Description:Lichfield was strategically important in the Civil War. A Royalist garrison at the start of the conflict, the Parliamentarians overthrew the City in 1643 for a short period before it was regained by the Royalists. Lichfield remained Royalist for the rest of the war.
Amongst papers in the Sutherland collection relating to the Civil War are two commissions appointing the Earl of Essex and Sir Richard Leveson as Lieutenant and Deputy Lieutenant ‘of the County of Stafford and the County of the Cittie of Litchfeild’. The documents convey the building tensions of the period amidst the preparations for war, and tell us about the role which people living in Lichfield were expected to play in the conflict.
Robert Earl of Essex was appointed Lieutenant of Staffordshire and the City of Lichfield in 1642. This appointment gave Essex the ‘power to Assemble and call togeather’ men in ‘the County of the Cittie of Litchfeild…that are fitt and meete for the warres’. Essex was given the authority to ‘Trayne, Exercise and put in readinesse’ these men for battle in the Civil War.
Essex’s commission reveals that ‘fitt and meete’ men from Lichfield were to be ‘arrayed and weaponed for the suppression of all Rebellions Insurrecons and Invasions’ which may occur ‘within the said Countie of Stafford and the County of the Cittie of Litchfeild’. The references in this document to rebellions, invasions and insurrections reflect the increasing tension and hostitlity between supporters of the King and supporters of Parliament leading up to the outbreak of war in 1642. Men from Staffordshire were also expected to defend ‘any of the part of this Realme of England and dominion of Wales’ threatened by ‘Rebellious Insurrecons’.
Click on the image on the left to learn about Sir Richard Leveson’s appointment as Deputy Lieutenant.
Contextual Information From: 'Lichfield: From the Reformation to c.1800', A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 14: Lichfield (1990), pp. 14-24. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=42337.