Sir George Lisle was a professional soldier from London who briefly served in the later stages of the Eighty and Thirty Years War, then fought for the Royalists during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Captured at Colchester in August 1648, he was condemned to death by a Parliamentarian court martial and executed by firing squad along with his colleague Charles Lucas.
Sir George Lisle, late 1630s; 1713 engraving based on now lost portrait
George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham (1592-1628), the Lisle family patron
Monument to Lucas and Lisle at Colchester Castle
The siege of Colchester occurred in the summer of 1648 when the Second English Civil War reignited in several areas of Britain. Colchester found itself in the thick of the unrest when a Royalist army on its way through East Anglia to raise support for the King, was attacked by Lord-General Thomas Fairfax at the head of a Parliamentary force. The Parliamentarians' initial attack forced the Royalist army to retreat behind the town's walls, but they were unable to bring about victory, so they settled down to a siege. Despite the horrors of the siege, the Royalists resisted for eleven weeks and only surrendered following the defeat of the Royalist army in the North of England at the Battle of Preston (1648).
St Mary-at-the-Walls church was used as a gun battery during the siege, the later brick repair to the tower is still evident.
Lord Arthur Cappell fighting inside the walls of Colchester with Colchester Castle in the background. A later painting by Abraham Cooper (1787–1868).
The Old Siege House in East Street still has bullet holes (highlighted by red discs) from the early fighting in the eastern suburbs.
