‘… a respectable woman’s place was in the home. Unfortunately, though, it was rapidly becoming obvious that the home was not necessarily a more retired or safer place than the field of battle’[1]
During the English Civil War, many women were left at home whilst their husbands fought for either the Crown or Parliament. However, as the historian Alison Plowden demonstrated, the Civil War also invaded the home and forced women to enter battle. Women had to defend their families and their homes. One such woman was Mary Bankes (d.1661), who became renowned for successfully defending her family residence, Corfe Castle.
Mary Bankes was the only daughter and heir of Ralph Hawtrey and his wife, Mary Altham. In 1618, she married Sir John Bankes, a successful lawyer, who was knighted in 1634. John Bankes bought Corfe Castle in Dorset in 1635, which became the family’s seat.[2] The royalist publication Mercurius Rusticus described the castle as:
‘In the fracture of a Hill in the very midst of it, being eight miles in length, running from the East end of the Peninsula to the West … being in height equal to, if not overlooking the opts of the highest Towers of the Castle, yet the structure of the Castle is so strong, the ascent so steep, the Walls so massie [sic] and thick, that it is one of the impregnablest [sic] Forts of the Kingdom’[3]
Although Corfe Castle was in a strong position, its fame for being a strong fortress owned by royalist landholders made it a prime target for Parliamentary forces.
Sir John Bankes had accompanied the king to Oxford at the outbreak of the Civil War. When Charles I was impeached in 1643, Lady Bankes retired to the safety of Corfe Castle, to protect both her household and the family seat. A portrait of Mary Bankes (header image) shows her holding the key to the castle in her right hand, with the castle itself featured in the distance. This painting demonstrates Mary’s vital role in defending Corfe Castle.
The first attempt to seize the castle took place in May 1643. The traditional May Day stag hunt was infiltrated by Parliamentarians. This was the perfect cover-up for troops who ‘came intending to find other Game then to hunt stag’.[4] Fortunately, Mary was warned of this attempt and denied the troops entrance. For security, Lady Bankes called in a guard to assist her and increased her provisions to prepare herself against Parliament.[5]
This led to Mary’s family being under close surveillance and the Parliamentarians requested she give up the only four cannons in the castle. She refused, and with only five men and her women servants, Mary managed to defend the castle’s limited artillery. Forty seamen approached the castle and demanded the cannons. Despite producing a warrant, Lady Bankes refused to give up her arms and instead ‘gave fire; which small Thunder so affrighted the seamen, that they all quitted the place and ran away’.[6]
Following this, she built up her supplies and called in a garrison of 80 royalist soldiers, with the help of her neighbours. Whilst there were attempts to cut off Mary’s supplies, such as a proclamation made at Warham that no beer, beef or other provisions should be sold to Lady Bankes, this did not cause the castle and its residence to fall.
The Parliamentarians first attempted to take Corfe Castle with 200-300 soldiers, on both horse and foot. They set fire to four houses in the town and summoned the castle. However, when they were denied entry, they left. On 23rd June Sir Walter Earle returned with a body of 500-600 men. The troops had to take an oath, which declared: ‘if they found the Defendants obstinate not to yield, they would maintain the Siege to Victory, and then deny Quarter unto all, killing without mercy, Men, Women and Children.’[7]
This emphasises the value of the castle, as the Parliamentarians would show no mercy in order to take hold of this strong fortification. However, their military tactics were questionable, and particularly their decision to get their troops drunk: ‘knowing that Drunkenness makes some men fight like lions, that being sober would run away like Hares’.[8]
In contrast, Mary successfully arranged her household and defended the castle. She rallied her own troops, even instructing her daughters and women servants to defend the castle by dropping stones and hot embers over the walls onto the attackers. There were many casualties among Erle’s troops and on 4th August, after learning of an approach, he departed.
Mary Bankes had successfully defended her family’s seat, but this was a short-lived victory. On 28th December 1644, Sir John Bankes died in Oxford. Lady Bankes was his executor and had to struggle with the legal and financial issues surrounding inheritance. As a result of high taxes and sequestration of the estate, Corfe Castle was eventually demolished in 1646. It has lain in ruin ever since.[9]
Although the Bankes lost Corfe Castle, Ralph Bankes, the eldest son and heir of Sir John, built a more luxurious and modern house at Kingston Lacy near Wimborne. Mary Bankes’ legacy lived on within the family. In 1855, a statue of Lady Bankes by Baron Carlo Marochetti was installed at Kingston Lacy, over 200 years after her heroic defence of Corfe Castle. Mary is depicted holding a sword in her right hand and the key to Corfe Castle in her left, representing her great victory at Corfe Castle.
By Elena Rossi, Citizens Project intern and postgraduate student at Royal Holloway
Header image: Henry Pierce Bone (after John Hoskins), Portrait of Lady Bankes, née Mary Hawtrey (d. 1661), 1837 (via Wikimedia Commons)
[1] Alison Plowden, Women All on Fire: The Women of the English Civil War (Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 2004), p. 39.
[2] Barbara Donagan, ‘Bankes [née Hawtrey], Mary, Lady Bankes,’ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2011, https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/1289.
[3] Bruno Ryves, Mercurius Rusticus (London, 1685), p. 113, https://data.historicaltexts.jisc.ac.uk/view?date=1681-1695&pageId=eebo-ocm15046384e-103099-128&pageTerms=massie&pubId=eebo-ocm15046384e&terms=Mercurius%20Rusticus%20corfe%20castle&undated=exclude, accessed 1 July 2019].
[4] Ibid, p. 115.
[5] Ibid, p. 114-5.
[6] Ibid, p. 116.
[7] Ibid, p.119.
[8] Ibid, p. 122
[9] Donagan, ‘Bankes [née Hawtrey], Mary, Lady Bankes’.
