To write a short history of the haven of Fowey (pronounced Foy) it must begin with Lostwithiel, as the town of Fowey itself did not exist until around 1290. It must also include the mining of tin. At this time in the 12th century, Cornwall was the only source of tin in the known world. This metal, in its refined form, was a regular article of trade in many foreign towns and sea-ports from Genoa and Messina and Pisa, to La Rochelle, Barcelona, Toulouse, and Bruges. There is evidence that Cornwall was trading in tin with the near East 2000 years BC

The Wrotham Stannery Statutes make it very clear that Bodmin was the centre of the tin industry in Cornwall, as well as the principal market for the sale of refined metal. The nearest point of navigable water from Bodmin was Lostwithiel at the head of the River Fowey and some six miles up-stream from the open sea, so that was where Bodmin's sea-port was built.

The township of Lostwithiel became a borough in the year 1193, and in the returns of Winchester Assize of Customs of 1203 the value of Lostwithiel's foreign trade placed it seventh in the Realm in a list of thirty-five ports. Its export value was greater than all the Cinque Ports put together, and it was second only to Southampton.

The early fishing hamlet of Fowey, taking its name from the river which in ancient times was known in the old Cornish language as Fawi, did not at first become a sea-port because it was uncomfortably close to the sea and therefore exposed to hostile attack. Nor for that matter was there any need since Lostwithiel was six miles up river and better placed for trade and commerce. But times could change, even in the middle ages. From about 1290 onwards England was in a chronic state of hostilities with France as well as Scotland. Ships and seamen were badly needed. Hitherto most of the ships and men had come from the two main maritime regions of East Anglia and the Cinque Ports, but Fowey was well placed for trade with Gascony.

The use of Plymouth, some 17 nautical miles east of Fowey, as an assembly and victualling port for large fleets of ships going down to Bordeaux in 1295, 1296, 1297, and the presence there of King Edward 1 st himself for a whole month in the spring of 1297, had an important impact on maritime affairs in Cornwall. The king scoured the ports and estuaries of the country for ships, men and victuals. New ports were also required as bases for armed ships employed to hunt down French pirates and intercept French shipping rounding Lands End going to the aid of the Scots.

From 1300 onwards, Fowey was called upon to find ships and men for the medieval navy. In 1337 it suddenly emerged as a major supply port. That year Fowey sent nineteen ships of its own, manned by five hundred and forty-seven fighting mariners, to operate with the English fleet against the French. This great achievement was surpassed in 1342, when twenty-nine Fowey ships with crews totalling over seven hundred and twenty men took part in operations off the coast of Brittany. The figures of ships, and men mustered in Fowey for this blockade is not suspect or speculative, as the records giving the names of all the ships and their captains, the number of men to each ship, as well as the pay rolls of each ship's company, are still in existence. This figure was only surpassed on June 6th 1944 when the US and Canadian troops embarked in Fowey for the Normandy landings.

The question of how Fowey could manage to muster over seven hundred and twenty fighting seamen from a population of no more than one thousand two hundred begs an answer. The answer is that Fowey, like other ports at that time, and lets face it, even up to the present day, attracted a host of vagabonds, outcasts, refugees, speculators, and mercenaries seeking profit from exploiting the opportunities in the area, it continues today.

It may be of interest to note at this time, that in 1395, "For service to King Richard 11's expedition to Ireland". An indenture was signed at the fishing port of Looe between the Crown and the master of the "Katerine", granting a licence to carry sixty pilgrims to Spain to make their devotions at the shrine of "St. James the Apostle and Martyr" at Santiago da Compostela. It is amusing to think that this could be regarded as the beginning of Spanish Package Tours, as they proved very lucrative.

A lot has been written about piracy in Cornwall, mostly fiction. It has to be remembered that piracy has always been a normal characteristic of maritime life, and still is in some quarters of the globe today. All maritime countries have taken part in it, and pretexts are always easy to justify. Victims of piratical attack in those days rarely obtained justice, since bribery and corruption, even of Commissions of Enquiries, was practiced. Robbery at sea had gradually evolved from spasmodic attacks on stray ships to a highly organised form of business, financed by prosperous merchants an the landed gentry.

It was soon after the year 1400 that the activities of four Fowey pirates, each working on his own account, drew attention to the port. The most successful was Mark Mixtow, a licensed privateer whose small flotilla of three ships was supposed to be occupied in searching for and attacking enemy (French) vessels. But Mixtow could not resist the temptation to prey on the odd Flemish ship, with perhaps some justification, since the Flemings, whilst professing to be at peace with England, were, as vassals of the King of France, sending out from the ports of Gravelines, Dunkirk, Nieuport, Bievliet, and Ostend many armed pirate ships and privateers for the purpose of crippling English commerce. However, it was after seizing a Hanseatic ship off Falmouth, looting the cargo at Fowey, and plundering the merchandise of several Spanish vessels that Mixtow became an embarrassment to the Crown and was asked to account for his deeds.

