The Armies of Sir Ralph Hopton: The Royalist Armies of the West 1642-46

Nothing sums up the tragedy of the English Civil War more than the friendship between Sir Ralph Hopton and the Parliamentarian general Sir William Waller as “this war without an enemy.” Hopton was one of the first commanders to support the king and helped secure Cornwall for the Royalist cause.

In fact Sir Ralph Hopton commanded three armies during the Civil War; the first was made up of the famous Cornish infantry, which would become the backbone of the Royalist war effort in the West. This army was absorbed into Prince Maurice’s army after the fall of Bristol to the Royalists in July 1643. His second army was raised during the autumn of 1643 and was disbanded to reinforce the King’s Oxford Army after the battle of Cheriton. Finally Hopton commanded the remnants of the Royalist army in the West during the death throes of the cause in 1646.

By using contemporary sources this book describes the life, and death, of a soldier during the Civil War. Chapters include recruitment, clothing, equipping and training of Hopton’s armies as well as his campaigns, including those of Prince Maurice, Sir Richard Grenville and George Lord Goring. It also looks at the divisions within the royalist high command which ultimately lost King Charles the war. It also looks at what happened to these soldiers once the fighting was over.