Appendix 3 Biographies of 4 of the Military commanders at the

Battle of Roundway Down, Devizes 1643

The information in the appendix comes courtesy of the British Civil Wars & Commonwealth website and its author David Plant.

1) Sir Ralph, Lord Hopton, 1596 - 1652,  a Somerset landowner Royalist Army

He was a Royalist commander in the First Civil War. One of the most talented of the King's generals, he secured south-western England for the Royalist cause. Ralph Hopton was born at Witham, Somerset, the eldest son of a wealthy landowner, Robert Hopton, and his wife, Jane, daughter of Rowland Kemeys of Monmouthshire. Ralph was said to be a child prodigy who could read by the age of three. After grammar school, he studied at Lincoln College, Oxford, and the Middle Temple, but in 1620, he abandoned his studies to take part in Sir Horace Vere's expedition to rescue Elizabeth of Bohemia from Imperial Catholic forces. During the expedition, Hoptonbecame friends with William Waller when they served together in Elizabeth's lifeguard. Hoptoncarried Elizabeth on the back of his horse for forty miles during her escape from Prague. Upon his return to England, he was elected MP for Shaftesburyin1621 and married Elizabeth Capel Lewin (d.1646) in 1623. He gained further military experience in 1624 when he served as lieutenant-colonel in Sir Charles Rich's regiment on Count Mansfeldt's expedition to the Palatinate.

Hopton was made a Knight of the Bath in the coronation honours list when King Charles I came to the throne, then elected MP for Bathin1625 and for Wells in 1628. After inheriting his family's estates upon the death of his father in 1636, Hopton lived the life of a country squire. Throughout the 1630s, he served as a Justice of the Peace and Deputy-Lieutenant of Somerset. On the outbreak of the Bishops' Wars in 1639, Hopton returned to military service and was appointed a captain in the King's lifeguard.

In 1640, Hopton was elected MP for Somerset in the Short Parliament and for Wells in the Long Parliament. He was prominent in denouncing the Earl of Strafford, and also advocated reform of the Church and further measures against Catholics. As a trusted confidante of the King, Hopton was chosen to lead a delegation to present the Grand Remonstrance at Hampton Court on 1 December 1641. In all other respects, he remained instinctively loyal to the Crown. He defended the King's right to levy ship-money and spoke in favour of bishops retaining their religious offices and their seats in the House of Lords. In January 1642, Hopton supported Charles' attempt to arrest the Five Members. After he angrily protested at Parliament's criticism of the King, Hopton was arrested by order of the House of Commons on 4 March 1642. He was held in the Tower of London for two weeks. Upon his release from the Tower on 15 March, Sir Ralph declared his allegiance to King Charles.

Hopton attended the King at York in July 1642 then went with the Marquis of Hertford to rally Royalist support in the West Country. Confronted by strong Parliamentarian resistance in Somerset, Lord Hertford withdrew to south Wales, while Hoptonrode into Cornwall at the head of 160 horse and dragoons. He gained the co-operation of Sir Bevil Grenville and other Royalists, but leaders of the Cornish Parliamentarians tried to arraign him at Truro Assizes for bringing armed forces into the Duchy. Hopton turned the tables by persuading the jury that his cause was lawful and was authorised to mobilise the militia to drive the Parliamentarians out of Cornwall. Finding the militia unwilling to cross the River Tamar into Devon, however, Hopton set about recruiting a volunteer army. After unsuccessful attempts to capture Plymouth and Exeter, he drove back a Parliamentarian advance into Cornwall at the battle of Braddock Down in January 1643. In May, he defeated the Earl of Stamford at the battle of Stratton, which left Devon and Somerset open to invasion by the Cornish Royalists.