The Mixtow family activities were carried on by Mixtow's son, who some years later brought off many successes, one of which was the capture of a Genoese Carrack off the coast of Portugal. His men overpowered the Italian crew and brought the prize to Fowey. An Italian carrack and her rich cargo was a tremendous attraction, and squires, government and Duchy officials, and tinners flocked to the town to buy a rich assortment of goods.

It was not long before the reputation of Fowey attracted more newcomers to this den of pirates, and one was a Dutchman named Hankyn Seelander. In 1442 he and three other shipmasters were appointed by the Government to patrol and protect the Cornish coast from pirates. In the following year he seized a ship of La Legue in Brittany and distributed the cargo of wine, leather, and iron among his accomplices at Fowey. He then seized the cargo of a Dartmouth ship, and soon afterwards he took a Spanish ship outward bound from Southampton with an enormous quantity of cloth. Once it was known that an official Government ship had set the example, others followed. Things soon got out of hand and the next thirty years were Fowey's greatest heyday. Piracy became a highly developed form of trade and involved an assortment of merchants who dealt in whole ship loads of stolen goods. Country squires, and Government officials who financed and armed the pirate ships and engaged the crews to sail them. The looted property was sold to people who streamed in from a wide area under the eyes of the Customs and port bailiffs.

In November 1449 two ships from Fowey went into Plymouth Sound and seized a large Spanish vessel that was sheltering from a storm, bound for Barcelona. Despite their safe-conducts, the Spanish merchants were put ashore and their ship was brought to Fowey, where the rich cargo was put up for sale. The owners and victuallers of the two pirate vessels were a Cornish squire and three officials, one of them was a lawyer who held stewardships under the Crown. Their names were John Trevelyan, Thomas Tregarthen, Nicholas Carminow and Sir Hugh Courtenay, who at the time held the big estate of Boconnoc near Lostwithiel. These men who presided over the subsequent commissions of enquiry into this piracy, were themselves receivers of part of the loot. The Spanish merchants tried repeatedly to obtain redress through official channels in London, but in vain.

Among the other pirates of Fowey were an Arundell and a Treffry and a John Wilcock who was quite spectacular in this field and deserved a mention. He was in command of the vessel "Barbara" which was owned by a large group of townspeople, and between 15th May and 1st June 1469, while cruising off the coast of southern Brittany, he seized no fewer than fifteen ships.

It is to the credit of Fowey that it produced so many adventurous, if a little aggressive seamen and merchants, who were strong and resourceful enough to put Fowey far ahead of all other ports in Europe in an occupation that, in its time, was not altogether unworthy, nor unprofitable. Seen in its right perspective and against the back-ground of the War of the Roses, all this fifteenth-century piracy was symptomatic of its period. After all the reader will most probably be reading this behind security bolts, alarms, and protective systems devised for the 21 st century against modem vagabonds.

In the late summer of 1644, King Charles 1st personally masterminded the defeat of the Parliamentarian army commanded by the Earl of Essex. The Cornwall of the 17th century had been intimately bound to the Crown since 1337 when it was created a Duchy by Edward 111. In Cornwall, as in the rest of the Kingdom, there had been a deep reluctance to finally totter over the brink into open civil war. However, this was the Duchy and was behind the King almost to a man when civil war began. What started out as a token force of Cornish horse and dragoons grew to a formidable force when three Roundhead warships full of much needed money and munitions were blown in to Royalist held Falmouth, that day the Cornish Army was in business.

The Earl of Essex started his fateful journey to the West-country in an effort to capture the queen at Exeter, but she managed to escape to France. The King had decided to attack Essex's army and followed him West. Essex moved from Tavistock against his better judgment on the advice of Lord Robartes, who overestimated his influence in the Duchy and whose assurances that the Cornish would rise for Parliament were proved hopelessly wrong. Essex said in his dispatches "The Duchy rises unanimously against us, with the exception of a few gentlemen".

Essex decided to fall back on Lostwithiel and sent a small detachment down the west bank of the river to Fowey. He hoped to evacuate his troops from there in ships of the Parliamentarian fleet. During the Roundhead occupation of Lostwithiel, Richard Symonds, one of the Kings lieutenants noted in his diary "Their actions in this town must not be forgotten, In contempt of Christianity, Religion, and the Church, they did bring a horse to the font in the church and there with their kind of ceremonies did, as they call it, Christen the horse and call him by the name of Charles, in contempt of "His Sacred Majesty''.

