Siege of Lyme Regis

Siege of Lyme Regis
Part of the First English Civil War
Date 20 April 1644 – 16 June 1644 Location Lyme Regis, Dorset 50°43′30″N 2°56′24″W / 50.725°N 2.940°W / 50.725; -2.940Coordinates: 50°43′30″N 2°56′24″W / 50.725°N 2.940°W / 50.725; -2.940
Belligerents
Royalists	Parliamentarians
Commanders and leaders
Prince Maurice	Thomas Ceeley Robert Blake
Strength
4,000 troops	500 troops, plus civilians, later reinforced with 240 extra troops and around 900 seamen
Casualties and losses
over 2,000	around 120
Location in the south of England

The siege of Lyme Regis was an eight-week blockade during the First English Civil War. The port of Lyme Regis, in Dorset, was considered to be of strategic importance because it controlled the main shipping route between Bristol and the English Channel. Thomas Ceeley and Robert Blake commanded the town's Parliamentarian defences during the siege, which was laid by Prince Maurice between 20 April and 16 June 1644.

At the start of the war, Lyme Regis was claimed by a pair of local members of parliament, and garrisoned for the Parliamentarians. King Charles I ordered the capture of the town in early 1644, and sent his nephew, Maurice, with 5,000 troops. The siege was laid on 20 April, but despite a steady bombardment, and three attempts to storm the town by ground, the earthen defences of the town that had been established by Blake held fast. Lyme Regis was regularly re-provisioned and reinforced by sea, weakening the effectiveness of the siege, and on 14 June, Maurice withdrew from the siege in the face of a relieving army led by Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex.

In the late 16th century, Lyme Regis was an important port, busier than Liverpool and one of the main links between England and mainland Europe. The combination of strong Puritan beliefs, and demands from King Charles I for ship money meant that upon the outbreak of the First English Civil War, the town was sympathetic to the Parliamentarian cause. Two local members of parliament (MP), Thomas Trenchard and Walter Erle claimed Lyme Regis for the Parliamentarians in 1642, and set about fortifying the town. Thomas Ceeley, another local MP, was assigned as governor of the town and its forces. He immediately set about removing those with Royalist loyalties from the area, and sent harrying forces around the region, as far as Exeter and Somerset. Lyme Regis had no permanent fortifications, and so Robert Blake established a set of earthen walls, ditches and forts around the perimeter of the town.