During the early years of Cromwell's Protectorate, a group of noblemen and gentry was commissioned by the exiled Charles II to prepare a Royalist uprising in England. This underground group, known as the "Sealed Knot", probably formed around November 1653 and is first alluded to in correspondence between Charles and his agents in February 1654. The original members were: Lord Belasyse, Lord Loughborough, Sir William Compton, Sir Richard Willys, Colonel Sir Edward Villiers and Colonel John Russell. Initially it was hoped that an uprising in England could be co-ordinated with Glencairn's Uprising in Scotland to overwhelm the Protectorate government but it proved difficult to organise the scattered groups of English Royalists and the insurgency in Scotland was decisively defeated in July 1654. Nevertheless, throughout the latter half of 1654, Charles continued to urge his supporters in England to press ahead with plans for an uprising.
By early 1655, the Royalist conspirators were divided into two factions. The Sealed Knot declared that the time was not right for an uprising, but more militant Cavaliers of the "Action Party" protested against further delay and requested Charles' authority to proceed. Finally, 8 March 1655 was selected as the day for a series of armed insurrections to take place at various locations around the country. The Earl of Rochester and Sir Joseph Wagstaff crossed to England on 19 February to head the uprising and Charles moved to Middelburg in the Netherlands in the expectation of crossing over when the uprising gathered force. However, details of the conspiracy were well-known to the Protectorate through John Thurloe's network of spies and intelligencers. Several key conspirators were arrested and the arms distribution network was broken, yet Rochester believed that there was still enough support to proceed. In the event, only a few isolated groups attempted to carry out the design.
On the evening of 8 March, about 80 Royalists gathered at Morpeth in Northumberland with the intention of capturing Newcastle. However, they panicked and fled when a body of troops from Berwick coincidentally passed nearby. On Hessey Moor near York, between 100 and 300 Royalists assembled with Lord Rochester at their head, expecting sympathisers in the city to open the gates to them. They fled when it became clear that the plan had failed. Another group of around 200 gathered at Rufford Abbey in Nottinghamshire, intending to march north to rendezvous with the Yorkshire Royalists. This group also quickly dispersed when it was discovered that the authorities were aware of the conspiracy. A planned rising in Cheshire came to nothing and an attempt to take Shrewsbury Castle was foiled.
Royalists in the south planned to seize Winchester in Hampshire on 8 March, but this plan failed when the town garrison was reinforced as a routine precaution. On 11 March, however, several hundred cavalry assembled at Clarendon Park, three miles south-east of Salisbury in Wiltshire, under the leadership of Colonel John Penruddock and Sir Joseph Wagstaff. At dawn the next morning, Penruddock led his troops into Salisbury and arrested the High Sheriff of Wiltshire and the judges who were conducting the county assizes. After proclaiming their support for Charles Stuart, Penruddock's insurgents rode westwards through Blandford, Sherborne and Yeovil calling upon the Royalists of Dorset and Somerset to rise up and join them. Very few responded.
Meanwhile, government garrisons in the surrounding counties were mobilised and Cromwell appointed John Disbrowe Major-General of the West, with orders to suppress the uprising. On 14 March, before Disbrowe could take any effective action, Penruddock's force entered the town of South Molton in Devon, where a troop of horse from Exeter commanded by Colonel Unton Croke caught up with them. After a three-hour street battle, the Royalists broke and fled. Sir Joseph Wagstaff succeeded in making his escape, but Penruddock and other ringleaders were captured. They were subsequently tried before a jury in Exeter for treason. Penruddock argued that opposing Cromwell could not constitute treason as the Protector's power had not been legally sanctioned by Parliament, but he was found guilty and sentenced to death. Of a total of 33 insurgents condemned to death, only 12 were executed, including Penruddock who was beheaded at Exeter on 16 May. The others were transported to Barbados, along with most of the other insurgents taken prisoner at South Molton.
The Earl of Rochester was arrested at Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, but escaped to rejoin Charles II at Cologne.
Although the Royalist insurrection proved ineffective, it had a profound effect on security measures within the Protectorate. Tighter restrictions were imposed upon known Royalists and they were made to pay the "decimation tax" to finance a new militia to supplement the regular army. Six months after the insurrection, Cromwell introduced direct military government in England and Wales under the Rule of the Major-Generals.
References:
Christopher Durston, John Penruddock, Oxford DNB, 2004
S.R. Gardiner, History of the Commonwealth and Protectorate vol. iii, 1903
Peter Newman, Atlas of the English Civil War, 1985