Cheshire men have always been good fighters. They have played their
part bravely on many a battlefield at home and abroad, and honour
shall first be done to the soldiers of the shire. In civil war there
was little unity amongst the gentlemen of Cheshire. They fought with,
or against, each other as party faction or inclination dictated; but
against the enemies of England they were formidable foes. The great
Civil War that raged between King and Parliament brought most of these
Cheshire soldiers into prominence, and most of the names on our list of
warriors are connected with that period.
In the wars with France when the third King Edward reigned, Cheshire
men showed well the stuff they were made of, their valour and bravery
in arms. Foremost amongst their number in this group of early warriors
stands Sir Thomas Danyers, who fought gallantly in the battle of Crecy
under the banner of the Black Prince. He plunged into the thickest of
the fight, and when the King bade his son “win his spurs and the honour
of the day for himself,” Sir Thomas “relieved the banner of his Earl
and took prisoner the Chamberlain of France, de Tankerville.” For this
gallant feat of arms the Prince rewarded the Cheshire knight with a
goodly sum of money, and the promise of the grant of an estate in his
native county. This promise was not fulfilled until after the warrior’s
death, when the fair lands of Lyme were bestowed upon his daughter, who
had married Sir Piers Legh; and thus the famous family of the Leighs of
Lyme began their existence, and happily the connection still survives
after the lapse of many centuries.
Another brave soldier of the period was Sir John Delves, who with
his companions in arms contributed greatly to the glorious victory
of Poictiers. That fight was memorable for Cheshire men. The gallant
James, Lord Audley, a native of the shire, though he lived in
Staffordshire, had for his four squires, John Delves, Dutton of Dutton,
Foulshurst of Crewe, and Hawkeston of Wrine Hall, a Cheshire man though
residing in Staffordshire. When the battle day dawned Audley vowed to
be foremost in the field and lead the attack, and “with the ayde of
his four scuyers dyd marvels in arms, and foughte always in the cheyfe
of the batyle; y^t day he never toke prisoner, but always foughte and
wente on his enemyes.” He was sorely wounded, and was borne from the
field by his faithful squires. For his bravery the Prince made him
a grant of five hundred marks a year for ever. This reward the good
knight handed over to his squires, saying that they had deserved it as
much as he, and had more need of it. So the Prince gave him a second
grant of a like amount. Audley, as a further reward to his squires,
ordered that they should bear on their coats of arms his own proper
achievement, gules a fret, d’or. Sir John Delves purchased Doddington,
near Nantwich, where he erected a goodly mansion in 1364, and where the
statues of himself and his brave companions, carved in later times,
could be seen. There is an alabaster effigy of Sir Robert Foulshurst,
one of the gallant squires, in Barthomley Church.
[Illustration: Sir Hugh Calveley’s Tomb, Bunbury Church.]
Sir Hugh Calveley sleeps at Bunbury, a mighty hero of the French wars
who fought under the brave leader Sir John Chandos. You can see his
fine alabaster tomb, a lion couching at his feet, and his crest, a
calf’s head, which he bore on many a foreign battlefield. Fuller says
of him: “Tradition makes him a man of teeth and hands, who would feed
as much as two, and fight as much as ten men; his quick and strong
appetite could digest anything but an injury, so that the killing a man
is reported the cause of his quitting this country, making hence for
London and France. Here he became a most eminent soldier.” It were vain
to tell of all his exploits. He fought in Brittany in 1357, at Auray
in 1364, Navarete in 1367, in Brittany again with Sir John Arundell in
1380, when the expedition was almost entirely destroyed by a storm and
20,000 men perished. Many of these warriors lived a wild and turbulent
life during the wars, and Sir Hugh, perhaps repenting of his deeds, in
his old age converted the Parish Church of Bunbury into a collegiate
church, with a master and six chaplains to pray for his soul. One of
his companions in arms was Sir Robert Knowles, born of mean parentage
in Cheshire, but brave and valiant. He fought with Sir Hugh Calveley in
Brittany in 1351, when thirty Englishmen encountered the like number of
Bretons and were sorely worsted. The ruined castles that he left behind
him in France were termed “Knowles’s Mitres.” His last service to his
country was the suppression of Wat Tyler’s rebellion.
