Noble Deeds of the World's Heroines

by Henry Charles Moore

LADY BANKES AND THE SIEGE OF CORFE CASTLE.

During the Great Rebellion many brave deeds were performed by women. Royalists and Parliamentarians each had their heroines, and we can honour them all, irrespective of party, for their devotion to the cause which they had espoused, and rejoice in the fact that they were British women.

Lady Bankes was a woman whom Roundheads as well as Cavaliers admitted to be a noble specimen of an English lady. She was the wife of the Right Honourable Sir John Bankes, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas and a member of His Majesty's Privy Council.

When it began to appear that the differences between King Charles and his Parliament would be settled by arms, Lady Bankes retired with her children to Corfe Castle, in Dorsetshire. Sir John was on circuit at the time, but it was soon discovered that he had supplied the king with money to carry on war against his Parliament, and for this reason he became a marked man. He was not, however, a Royalist who hoped to keep his appointment by concealing his opinions from the Roundheads. At the Salisbury assizes he made his charge to the grand jury an opportunity for denouncing as guilty of high treason several peers who had taken up arms against the king. For this Parliament denounced him as a traitor, and declared his property forfeited.

No attempt was, however, made to seize Corfe Castle until May 1643, when all the other castles in the neighbourhood having been captured, it was the only one held by a Royalist. The Parliamentary army was well aware that Sir John Bankes was not at the castle, and that Lady Bankes had a very small force of servants to protect her, and consequently it was, for some time, not considered necessary to capture it. It was believed that Lady Bankes, shut up in her own castle, was powerless to harm Cromwell's army. But, eventually, it was decided that it was unwise not to interfere with a place that was notoriously a Royalist possession, and it was decided to capture it.

The day fixed for the event was the first of May. On that day it was the custom of the gentlemen of Corfe Castle to hunt a stag on the island, and any one who liked to do so might participate in the sport. The Roundheads decided to attend the hunt, seize the men from the castle, and then capture the castle itself. But the arrival of an exceptionally large number of people to attend the hunt aroused the suspicions of the few Royalists, who quickly withdrew to the castle and gave instructions that the gates were to be kept shut against anyone seeking admission.

Having failed to capture the Royalists in the hunting-field, the rebels came to the castle, and pretending that they were peaceable country folk, craved permission to be allowed to see the interior. The permission was refused, and some of the soldiers, angry at the failure of the plot, forgot the part they were playing, and threatened to return and gain admission by force. The officers, anxious not to arouse Lady Bankes's suspicions, loudly reprimanded their men for making foolish threats, and assured her ladyship that they had no intention of doing as their men had vowed.

Lady Bankes did not, however, believe the rebel officers, and, convinced that an attack would shortly be made on the castle, she prepared to defend it. She had no Royalist troops whatever in the castle, and her first step, therefore, was to call in a number of men whom she could rely upon. But no sooner were the men instructed in their duties than the rebels demanded that the four small guns which were mounted on the wall should be given up.

Lady Bankes refused to surrender them, and some days later forty seamen came and demanded them. Now at that hour Lady Bankes had only five men in the castle, but pretending that she had a large garrison, she refused the seamen's demand, and caused one of the guns to be fired over their heads. The report of this gun, which only carried a three-pound ball, so alarmed the seamen that they fled in dismay. They must have been very different from the men who sailed under Blake, and made the Commonwealth's navy world-famed.

No sooner had the timorous seamen fled than Lady Bankes summoned to the castle all her tenants and friendly neighbours, to assist her to hold the place until her husband should return. They came in quickly, many bringing arms, and vowed to fight for her and King Charles; but the Roundheads, discovering who had entered the castle, went to the homes of these men, and told their wives that unless their husbands returned home their houses would be burned to the ground. The frightened wives thereupon made their way to the castle and implored their husbands to return. Some of the men did as their wives desired, but others would not break the promise they had made to the mistress of Corfe Castle.

The enemy now decided to starve out Lady Bankes, and threatened to kill anyone caught conveying food to the castle. This measure was effective, for Lady Bankes, being without sufficient food and ammunition to withstand a siege, agreed to deliver up the guns, on the condition that she should remain in possession of the castle unmolested.

Lady Bankes had, however, little confidence in the honour of the attacking party, and felt assured that they would before long, in spite of their promise, endeavour to take possession of the castle. This was made evident by the behaviour of the soldiers, who, although they did not enter the castle, did not hesitate to boast that it belonged to them, and that they would take possession of it whenever it was required. But Lady Bankes was determined that it should not, if she could possibly prevent it, fall into the hands of the enemy. Therefore she gave instructions that the men appointed to watch the castle should be supplied liberally with food and drink, with the result that they neglected to do their duty, and allowed Lady Bankes to smuggle in sufficient provisions and ammunition to withstand a long siege. Moreover, Lady Bankes despatched a messenger to Prince Maurice, asking him to send a force to help her hold the castle against the enemy, and in reply to her appeal Captain Lawrence and some eighty men arrived upon the scene.

The Parliamentarians had now become aware of the fact that Lady Bankes was taking steps to render the castle capable of withstanding a siege, and they decided to occupy it at once.

