Qualla: Siege of Worcester (1643)

Siege of Worcester (1643): Introduction

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dr Threadway Nash - No Treadway Nash, Public domain. Sir William Waller's trumpeter rode up to Worcester's Sidbury Gate at dawn on 29 May 1643 and demanded the city's surrender. Colonel William Sandys, the acting Royalist governor, told him with elaborate rudeness to get lost. The trumpeter, who knew the rules of war, refused to leave without a proper reply. Sandys came back. The trumpeter answered again, insultingly. Captain Beaumont, beside Sandys, ordered the sentry to shoot, and the sentry shot the trumpeter through the thigh. He fell from his horse mortally wounded. Worcester had not yet been besieged for an hour and already the city had made an enemy of one of the most popular generals in the Parliamentary army.

Image: Dr Threadway Nash - No Treadway Nash | Public domain

Siege of Worcester (1643): Why Waller Came

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Philip Halling, CC BY-SA 2.0. He had come because he could not afford not to. Six weeks earlier, on 13 April 1643, Sir William Waller had been beaten by Prince Maurice at the Battle of Ripple Field, and the Royalists had paraded one of his captured colours through Oxford. To recover his reputation, Waller def...

Image: Philip Halling | CC BY-SA 2.0

Siege of Worcester (1643): Three Days at Diglis

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Philip Halling, CC BY-SA 2.0. After the trumpeter fell, Waller opened with his guns at six in the morning. The artillery duel ran for hours - some accounts say it continued from dawn until ten that night - without his eight cannons ever silencing the city's forts. An assault on the eastern walls, near the Fri...

Image: Philip Halling | CC BY-SA 2.0

Siege of Worcester (1643): Retreat by River

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Philip Halling, CC BY-SA 2.0. His withdrawal was a piece of dark improvisation. Waller commandeered every boat he could find on the Severn around Worcester, loaded his guns, his baggage, and his wounded onto them, and sent them downriver to Gloucester. He then sent foragers as far north as Ombersley to confis...

Image: Philip Halling | CC BY-SA 2.0

Siege of Worcester (1643): What the Worcester Women Did

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Philip Halling, CC BY-SA 2.0. The most striking story to come out of the siege is what happened after. Waller had been able to advance in cover only because of the trees, hedges, and small houses that lay outside the city walls, and he might come back. The garrison decided that everything within musket-range ...

Image: Philip Halling | CC BY-SA 2.0

Siege of Worcester (1643): What It Cost Waller

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nilfanion, created using Ordnance Survey data, CC BY-SA 3.0. He had not lost the war; he had lost something subtler. Until Worcester, William Waller had been the most popular Parliamentary general in the country. The pamphlets had nicknamed him "William the Conqueror." After Worcester he was a man who had attacked a fortified city with ins...

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