(1642 - 1646)

In the Civil War most Thames Valley Catholics preferred the Royalists to the Parliamentarians; but relatively few actively supported Charles I. One of those who did was Major John Eyston, a son of William Eyston of Catmore. Another was Sir Charles Blount of Mapledurham, who was Scout Master General in the King's army. At various times Catholics were Royal Governors of Oxford and Reading, but these men came from outside the area.

The Protestant descendants of families which, a generation or two earlier, had been Catholic recusants tended to support the Parliamentarians. One such was the poet John Milton. Another was the Speaker of Parliament, William Lenthall, the son of a west Oxfordshire Catholic and nephew of the Jesuit martyr Fr Robert Southwell. (Speaker Lenthall's house stands in Hart Street, Henley-on-Thames.)

The war broke out in August 1642 and the following month Richard Deane brought two men suspected of being Catholic priests before the Mayor of Reading. They were ordered to take the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance.

Late in October Oxford became the temporary royal capital and hence the largest Royalist garrison. In early November Reading, hitherto held by Parliament, fell to the Royalists. It became their second largest garrison, with more than 3,000 soldiers stationed in and around the town.

The Governor of Reading was Sir Arthur Aston, a Catholic professional soldier. Parliamentary spies reported that he regularly dined with the local Catholics Sir Charles Blount of Mapledurham and Anthony Englefield of Whiteknights. The spies also reported 'One W. Dolmer or Dormer, a Papist' of Caversham who harboured Royalist soldiers.

The third Earl of Essex besieged Reading in April 1643. One of the Royalists in the town was John Milton's younger brother Christopher. He later became a Catholic and claimed that his brother had died one.

On the second day of the siege Essex sent some of his forces to attack Mapledurham House, which had been fortified by the Royalists. The Parliamentary forces breached the defences and pillaged the house. However, it is unlikely that they found much worth taking. Sir Charles Blount was an extravagant man who, eight years previously, had been forced to sell his household goods to pay his debts. Mapledurham was sequestrated by Parliament and Sir Charles Blount later died during the siege of Oxford. According to the diarist Anthony à Wood, he 'was killed by the sentinel, for not standing at his command'. There is a fine portrait of Sir Charles in the entrance hall of Mapledurham House.

It seems that Mapledurham was not the only local Catholic house to suffer from Parliamentary incursions. According to tradition, at some time during the Civil War Parliamentary troops burned down part of Blount's Court, the Stonor residence. It is also said that the Parliamentary Fane family, who lived some four miles north of Stonor, raided Stonor House, stabled their horses in its chapel of the Holy Trinity, and trained a cannon on the house from the top of the hill opposite.

Four days into the siege of Reading, Governor Aston was struck on the head by a piece of building debris dislodged by a cannon shot. Nine days later the garrison surrendered. Sir Arthur Aston subsequently recovered and became Governor of Oxford.

Francis Plowden (brother of Edmund Plowden II), his family and their servants had taken refuge in Reading. When the town fell they tried to escape back to Shiplake. Their coach, carrying valuables and £500 in cash (= £25,000 today) was ambushed by Parliamentary forces who stole everything except their clothes. The Plowdens spent the rest of the war in comparative safety at Oxford.

About five months after the fall of Reading, in September 1643, the first Battle of Newbury took place. There fell Robert Dormer, first Earl of Caernarfon, and grandson of the Catholic former Sheriff of Buckinghamshire. Robert Dormer had been raised as a Protestant, but had converted to Catholicism, possibly through the influence of Fr Thomas Fitzherbert, Rector of the English College in Rome. (Fr Fitzherbert was the widower of Dorothy East of Bledlow, Buckinghamshire.)

Robert Dormer expired on the battlefield proclaiming his happiness to die a Catholic serving the King. However, his dying wish, that his son be raised a Catholic, was ignored by his widow.

In November 1643 Sir William Waller's Parliamentary troops besieged Basing House. This mansion stood by the River Loddon, a tributary of the Thames, at Old Basing (12 miles S. of Reading). It was the largest private residence in England, the site covering fifteen acres within a mile and half of enclosing walls and earthworks. The 'Old House' was a medieval fortress on a defensive mound. Next to it stood the palatial 'New House' which had 380 rooms and was five storeys high.

Basing House
The tithe barn

Basing House had been converted into a palace by Sir William Paulet, first Marquis of Winchester and Treasurer to Henry VIII, Edward VI and Elizabeth I. His successor John Paulet, the fifth marquis, now owned the house. He was one of the richest landowners in England, despite being a Catholic.

The Marquis's first wife was Jane, the daughter of Sir Thomas Savage. Her sister Dorothy later married the second Earl of Berkshire, Charles Howard, and maintained a Catholic presence in Ewelme for more than thirty years. Another sister, Catherine, became a Benedictine nun at Ghent and founded the English convent at Dunkirk. But Jane herself died young. Her epitaph was composed by John Milton.

At the time of the siege of Basing House the Marquis was married to Lady Honora de Burgh, the Catholic daughter of Lord Clanricarde and Frances Walsingham.

The Marquis of Winchester had been irritated by minor Parliamentary attacks on Basing House. He had therefore obtained permission from the King to garrison the house. Many of the occupants were Catholics and the Parliamentarians regarded it as 'the only rendezvous for the Cavaliers and Papists hereabouts'.

