Person:Ralph Hopton (1)

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Ralph Hopton, 1st Baron Hopton, (159628 September 1652), was an English politician, soldier and landowner. During the 1642 to 1646 First English Civil War, he served as Royalist commander in the West Country, and was made Baron Hopton of Stratton in 1643.

Along with his close friend Sir Edward Hyde (later the Earl of Clarendon), he was made advisor to the future Charles II, when he was appointed to rule the West in early 1644. He commanded the last significant Royalist field army, and followed Charles into exile after surrendering in March 1646. A devout supporter of the Church of England, his personal opposition to Catholicism and Presbyterianism meant he took no further part in the 1638 to 1651 Wars of the Three Kingdoms. He died in Bruges in 1652.

In his stated account of the war, Clarendon described him as 'a man of great honour, integrity, and piety, of great courage and industry, and an excellent officer for any command but the supreme, to which he was not equal'.

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Ralph Hopton, 1st Baron Hopton, in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia.
2.   College of Arms (United Kingdom), and Frederic Thomas Colby (ed.). The visitation of the county of Somerset in the year 1623. (London: Harleian Society, 1876)
   pp. 56-57.