On June 23, 1643, Sir Walter Earle arrived before the castle with a force of about 600 men, and called upon Lady Bankes to surrender, which she firmly but courteously declined to do. Her refusal greatly incensed the besiegers, who thereupon took an oath that 'if they found the defendants obstinate not to yield, they would maintain the siege to victory, and then deny quarter unto all, killing without mercy men, women and children.'

The Parliamentarians, possessing several pieces of ordnance, opened fire on the castle from all quarters, but did comparatively little damage, and their attempts to carry it by assault were equally unsuccessful.

When some days had passed, and the attacking forces were no nearer capturing the castle than when they first arrived, the Earl of Warwick sent to their assistance 150 sailors, a large supply of ammunition and numerous scaling-ladders. Possessing these ladders, the Roundheads anticipated that the castle would soon be in their hands. They divided their force into two parties, one assaulting the middle ward, which was defended by Captain Lawrence, and the other, the upper ward, where Lady Bankes, her daughters, women-servants and five soldiers were the sole defenders.

As the Parliamentarians fixed their ladders against the castle wall Lady Bankes and her brave assistants showered down upon them red-hot stones and flaming wood. The soldiers too, delighted at the bravery of the mistress of the castle, fought desperately, and not one of the enemy succeeded in gaining entrance to the castle.

Sir Walter Earle, seeing that he could not carry the castle by assault, withdrew with a loss of one hundred killed and wounded. He would in all probability have made another attack, but during the evening the news reached him that the king's forces were approaching, and overcome by fear he ordered a retreat, leaving behind muskets, ammunition and guns, all of which fell into the hands of Lady Bankes and her gallant garrison.

After this siege, which had lasted for six weeks, Lady Bankes was allowed to remain for two years in undisturbed possession of the castle; but she lived in the knowledge that at any time another attempt to capture it might be made, as it was the only place of any importance between Exeter and London that remained loyal to the royal cause. Threats were constantly reaching her from certain members of the Parliamentary party, and to add to her trials her husband, whom she had not seen for two years, died at Oxford on December 28, 1644.

In October, 1645, the Parliamentary army decided to make another and more determined effort to capture Corfe Castle, and a large force was sent to besiege it. Lady Bankes and her handful of men had now pitted against them some of the best regiments in the victorious Parliamentarian army, but they scorned to surrender to them.

It was in January of the following year that a young officer—Colonel Cromwell—determined to make an effort to rescue Lady Bankes, and riding with a specially picked troop from Oxford he passed through the enemy without its being discovered that he was a Royalist until he arrived at Wareham, the governor of which fired upon the troop. A fight ensued, but the daring troopers speedily captured the governor and other leading men, and rode off to Corfe Castle, only, however, to find that between them and the besieged lay a strong force of the enemy. They did not hesitate, but prepared instantly for the fight, and the besieged, cheering them loudly, made ready to sally forth and assist them.

Afraid of being caught between the two Royalist parties, the besiegers retired, and Colonel Cromwell rode up in triumph to the castle walls, and handed over to Lady Bankes, for safe custody, the Governor of Wareham and other prisoners whom he had taken.

Greatly to Colonel Cromwell's surprise, Lady Bankes declined to avail herself of the opportunity for escape which he had contrived, declaring that she would defend the castle as long as she possessed ammunition. Thinking that he could render the king greater service in the open than in a besieged castle, Colonel Cromwell rode off with his troop, but losing his way he and many of his men were captured by the enemy. Those who evaded capture made their way back to Corfe Castle, and assisted in its defence.

Days passed without the enemy improving his position in the slightest degree, and Lady Bankes would have kept the royal flag flying for many months more, had there not been traitors in the castle. Colonel Lawrence, who had gallantly assisted in the first defence of Corfe Castle, was persuaded by the Governor of Wareham to help him to escape, and to accompany him on his flight. The treachery of Lawrence was a heavy blow for Lady Bankes, but she did not despair, believing it impossible that any other of her friends would turn traitor. Unfortunately she was mistaken. An officer, who had hitherto been loyal and energetic as Colonel Lawrence, secretly sent word to the officer commanding the besieging force that if protection were given him he would deliver up the castle. The proposal was welcomed, and after much secret correspondence it was settled that fifty men of the Parliamentarian army should disguise themselves as Royalists, and be admitted into the castle by the traitor.

This plan succeeded. The men were admitted without arousing any suspicion, and not until the following morning did the garrison discover that they had been betrayed. A brief fight ensued, but resistance was useless, and with a sad heart Lady Bankes surrendered the castle which she had so nobly defended for nearly three years.

The Parliamentarian officer who accepted the surrender was a humane man, and took care that his troops should not fulfil their vow to put to death every man, woman and child found in the castle. After the place had been plundered, an attempt was made to destroy it, but the walls were so massive that its destruction was impossible, and to-day much of it is still standing.

Lady Bankes was not kept prisoner for long, and Oliver Cromwell ordained that she should not be made to suffer for her loyalty and bravery. Throughout the Commonwealth the heroine of Corfe Castle lived peacefully, and did not die until Charles II. had been upon the throne nearly a year. She died on April 11, 1661, and in Ruislip Church, Middlesex, there is a monument, erected to her memory by her son, Sir Ralph Bankes, on which is inscribed a record of her brave defence.