The first siege of Exeter took place during the First English Civil War, running from late December 1642 into early January 1643, when Royalist forces under Sir Ralph Hopton attempted to seize the city from its Parliamentarian defenders. Exeter was a prize of considerable strategic value: it was a vital port on the southern coast, an important export point for Devon wool, and its position on the River Exe gave access to internal waterways essential for transporting bulk supplies. It could also have served as a base for Royalist privateers. By the end of September 1642, most of Devon was held by Parliament while Hopton's Royalists controlled Cornwall, and securing Exeter would have extended Royalist power deep into the south-west.
Hopton had in fact made an earlier approach to the city in November 1642, when he found it occupied by a small force of Parliamentarian cavalry under Captain Alexander Pym. After a brief exchange of artillery fire the Royalists withdrew to Tavistock and turned their attention to Plymouth instead. Returning at the end of December, Hopton mounted a proper siege, with his forces capturing the nearby villages of Topsham and Powderham on the River Exe in order to cut off Exeter's resupply from the sea. He then called upon the Parliamentarians to surrender. However, Colonel William Ruthven, who had previously demonstrated his quality commanding the garrison at Plymouth, had anticipated the threat and reinforced the city beforehand, and the surrender demand was firmly rejected.
The siege collapsed with surprising speed. Within less than a fortnight, Hopton's troops were reported to be short of supplies and on the verge of mutiny, compelling him to abandon the operation and retreat into Cornwall in early January 1643. Ruthven pursued him in hopes of capturing the Royalist artillery, but was stopped by a successful rearguard action at Bridestowe. The reprieve for Exeter proved temporary: Royalist victories at Braddock Down, Stratton, and Roundway Down swept away the Parliamentarian field army in the region, and the city eventually fell in September 1643, remaining in Royalist hands until April 1646.
The most striking detail of this brief siege is how quickly Royalist resolve crumbled from within. Sir Ralph Hopton had taken considerable trouble to isolate Exeter by seizing the river villages of Topsham and Powderham, cutting the city off from seaborne resupply, and had every reason to expect the defenders to submit. Yet it was his own army that buckled first: reportedly within less than a fortnight his troops were short of provisions and threatening to mutiny, forcing the general who had secured all of Cornwall to abandon the siege and slink back across the Tamar without achieving his objective.
not recorded
not recorded
Pick any location and Aubrey pulls together everything the record actually holds about it:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Aubrey generates in-depth historical research for any location in the UK — drawing on Domesday records, scheduled monuments, Victorian OS maps, geological data and archaeological archives to tell the full story of a place.