Qualla: Siege of Wardour Castle

Siege of Wardour Castle: Introduction

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nilfanion, created using Ordnance Survey data, CC BY-SA 3.0. On the morning of 2 May 1643, Sir Edward Hungerford rode up to Wardour Castle in Wiltshire with about 1,300 men and ordered its surrender. Inside were fifty-five people. Twenty-five were able fighters. The defence was commanded by a 60-year-old Catholic widow named Lady Blanche Arundell, daughter of an earl, mother of the future 3rd Baron Arundell of Wardour. Her husband was off fighting for King Charles. She refused to give up the castle - 'she had a command from her lord to keep it, and she would obey his command.' The siege that followed, and the longer counter-siege that followed it, would leave the medieval castle a roofless ruin and reshape the fortunes of one of England's leading Catholic families.

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Image: Nilfanion, created using Ordnance Survey data | CC BY-SA 3.0

Siege of Wardour Castle: The Arundells, the Crown, and the Wrong Faith

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Simon Burchell, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Arundells had been on the wrong side of England's religious wars for decades. Thomas Arundell, the 1st Baron, was arrested in 1580 for his Catholic devotion and again later for accepting from the Holy Roman Emperor the title of Count, an honour the English Crown viewed with d...

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Image: Simon Burchell | CC BY-SA 3.0

Siege of Wardour Castle: Six Days in May

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Simon Burchell, CC BY-SA 3.0. Hungerford's force outnumbered the defenders fifty to one, but found the castle 'stronger than he had expected.' He called for reinforcements from Somerset under Colonel William Strode. The castle held out for six days. Royalist propagandist Bruno Ryves later wrote that the defen...

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Image: Simon Burchell | CC BY-SA 3.0

Siege of Wardour Castle: The Long Counter-Siege

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Simon Burchell, CC BY-SA 3.0. Edmund Ludlow took command of the captured castle with 75 men. The first Royalist response was disorganised: Henry Arundell, now the 3rd Baron, arrived with cavalry but lacked the numbers to enforce a real siege. By November 1643 the Royalists had organised a tight blockade. Ludl...

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Image: Simon Burchell | CC BY-SA 3.0

Siege of Wardour Castle: The Mine Beneath the West Wall

Wed, 20 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Simon Burchell, CC BY-SA 3.0. The miners tunnelled for three months. Inside the castle, provisions ran low; the well dried each evening; the garrison began slaughtering their horses for food. When the first mine finally went up - either set off accidentally by an artillery match falling into the powder, or by...

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Image: Simon Burchell | CC BY-SA 3.0