The Armies of Sir Ralph Hopton: The Royalist Armies of the West 1642-46

Nothing sums up the tragedy of the English Civil War more than the friendship between Sir Ralph Hopton and the parliamentarian general Sir William Waller as “this war without an enemy.” Hopton was one of the first commanders to support the king and helped secure Cornwall for the Royalist Cause.

In fact, Sir Ralph Hopton commanded three armies during the Civil War; the first was made up of the famous Cornish infantry, which would become the backbone of the Royalist war effort in the West. Thi...