Siege of Cardigan (Civil War)
Who Fought
Royalist forces under Sir Charles Gerard; Parliamentarian garrison holding Cardigan Castle
History & Significance
Charles Gerard, 1st Earl of Macclesfield, PC (c. 1618 – 7 January 1694) was an English aristocrat, soldier and courtier. He fought as a Royalist during the English Civil War, before spending a period in exile under the Commonwealth. After returning to England upon the Stuart Restoration in 1660, he was made Earl of Macclesfield by Charles II in 1679. He later fell out of royal favour and was declared an outlaw, but after a second period on the continent, he returned to England in 1688 in the retinue of William of Orange. He received several offices under the crown, including serving as the last Lord President of Wales in 1689.
The eldest son of Sir Charles Gerard, he was a member of an old Lancashire family, his great-grandfather having been Sir Gilbert Gerard (died 1593) of Ince, in that county, one of the most distinguished judges in the reign of Elizabeth I. His mother was Penelope Fitton, sister and co-heiress of Sir Edward Fitton, of Gawsworth, Cheshire.
Nothing is known about Gerard's education until he entered Leyden University on 23 March 1633. He was also educated in France under John Goffe of Magdalen College, Oxford, brother of Stephen Goffe. Dugdale states that he was "trained in the discipline of war from his youth in the United Provinces", and that on the outbreak of the First English Civil War he joined the King at Shrewsbury, and raised a troop of horse at his own charge.
At the Battle of Edgehill, Gerard commanded a brigade of Royalist foot guards, the steadiness of which largely contributed to averting absolute defeat. In this battle, as also in the operations before Lichfield in April 1643, he was wounded. He was present at the siege of Bristol (July 1643), and arranged the very rigorous terms of the capitulation. He fought with distinction in the First Battle of Newbury (20 September 1643), and took part in the relief of Newark (March 1644), when he was again wounded, thrown from his horse, and taken prisoner, but released on parole shortly before the besiegers capitulated.
Shortly afterwards Gerard was appointed in succession to the Earl of Carbery in the general command in South Wales, then strongly held by Parliamentary forces, and by 19 May 1644 had succeeded in collecting a force of two thousand five hundred horse and foot with which to begin operations. He marched by Chepstow to Cardiff, which surrendered to him, and took Kidwelly. By 12 June he had already penetrated into Carmarthenshire, and before the 18th he was in possession of Carmarthen. He rapidly reduced Cardigan, Newcastle Emlyn, Laugharne, and Roch castles, and seems to have experienced no check until he was already threatening Pembroke about the middle of July, when the garrison of that place by a sortie routed a portion of his force and obtained supplies. On 22 August he took Haverfordwest, and before the end of the month had invested Pembroke and was threatening Tenby. His forces are said to have been largely composed of Irish levies, of whose barbarous atrocities loud complaint is made in the Kingdom's Intelligencer (15–23 October 1644).
The ground they fought on
The site of Siege of Cardigan (Civil War) lies on Ashgill Rocks (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Ashgill. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone and sandstone.
Following his decisive defeat of Laugharne before Newcastle Emlyn on 16 May 1645, Gerard's advance proved so overwhelming that both Haverfordwest and Cardigan Castle, which had been recovered by the Roundheads, were evacuated on his approach, demonstrating the demoralising effect his rapid march through Wales had upon the Parliamentary garrisons holding those positions.
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- Charles Gerard, 1st Earl of Macclesfield · Wikipedia
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