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Ralph Hopton, 1st Baron Hopton

Ralph Hopton, 1st Baron Hopton KB, JP, DL, MP (1596 – 28 September 1652) was an English politician, military officer and peer. During the First English Civil War, he served as Royalist commander in the West Country, and was made Baron Hopton of Stratton in 1643.

For the earlier MP, for Heytesbury and Somerset, see Ralph Hopton (died 1571).

The Right Honourable
The Lord Hopton
KB, JP, DL, MP

1596
Witham Friary, Somerset, England

28 September 1652(1652-09-28) (aged 56)
Bruges

Ague

St Mary, Witham Friary

Elizabeth Capel (1596-1646)

Sir Arthur Hopton (1588-1650)

Robert Hopton and Jane Kemys

Lincoln College, Oxford

Politician, soldier and landowner

Order of the Bath

Palatinate 1620-1623
 England 1624-1642
Royalist 1642-1648

1620 to 1625, 1639 to 1646

Major General

Commander, Royalist Western Army 1643-1646

Bohemian Revolt 1620-1621
Palatinate 1622-1623
Siege of Breda
Wars of the Three Kingdoms
Braddock Down; Stratton; Lansdowne; Roundway Down; Cheriton; Torrington

Along with his close friend Sir Edward Hyde (later the Earl of Clarendon), he was made advisor to the future Charles II, when he was appointed to rule the West in early 1644. He commanded the last significant Royalist field army, and followed Charles into exile after surrendering in March 1646. A devout supporter of the Church of England, his personal opposition to Catholicism and Presbyterianism meant he took no further part in the 1638 to 1651 Wars of the Three Kingdoms. He died in Bruges in 1652.


In his stated account of the war, Clarendon described him as 'a man of great honour, integrity, and piety, of great courage and industry, and an excellent officer for any command but the supreme, to which he was not equal'.[1]

Life[edit]

Ralph Hopton was born in early 1596, and baptised on 13 March at St Peter's, in Evercreech. He was the eldest child of Robert Hopton, 1575 to 1638, and Jane (née Kemys, circa 1570 to 1610, who owned estates in Monmouthshire. His grandfather's lands in Suffolk had been sold to provide dowries for his ten surviving daughters, and Robert inherited Witham Friary in Somerset, acquired from Glastonbury Abbey after the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1538.[2]


He was educated at a local grammar school, possibly King's School, Bruton; various sources confirm he attended Lincoln College, Oxford, as did his uncle, Sir Arthur Hopton. In 1614, he studied law at Middle Temple in London, thus completing the education common for a man of his standing at the time.[3]


He married Elizabeth Capel (1596-1646) in 1623; their marriage was childless. His estates were inherited by his nephew Thomas Wyndham, son of his eldest sister Catherine.[4]

Akkerman, Nadine, ed. (2015). The Correspondence of Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia: 1603-1631, Volume 1. Oxford: . ISBN 978-0-19-955107-1.

Oxford University Press

Asch, Ronald (2016). "Elizabeth, Princess [Elizabeth Stuart]". (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/8638. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

Barratt, John (2004). Cavalier Generals: King Charles I and His Commanders in the English Civil War 1642–46. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Military.  1-84415-128-X.

ISBN

Brooks, Richard (2005). Cassell's Battlefields of Britain and Ireland. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.  0-304-36333-2.

ISBN

Clarendon, Earl of (1704). The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England; Volume III (2019 ed.). Wentworth Press.  978-0469445765.

ISBN

Edgar, F. T. R. (1968). Sir Ralph Hopton. The King's Man in the West (1642–1652). Oxford: . ISBN 0-19-821372-7.

Clarendon Press

Harris, Tim (2015). Rebellion. OUP.  978-0199209002.

ISBN

Hopton, Ralph (1902). (ed.). Bellum civile. London: Printed for subscribers by Harrison and Sons. OCLC 1041068269.

Chadwyck-Healey, Charles

Hutton, Robert (2008). "Hopton, Ralph, Baron Hopton". (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/13772. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

Loomie, AJ (2008). "Hopton, Sir Arthur". (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/13770. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

Noble, Thomas F.X. (2011) [2008]. . Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. ISBN 978-1-424-06961-3.

Western Civilization: Beyond Boundaries Volume I: To 1715

Questier, Michael (2009). Stuart Dynastic Policy and Religious Politics, 1621-1625: Volume 34. CUP.  978-0521194037.

ISBN

Royle, Trevor (2004). Civil War: The Wars of the Three Kingdoms 1638–1660 (2006 ed.). Abacus.  978-0-349-11564-1.

ISBN

Thrush, Andrew; Ferris, John, eds. (2010). 'Sir Ralph Hopton, (1596-1652) in 'The House of Commons, 1604-1629 (The History of Parliament Trust). Cambridge University Press.  978-0436192746.

ISBN

Wedgwood, CV (1958). The King's War, 1641-1647 (2001 ed.). . ISBN 978-0141390727.

Penguin Classics

Wilson, Peter (2009). Europe's Tragedy: A History of the Thirty Years War. Allen Lane.  978-0713995923.

ISBN

. British Civil Wars and Commonwealth website.

"Biography of Sir Ralph Hopton"

. Retrieved 22 May 2009.

"Biography of Ralph Hopton"