The second and longest siege of Worcester (21 May – 23 July 1646) took place towards the end of the First English Civil War, when Parliamentary forces under the command of Thomas Rainsborough besieged the city of Worcester, accepting the capitulation of the Royalist defenders on 22 July. The next day the Royalists formally surrendered possession of the city, and the Parliamentarians entered Worcester 63 days after the siege began.
Prelude
At the start of the English Civil War Worcester City walls were in a state of disrepair, and only part of the wall was defended by a ditch. There were seven gates: Foregate to the north, Saint Martin's and Friar's to the east, and Sidbury was the main southern gate—Frog Gate below Worcester Castle was also on the south side. On the western side (facing the Severn) there was Priory Gate overlooking the ferry and Bridge (or Water) Gate at the end of Newport Street that guarded the Severn bridge entrance to the city. The gates themselves were still opened in the morning and closed each evening, but they were rotten and in a bad state of repair ("so much so that they would hardly shut, and if they were actually closed there was neither lock or bolt to secure them").
Beginning at the north-west corner of the wall adjoining the river at the bottom of Newport Street, where the Bridge Gate stood, opening out on to the bridge, the wall ran along the river bank for a short distance so as to include St. Clement's Church, which then stood in the north-western angle of the wall. The walls then ran along the south side of the Butts. Continuing along the south side of Shaw Street, by the side of the Berkeley Hospital, it included that institution in the city. It crossed over Foregate Street just where the Hop Market Hotel stands. Here, at the corner of the street between the Berkeley Hospital and the Hop Market Hotel, the gate — the north, or Foregate— stood. The wall then continued along the south side of Sansome Street. On reaching Lowesmoor it crossed over on the top of the hill and ran along the line just on the city centre side of City Walls Road (the A38) crossing Silver Street. Saint Martins Gate was located close to Corn Market and about where the roundabout is.
Passing along the back of New Street and Friar Street, where traces of it can still be seen in places, it reached Friar's Gate, which stood at the back of the old City Gaol, now the site of Laslett's Almshouse Charity, Union Street, formerly a Dominican House. The wall then went along at the back of Friar Street until it reached Sidbury. Here, just on the city side of the modern Sidbury Bridge over the canal, stood the main south gate of the city, the Sidbury Gate. The wall then ran south of Saint Peter's Church (Saint Peter's Street), across the site of the Porcelain Museum, until it reached the gate known as Frog Gate (on what was Frog lane and is now Severn Street). The wall then ran north-west joining onto a covered way that led to the Castle Hill. From this came another wall which ran down the lower part of Severn Street, until it reached the river (close to the Diglis House Hotel).
A new wall started here, turning up by the side of the river to the north. This was not, however, so strong or so important a wall as that on the other side of the city. Soon after the wall left the Diglis Hotel area, just below the cathedral, it reached the Priory Gate. From this the wall ran on to the end of Newport Street, where it joined the Bridge Gate.
It would appear that there was no ditch from this point to where the wall left the Foregate Street to Lowesmoor; at a later date an attempt was made to remedy this. Extra fortifications were placed on this part of the wall, but it always remained a weak spot in the city's defences.
Worcester was occupied by Sir John Byron on 16 September 1642, who was on his way to deliver wagons of silver plate from Oxford to the Charles I at Shrewsbury. Byron realising that he could not hold the Worcester with a Parliamentary army under the command of Earl of Essex already approaching city, he had sent a request to the King for additional forces to aid him. The Parliamentarians were aware of Byron's mission and an advanced force under the command of Colonel Nathaniel Fiennes arrived at the Sidbury Gate early on 22 September. What followed was typical of the inexperienced soldiery on both sides. The Parliamentarians were not challenged as they approached the gate and had they but known it they could have pushed it open and been into the town without difficulty. However they struck the gates with an axe which made a hole in it and then fired a musket through the hole. This aroused the lax Royalist guard who called out the Royalist garrison. The Parliamentarian assault team quickly withdrew. They then loosely invested the north of the city. In doing so they hoped to prevent Byron and his convoy leaving the city, which could be taken by Essex's main force in a day or so.
Prince Rupert was sent to escort Byron and his convoy onwards from Worcester. He attacked Fiennes's Parliamentary force at the Battle of Powick Bridge (23 September 1642), so allowing Byron's wagon-train to leave Worcestershire under Rupert's protection. Essex arrived in front of Worcester the next day with opposition his forces marched in. Essex and his army treated Worcester as a hostile city, officially for letting the Royalists in without a fight, but also due to their frustration at losing the convoy of silver and the Battle of Powick Bridge. Essex remained in Worcester for about a month before leaving with the bulk of his army for Warwickshire and on to the battle of Edgehill (23 October 1642). With the advance of the Royalist army from Edgehill towards London, most of Worcestershire was retaken by the Royalists, and Thomas Essex, the newly appointed Parliamentary governor, along with his garrison abandoned Worcester. Worcester was reoccupied by the Royalists in November 1642 and Sir William Russell was appointed governor. Worcester would remain in Royalist hands until 1646.