Hopton joined forces with Prince Maurice and the Marquis of Hertford in June 1643 to march against Sir William Waller, Hopton's former comrade-in-arms and now commander of Parliament's western army. The marginal Royalist victory over Waller at Lansdown in July 1643 was soured by heavy losses, including the death in action of Sir Bevil Grenville. Hopton himself was seriously injured when an ammunition wagon was accidentally blown up the day after the battle. The Royalists withdrew to a defensive position at Devizes until Lord Wilmot arrived with reinforcements to inflict a decisive defeat on Waller at Roundway Down on 13 July 1643. The western army then joined Prince Rupert at the storming of Bristol, where the Cornish army suffered further heavy losses. After the capture of Bristol, Hopton was appointed lieutenant-governor of the city and raised to the peerage as Baron Hopton of Stratton.

In September 1643, having recovered from his wounds, Hopton was appointed commander of Royalist forces in south-western England and ordered to advance on London. He marched eastward into Hampshire and Sussex, intending to threaten London from the south. He captured Arundel Castle in December 1643, but his advance was halted by Waller, then driven back the following spring at the battle of Cheriton (March 1644). After the failure of the campaign against London, Hopton's forces were absorbed into the King's main army, and Hopton himself returned to his post at Bristol. He was back in an active military role in July 1644 when the King marched into the west in pursuit of the Earl of Essex. Hopton commanded a division in the manoeuvres to encircle and trap Essex's army at Lostwithiel. In August, Hopton was appointed General of Ordnance and served in this post until the end of 1644.

In March 1645, Hopton was appointed to the Council of the Prince of Wales at Bristol as chief military adviser, but it proved impossible to co-ordinate the volatile Royalist commanders in the west, Lord Goring and Sir Richard Grenville. Hopton took personal command at the siege of Taunton, but a detachment from the New Model Army raised the siege on 11 May. The following month, the King's army was decisively defeated at Naseby. When General Fairfax led the New Model into the West Country, the Prince's Council retreated to Exeter. Hopton was appointed lieutenant-general of the western army early in 1646, but by then the Royalist cause was lost. He was defeated by Fairfax at the battle of Torrington in February 1646. Having ensured the Prince of Wales' escape from England, Hopton surrendered to Fairfax at Truro on 14 March 1646 before following the Prince into exile. Around this time, Hopton's wife Lady Elizabeth Hopton, who had accompanied him on many of his campaigns, died in Jersey.

Hopton attended Prince Charles on Scilly, Jersey and in Flanders, but left his service when the Prince decided to join Henrietta Maria in France. Like most members of the Council, Hopton was deeply suspicious of the influence of the Catholic Queen. He stayed with his uncle Sir Arthur Hopton, who had been the English ambassador to Spain, and lived in Rouen. During his exile in Rouen, Hopton wrote Bellum Civile, his account of the civil war in the West Country. Hopton rejoined Prince Charles at The Hague in July 1648 and remained with him during the summer's naval campaign in the North Sea. After the execution of King Charles I in January 1649, Hopton was appointed to Charles II's privy council but finally parted from him over the terms of the Treaty of Breda in June 1650. Hopton regarded Charles' agreement to impose Presbyterianism in England as a betrayal of the Anglican Church.

Hopton returned into exile and died of a fever in September 1652 at Bruges. His body was kept embalmed until 1661, when it was transferred to the parish church near his ancestral home at Witham, Somerset. In 1672, following a ruling by the House of Lords, Hopton's estates, which had been confiscated by Parliament, were returned to his sisters.

Sources:

John Barratt, Cavaliers, the Royalist Army at War 1642-46 (Stroud 2000)

A.H. Burne & P. Young, The Great Civil War (London 1959)