The Wars of the Roses claimed some Cheshire victims. On the bloody
field of Blore Heath, when the Earl of Salisbury defeated Lord Audley
and the Yorkists on September 25, 1459, fell Sir Robert Booth, the
ancestor of the Booth family of Dunham Massey. His brass memorial,
with that of his wife, the heiress of that estate, is in the church
at Wilmslow. Sir William Stanley, second son of the first Lord
Stanley, in the time of Henry VII. held Ridley, being Chamberlain of
Cheshire. He distinguished himself at the battle of Bosworth, rescuing
Henry from great peril and saving his life. He was the first to set
the crown of England on King Henry’s head, after it had been found on
the battlefield trampled under the feet of the fighters. A gratified
monarch bestowed upon him wealth and honour, but he was accused of
favouring the design of Perkin Warbeck, and perished on the scaffold.
His manor of Ridley was forfeited to the Crown and given to another
distinguished soldier, Sir Ralph Egerton, who fought bravely at the
battle of the Spurs, and at the siege of Terouenne and Tournay,
capturing the standard of the French. He also fought at Flodden Field,
and was appointed royal standard-bearer of England, a high distinction
nobly earned. He lies in the church at Bunbury, and from him descended
the lines of the Earls and Dukes of Bridgewater.
Of the brave men of Elizabethan times we may mention the Cheshire
warrior Sir Uryan Legh, of the Leghs of Adlington, who, present at the
taking of Cadiz under the leadership of the Earl of Essex in 1590,
was knighted for his gallantry, and in the time of James I. became
Sheriff of Cheshire. You can see his portrait at Bramall Hall attired
in Spanish dress, in which, according to an old ballad, he wrought
mischief in the heart of a fair Spanish lady who made violent love
to him, and could only be deterred by the somewhat lately imparted
knowledge that Sir Uryan had already a wife. Sir George Beeston,
another gallant soldier, lies at Bunbury, where a fine monument records
his memory. He was one of those who, though advanced in years, took an
active part in defeating the Spanish Armada, and fought valiantly at
the siege of Boulogne.
Fiercely did the great Civil War rage in Cheshire, and fiercely did
the Cestrians fight. Foremost among them was Sir William Brereton, the
great Cheshire leader of the Parliamentary army, and commander-in-chief
of the Cheshire forces. The story of his fights is the history of the
Civil War in this and the neighbouring counties, and cannot be told
here. His relative Lord Brereton, the owner of the seat Brereton, one
of the finest mansions in the county, was a brave supporter of the
Royalist cause. Sir William lived to see the Restoration, and died at
the archiepiscopal palace at Croydon, which had been granted to him
by the Parliament. Lord Brereton returned to his goodly house, but
families, alas! become extinct, and the name once so famous in Cheshire
history now no longer exists save in memory.
Colonel Edward Massey, of the ancient family of the Masseys of
Coddington, was a soldier of fortune who fought on both sides in the
war. He, however, threw in his lot with the enemies of the King, and
was made Governor of Gloucester. He held the city during the siege; but
on the triumph of the Independents his career was chequered, and he
found his way back to the King, and became Major-general in the Royal
army. History tells not when he died.
Another Parliamentary leader was Colonel Robert Dukinfield, of
Dukinfield, who came of an ancient Cheshire family. He defended
Stockport Bridge against Prince Rupert, laid siege to and captured
Whiltenshaw, became Governor of Chester, took part in the disgraceful
court-martial of the Earl of Derby, who was judicially murdered at
Bolton, and obtained the surrender by the Countess of the Derby estates
in the Isle of Man. He wrote a delightful letter to Cromwell, in which
he tells the Protector that he firmly believes that the root of the
tree of piety is alive in him, though the leaves thereof, through the
abundance of temptations and flatterers, seemed to the writer to be
withered much of late, yet he hoped time and experience would have
a good influence upon his lordship, _Deo juvante_. This letter, and
other outspoken words, did not endear Dukinfield to the Protector’s
followers, who showed their distrust of him. However, he crushed
the abortive rising of Sir George Booth, and received the thanks
of the Parliament and a reward for his services. He did not escape
persecution at the Restoration, but the Royalists admired the staunch
old Colonel, and the King made his son a baronet.
