Siege of Pendennis Castle (1646)
Who Fought
Royalist garrison of around 1,000 soldiers under Sir John Arundell (aided by Sir Henry Killigrew) defended the castle; Parliamentarian forces under Sir Thomas Fairfax besieged by land,; supported by a naval blockade of around ten ships under Captain Batten.
History & Significance
Pendennis Castle (Cornish: Kastel Penndinas) is an artillery fort constructed by Henry VIII near Falmouth, Cornwall, England between 1540 and 1542. It formed part of the King's Device programme to protect against invasion from France and the Holy Roman Empire, and defended the Carrick Roads waterway at the mouth of the River Fal. The original, circular keep and gun platform was expanded at the end of the century to cope with the increasing Spanish threat, with a ring of extensive stone ramparts and bastions built around the older castle. Pendennis saw service during the English Civil War, when it was held by the Royalists, and was only taken by Parliament after a long siege in 1646. It survived the interregnum and Charles II renovated the fortress after his restoration to the throne in 1660.
Ongoing concerns about a possible French invasion resulted in Pendennis's defences being modernised and upgraded in the 1730s and again during the 1790s; during the Napoleonic Wars, the castle held up to 48 guns. In the 1880s and 1890s an electrically operated minefield was laid across the River Fal, operated from Pendennis and St Mawes, and new, quick-firing guns were installed to support these defences. The castle was rearmed during the First World War but saw no action and was rearmed again during the Second World War when it saw action against the German Luftwaffe aircraft, but in 1956, by now obsolete, it was decommissioned. It passed into the control of the Ministry of Works, who cleared away many of the more modern military buildings and opened the site to visitors. In the 21st century, the castle is managed by English Heritage as a tourist attraction, receiving 74,230 visitors in 2011–12. The heritage agency Historic England considers Pendennis to be "one of the finest examples of a post-medieval defensive promontory fort in the country".
Pendennis Castle was built as a consequence of international tensions between England, France and the Holy Roman Empire in the final years of the reign of King Henry VIII. Traditionally the Crown had left coastal defences to the local lords and communities, only taking a modest role in building and maintaining fortifications, and while France and the Empire remained in conflict with one another, maritime raids were common but an actual invasion of England seemed unlikely. Basic defences, based around simple blockhouses and towers, existed in the south-west and along the Sussex coast, with a few more impressive works in the north of England, but in general the fortifications were very limited in scale.
In 1533, Henry broke with Pope Paul III in order to annul the long-standing marriage to his wife, Catherine of Aragon and remarry. Catherine was the aunt of Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, and he took the annulment as a personal insult. This resulted in France and the Empire declaring an alliance against Henry in 1538, and the Pope encouraging the two countries to attack England. An invasion of England appeared certain. In response, Henry issued an order, called a "device", in 1539, giving instructions for the "defence of the realm in time of invasion" and the construction of forts along the English coastline.
The ground they fought on
The site of Siege of Pendennis Castle (1646) lies on Middle Devonian (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Middle Devonian. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone and sandstone.
The most striking detail of the siege is the extremity to which the Royalist garrison was driven before Sir John Arundell would consider yielding. After five months of Parliamentarian blockade, the defenders of Pendennis had exhausted their provisions to such a degree that they were reduced to slaughtering and eating their horses. Only once even that resource was spent did the indomitable 'Jack-for-the-King' consent to treat with the enemy, and he did so on terms that preserved his honour, securing what the sources describe as an honourable surrender.
- No combat casualty figures recorded; sources note the garrison lost around 300 men to starvation during the siege, with roughly 900 survivors (some terminally ill from malnutrition) departing after the surrender.
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