C.H. Firth, Ralph, Lord Hopton (1598-1652), DNB 1891

Hopton, Mark, The King's Man in the West, www.newman-family-tree.net

Ronald Hutton, Ralph, Baron Hopton, Oxford DNB, 2004

Bellum Civile: Hopton's narrative of his campaign in the West, www.archive.org

2) Lord Henry Wilmot, 1st Earl of Rochester, 1612-58 Royalist Army

%uFEFF%uFEFF%uFEFF%uFEFF%uFEFFHenry Wilmot was the third son of Charles, 1st Viscount Wilmot(d.1644) and his wife Sarah, daughter of Sir Henry Anderson. Henry became a soldier in the Dutch service (1635-39), and was with George Goring and Sir Charles Lucas at the siege of Breda in 1637, where he was badly wounded. He returned to England in 1639 and was appointed commissary-general of the King's cavalry in the Bishops' Wars. At the battle of Newburn (August 1640), Wilmot gallantly led a charge against the advancing Scottish infantry, but his inexperienced troops were routed. Elected MP for Tamworth in the Long Parliament (November 1640), Wilmot was a member of the group of militant Royalists that attended Queen Henrietta Maria. He was expelled from Parliament in December 1641 for alleged complicity in the Second Army Plot, in which a group of Royalist officers was suspected of plotting to seize the Tower and occupy the City of London in the King's name.

On the outbreak of the First Civil War, Wilmot was re-appointed commissary-general of horse in the King's army. He fought at the successful cavalry skirmish at PowickBridge, but soon quarrelled with the volatile Prince Rupert. Like Rupert, he left the battlefield to chase fleeing Parliamentarians at Edgehill. In December 1642, Wilmot and Lord Digby led a troop of dragoons in a daring attack on the town of Marlborough in Wiltshire. The Cavaliers fought street by street to overpower the defenders, then plundered the town. The victory opened a line of communication from Oxford to the south-west and gave control of the Wiltshire cloth and wool trade to the Royalists. Promoted to lieutenant-general of horse and raised to the peerage as Lord Wilmot of Adderbury (29 June 1643), he commanded the cavalry force sent from Oxford to relieve Sir Ralph Hopton's beleaguered Royalist army at Devizes. Wilmot's victory over Sir William Waller at Roundway Down in July 1643 destroyed Parliament's entire western army. Early in 1644, Wilmot was left in command of the cavalry of the Oxford army while Prince Rupert was away on campaign. He took part in the Oxford campaign and the battle of Cropredy Bridge in July 1644, where Waller was once again defeated.

Wilmot's involvement in court politics faltered after the Queen's departure for France. He alienated the King's powerful civilian advisers Lords Digby and Culpeper by attempting to raise support in the army for their dismissal. In August 1644, Wilmot secretly attempted to negotiate a treaty with the Earl of Essex in the hope of persuading the King to make peace with Parliament. When this came to light he was arrested at the head of his own troops and dismissed from his command. But Wilmot was popular, particularly with the "Old Horse", his élite cavalry brigade, and his arrest resulted in a near-mutiny. Rather than have him court-martialled, the King decided to send Wilmot into exile along with Lord Percy, who was also implicated in the conspiracy. He went to France, where he attended the Queen once again. In October 1647, he was wounded in a duel with his enemy Digby.

Wilmot found favour with the Prince of Wales and was appointed a gentlemen of the bedchamber when the Prince succeeded as Charles II in 1649. He supported the Royalist alliance with the Covenanters, accompanying Charles on his expedition to Scotland in 1650 and during the subsequent invasion of England in 1651. He was with Charles throughout the Worcester campaign and went on the run with him for six weeks during his legendary escape through England after the battle. Wilmot became one of Charles' closest friends during his exile, and received the first peerage granted in Charles II's reign when he was created first Earl of Rochester in December 1652. Rochester used his charm and diplomatic skills to raise funds for the Royalist cause from various German princes during 1653-4. He was sent to England in 1655 to command an uprising planned by the Royalist conspirators of the Sealed Knot, but the plan failed ignominiously with Penruddock's Uprising of March 1655. Rochester was fortunate to escape back to the Continent.

In 1656, Rochester was involved in negotiating the alliance between Charles and the Spanish, which resulted in Royalists fighting for Spain in the Anglo-Spanish War against England and France. He took command of the Royalist regiment of foot that later became the Grenadier Guards, but he died of fever on campaign at Sluys in Flanders in February 1658.

