Civil War
Spencer, 2nd Earl of Northampton, a godson of Elizabeth I, was a close friend of Charles I, thus the Comptons Royalists ties were strong during the civil war. At the battle of Edgehill six miles from the house, Spencer and three of his sons fought for the King; the three sons were all knighted for their valour on the battlefield.
The 2nd Earl was killed at the Battle of Hopton Heath in 1643 fighting for his cause, and in the same battle his son and successor, James 3rd Earl of Northampton, was wounded.
Following the death of the 2nd Earl, his family was vulnerable. On 12 June 1644, Compton Wynyates was besieged by the Cromwellians, and it fell two days later. The Parliamentarians were recorded as having taken 120 prisoners, £5000 (equivalent to £720,000 in 2008), 60 horses, 400 sheep, 160 head of cattle, 18 loads of plunder (this would have been the furnishings of the mansion), and six earthen pots of coins recovered from the moat. The house and the adjacent church still bear the scars of the cannon today.
There is a legend that the widow of the 2nd Earl remained hidden in the attics of the vast house tending to Royalist wounded, undetected by the Cromwellians, until their escape was possible. As the house is a warren of small staircases, passages and almost concealed rooms (one tower room, the Priest's Room, has three staircases hidden behind its panelling), this story could well have been possible.
During the night of 29 January 1645, the Comptons made an abortive attempt to recapture their home, however, after four hours fighting they were repelled. The Compton family fled into exile abroad and did not return until the restoration of the monarchy.
Read more about this topic: Compton Wynyates
Famous quotes by civil war:
“He was high and mighty. But the kindest creature to his slaves—and the unfortunate results of his bad ways were not sold, had not to jump over ice blocks. They were kept in full view and provided for handsomely in his will. His wife and daughters in the might of their purity and innocence are supposed never to dream of what is as plain before their eyes as the sunlight, and they play their parts of unsuspecting angels to the letter.”
—Anonymous Antebellum Confederate Women. Previously quoted by Mary Boykin Chesnut in Mary Chesnut’s Civil War, edited by C. Vann Woodward (1981)
“... there was the first Balkan war and the second Balkan war and then there was the first world war. It is extraordinary how having done a thing once you have to do it again, there is the pleasure of coincidence and there is the pleasure of repetition, and so there is the second world war, and in between there was the Abyssinian war and the Spanish civil war.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“To the cry of ‘follow Mormons and prairie dogs and find good land,’ Civil War veterans flocked into Nebraska, joining a vast stampede of unemployed workers, tenant farmers, and European immigrants.”
—For the State of Nebraska, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“The utter helplessness of a conquered people is perhaps the most tragic feature of a civil war or any other sort of war.”
—Rebecca Latimer Felton (1835–1930)