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The siege of Basing House near Basingstoke in Hampshire, was a Parliamentarian victory late in the First English Civil War. Whereas the title of the event may suggest a single siege, there were in fact three major engagements. John Paulet, 5th Marquis of Winchester owned the House and as a committed Royalist garrisoned it in support of King Charles I, as it commanded the road from London to the west through Salisbury. The first engagement was in November 1643, when Sir William Waller at the head of an army of about 7,000 attempted to take Basing House by direct assault. After three failed attempts it became obvious to him that his troops lack the necessary resolve, and with winter fast approaching Waller retreated back to a more friendly location. Early in 1644 the Parliamentarians attempted to arrange a secret surrender of the Basing House with the temporary commander Lord Charles Paulet, but the plot was discovered, Lord Charles was relieved of command and tried for treason, and so the plot failed. Parliamentary forces continued the siege by garrisons on the static approaches to Basing house to stop the Royalists foraging and relief convoys getting through. Then on 4 June 1644, Colonel Richard Norton using Parliamentary troops from the Hampshire garrisons closely invested Basing House and attempted to starve the garrison into submission. This siege was broken on 12 September 1644 when a relief column under the command of Colonel Henry Gage broke through parliamentary lines. Having resupplied the garrison he did not tarry but left the next day and returned to Royalist lines. The Parliamentarians reinvested the place but by the middle of November threatened by a Royalist army and his besieging force decimated by disease Weller ended the investment. Five days later on 20 November Gage arrived with fresh supplies. The last and final siege took place in October 1645. Oliver Cromwell joined parliamentary forces besieging the House with his own men and a siege train of heavy guns. They quickly breached the defences and on morning of the 14 October 1645 the House was successfully stormed. As the garrison had refused to surrender before the assault—during the two years of the siege, upwards of 2,000 Parliamentarians were slain.—the attackers, who had little sympathy for those they perceived to be Roman Catholics, killed about a quarter of the 400 members of the garrison, including ten priests, (six of whom were killed during the assault and four others held to be executed later). During the assault the House caught fire and was badly damaged. What remained was "totally slighted and demolished" by order of Parliament, with the stones of the House offered free to anyone who would cart them away. ==Prelude== Sir William Paulet, created Baron St. John of Basing by Henry VIII, and Earl of Wiltshire and Marquis of Winchester by Edward VI, "converted Basing House from a feudal castle into a magnificent and princely residence." }} Among the inhabitants of the House during the siege were a number of notable men of letters and the arts, some of them were Royalist soldiers and others as Royalist refugees from London. William Faithorne, a pupil of Robert Peake's father was one of the besieged, and has left a clever satirical engraving of Hugh Peters (an enemy at the gate), as well as many other fine portraits. Yet another engraver, and a still more famous one, was in the House, was Wenceslaus Hollar (see Virtue's Life of him) engraved a portrait of the Marquis. Other inmates were Inigo Jones, the great architect, and Thomas Fuller, author of the "''Worthies of England''" who is said to have been engaged on that work at the very time of the Siege, and to have been much interrupted by the noise of cannon. (''History of the Holy Ghost Chapel'', p. 24.) Another man of letters found shelter at Basing House, where he lost his life, viz. Lieut.-Colonel Thomas Johnson, M.D., the editor of ''Gerard's Herbal'', and author of several botanical works. Captain William Robbins, a prominent comic actor in the Jacobean and Caroline eras, was killed during the siege. Sir William Waller, who was more active than Earl of Essex, was at that time the favourite of those in the Long Parliament who believed that greater energy would produce more successful results. On 4 November 1643 he placed at the head of a new South-Eastern Association, comprising the counties of Kent, Surrey, Sussex, and Hampshire.〔 Citing: ''L.J.'' vi. 294〕 What supplies could be procured were hurried forward to his headquarters, and on 7 November he set out to besiege Basing House—Loyalty House, as its owner loved to call it—the fortified mansion of the Catholic John, Marquis of Winchester, now garrisoned by a party of London Royalists. Basing House commanded the road to the west through Salisbury, as Donnington Castle, now garrisoned for the King, commanded the more northern road to the west through Newbury. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Siege of Basing House」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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