and others quitted the Castle the next day, being the nineteenth of my stay there. My Lord sent a party, who bringing the despatches, I desired my Lord, in obedience to his Majesty’s Warrant to afford me a convoy, or if not, two guides, one to ride before me to discous [discover or discourse?] and the other to direct me in my way, both which he refused because, as he said, I had no letters to his brother. Thereupon I went discontentedly away to Aburgainy [Abergavenny] with Colonel Ratcliffe Jarrard, Colonel Butler, and Major Butler, with whom I advised, and sent with their approbation for a woman who was continually employed betwixt the Castle of Denby in North Wales and Raglan in South Wales. I agreed with her to go to Denby, Conway, or Harlo Castles, with the letters quilted up in a truss of linen and tied next to her body, and with her my own man disguised to receive them from her, and to go over with them, if I could not make my way to overtake him, but directed him by the Governors to whom I wrote. The man and woman were taken and carried before Howell Gwynn, then High Sheriff; but what became of the despatches, or how the woman concealed or made them away, I know not, nor dare enquire, but she saw the man taken, being a great distance from her, as I had directed them, to keep in sight one of the other, but not to go together; and she was not taken in two or three hours after, so that by all likelihood she conveyed them away, otherwise the Parliament pamphlets would have told us of it as they did not, for with much fear, I expecting it, perused all the diurnals for more than a quarter of a year. This is all I can deliver of it, and the particulars of these will be punctually justified by those several parties formerly meant, some of them being now about the Court, and for the truth of this I am ready to make Oath when I shall there unto be called.

“Allan Boteler.”[D]

Boteler or Butler’s evidence would appear to have been taken during the Marquis of Ormond’s temporary sojourn in England, after his leaving Dublin in June, 1647, previous to his shortly after going to Paris for six months, when he returned to Ireland to assume his post of Lord Lieutenant.[13] The document derives considerable interest from its conveying to us the sentiments of the Marquis of Worcester, in his reflections on the King’s conduct affecting himself and his son. It was on no light grounds he charged Charles the First with being “wavering and fickle;” declaring his son to have been “unjustly imprisoned;” and bitterly lamenting that the King should, in print, “protest against his [son’s] proceedings;” being no doubt well satisfied through his Majesty’s own discourse and his after written instructions, that the Earl of Glamorgan had, in every sense, been most unworthily used from first to last by his royal master. The upright old Marquis, touched in a tender part, was not disposed to overlook the injury done to his family, although coming from so high a quarter, for he must have felt it as nothing short of a gratuitous maligning and blackening of his son’s character from the most sordid, selfish motives, reckless of all risks and hazards. No considerations swayed him to conceal his utmost anger at the indignity put on himself and his house, rendered perhaps all the keener by the presence of the unsuspecting messenger from that prince who had so utterly deceived him, and that peer who had aided in his dishonour. The blunt Boteler adds, in a marginal notification, “That message I well remember, and so will his Majesty; I having set it down, as soon as I went out of the bed chamber.”[E]

The Marquis, a shrewd, observant man, appears to have expressed his wrath not only by words but acts; not caring that the messenger should return with any favourable account of his reception or dismissal, for after having so unequivocally expressed his mind to him, he is left to shift for himself, is long detained, and at length departs at his own expense.

The siege of Raglan Castle was maintained by Colonel Morgan, Major General Laughorne, Sir Trevor Williams, Baronet, and Colonel Robert Kirle, with about 5000 horse and foot.

It became necessary for the besieged, in their extremity, in the pleasant month of May, 1646, to destroy every shelter or advantage the enemy might derive from the houses in the village, or its old church. They, therefore, levelled the goodly tower of the latter, as also the houses near, burning likewise whatever might in any way have been likely to prove available.

Sir Trevor Williams, at the same time, was arranging to blockade Raglan, garrisoning his men in the town of Usk. On the other side, Colonel Kirle, with his force, was stationed within two miles of Raglan; while Laughorne occupied Abergavenny; and Colonel Birch, besieging Gutbridge Castle, left Raglan without hope of relief.

In their skirmishes with the enemy, posted in these positions, the Royalists lost 16 killed, and 20 taken prisoners; while Sir Trevor Williams seized 80 horses grazing under the castle walls. Colonel Morgan, then at Worcester, shortly after, joining the army, made Landenny his head-quarters, within a distance of three miles.

