Siege of Hull (1642)

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The Siege of Hull in 1642 was the first major action of the English Civil War.

As both sides moved towards war, Parliament had access to more military materiel, due to its possession of all major cities including the large arsenal in London. To deny the Royalists access to the large arsenal in Kingston upon Hull where the majority of the inhabitants were royalists^[1], in January 1642 Sir John Hotham was ordered by Parliament to seize Hull, this was at once carried out by his son John, and Sir John became the Military Governor of Hull.

Charles I hoped that quick victories would negate Parliament's advantage in materiel and as the armouries in London were beyond his reach he hoped to take the large arsenal at Hull to supplement the armouries he did have access to like those of the Derbyshire and Staffordshire trained bands^[2].

In April 1642 Hotham refused to admit Charles I to Hull. Later he promised his prisoner, Lord Digby, that he would surrender it to the king, but when Charles appeared again, after travelling to Beverley (a walled medieval town some 8 - 10 miles away), which was an armoury and to collect more soldiers (Hull was an ammunitions store), he refused a second time and drove away the besiegers^[3].

Charles took great personal affront to these act, and declared Hotham a traitor. The Royalists' unsuccessful siege of the city was a major step on the road to full scale war which would start at in earnest with the pitched battle of Edgehill on 23 October 1642.