Siege of Gloucester

51°51′50″N 2°14′38″W / 51.864°N 2.2438°W / 51.864; -2.2438

Siege of Gloucester
Part of the First English Civil War
Date 10 August – 5 September 1643 Location Gloucester, Gloucestershire Result Parliamentarian victory
Belligerents
Royalists	Parliamentarians
Commanders and leaders
Charles I	Edward Massey Earl of Essex
Strength
15,650+	1,500 (Gloucester) 15,000 (Relief army)
Casualties and losses
1 killed[1] 800 desertions	30–50 killed[1]

Gloucester

Bristol

Stow

Cirencester

Tewkesbury

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Gloucestershire

The siege of Gloucester took place between 10 August and 5 September 1643 during the First English Civil War. It was part of a Royalist campaign led by King Charles I to take control of the Severn Valley from the Parliamentarians. Following the costly storming of Bristol on 26 July, Charles invested Gloucester in the hope that a show of force would prompt it to surrender quickly and without bloodshed. When the city, under the governorship of Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Massey, refused, the Royalists attempted to bombard it into submission. Massey adopted an aggressive defence, and the Royalist positions outside the city were regularly disrupted by Parliamentarian raids. The Royalist artillery proved inadequate for the task of siege work and, faced with a shortage of ammunition, the besiegers attempted to breach the city walls by mining. With Royalist miners about to reach the city's east gate and the defenders critically low on gunpowder, a Parliamentarian army led by the Earl of Essex arrived and forced Charles to lift the siege.