Henry Wilmot married twice. His first marriage (August 1633) was to Frances Morton, daughter of Sir George Morton of Clenston, Dorset. She died before 1644, when he married Anne Lee, widow of Sir Francis Henry Lee. Their son, John Wilmot (1647-80), who succeeded as the second Earl of Rochester, became a noted poet and libertine at the Restoration court.

Sources:

C.H. Firth, Henry Wilmot, first earl of Rochester, DNB, 1900.

Ronald Hutton, Henry Wilmot, first earl of Rochester, Oxford DNB, 2004

3) Sir William Waller c.1598 to 1668  Parliamentary Army

Waller was the leading Parliamentarian commander in southern England during the first three years of the English Civil War, later a political leader of the Presbyterian faction in the House of Commons.

William Waller was born at Knole House in Kent, the son of Sir Thomas Waller, lieutenant of Dover Castle. During his childhood and youth, Waller experienced several narrow escapes from accidents and illness that he regarded as signs of his preservation as a special instrument of God's purpose. He attended Magdalen College, Oxford, then travelled in France and Italy, gaining his first military experience in 1617 when he joined a company of English volunteers fighting for the army of the Venetian republic against the Archduke Ferdinand of Austria. In 1620, Waller joined Sir Horace Vere's expedition to the Palatinate to rescue Elizabeth of Bohemia, where he first befriended Ralph Hopton. Waller and Hoptonservedas members of Elizabeth's lifeguard at Prague. After the defeat of the Bohemians at the battle of the White Mountain (November 1620), they escorted Elizabeth and her children through the snow in her escape to Frankfurt. When Waller came of age, he inherited a substantial fortune. He was knighted by James I in June 1622. Two months later, he married Jane Reynell, only daughter and heiress of a prosperous Devonshire family. Jane died in May 1633, after giving birth to a son (1631) and daughter (1633). Waller built an impressive monument to her in Bath Abbey in which he is represented in armour beside her. A few years later, he married Anne Finch, daughter of the Earl of Winchelsea and a close relative of John Finch, who became Lord Keeper in 1640. Lady Anne was a zealous Puritan with strong opinions of her own. After an uncertain start, the marriage proved happy and produced four children. In 1638, Waller acquired Winchester Castle and forest land in Hampshire. He set about renovating the castle and involved himself in land and property dealing until 1640, when he stood for Parliament. Although initially unsuccessful, Waller was eventually elected to the Long Parliament in May 1642 as MP for Andover in Hampshire.

Waller did not hesitate to support Parliament on the outbreak of the First Civil War in August 1642 — though Royalists claimed that his allegiance was dictated by Lady Waller. Appointed to Parliament's Committee of Safety, Waller contributed generously to Parliament's war fund and raised his own regiment of horse. In one of the earliest actions of the war, Waller captured PortsmouthforParliament in September 1642. The following month he fought at Edgehill, where his regiment was scattered in Prince Rupert's charge. Like Cromwell, Waller quickly realised the importance of training cavalry to match the Cavaliers.

During the last months of 1642, Waller was active in southern England securing the south-western approaches to London. He captured Farnham Castle, Winchester, Chichester and Arundel Castle in quick succession, becoming the hero of London and earning the nickname "William the Conqueror". His string of victories continued into the spring of 1643, when he was appointed Major-General of the West. He secured the vital port of Bristol for Parliament, captured Malmesbury and scattered Lord Herbert's newly-recruited Welsh levies at Highnam. Waller advanced further west, capturing Ross-on-Wye, Monmouth and Chepstow, and threatening to invade the Royalist recruiting-grounds of Wales. He was finally driven back by Prince Maurice at Ripple Field in April 1643. Waller then began a campaign where he fought against his old comrade-in-arms Sir Ralph Hopton, who was appointed commander of the combined Royalist armies in the west. Waller was narrowly defeated at Lansdown (5 July 1643), then suffered what he called his "dismal defeat" at Roundway Down (13 July 1643). “...That great God who is the searcher of my heart knows withwhat a sad sense I go upon this service, and with what a perfect hatred I detest this war without an enemy; but I look upon it as sent from God and that is enough to silence all passion in me ... We are both upon the stage and must act such parts as are assigned us in this tragedy. Let us do it in a way of honour and without personal animosities...” From Waller's letter to Sir Ralph Hopton, 16th June 1643 .

Despite this setback, Waller remained popular in London. He was regarded as a champion of the parliamentary "War Party", which wanted a decisive military victory over the King. Waller's commander the Earl of Essex was associated with those who sought a negotiated settlement. Essex's lack of military success during the spring and summer of 1643 led to severe criticism of his generalship; Waller believed that but for the defeat at Roundway Down he would have replaced Essex as commander-in-chief of Parliament's armies.

In October 1643, Waller was appointed commander of Parliament's newly-formed Southern Association army. He besieged Basing House in November but abandoned the siege as news came of Hopton's advance through Hampshire and Sussex towards London. After skirmishing and siege manoeuvres through the winter of 1643-4, Waller defeated Hopton at the battle of Cheriton (29 March 1644), which was Parliament's greatest victory of the war to date and demonstrated that the Roundhead cavalry was at last equal to that of the Royalists. Waller's military reputation was at its height. He was particularly noted for his abilities as a tactician, often gaining an advantage through night marches and other unexpected manoeuvres.

Ordered by the Earl of Essex to shadow the King's army while Essex himself proceeded on his disastrous western campaign, Waller was defeated at Cropredy Bridge on 29 June 1644. After the humiliating surrender of Essex's army at Lostwithielon2 September, Waller's army was too weak to prevent the King's return to Oxford. Waller joined forces with the Earl of Manchester to prevent the King from marching on London at the second battle of Newbury in October 1644 and campaigned again in the west during the spring of 1645 with Oliver Cromwell as his second-in-command. He was beset by mutinous and disorderly troops and a shortage of money, and this was to be his last campaign. Parliament had responded to Waller's suggestion that the army should be reorganised on a national rather than a regional basis and staffed by professional officers. This led to the formation of the New Model Army in February 1645. Waller was obliged to resign his commission under the terms of the Self-Denying Ordinance in order to retain his seat in the House of Commons.

Waller continued as an active member of the Committee for Both Kingdoms until the end of the First Civil War. As a member of the Committee for Irish Affairs, he tried to persuade disbanding soldiers to re-enlist for Parliament's projected invasion of Ireland. During the summer of 1647, tension between the Army and Parliament escalated, resulting in the Army's occupation of London in August. By then a member of the Committee of Safety and identified with the militant Presbyterian faction, Waller was one of the Eleven Members forced by Army leaders to withdraw from the House of Commons. He fled to Holland, where he was joined by his wife and family. They spent a year in exile, settling at The Hague, where Waller was able to attend Elizabeth of Bohemia once again.

On June 1648, Parliament voted to re-admit the Eleven Members and Waller returned to England. However, he was excluded at Pride's Purge in December 1648 and was one of five Presbyterians arrested on suspicion of conspiring to invite the Engager invasion of England. He spent the next four years in prison, first at St James Palace, then Windsor Castle and finally at Denbigh Castle in North Wales, where his wife died. After his release from prison in 1652, Waller married his third wife, Lady Anne Harcourt, who bore him another three children.

Waller became a Royalist sympathiser during the Commonwealth and Protectorate years and was regularly under suspicion of involvement in conspiracies against the state. He was arrested for complicity in Booth's Uprising in 1659, and spent ten weeks imprisoned in the Tower. In 1660, he was involved in the negotiations for the return of Charles II and was elected MP for Westminster in the Convention Parliament which laid the groundwork for the Restoration. After the King's return, Waller retired into private life at his estate at Osterley, Middlesex, where he died in 1668.