A domestic incident may be here mentioned, not only as showing the discomfort of the place, but as connected with the wife of the subject of this memoir; and also as characteristic of the Marquis’s religious sentiments. Dr. Bayly states that:—

“One evening, during the hottest period of the cannonade, there came a musket ball in at the window of the withdrawing room, where my Lord used to entertain his friends with his pleasant discourses after dinners and suppers, which, glancing upon a little marble pillar of the window, from thence hit the Marquis upon the side of his head, and fell down flattened upon the table, which breaking the pillar in pieces, it made such a noise in the room, that his daughter-in-law, the Countess of Glamorgan, who stood in the same window, ran away as if the house had been falling down upon her head, crying out, ‘O Lord! O Lord!’ But at length, finding herself more afraid than hurt, she returned back again, no less excusing her—as she was pleased to call it—rudeness to her father, than acknowledging her fears to all the company. To whom the Marquis said, ‘Daughter, you had reason to run away, when your father was knocked on the head.’ Then pausing some little while, and turning the flattened bullet round with his finger, he further said, ‘Gentlemen, those who had a mind to flatter me, were wont to tell me that I had a good head in my younger days; but, if I don’t flatter myself, I think I have a good head-piece in my old age, or else it would not have been musket proof.’”

It shows how closely Raglan Castle was besieged, when on the 26th of May, about 11 o’clock at night, some of the Parliamentary soldiers could be drinking at a public house, but a little distance from the Castle, having alighted from their horses, and sent a scout to reconnoitre: who bringing them favourable news, they refreshed themselves at their ease. Meanwhile, having been observed, 60 or 80 horse were sent from Raglan to surprise them, and they succeeded in seizing three or four of their horses; but some of the Roundheads escaped in a cornfield, while most of their companions quickly mounted; some riding off were lost in the darkness, while the remainder, in a skirmish of half an hour, took two prisoners and rescued their lost horses. Many fruitless skirmishes appear to have been thus made; often as many as 150 horsemen rushing forth, only to return with the report of bootless labour.[83]

On the part of the besiegers, Captain Hooper was employed to conduct the mining approaches, which were pushed forward with great vigour.

The garrison of Raglan (estimated when in full force at 800 strong, in horse and foot) made several desperate sallies on Colonel Morgan’s forces: their bold commander often personally encountering the hostile party with marked gallantry, losing on one occasion a colour; and a cornet his life. While on the Royalist side a major and a captain were slain, besides many wounded. But when General Fairfax, sending reinforcement from Oxford, had raised Colonel Morgan’s regiment of 1500 to 3500 men, such sallies became less frequent.[92] The General, who had been at Bath to recruit his health, hastening to Raglan, put life into the siege by his presence, and, on the 7th of August, he sent in his summons to the Castle; in consequence of which, numerous messages passed between the Marquis and the General, the Marquis reminding him in one of his replies how well he was known “in Henry, Earl of Huntingdon’s time, unto your [the General’s] noble grandfather at York;” at the same time inviting some propositions to be made; specially requiring on his own behalf to have any acts of his first approved by the King, through whom, moreover, he was “above £20,000 out of purse.” The conditions offered, required, among others, that the Marquis should submit to the mercy of the Parliament; while those affecting the garrison and inmates of the Castle were honourable to all parties. In consequence of these negotiations, the Marquis, on the 13th of August, sent out a drum, desiring leave for his Commissioners to meet the next day, to arrange articles of peace; which being approved, the drum was returned with safe-conduct for the Commissioners’ coming forth, and orders given for five hours cessation of arms.

The Marquis must have been fully alive to the jeopardy in which he was placed, after ten weeks of close siege, hemmed in on every side, stores fast diminishing, the cannon ball of the enemy knocking down turret and tower, and demolishing the weaker portions of his castle, never originally intended to withstand more than the ravages of time, with the exception of a very limited portion, the Citadel itself. The main work of the enemy’s approaches, too, was then within 60 yards of the garrison’s works, and a breach already made in the eastern wall, near the library or closet tower; besides which, four mortar pieces had been advantageously planted, capable of carrying grenado shells of 12 inches diameter; also two mortar pieces in another position, capable of delivering similar shells. Captain Hooper, the engineer, expressed his expectation to be in a few days within ten yards of the castle, with trenches, which he was constructing very exact and secure; from these he purposed making galleries, mines, and numerous batteries. The General himself, not only took great interest in these military works, visiting them daily, but at that very time had designed a new approach.

On the 15th of August, final terms were to be concluded; for which purpose the meeting of the Commissioners was appointed to take place at Keventilla House, the residence of Mr. Oates, about a mile and a half from Raglan.[84]

The terms of peace being concluded on the 17th of August, the Castle was to be surrendered to Sir Thomas Fairfax for the use of the Parliament, the articles of the treaty, among others, stipulating:—That all the officers, soldiers, and gentlemen of the garrison, should march out with horses and arms, colours flying, drums beating, trumpets sounding, matches lighted at both ends, bullets in their mouths; and every soldier with twelve charges of powder and ball; with permission to select any place within 10 miles of the Castle, for the purpose of delivering up their arms to the General in command; after which the soldiers were to be disbanded and set at liberty; and safe-conduct and protection given to all the gentlemen and others who had sought refuge within the walls of Raglan Castle.

