Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 39.djvu/448

 'vesting him with almost unlimited power as to levying contributions and sequestrating estates of delinquents' (, i. 219). He left London about the end of May 1644, and marched to Nantwich, and thence to Knutsford, where a muster of all the Cheshire forces was intended, so as to carry out a 'great design' of 'going against Prince Rupert into Lancashire' (ib. ii. 175; Hist. MSS. Comm. iv. 268). But the royalists, to the number of about four thousand, laid siege to Oswestry, recently won by the parliamentarians, and Myddelton, hurrying to the scene before the arrival of his colleagues, raised the siege by a brilliant action on 2 July (ib. ii. 179-88). Returning to Nantwich, Myddelton for some time watched Prince Rupert's movements, making occasional raids into Montgomeryshire. On 4 Sept. he captured the garrison at Newtown, and the same day advanced to Montgomery, and without any resistance the castle there was surrendered to him by its owner, Edward, first lord Herbert of Cherbury [q. v.] (Hist. MSS. Comm. vi. 28; Archaeologia Cambrensis, 4th ser. xii. 325). Thereupon Sir Michael Ernely, who was in command of the royalist forces at Shrewsbury, marched upon Montgomery to recover it–a manoeuvre anticipated by Myddelton, who sallied out to collect provisions in the neighbourhood so as to victual his men in case of a siege. Ernely, however, intercepted his return, and defeated him outside the town. Myddelton's foot-soldiers, under Colonel Mytton, succeeded in re-entering the castle, which Ernely at once besieged; but Myddelton retired to Oswestry, and after obtaining reinforcements from Lancashire returned, accompanied by Brereton and Sir William Fairfax. They arrived on 17 Sept. in sight of Montgomery, where the whole strength of both parties in North Wales and the borders was now assembled. After a desperate conflict, in which the issue long remained doubtful, and Fairfax was mortally wounded, the parliamentarians completely routed their opponents. The royalists regarded their defeat as the deathblow to their power in North Wales (see the despatches of Myddelton and others in, ii. 201-9; Autobiography of Lord Herbert of Cherbury, ed. Lee, pp. 281-91). Myddelton was left for a time in command at Montgomery, but after capturing Powis Castle on 3 Oct. (, ii. 212-13) the county generally declared for parliament, and Myddelton was therefore able to turn to Shrewsbury, where he captured most of the outposts, and blocked the passages to the town (ib. i. 266-7). Intending to keep Christmas in one of his own houses, Myddelton appeared on 21 Dec. 1644 before his own castle of Chirk, still held by Sir John Watts, who after a three days' siege was able to write on Christmas day to Prince Rupert that he had beaten Myddelton off (the original letter is now preserved at Chirk Castle, see Memorials of Chirk Castle).

By the self-denying ordinance Myddelton was superseded and the command was transferred to his brother-in-law, Colonel Thomas Mytton [q. v.] When, however, there was a general reaction in the county in favour of the king in 1648, Myddelton was one of the persons to whom the principal inhabitants of Flintshire and Denbighshire, in their fidelity to parliament, entrusted the management of their county affairs (, i. 409, ii. 371, cf. pp. 399-401). On 14 May 1651 Myddelton was ordered by the council of state to enter into a bond of 10,000l. for his general good behaviour, and having received the security it was further ordered on 16 May that the garrison should be withdrawn from his house.

In 1659 Myddelton joined Sir George Booth's rising in favour of the recall of Charles II, and went to meet Booth and others at Chester. Issuing a declaration ' in vindication of the freedom of parliament,' Myddelton marched back into Wales. After defeating Booth, General Lambert besieged Chirk Castle and compelled Myddelton to surrender on 24 Aug. 1659 (Lambert's despatch on the surrender and articles of capitulation are printed in the Public Intelligencer, 22-9 Aug. 1659). One side of the castle was demolished, and the trees in the park were cut and sold (, Royal Tribes in Wales, pp. 94-6). Charles II is said to have subsequently shown his gratitude towards Myddelton by bestowing on him 'a cabinet of great beauty, said to have cost 10,000l.,'and still preserved at Chirk Castle, where there are also a large collection of muskets used in the civil war, and other relics of the period (Gossiping Guide to Wales, large ed. p. 123). Myddelton died in 1666.

Myddelton's religious character is strongly impressed on all his despatches, in which he freely bestows the credit for his own successes on other officers, or ascribes them to the bravery of his own men, for whose safety he shows the greatest solicitude. His peaceable disposition and his aversion from unnecessary bloodshed are revealed in the 'friendly summons' to surrender which he addressed to the governor of Denbigh Castle, a former acquaintance of his (his letter, dated Wrexham, 14 Nov. 1643, is printed in Memorials of the Bagot Family, App. i., and in, Royal Progresses, p. 350). The almost unlimited powers of sequestering estates which he possessed as major-general for North