Sources:

John Adair, Roundhead General (London 1969)

Barbara Donagan, Sir William Waller, Oxford DNB, 2004

C.H. Firth, Sir William Waller, DNB 1899

J.H. Hexter, The Reign of King Pym (Harvard 1941)

4) Sir Arthur Hesilrige, 1601- 1661 a puritan Parliamentarian

He was a fiery republican soldier and politician who fought for Parliament, quarrelled with Cromwell and inadvertently initiated the Restoration of the monarchy.

Arthur Hesilrige was the eldest son of Sir Thomas Hesilrige (also spelt "Haselrig", "Hazelrig", Haselrigge"), baronet, of Noseley in Leicestershire. He became a baronet and inherited extensive estates in the Midlands on the death of his father in 1630. Hesilrige held radical political and religious views and was an outspoken critic of King Charles' Personal Rule. He was brought before the court of High Commission several times for non-payment of fees and taxes and was briefly imprisoned in the Tower of London. After his first wife died, Hesilrige married Dorothy Greville, the sister of Lord Brooke, in 1634. Through Brooke, he came into contact with the network of Puritan critics of King Charles headed by Lord Saye and Sele.

Hesilrige was elected one of the knights of the shire for Leicestershire in both the Short and Long Parliaments where he was associated with John Pym and the opponents of the King's government. He played a leading role in the impeachment of Lord Strafford and proposed the bill of attainder by which Strafford was condemned to death. Hesilrige was also active in instigating the Root and Branch Bill, aimed at the abolition of bishops, and the Militia Bill. Regarded as one of the King's leading opponents, Hesilrige was among the Five Members whom the King attempted to arrest in January 1642.

When the First Civil War broke out, Hesilrige raised a troop of horse and fought on the Parliamentarian right wing at Edgehill under Sir William Balfour. During the latter part of 1642, Hesilrige served as second-in-command to Sir William Waller on his campaign in southern England during which he was an enthusiastic participant in the desecration of the cathedrals at Winchester and Chichester. In 1643, Hesilrige campaigned with Waller on the Welsh border but his cavalry troop suffered severe losses at Ripple Field. He returned to London where he raised a new regiment of horse which, unusually for the civil wars, he equipped as armoured cuirassiers. Hesilrige's regiment became known as the "Lobsters" and formed the heavy cavalry in Waller's army. He rejoined Waller in time to take part in the battle of Lansdown in July 1643, but the Lobsters were routed at Roundway Down eight days later. Hesilrige himself was wounded in both battles and almost died from the injuries he sustained at Roundway Down. He continued to serve with Waller, and in March 1644, Hesilrige's cuirassiers played a decisive role in the defeat of the Royalists at the battle of Cheriton. After participating in the second battle of Newbury in October 1644, he supported Oliver Cromwell's criticism of the Earl of Manchester's generalship. When Parliament adopted the Self-Denying Ordinance, Hesilrige resigned his commission in the army and became a leader of the Independent faction in the House of Commons.

Hesilrige returned to military duties in December 1647 when he was appointed governor of the strategically-important city of Newcastle amid rumours that a Scottish army was being raised for the invasion of England. He retained control of Newcastle throughout the Second Civil War. In August 1648, Hesilrige recaptured Tynemouth Castle from Henry Lilburne, who had defected to the Royalists.

Despite his republican sympathies, Hesilrige disapproved of Pride's Purge in December 1648 and declined to sit as a judge at the King's trial. He stayed away from London until after the King's execution then resumed his seat in Parliament in February 1649. Hesilrige became a leading figure in the Commonwealth and a member of the Council of State. He remained a powerful figure in Northumberland and Durham and amassed a large fortune through dealing in sequestered Royalist estates and former church lands. He was often accused of corruption and of abusing his position for personal gain, notably by John Lilburne who claimed that Hesilrige was a worse tyrant than the Earl of Strafford had been.