Wednesday, the 19th of August, 1646, in conformity with the treaty, the Castle was taken possession of by General Fairfax. The Marquis of Worcester, bordering on 70 years of age, infirm and careworn as he was, accosted Fairfax in a pleasant, jocose mood; yet it must have been but a melancholy cortege by which he was attended, on abandoning that roof which was soon to be destined to irreclaimable ruin. It must have appeared to the bystanders more like a military funeral procession than any other conceivable spectacle, in which, however, the glistening of arms and armour, the rustling of banners, the blast of trumpets, and the roll of drums must have been felt by all alike, as though more in mockery than evincing any cause of exultation.

The Marquis was accompanied by his son, the Lord Charles Somerset, governor of the Castle; the Countess of Glamorgan; Lady Jones and Sir Philip Jones; Dr. Thomas Bayly, the chaplain, who had also acted as one of the Commissioners from the Castle; Commissary Guilliam; together with 4 colonels, 82 captains, 16 lieutenants, 6 cornets, 4 ensigns, 4 quarter-masters, and 52 esquires and gentlemen; including also his Lordship’s numerous visitors, household, and retainers.

The General, having thus secured the last stronghold that had withstood the power of the Parliamentary army, went to Chepstow to take part the same night in a splendid entertainment, returning thence the following day to recruit himself at Bath.

There were found in Raglan Castle, a mill for the manufacture of gunpowder, 20 pieces of ordnance, only 3 barrels of powder, good store of corn and malt, beer, and various wines; not many horses, and but little hay or oats. The apartments, however, were amply supplied with rich furniture, and well stored with goods. All these the General committed to the charge of Mr. Herbert, the Army Commissioner, and others to be inventoried.

Thus far the articles of capitulation were punctually performed with regard to all matters, except only the Marquis himself. We are not very precisely informed respecting his removal, but only assured that he was in the custody of the Black Rod; and next hear of him as being in Covent Garden, probably at that official’s residence, where he was repeatedly visited by his former chaplain, the loquacious Dr. Bayly.[7] It was a base violation of the conditions in the treaty, on the part of the Parliament, to keep the Marquis in confinement, and still worse considering his age, corpulency, and bad state of health, aggravated no doubt by the excessive toils and troubles of the last few years, together with the more recent fatigues of his journey from Wales to London. Harassed, afflicted, and a prisoner, he died within the space of four months, in the custody of the Parliament’s Black Rod, in Covent Garden, on the — of December, 1646.[88]

The House of Commons, on the 20th of December, proposed allowing £500[105] for the funeral, out of the Marquis’s estate; the votes being 168 for, and 92 against so much liberality. It was resolved—“That the £500 be raised out of the plate and other goods of the Earl of Worcester, brought up by Mr. Thomas Herbert; and that the disposing of it be referred to his care, to be accountable for it to the House; and especially to take care that the said Earl of Worcester may be buried according to the Directory, and not otherwise.”[57]

In dedicating to the son his collection of the father’s “Apophthegms,” Dr. Bayly observes—“I laid your noble father in his grave, with my own hands.” He was interred in the vault of the Chapel of our Lady, now known as the Beaufort Chapel, in St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, near his great ancestor, Charles first Earl of Worcester.

Among the property at Raglan Castle, the most interesting to the biographer was that respecting which an order passed the House of Commons, on the 25th of August 1646, to the effect:—“That Mr. Thomas Herbert be enjoined to deliver all the letters and papers found at Raglan Castle, and remaining in his hands, to the Committee of the Army: Who have hereby further power to send for all such other letters and papers, found at Raglan Castle, which they shall have information of to be in the hands of any other Committee or persons; and are to report the whole to the House.”

The fate of Raglan Castle was decided by an order of the House the same day, when it was resolved:—“That the Castle of Raglan, the works about it, and the house and buildings thereof, be forthwith pulled down and demolished.” And further, “That it be referred to the Committee of the county of Monmouth, to take care that the same may be totally demolished, and all the materials thereof sold and disposed of for the best advantage of the state; deducting the charges for pulling it down; and a due account rendered for the same.”

Various orders were passed regarding the sale of estates, and disposition of the funds, sometimes to raise money for the service of Ireland, at others for reparation of losses through depriving certain noblemen of the Court of Wards, with other and numerous demands. But we must return to review the closing scene of affairs in Ireland.