Torrington, battle of

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Torrington, battle of, 1646. By 1646, after the heavy defeats at Naseby, Langport, and Philiphaugh, though Charles I still had armies in the field, the Civil War had become largely a mopping-up operation. Hopton, one of the best royalist commanders, took over the remnants of Goring's army in the south-west, numbering some 3,000 men. At Torrington in north Devon, while hoping to come to the relief of Exeter, he was attacked on 16 February by Sir Thomas Fairfax's much larger force, was wounded, and forced back into Cornwall, where he was obliged to surrender the following month.

J. A. Cannon

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