| King Charles I |
The Civil War started on 22 August 1642, when Charles I raised his standard at Nottingham.
North Wales was, as a whole, regarded as Royalist territory and the nobility and gentry, with
few exceptions like the majority of the Welsh counties, declared for the King.
Though the part North Wales played in the conflict was not greatly conspicuous,
it was of considerable local interest and consequence. When Charles was
mustering his forces in York in that year, he received an address from the
gentry, ministers and freeholders of the county of Flint full of intense and
fervid expressions of loyalty and allegiance. The county also paid an
assessment of £750 towards the support of the Royalist Army.
Colonel Roger Mostyn of Mostyn Hall, then just aged twenty-two years, was one
of the first of the local gentry to take up arms for the cause of the king.
Within a fortnight, under His Majesty's Commission, he raised a rough and ready
force, 1,500 strong, mostly comprised of agricultural workers, miners and
labourers, which he equipped and maintained at his own expense.
Also at his own cost, he repaired the timeworn and neglected Flint Castle, putting it in a
defensible state and garrisoned with a strong and well-armed military. It was to
serve as a useful base for harrying the besiegers of Chester and for helping
blockade runners to get into the city by water. With
Mostyn in the castle was his uncle, John Mostyn, who was a Member of Parliament
for Flintshire until he was dismissed from the House on 5 February 1643 for his
allegiance to the King.
|
Oliver Cromwell |
In 1643 a formidable Parliamentary Army of 2,000 men under Sir Thomas Middleton
and Sir William Brereton took Hawarden Castle and proceeded to Flint and
besieged the castle. Two days after the siege began, forty-six of Mostyn's cavalrymen
broke away from the castle and either surrendered to the enemy or returned to
their own homes. The gallant defenders defiantly withstood the siege until all
their provisions, including their horses were consumed when they were allowed
to march out with full military honours and to return to their homes and
occupations and instructed to make a declaration of peace with the new
authorities within six months. Both the town, which was then little more than a
rural village, and the castle suffered a heavy bombardment by the Parliamentary
batteries and the castle was also assailed by ships of war from the River Dee.
Fierce and bloody fighting raged in the streets and the town left stunned and
shattered. The county, like the whole of the country, soon faced the horrors of
war, with raids for sheep and cattle carried out by both sides to feed the
hungry troops and records show that fire-raising, murder and pillage sometimes
marked the trail of the contending armies. All able-bodied men between sixteen
and sixty were liable for military service in the war-wracked country.|
Pike |
Flint Castle, like other castles in Wales, changed hands several times during
the turmoil of the Civil War and was alternately in possession of the
Parliamentary Forces and the Royalists. One winter, when Sir Thomas Middleton
held the castle he retired when about 2,000 Irish Royalists bedraggled and in a
sorry plight were landed at Mostyn docks and the castle was temporarily
abandoned. Flint Castle was retaken by the Royalists under the command of Sir William Vaughan in September 1645 where they were joined by the garrison from Beeston Castle after its capitulation but the castle was surrended to General Mitton on 29 August 1646.|
Matchlock Musket |
Young Colonel Roger Mostyn seemed undaunted by his reverses at Flint, for he
later raised another troop and returned to the fray in defence of Chester. When
after a terrible siege the city was taken by the Parliamentary Forces, Mostyn
escaped and crossed to Dublin, where he managed to recruit another contingent
of fighting-men for the Royalists. In 1658 he was captured and imprisoned for a
brief time in Conway Castle. He was later released upon his own parole,
'To be in his own House at Mostyn and to do nothing prejudicial to the
present Government'. Like any Royalists, he suffered severely for his
loyalty and had spent over £60,000 of his personal fortune in the campaign.
Many of the family treasures from Mostyn Hall were sold and for several years
he lived quietly at Plas Ucha, a large farmhouse on the estate. The gentry
among the North Wales Royalists were heavily fined by the new Parliament for
their support of Charles I. Roger Mostyn, described as 'The Governor,
Flint Castle' was fined £825 and his neighbour Robert Pennant fined £40.6.8.
'For taking up arms for the King'. However, with their great
resources of land and properties and commercial interests, the family fortune
was eventually regained and after the Restoration, the valiant Colonel Roger
Mostyn was rewarded by Charles II in 1660 when he was created a baronet for his services.