POLITICAL HISTORY troops of horse as a permanent garrison."' Towards the end of October the leading royalists of Radnorshire and of South Wales assembled at Presteigne under Lord Herbert, the eldest son of the earl of Worcester, to concert operations for the recovery of Hereford ; but they allowed themselves to be surprised there by a detachment of Stamford's force under Fleming, Kyrle's lieutenant, who made several prisoners. The consequences of the occupation of Hereford were not long in declaring themselves. On 2 November the parliamentary party rose in Pembrokeshire, garrisoned Haverfordwest, Tenby, and Pembroke, and sent to Stamford for assistance. On the other hand the marquis of Hertford succeeded in mustering the forces of the other South Welsh counties for Charles, and Stamford had no force numerous enough to cope with Herbert's levies, although it was most important for him to succour the rising in Herbert's rear. He could only forward the application to Bristol and London, while he himself was fully occupied by the plundering raids of royalist bands from Raglan under the command of Lord Herbert."* The first blood shed in Herefordshire was occasioned by a detachment under Kyrle surprising a body of these marauders at Ewyas Harold on 13 November. But, notwithstanding this slight success, Stamford's position was becoming very dangerous. On 12 October Charles had marched on London from Shrewsbury, drawing Essex after him. Before the battle of Edgehill on 23 October Essex had left Colonel Thomas Essex to occupy Worcester with his regiment. But about 5 November Thomas Essex was obliged to shift his quarters to Gloucester, whence later he was ordered to remove to Bristol. The marquis of Hertford put down the insurgents in Pembroke- shire towards the close of the year, and Stamford found himself isolated amid a hostile population in a situation in which a reverse would be fatal. More- over the shifting of the main campaign eastward had lessened the strategic importance of his position and rendered it imperative to concentrate the parHamentary forces remaining in the west. On 14 December, having called in an outpost at Goodrich Castle, he retired unmolested to Gloucester, after disarming the train-bands and appropriating the stores in the magazines. Immediately on his departure Colonel Sir Richard Lawder took possession of Hereford on behalf of the royalists, while a few days later the marquis of Hertford passed through the town on his way to join Charles at Oxford with 2,000 men. On 20 December he appointed Fitzwilliam Coningsby of Hampton Court, who had been newly nominated sheriff of the county, governor of the city and garrison of Hereford. Heavy contributions, amounting to jCs^ooo monthly, were laid on the county for the king's needs,"' though it may be doubted whether they were raised in full. Parliament also laid a weekly assessment of ^437 loj. on Herefordshire for the support of their armies, and appointed commissioners for the county and the city "° to form committees of administration. For the present, however, these measures had no practical effect owing to the county being almost entirely in the hands of the king. "'Nehemlah Wallington to George Willingham, 7 Oct. 1642, S.P. Dom. cccxcii, 32, printed in Archaeob^a, xxxv, 331-4.
- » Webb, Memorials, i, 194-5 ; "Lords Joum. 21 Nov. 1642. ^'^ Perfect Diurnall, 2 Feb 1642-3
For the county, Sir Robert Harley, Sir Richard Hopton, Walter Kyrle, Edward Broughton, and Henry Vaughan ; for the city, Sir Robert Harley, Walter Kyrle, Richard Hobson, John Flackett, and Henry Vaughan Webb, Mem. 1, 247 ; Rushworth, Hist. Co!. Ill, ii, 313. / & • 389
