Ralph Hopton, 1st Baron Hopton

Ralph Hopton, 1st Baron Hopton

Ralph Hopton, 1st Baron Hopton (* 1598 - † September 1652 in Bruges , Belgium) was a loyal commander in the English Civil War .

He was the son of Robert Hopton of Witham , Somerset, and attended Lincoln College , Oxford . He then joined the army of the Palatinate Elector Friedrich V and fought at his side during the first years of the Thirty Years' War . In 1624 he became a lieutenant colonel in a regiment raised in England that belonged to Mansfeld's army.

When King Charles I of England was crowned in 1626, Hopton was made Knight of the Bath .

In the following political turmoil that preceded the English Civil War, Hopton was a member of Parliament for the boroughs of Bath (1625), Somerset (1626) and Wells (1628-1642) and initially an opponent of royal politics. In connection with the Bill of Attainder against Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford , his political opinion changed, although he had previously voted for it himself, and he became a supporter of King Charles I. At the beginning of the Civil War, he became Lieutenant General of the Royal Forces under the command of the Marquess of Hertford in the west of the country.

His first task was to win the county of Cornwall over to the royal cause. To this end, he accused the opponents of the king in the county court as "enemies of peace". This enabled him to raise militias in the county. From Cornwall he advanced to the neighboring county of Devon , where he won a brilliant victory at the Battle of Stratton in May 1643 .

In July Devon was overrun, and on July 5, it inflicted a heavy defeat on Sir William Waller at the Battle of Lansdowne . In that battle, Hopton was badly wounded when a covered wagon carrying black powder exploded. Hopton withdrew to the town of Devizes , where he was shortly afterwards besieged by William Waller. The siege was lifted on July 13th when William Waller was decisively defeated in the Battle of Roundway Down . Thereupon Hopton was raised on September 4, 1643 as Baron Hopton , of Stratton, in the hereditary nobility .

Hopton's successes in the west were undone by his defeat in the Battle of Cheriton in March 1644 .

He then served directly under Charles I's command and towards the end of the war, after George Goring fled to France , he took command of the army loyal to the king. But it was too late to prevent the parliamentary army's victory . On February 16, 1646 Hopton surrendered after a hopeless fight at Torrington to Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron .

Hopton later assisted the Prince of Wales in his attempt to prolong the war in the Isles of Scilly and Channel Islands . Since his loyal political attitudes were not compatible with those of the prince, Hopton withdrew from active service and went into exile in Bruges , Belgium , where he died in September 1652.

His title of nobility expired on his death as he had no marital surviving male descendants. Not a word of appreciation came from the King, the Prince of Wales or the rulers on the occasion of his death. Unlike his former opponents of war like Waller or Fairfax, who paid tribute to Hopton with the words: “Opposition cannot hurt friendship with you” (Waller) or, as Fairfax put it, “... one whom we honor and above everyone else in your party put."

literature

• Hugh Chisholm (Eds.): Hopton, Ralph Hopton, Baron . In: Encyclopædia Britannica , Volume 13, Cambridge University Press , New York 1911, p. 687.
• Frank Terrell Rhoades Edgar: Sir Ralph Hopton. The King's man in the West (1642-1652). A study in character and command. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1968, ISBN 0198213727 .

Web links

• Ralph Hopton, 1st Baron Hopton of Stratton on thepeerage.com