On August 13th, the Royalists reconnoitred the East bank of the River Fowey and took the fort at Polruan and put m a garrison of 3 guns and 200 infantry. Any modern day visitor can see how this blockhouse dominates the entrance to Fowey harbour, and how its capture effectively cut off Essex's escape by this route. The width of the river at the entrance is but a bowshot for any proficient archer.

The King made his headquarters at the Boconnoc Estate on the 17th August 1644, and with a Polruan fisherman as his guide, His Majesty made a personal reconnaissance along Hall Walk from Bodinnick. While viewing the enemy, the fisherman was killed by a musket shot. The King was said to be "quite unmoved".

By the 26th. August, Essex's army was in desperate straits and trapped in a narrow strip of land five miles by two in the Fowey area. The king, however, bided his time until the evening of the 30th, when two Roundhead deserters were brought to his headquarters at Boconnic. They revealed that Essex intended to fall back on Fowey while the cavalry broke out and attempted to reach Plymouth.

The King ordered his entire army to stand-to throughout the night. A cottage beside the Lostwithiel to Liskeard and Menheniot road was fortified and manned by 50 musketeers. The regiment of the Royalist Foot at Saltash was ordered to break down the bridges over the river Tamar to prevent escape to Plymouth. The ambush was laid.

At 3 am on August 31st. The Roundhead cavalry broke out of Lostwithiel and up the Liskeard road. The musketeers in their cottage must have been asleep without keeping a watch, for they did not fire a shot. The Roundheads made it to Saltash and chased off the Cavaliers and were ferried across the River Tamar to Plymouth. They had lost only 100 men out of 2000. It was considered a sparkling performance, and one of the few consolations for the Roundheads in what was a dismal campaign.

When daylight came on the 31st. Essex began his withdrawal to Fowey. The King, however, following the advice of a local man, crossed the river at Maddery Down and marched South and West, nearly managing to intercept the Roundheads. The local sympathiser received a silver chalice from the King for his services, which is still in the hands of his descendants. The Earl of Essex notes in his dispatches that "The roads leading to Fowey were foul with excessive rain". This may explain the fact that the Roundhead cavalry had managed to pass undetected a cottage filled with musketeers. The King was now in an aggressive mood and knew he had Essex on the run. Inspired by his leadership, his troops were not to be denied. The Parliament troops were chased from field to field, finishing up hemmed in at the prehistoric earthworks of Castle Dore, half a mile west of Golant 2 miles up river from Fowey. Castle Dore is the former palace of King Mark, father of Tristam, and possibly a meeting place of the knights of the Round Table. It is also reputed to be the burial place of Tristram and Isolde. Remembered now by the opera of that name. The Roundhead force was now too small to hold this position for any length of time and their morale was very low. Abandoned by their cavalry, tired and hungry, as dusk came the desertions began.

The Earl of Essex had also had enough, and with Lord Robarts, one of the causes of his troubles, he set sail in a small fishing boat under the guns at Polruan for the open sea and the safety of Plymouth. It is not difficult to imagine what his worn out infantry had to say about that.

On September 1st. Major General Skippon, left in command of the doomed Roundhead force, asked for a parley, and later surrendered. Despite the personal exhortations of the King, Royalist soldiers proceeded to relieve the prisoners of food, money and arms. This was nothing compared with the attentions of the local populace, who had suffered from the plundering's of the Roundheads and had a few scores to settle. Some of the prisoners were stripped naked and left to start their long march into captivity. Of the 6000 men who surrendered at Castle Dore, 5000 had died before the final destination 94 miles east in Dorset was reached.

The King's campaign had been well thought out, even making sure that his troops were supplied with food from outside the Duchy to avoid having to "Live off the land". The locals knew this and their hatred increased as the Roundheads plundered. And so Essex's invasion of the Duchy of Cornwall ended in disaster with the loss of his entire force with the exception of 1900 cavalry. What good did the Civil War do? At the end of all the killing and destruction they came back to where they were in the first place.

It is still possible to take the walk that King Charles and his Polruan fisherman guide took on the 17th August 1644. It is 4 miles along the river and creeks from Polruan to Bodinnick and it is called "The Hall Walk", it is dedicated as a War Memorial to the men of Lanteglos Parish who gave their lives during World War 2. It is named after Hall Barton House, the property of a impassioned Royalist, Lord Mohun, and where it used to stand is now Hall Farm, on the east bank of the river Fowey, and high above the Bodinnick ferry and "Riverside" the Daphne Du Maurier home.

Ron Lake of Polruan-by-Fowey, Cornwall 1968


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