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| The Battle of Edgehill | ||
| 1642 | ||
| Oct 12 | Charles marched his army from Shrewsbury. His
intention was to make straight for London. Essex's army was at
Worcester. He passed through Bridgnorth and Kenilworth and towards
Banbury.
Essex had sent troops to garrison Hereford, Worcester, Banbury, Coventry and Northampton. |
There had been
two plans - attack Essex at Worcester or march on London and engage with
Essex on favourable ground.
King - 13 regiments of foot, 10 of horse and 3 of dragoons and 20 guns. Essex - 20 regiments of foot,61 troops of horse, 2 regiments of dragoons and 46 guns. |
| Oct 19 |
Essex moved in pursuit of the King's army travelling due East from Worcester. |
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Blue - King Charles Red - Essex |
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| Oct 22 | The King's army was billeted near Banbury.
The King was at Edgecote and intended to send Sir Nicholas Byron with
4000 men to capture Banbury.
Essex arrived at Kineton not realising how close the King's army was. A party of parliamentary soldiers accidentally ran into some of Rupert's men at Wormleighton and were captured. Rupert sent out a patrol to Kineton to check where the main army was. |
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| Rupert sent a message to the King at midnight advising that the army should gather at the top of a steep ridge called Edgehill overlooking the village of Kineton. The King replied at 4am that he had given orders for this assembly. | This had the advantage of the slope as well as the fact that this cut off Essex's route to Banbury | |
| Oct 23 | Essex became aware of the proximity of the
Royalist army at 8am when he went to church in Kineton, and gave orders
for his army to form up between Kineton and Edgehill.
Both armies were spread out over a wide area and it was not until early afternoon that both armies were deployed, the Royalists at the top of the slope and the Parliamentarians below on the flat plain. |
Not all of
Essex's army arrived in time for the battle but he still may have had a
slight advantage in numbers :
King : 14,300 |
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Charles finalises plans for
the Battle of Edgehill.
While the armies were preparing, the King held a Council of War to discuss plans for the battle. There was some disagreement which caused the Earl of Lindsey to resign and fight as a colonel. |
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| By around 1.30pm both sides were ready. To hasten the start of battle (Essex was expecting more reinforcements and the Royalists were short of rations), the Royalist army descended the slope to the plain below within about half a mile of the enemy troops. | Many Welshmen on the Royalist side had no guns - only pitchforks and cudgels. | |
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The line-up at the start of
the battle :
Red - Parliamentarians |
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| Once the lines were drawn the King and his
two sons, the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York (aged 12 and 9) rode
around each brigade, encouraging the soldiers. This prompted the
Parliamentarian gunners to open fire with their cannon.
Royalist dragoons on the flanks moved forward to engage the enemy dragoons. |
At nearly 3pm a horseman rode over to Prince Rupert from the parliamentarian lines to tell him that Sir William Waller's regiment would defect and join his forces as soon as the horsemen charged. | |
| Rupert's horsemen on the right flank moved
forward at a walk then at a trot. They were shot at but advanced with no
hesitation before breaking into a canter before crashing into Ramsey's
lines at a full gallop.
The entire regiment of Ramsey's horse turned tail and fled towards Kineton pursued vigorously by the Royalists. Wilmot's horse on the Royalist left similarly routed and put to flight a regiment of the Parliamentarian foot. |
Ramsey immediately went to London to report a terrible defeat. | |
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| Next came a big mistake - Sir John Byron's cavalry should have stayed and supported the Royalist foot fighting in the centre but instead, they followed Rupert's horsemen on their pursuit into Kineton where they found the enemy baggage wagons. | ||
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| The Royalist foot had closed up to the
Parliamentarian lines and the two rear regiments had filled the gaps
between the front three. Balfour launched his horsemen at Feilding's
brigade and broke right through so he was able to put the rear guns out
of action. Essex's foot fought well in the confusion of the centre.
The royal standard was captured and its bearer Sir Edmund Verney was killed. |
The King had been watching the battle from the rear with his two young sons. He now sent them back out of harm's way with Edward Hyde, moving forward himself towards the battle. | |
| Sir Charles Lucas had managed to control about 200 of the charging horse of Wilmot's regiment and brought them back to attack the rear of Essex's men, and recovered the royal standard. | It is estimated that the royal standard was in enemy hands for only six minutes. | |
| Remnants of Rupert's horsemen trickled back to the battle but light was fading and the battle slowly died as men grew weary. The foot soldiers drew back slightly and fired muskets, then, after dark they withdrew several hundred yards from each other. | Losses :
Parliament : about 1000 men killed and many more deserted. Royalist : about 500 killed |
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| Oct 24 | The night had been cold and in the morning
the opposing soldiers faced each other all day but no further fighting
took place.
Essex withdrew towards Warwick with as many troops as he could muster, and the Royalist army returned to their billets. |
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Looking out from Edgehill towards Kineton | |
| The Verdict :
Both sides claimed a victory. If the Royalist horsemen had not deserted the footsoldiers a Royalist victory would have been assured. The road to London lay open as Essex could no longer impede the King's army, but the Royalists did not make use of this advantage. Sir Jacob Astley's prayer before the battle : 'O Lord! thou knowest, how busy I must be this day: if I forget thee, do not thou forget me' |
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