Once the Royalists had a secure hold on the city steps were taken to repair the walls and to fortify them against 17th century artillery. A sconce was built on the summit of Castle Hill, with cannons placed on platforms lower down the hill. Bastions were added to some of the walls and the ditch was extended. On the southern side of the city earthworks and ditches were dug outside the medieval walls.
The low hill to the south east that is now called Fort Royal was a problem for the city defenders, because from that location a besieger could set up artillery in a sconce and bombard the city walls. It was defiantly incorporated in to the city defences for the Battle of Worcester of 1651, and it was probably fortified and occupied by the garrison in 1646 siege.
The historian J.W. Willis-Bund states that although Worcester, having regard to its position, commanded by hills on each side, could never have been a strong fortress, and would possibly in the opinion of contemporary Continental European engineers be spoken of with contempt as indefensible, yet most likely it was of about the same strength as most English local towns not built as fortresses.
After the Battle of Stow-on-the-Wold, the last pitched battle of the First English Civil War, fought on 21 March 1646, the victorious Parliamentary forces set about capturing the last of the Royalist strongholds.
Colonel Sir Thomson Morgan (who had been at Stow), as soon as possible after the Royalist defeat, sent his prisoners to Gloucester, and marched his force towards Worcester, accompanied by John Birch, the governor of Hereford and Sir William Brereton and their forces. They arrived in front of the Worcester on 26 March and summoned it to surrender Henry Washington, the governor, refused. The generals, stating they had not a force sufficient to undertake the siege, drew off to Droitwich but gave Washington notice that they only did this to give him full opportunity to learn his hopeless situation. Some sort of skirmish ensued, and Birch had a horse shot under him. The three Parliament leaders after summoning Worcester then broke up their joint forces. Morgan went to Raglan, Birch to Ludlow, and Brereton to Lichfield.
For a time Worcester was not attacked, and that time was employed by Washington in making plundering expeditions in order to get in supplies. One of the forays went as far as Evesham; this probably led Morgan to appoint Major William Dingley governor of that place.
Washington knew that a siege was certain; the date when it would begin was the only uncertainty. Accordingly, on 30 March, he began clearing the ground outside the walls to prevent any buildings giving shelter to a hostile attack. Saint Oswald's Hospital was pulled down, but Mr. Somers' house at the White Ladies, a large stone house, capable of accommodating 500 men, was for some reason spared. With the timber from the houses a store of fuel was laid up, and 1,000 loads of firewood were obtained from Shrawley Wood.
The Royalist garrisons in Worcestershire that were still holding out were Dudley, Hartlebury Castle, Madresfield Court, Strensham, and Worcester. No regular operations against any of them were begun for some little time, but there were continual skirmishes in the county; parties of Parliament men moving about, parties of Royalists collecting supplies. On 19 April 1646 there was a skirmish in front of Worcester, the record of which, appears in the Kidderminster parish register, where the burial of a soldier is mentioned, under that date:
John Jones, a Parliament soldier, slain at the skirmish at Worcester.
On 27 April, about midnight, Charles I left Oxford for the last time, disguised as a servant and after failing to rendezvous with a French agent, on 5 May, he surrendered to Alexander Leslie, Earl of Leven commander of the Scottish army in England that was encamped outside the heavily fortified town of Newark-on-Trent which the Scots were besieging.
On the King's arrival, Leven insisted that he should at once order Newark to be surrendered to the Parliament. Charles did so, sending an order to the governor, Lord Bellasis, to that effect. On 8 May Newark surrendered, the Royalist officers and soldiers marched home. The next day, 9 May, the Scots marched northward, taking Charles I with them. In four days (on 13 May) they reached Newcastle-on-Tyne, where they halted and remained. On 10 June 1646, Charles issued the following warrant:
To our truly and well-beloved Sir Thomas Glenham, Sir Thomas Tildesley, Colonel H. Washington, Colonel Thomas Blagge, Governors of our cities and towns of Oxford, Lichfield, Worcester, and Wallingford, and all the commanders of any town, castle, and fort in our Kingdom of England.
Charles R.
Having resolved to comply with the desires of our Parliament in everything which may be for the good of our subjects, and leave no means unessayed for the removing of all differences amongst us, therefore we have thought fit, the more to evidence the reality of our intentions of settling a happy and firm peace, to require you upon honourable terms to quit those towns, castles, and forts entrusted to you by us, and to disband all the forces under your several commands. :
Newcastle, 10th June, 1646.
The Parliamentary commanders had not waited for this order. On 1 May 1646, Thomas Fairfax, with the aid of Philip Skippon, who had recovered from his wounds at the Battle of Naseby, began his operations against Oxford. It may have been designed for effect that Skippon returned to his command on 1 May, the anniversary of the New Model Army taking the field. Before doing more at Oxford than driving in the outposts, Banbury was attacked, and surrendered on 6 May. Fairfax now sent off as many horse as he could spare to Worcester, under the command of Colonel Edward Whalley, to harry the garrison until such time as the army were at liberty to advance against it.