Worcestershire in the English Civil War Gloucestershire, made the county vulnerable to raiding and requisitions. Nevertheless, the county was strategically vital to the Royalists, as a bridge from their mostly Western territories including Wales and Ireland back to their headquarters in Oxford. Worcestershire also provided the Royalists with industrial capacity to produce armaments and munitions. In June 1644, General William Waller's force of around 10,000 men pursued the King's army into Worcestershire as it retreated from Oxford. Waller was supported by the residents of Evesham, who repaired their bridge which had been broken to slow his passage into Worcestershire; the town was heavily fined and the
Cornwall in the English Civil War Parliamentarian cavalry broke through the encircling Royalists and escaped to Plymouth. On 1 September the Royalists took Castle Dore and Essex escaped by sea, leaving his 6000 infantry, artillery and baggage train under the command of Sir Philip Skippon, who surrendered the following day. The Royalists confiscated the Parliamentarians' weapons and then allowed them to return to Portsmouth. Afflicted by bad weather, hunger, disease and attacks from local people, 1000 of the disarmed soldiers died along the way. Their time in Lostwithiel saw the vandalism of Lostwithiel Stannary Palace, Jonathan Rashleigh's Menabilly House, the destruction of all the constitutional Charters