This Sir George Booth, who before the return of Charles II. was
appointed commander-in-chief of the King’s forces in Cheshire,
Lancashire, and North Wales, and headed an abortive attempt to restore
his Majesty to the throne, was well rewarded for his services. After
his defeat he escaped in a woman’s habit, riding on a pillion behind
one of his grooms. But his sex was detected by the landlord of an
inn where he sojourned, and he was captured and sent to the Tower.
In 1660 the House of Commons voted him £10,000 for his services in
effecting the Restoration. He was created Baron Delamere of Dunham
Massey, and was appointed Custos Rotulorum for the county. He died at
Dunham Massey, and was buried at Bowdon in 1673. In his attempt to
regain the throne for Charles II. he was greatly assisted by Roger
Grosvenor, ancestor of the Dukes of Westminster, who have always “stood
by their pious principles of faith and loyalty,” as Randle Holme
truly testifies. His son, Sir Thomas, commanded a troop in the Earl
of Shrewsbury’s regiment of horse in 1685, which encamped at Hounslow
Heath, and he was offered a peerage by James II. for his answer to the
repeal of the Test Acts, a bribe which he had the courage to resist. He
was M.P. for Chester, Mayor of the city, and Sheriff of the county.
The Astons were unfortunate Royalists. Sir Thomas was defeated by Sir
William Brereton at Middlewich, and Sir Arthur, after being Governor
of Reading, and earning the praise of his sovereign, who deemed that
“there was not a man in his army of greater reputation, or one of whom
the enemy had greater dread,” lost his leg and then his life in the
slaughter of the garrison of Tredagh, in Ireland. Two other gallant
Royalists must be mentioned, Sir Francis Gamul, of Buerton, who watched
from the Phœnix Tower with the King the fatal fight of Rowton Heath,
and helped him to escape from his enemies; and Sir Geoffrey Shakerley,
who performed many deeds of daring during the war; and at Rowton Heath,
in order to convey a message to the King, crossed the Dee in a tub,
holding the bridle of his horse, which was swimming at the side. He
was a good friend and servant of the King, Governor of the Castle of
Chester, and lies beneath his fine monument at Nether Peover Church.
Henry Booth, Earl of Warrington and Baron Delamere, second son of
Baron Delamere before mentioned, played as distinguished a part in the
Revolution and in establishing William III. on the English throne as
his father had done for Charles II. A brave assertor of his country’s
rights, and a defender of the Protestant religion, he fell foul of
James II., and was tried on a groundless charge of high treason, the
notorious Jefferies being his accuser. He escaped that peril, and soon
raised an army in Cheshire and Lancashire to aid Dutch William. To
him fell the duty of telling the last Stuart king that he must leave
Whitehall, treating the fallen monarch with a respect and deference
that touched his Majesty. Many honours were heaped upon him, including
the Earldom of Warrington and a pension of £2000 a year; but he did
not long enjoy his dignity, as death summoned him at the early age of
forty-two years in 1693-4.
Colonel, and afterwards General, Werden risked his life and fortune for
King Charles, had to fly from the country, and continued with the royal
family until the Restoration, after which he was appointed to several
offices of trust, and was comptroller of the royal household. His son
John was created a baronet, and held many important posts.
Sir Roger Mostyn, of Mostyn, Baronet, was a gallant soldier who raised
1500 men for the King’s service, captured Hawarden Castle, was Governor
of Flint Castle, which he maintained until the death of the King’s
cause. His house of Mostyn was plundered, and he was imprisoned in
Conway Castle; at the Restoration a baronetcy was the reward of his
services.
Doubtless Cheshire had many other brave soldiers, but this list must
now suffice.