Article of the day for September 23, 2016
The Article of the day for September 23, 2016 is Sieges of Taunton.
The sieges of Taunton (23 September 1644 – 9 July 1645) during the First English Civil War were a series of three blockades of the town and castle of Taunton in Somerset. During all three, Robert Blake commanded the Parliamentarian defences of Taunton, which straddled the main road from Bristol to Devon and Cornwall. The first assault, by Royalist troops from local garrisons, initially drove Blake and his troops into the castle, before settling into a siege intended to starve the town into submission. The defenders were relieved by a force under James Holborne in December. The Royalists began the second, and bloodiest, siege in late March; in May, after five days of intense fighting, a Parliamentarian relief army led by Ralph Weldon forced a retreat. Lord Goring renewed the blockade in mid-May, after engaging Weldon's departing army and forcing it back into Taunton, but the siege was ineffective. The Parliamentarian defence tied up Goring's troops, who missed the decisive Battle of Naseby. Historians believe those troops could have tipped the battle in favour of the Royalists.
The sieges of Taunton (23 September 1644 – 9 July 1645) during the First English Civil War were a series of three blockades of the town and castle of Taunton in Somerset. During all three, Robert Blake commanded the Parliamentarian defences of Taunton, which straddled the main road from Bristol to Devon and Cornwall. The first assault, by Royalist troops from local garrisons, initially drove Blake and his troops into the castle, before settling into a siege intended to starve the town into submission. The defenders were relieved by a force under James Holborne in December. The Royalists began the second, and bloodiest, siege in late March; in May, after five days of intense fighting, a Parliamentarian relief army led by Ralph Weldon forced a retreat. Lord Goring renewed the blockade in mid-May, after engaging Weldon's departing army and forcing it back into Taunton, but the siege was ineffective. The Parliamentarian defence tied up Goring's troops, who missed the decisive Battle of Naseby. Historians believe those troops could have tipped the battle in favour of the Royalists.
