Ralph Hopton was born at Witham, Somerset, the eldest son of a wealthy landowner. He was reportedly a child prodigy who could read by the age of three. After grammar school, he studied at Lincoln College, Oxford, and the Middle Temple. In 1620, Hopton took part in Sir Horace Vere's expedition to rescue Elizabeth of Bohemia, during which he became friends with William Waller when they served in Elizabeth's lifeguard. Hopton carried Elizabeth on the back of his horse for forty miles during her escape from Prague. Upon his return to England, he was elected MP for Shaftesbury in 1621 and married Elizabeth Capel Lewin in 1623. He gained further military experience in 1624 when he served as lieutenant-colonel in Sir Charles Rich's regiment on Count Mansfeldt's expedition to the Palatinate. Hopton was knighted in the coronation honours list when King Charles I came to the throne, then elected MP for Bath in 1625 and for Wells in 1628. After inheriting his family's estates upon the death of his father in 1636, Hopton lived the life of a country squire. Throughout the 1630s, he served as a Justice of the Peace and Deputy Lieutenant of Somerset. On the outbreak of the Bishops' Wars in 1639, Hopton returned to military service and was appointed a captain in the King's lifeguard.
In 1640, Hopton was elected MP for Somerset in the Short Parliament and for Wells in the Long Parliament. He was prominent in denouncing the Earl of Strafford, and also advocated reform of the Church and further measures against Catholics. As a confidante of the King, Hopton was chosen to lead a delegation to present the Grand Remonstrance at Hampton Court on 1 December 1641. In all other respects, he remained instinctively loyal to the Crown. He defended the King's right to levy Ship Money and spoke in favour of bishops retaining their religious offices and their seats in the House of Lords. In January 1642, Hopton supported Charles' attempt to arrest the Five Members. After his angry protests at Parliament's criticism of the King, Hopton was arrested by order of the House of Commons on 4 March 1642. He was held in the Tower of London for two weeks. Upon his release from the Tower on 15 March, Sir Ralph declared his allegiance to King Charles.
Hopton attended the King at York in July 1642 then went with the Marquis of Hertford to rally Royalist support in the West Country. Confronted by strong Parliamentarian resistance in Somerset, Hertford withdrew to south Wales, while Hopton rode into Cornwall at the head of 160 horse and dragoons. When Hopton declared for the King, he was arraigned at Truro Assizes by local Parliamentarian supporters for bringing armed forces into the Duchy. The jury acquitted him immediately and he gained the co-operation of Sir Bevil Grenville and other leading Cornish Royalists. After mobilising the militia, he drove the Parliamentarians out of Cornwall. Finding the Cornish militia reluctant to cross the River Tamar into Devon, however, Hopton set about recruiting a volunteer army. In January 1643, he drove back a Parliamentarian advance into Cornwall at the battle of Braddock Down. In May, he defeated the Earl of Stamford at the battle of Stratton, which left Devon and Somerset open to a Royalist invasion.
Hopton joined forces with Prince Maurice and the Marquis of Hertford in June 1643 to march against Sir William Waller, Hopton's former comrade-in-arms and now commander of Parliament's western army. Hopton's victory over Waller at Lansdown in July 1643 was soured by heavy losses, including the death in action of Sir Bevil Grenville. Hopton himself was seriously injured when an ammunition wagon was accidentally blown up the day after the battle. Although temporarily blinded and paralysed, Hopton refused to give up his command. He withdrew to a defensive position at Devizes until Lord Wilmot arrived with reinforcements to inflict a decisive defeat on Waller at Roundway Down on 13 July 1643. Hopton then joined Prince Rupert at the storming of Bristol, where many more of the officers and men of the Cornish army were killed. After the capture of Bristol, Hopton was appointed lieutenant-governor of the city and raised to the peerage as Baron Hopton of Stratton.
In September 1643, having recovered from his wounds, Hopton was appointed commander of Royalist forces in south-western England and ordered to advance on London. He marched eastward into Hampshire and Sussex, intending to threaten London from the south. He captured Arundel Castle in December 1643, but his advance was halted by Waller, then driven back the following spring at the battle of Cheriton (March 1644). After the failure of the campaign against London, Hopton's forces were absorbed into the King's main army, and Hopton himself returned to his post at Bristol. He was back in an active military role in July 1644 when the King marched into the west in pursuit of the Earl of Essex. Hopton commanded a division in the manoeuvres to encircle and trap Essex's army at Lostwithiel. In August, Hopton was appointed General of Ordnance and served in this post until the end of 1644.
In March 1645, Hopton was appointed to the Council of the Prince of Wales at Bristol as chief military adviser, but it proved impossible to coordinate the volatile Royalist commanders in the west, Lord Goring and Sir Richard Grenville. Hopton took personal command at the siege of Taunton, but a detachment from the New Model Army raised the siege on 11 May. The following month, the King's army was decisively defeated at Naseby. When Fairfax led the New Model into the West Country, the Prince's Council retreated to Exeter. Hopton was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the western army early in 1646, but by then the Royalist cause was lost. He was defeated by Fairfax at the battle of Torrington (February 1646). Having ensured the Prince of Wales' escape from England, Hopton surrendered to Fairfax at Truro on 14 March 1646 before following the Prince into exile.
Hopton attended Prince Charles on Scilly and Jersey but left his service when the Prince decided to join Henrietta Maria in France. Like most members of the Council, Hopton was deeply suspicious of the influence of the Catholic Queen. He rejoined Prince Charles at The Hague in July 1648 and remained with him during the summer's naval campaign in the North Sea. After the execution of King Charles I in January 1649, Hopton was appointed to Charles II's privy council but finally parted from him over the signing of the Treaty of Breda in June 1650, which Hopton regarded as a betrayal of the Church of England.
Hopton returned into exile and died in September 1652 at Bruges. His body was kept embalmed until 1661, when it was transferred to the parish church near his ancestral home at Witham, Somerset.
References:
John Barratt, Cavaliers, the Royalist Army at War 1642-46, 2000
A.H. Burne & P. Young, The Great Civil War, 1959
Ronald Hutton, Ralph, Baron Hopton, Oxford DNB, 2004