Sir William Waller's siege lasted only nine days. It was abandoned because of bad autumn weather and a rumour that 5,000 Royalist troops were coming to relieve the garrison.

In June the following year, 1644, Basing House was besieged again. Colonel Richard Norton had greater success than Waller and was supported by a heavy mortar bombardment. By early September the Marquis's garrison had been reduced from 400 to 250 men. He therefore sent a message to Oxford saying that he could hold out for no more than ten days.

Basing House
The dovecote

Colonel Henry Gage, the Catholic commander of the Oxford garrison, raised a relief force consisting of Colonel Hawkins's regiment, a hundred volunteers and various servants. They disguised themselves as Parliamentarians and Colonel Gage, who as a young man had fought in the Spanish army, led them the forty miles to Basing.

The relief force succeeded in breaking through to Basing House, replenishing the garrison's ammunition and food. Colonel Gage and his party escaped by night and headed back to Oxford, swimming their horses across the Kennet and the Thames. The Colonel received a knighthood for this exploit.

During the siege Lord Edward Paulet, younger brother of the Marquis, tried to betray the house. He was foiled and made to execute his accomplices before being expelled from the fortress. However, he was subsequently readmitted and was with the defenders at the end of the siege.

Less than a fortnight after Colonel Gage relieved Basing House, Colonel Norton resumed the siege. More than seven weeks were to pass until Colonel Gage again relieved the garrison. By that time Norton had retreated to Farnham. It was November 1644 and two thirds of Norton's 2,000 strong force were dead, injured, ill or absent without leave. Basing House had withstood a six month siege with only the brief respite following Colonel Gage's first relief mission.

On Christmas Day 1644 the King made Colonel Henry Gage Governor of Oxford, in place of Sir Arthur Aston. The following month Gage was killed in a skirmish at Culham Bridge near Abingdon. He was given an impressive military funeral at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford where he is buried. He was a devout man who attended Mass daily. Three of his brothers were Catholic priests. A fourth, Thomas, had been a Dominican missionary to the West Indies and Central America, but had subsequently become a Puritan adviser to Oliver Cromwell.

Colonel Gage's chaplain, the Jesuit Fr Peter Wright, was later executed by the Parliamentarians at Tyburn (now Marble Arch).

The Civil War was all but lost for the King when Basing House was besieged for the third and last time. In August 1645 the Dutch siege engineer Colonel John Dalbier arrived at Basing with about 800 Parliamentary troops. He was soon joined by a company of soldiers from Reading, and later by a hundred musketeers from Southwark.

Dalbier spent a month scientifically planning his attack. He then went into action with devastating effect, causing much more severe damage than the previous random bombardment. He even tried an early form of poison gas, burning wet straw mixed with sulphur and arsenic upwind of the house.

About a fortnight after Dalbier commenced his onslaught he was joined by Oliver Cromwell, who brought state of the art heavy artillery. His largest gun is thought to have fired shot weighing between forty-eight and sixty-three pounds.

A final surrender demand was rejected outright. Paulet's motto was 'Aimez Loyauté' (Love Loyalty) and he is said to have scratched it on every pane of glass in the huge mansion. This supremely loyal Catholic Royalist had no intention of surrendering 'Loyalty House' to what he called the 'pretended authority of Parliament'.

On Friday 10 October 1645 Cromwell and Dalbier commenced a concerted artillery bombardment. By Monday evening the walls of Basing House were well and truly breached. At dawn the following morning the Parliamentarians made their final attack, spurred on by rumours of treasure stored in the House and tales of numerous Catholic priests harboured there.

The storming of the house was ferocious. Between forty and a hundred of the inmates were killed, including six Catholic priests and many noblemen. Among those captured were the historian Thomas Fuller, the engravers William Fairthorne and Wenceslaus Hollar, and the great architect Inigo Jones. According to the Parliamentarians, Jones had gone to Basing House to advise on preparing it for the siege. He was seventy-two when the house fell and was brought out naked, wrapped in a blanket. It was said that the Marquis himself was found saying his rosary in a bread-oven.

The Parliamentary soldiers were given free rein to pillage Basing House. The loot was estimated to be worth about £200,000 (= £10m today). The troops raided the cellars and it may have been here that the fire started that burned for twenty hours and completed the destruction of the palatial fortress.

The Marquis was still defiantly protesting his loyalty to the King as the house burned. The Great Loyalist, as Paulet was known, was sent to the Tower of London on a charge of high treason and his estates were sequestrated. His two sons were taken away to be brought up as Protestants. The treason charge was later dropped, but he spent years in prison and suffered huge financial loss.

Cromwell ordered demolition of what remained of Basing House. The villagers of Basing were encouraged to loot the building for materials to repair their houses, damaged during the sieges. Some of the rebuilt cottages still exist.

Basing House
The main gateway as it is today

The remains of Basing House are now in the care of Hampshire County Council and are open to the public from April to September. Outside the main complex is the superb tithe barn, where Colonel Dalbier's Parliamentary regiment was stationed. Access to the ruins is through the gateway used by Colonel Gage when he relieved the garrison. The earthworks are clearly visible, including the medieval mound on which the Old House stood. It is possible to walk among the foundations and cellars of the New House, and through the old walled garden with its dovecotes.

The defenders of 'Loyalty House' responded to the Civil War very differently to the majority of Thames Valley Catholics, but it cost them dearly.