User:GCAN57/Helmsley Castle

Introduction

Helmsley Castle was a Royalist stronghold in North Yorkshire during the First English Civil War. It was besieged by Parliamentarian forces in August 1644 and surrendered on 22 November after a siege of two to three months.

The military situation in Yorkshire in 1644

The Parliamentarian victory at Marston Moor on 2 July 1644 destroyed the Royalists’ northern field army. This meant the Royalist garrisons and strongholds scattered across northern England could now be subjected piecemeal. The main task of Lord Fairfax, commander of the Parliamentarian forces in Yorkshire, was the reduction of the remaining Royalist garrisons in the county. He began with Helmsley Castle.

The castle and its defences

There had been a castle at Helmsley since at least the twelfth century. It had seen various owners over the centuries, but by the sixteenth century possession was in the hands of the Manners family. With the death of Francis Manners, 6th earl of Rutland, the castle passed to his daughter, Katherine Manners who was married to George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, the favourite of James I. Through Katherine the castle would descend to their son, the 2nd Duke of Buckingham.

The castle was built on an outcrop of rock on the north bank of River Rye. The main ward, roughly rectangular in shape, was surrounded by high curtain walls punctuated at intervals by towers. The castle keep, known as the East Tower, lay about halfway along the east wall. The castle was surrounded by two deep, steep-sided ditches separated by a bank. The main gate to the castle was in the south wall. This was further protected by a massive Southern Barbican which stood on an enlarged section of the bank between the two ditches. The curtain walls extended across the inner ditch to join the Southern Barbican to the main defences.There was a second smaller barbican on the north side of the castle. This also stood on the bank between the ditches but was not connected to the main curtain walls.

The opening of the siege

The exact date the siege started is uncertain. Several authorities state it was in September, but on 22 August, Lord Fairfax reported from York that his forces were now besieging Knaresborough, Pontefract, Scarborough and Helmsley. So it seems the siege must have started by that date.

The Parliamentarian force was under the command of Sir Thomas Fairfax, Lord Fairfax’s son. The Royalist garrison consisted of about 200 men and was under the command of Sir Jordan Crossland, a committed Royalist who was later to convert to Roman Catholicism. (Cooke 2011 p65-6)

The conduct of the siege

Fairfax’s plan seems to have been to reduce the castle by starvation rather than by assault or bombardment. There is little evidence for the use of artillery at Helmsley. The Parliamentarians certainly had artillery at the siege as we are told that the subsequent siege of Knaresborough could not start until the artillery had arrived from Helmsley. (Cooke 2011 p65-6) It may be that Fairfax lacked guns powerful enough to knock down Helmsley’s walls. (Binns 2004 p115).

The Royalists for their part mounted an active defence, conducting a number of sallies from the castle. (Cooke 2011 p66)

The wounding of Sir Thomas Fairfax

One of the more notable incidents during the siege was the wounding of Sir Thomas Fairfax. There are two versions of how this happened. In one version, Sir Thomas was leading a counterattack against a Royalist sortie when he received two wounds from musket shot which fractured his shoulder blade and broke his arm. In the other version, he was shot by a marksman from the castle keep while visiting the besiegers’ lines. (Cooke 2011 p66). Sir Thomas in his own account gives no details of how the wound occurred, but he leaves no doubt of its severity: ‘After this (i.e. Marston Moor and the surrender of York) I went to Helmsley to take in ye castle there, but received a dangerous shott in my shoulder and was brought back to Yorke; All for some time being doubtful of my Recovery.’ (A Short Memoriall, YAJ 1883-4)

Capture of Forbes

Fairfax was replaced as Parliamentary commander by Sgt-Major General Forbes, described in the Royalist news sheet Mercurius Aulicus as ‘an insolent Scot’. Forbes and several of his officers were captured in early October in one of the garrison’s occasional sorties. (Binns 2003 p115)

Crossland’s proposed articles of surrender

By the beginning of November, conditions in the castle were deteriorating and Crossland sent out a set of propositions for surrendering the castle.

The garrison would be allowed to march out with all the honours of war, i.e. “…with their arms loaded, matches lighted, colours flying, and drums beating”, and convoyed to the Royalist stronghold of Scarborough. Private goods inside the castle, including those belonging to the Duchess of Buckingham, were to be respected. Prisoners were to be exchanged, including Forbes. Crossland also stipulated “That the Castle of Helmesley was to be absolutely demolished, and that no garrison hereafter be kept there by either party.” It was unusual for the garrison of a besieged castle to themselves insist on its demolition as part of the terms of surrender; Crossland presumably wanted to ensure the castle could not be held against the Royalists in the future. The last article stipulated that both sides would wait until 16 November to see if the garrison would be relieved by Prince Rupert, failing which the articles would be implemented. (Cooke 2011, p67-8)

The relief attempt

By this time a relief attempt was in the offing, though it is uncertain whether Crossland was aware of this when he set out his articles. (Cooke 2011, p68) On 4 November, (Cooke 2004 p152) Sir John Mallory, commander of the Royalist garrison at Skipton Castle, sent a troop of horse to join up with a force from Knaresborough Castle and attempt the relief of Helmsley. (Cooke 2011, p68) (Binns 2004 p115). On 12 November (Cooke 2011 p68) this force took the besiegers by surprise and scattered them, at least initially. However, the Parliamentarians rallied and under the command of a Major Sanderson (Binns 2004 p115) they counterattacked and drove off the relieving force inflicting a heavy loss in killed and captured. The parliamentary journal A Perfect Diurnal, gives the names of 9 officers and 44 men captured by the Parliamentarians. (Cooke 2011 p68-9)

The castle surrenders

The failure of the relief attempt left the garrison with no choice but to surrender. The terms proposed by Crossland on 6 November were accepted by Colonel Francis Lascelles on behalf of Lord Fairfax. (Binns 2004 p116) On 22 November 1644, Crossland with his 100 remaining men quitted the castle and marched off to join Sir Hugh Cholmley’s force at Scarborough. (Cooke 2011, p69) On taking possession of the castle, the Parliamentarians acquired nine artillery pieces,300 muskets and pikes and six barrels of gunpowder. (Clark 2004 p117)

Aftermath

The Parliamentarians subsequently rendered the castle indefensible by demolishing sections of the curtain wall and blowing down the eastern wall of the keep. (Cooke 2011, p69)

References

• Cooke, David (2011). Yorkshire Sieges of the Civil Wars. Barnsley: Pen & Sword. ISBN 978 1 84415 917 8.
• Newman, Peter (1981). The Battle of Marston Moor 1644. Chichester: Antony Bird. ISBN 0 907319 00 9.