During the early 1650s, Hesilrige's influence in Parliament grew. He became a leader of the opposition to the Council of Officers as tension mounted between Parliament and the Army over the political and religious settlement of the nation. Hesilrige flaunted his personal wealth by acquiring a notoriously ornate coach and dressing his servants in velvet. He further provoked the Army radicals by persuading Parliament to abandon a debate on poor relief in February 1653 and he scornfully dismissed Cromwell's scheme to appoint an interim government of godly men to replace the discredited Rump Parliament. It may have been Hesilrige's initiative to continue the parliamentary debate over the new representative that provoked Cromwell into forcibly expelling the Rump Parliament on 20 April 1653.

Hesilrige broke completely with Cromwell after the expulsion of the Rump. He was not appointed to the Nominated Assembly and vehemently opposed Cromwell's elevation to the office of Lord Protector in December 1653, refusing to pay taxes not sanctioned by Parliament. In 1654, he was elected MP for Leicestershire in the First Protectorate Parliament during which he emerged as one of the severest critics of the Protectorate government. He withdrew from Parliament after refusing to subscribe to the "Recognition" of the Protectorate insisted upon by Cromwell. In 1656, Hesilrige was elected to the Second Protectorate Parliament but he was one of the members excluded from sitting in the first session by the Council of Officers. He refused Cromwell's offer of a seat in the new Upper House and was re-admitted to the Commons for the second session of parliament in January 1658. Hesilrige was involved in the drafting of a petition calling for the abandonment of the Protectorate and the restoration of the Commonwealth that led Cromwell to dissolve Parliament in February 1658. After Oliver Cromwell's death in September 1658, Hesilrige refused to support his successor Richard Cromwell. In the early sessions of the Third Protectorate Parliament, Hesilrige attempted to delay discussion of the Act of Recognition of the new Protector in the hope that his authority would be compromised. When Richard was forced to recall the Rump Parliament in May 1659, Hesilrige hoped to establish a civilian republican government. His uncompromising efforts to bring the Army under civilian control tended to alienate the military leaders from Parliament. Hesilrige unwittingly set in motion the train of events that led to the Restoration by calling for the impeachment of Colonel Lambert — with the result that Lambert threw an armed guard around the Palace of Westminster, ejected Parliament and dissolved the Council of State. Hesilrige was one of nine members of the Council who refused to accept the dissolution and appealed to General Monck for support against Lambert and the military junta that had seized power. While Monck prepared to march south in December 1659, Hesilrige went to secure the naval base at Portsmouth for Parliament where he was greeted warmly by the republican governor, Nathaniel Whelan. Forces sent by the junta to besiege Portsmouth were persuaded to join with the garrison and declare for Parliament. Hesilrige returned to London at the end of December with three regiments to support the reinstatement of the Rump Parliament, which met again on 26 December. During the brief final revival of the Commonwealth, Hesilrige was the unofficial leader of Parliament. He was re-appointed to the Council of State and to the army commission and believed that he had finally achieved his goal of a civilian-led republican government in England. Hesilrige realised too late that General Monck intended to recall Charles Stuart and is said to have dropped his opposition to the Restoration when Monck promised that his own life would be spared. Nevertheless, he was accepted from the Act of Indemnity and imprisoned in the Tower of London in May 1660. He died there in January 1661 before he could be brought to trial. He was succeeded in his family estates by his son, Thomas Hesilrige.

Sources:

C.H. Firth, Sir Arthur Heselrige or Haselrig, DNB, 1891

Godfrey Davies, The Restoration of Charles II, 1658-60 (San Marino 1955)

Christopher Durston, Sir Arthur Hesilrige, Oxford DNB, 2004

Stuart Reid, All the King's Armies (Staplehurst 1998)

Blair Worden, The Rump Parliament (Cambridge 1974)