His maternal uncle, William Strode (1594-1645) was imprisoned from 1629 to 1640 for his opposition to Personal Rule and one of the Five Members whose attempted arrest in January 1642 was a key stage on the road to war.

[6] Details of Chudleigh's early life are limited prior to 1640, when he was Captain in the Earl of Northumberland’s regiment, part of the army raised for the Bishops Wars.

[7] Along with Lord Goring, governor of Portsmouth, and Northumberland's younger brother Henry, he was investigated by Parliament, but appears to have served as a courier, and was released without charge.

[8] When the First English Civil War began in August 1642, Chudleigh apparently tried to join the Royalists, but was rejected on the grounds his father and uncle were ‘notoriously disaffected to the King’.

He attacked the next day, but the Royalists quickly recovered; faced by superior numbers, the Parliamentary force withdrew to Okehampton; supported by John Merrick's "Greycoats", Chudleigh covered the retreat, reportedly taking personal control of saving the artillery.

[13] On 25 April, the Royalist leader Sir Ralph Hopton marched on Sourton Down, intending to stop there for the night, and attack Okehampton at dawn.

[b] Using intelligence captured there, he marched into Cornwall with 5,400 men, first sending his cavalry under Sir George Chudleigh on a diversionary raid against Bodmin.

[16] In his 'History of the Rebellion', the Earl of Clarendon, then a senior Royalist advisor, claimed he fought bravely until captured, and changed sides as a matter of conscience.

[18] Stamford escaped to Exeter, where Sir George was governor; the city surrendered in early September to Prince Maurice, whose army now included Colonel James Chudleigh.