Siege of Lyme Regis

Siege of Lyme Regis
Part of the First English Civil War
Date 20 April – 16 June, 1644 Location Lyme Regis, Dorset 50°43′30″N 2°56′24″W / 50.725°N 2.940°W / 50.725; -2.940 Result Parliamentarian victory
Belligerents
Royalists	Parliamentarians
Commanders and leaders
Prince Maurice	Thomas Ceeley Robert Blake
Strength
2,500 – 6,000 troops	500–1,000 troops 240 reinforcements c. 900 seamen Civilians
Casualties and losses
2,000+	c. 120

Lyme Regis

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Dorset and Lyme Regis

The siege of Lyme Regis was an eight-week blockade during the First English Civil War. The port of Lyme Regis, in Dorset, was considered to be of strategic importance because of its position along the main shipping route between Bristol and the English Channel. Thomas Ceeley and Robert Blake commanded the town's Parliamentarian defences during the siege, which was laid by Prince Maurice between 20 April and 16 June 1644.

At the start of the war, the people of Lyme Regis were predominantly Puritans, and the town was claimed by a pair of local members of parliament and garrisoned for the Parliamentarians. Most of the rest of Dorset, and the south-west of England in general, was under the control of the Royalists. The town, which only had sea-facing defences, feared an attack and Blake was charged with its fortification. He established a series of earthen defences featuring four forts which completely surrounded the town.

King Charles I ordered the capture of the town in early 1644, and sent his nephew, Maurice, with around 4,000 troops. The siege was laid on 20 April, but despite a steady bombardment, and three attempts to storm the town by ground, the town's defences held fast. Lyme Regis was regularly re-provisioned and reinforced by sea, weakening the effectiveness of the siege, and on 14 June, Maurice withdrew from the siege in the face of a relieving army led by Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex.