Yet it saw the trial of Sir Walter
Raleigh in 1603, and the town having been taken by Waller in 1644 the
Castle was besieged by Cromwell himself in 1645. "I came to
Winchester," he writes, "on the Lord's Day the 28th of September. After
some disputes with the Governour we entered the town. I summoned the
Castle; was denied; whereupon we fell to prepare batteries, which we
could not perfect until Friday following. Our battery was six guns;
which being finished, after firing one round, I sent in a second
summons for a treaty; which they refused, whereupon we went on with our
work and made a breach in the wall near the Black Tower; which after
about two hundred shot we thought stormable; and purposed on Monday
morning to attempt it. On Sunday morning about ten of the clock the
Governour beat a parley, desiring to treat, I agreed unto it, and sent
Colonel Hammond and Major Harrison in to him, who agreed upon these
enclosed articles."
Cromwell presently departed and the city caught a glimpse of the Royal
Martyr, the victim of the great families, as he passed from Hurst
Castle to Windsor and the scaffold in Whitehall.
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