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| First Battle of Newbury 1643 | ||
| Sep 19 | The skirmish at Aldbourne Chase had slowed Essex's advance on Newbury and Charles managed to enter the town before the Parliamentarian army arrived there. The Royalist army deployed across the route to the south-west of the town. | |
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Rupert recommended that the
Royalists did nothing until Essex attacked - they were short of powder
and shot and needed to wait for further supplies from Oxford.
Essex saw that he could not get through the Royalist lines and decided to advance onto the plateau to the south. He left Skippon and Middleton's horse to oppose the Royalist forces in the fields below the plateau while he and Stapleton advanced up the slopes. |
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| Parliament : 4,000 horse
(Sir Philip Stapleton and Col. John Middleton) and 10,000 foot (Essex
and Skippon's trained bands from London)
Royalist : 6,000 horse (Rupert, Wilmot, John Byron, Earl of Carnarvon and Charles Gerrard) and 8,000 foot (Nicholas Byron, Gilbert Gerrard, Belasyse and William Vavasour). |
Each side had about 20 cannon. | |
| At nightfall, Skippon took up positions on Round Hill,
placing two of his guns there. Essex and Stapleton moved on to Wash
Common.
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| Sep 20 | At dawn the Royalists realised they were being outflanked
and decided to attack. Byron attacking Round Hill, while Rupert headed
towards Essex's men on Wash Common.
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| Byron's horse and Nicholas Byron's foot were not able to
completely remove the forces from Round Hill and lost many men in
several attacks - there were many heavily fortified hedges on the way
up.
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Lord Falkland (Charles' Secretary of State) was killed at a gap in one of the hedges on Round Hill. Rumour has it that he sought death recklessly. | |
| Rupert was more successful in pushing Stapleton's brigades
back despite strong resistance and only after several attacks, but he
was hampered by the difficult ground, the many hedges and the narrow
lanes.
To the north there was an unsuccessful attempt by the Parliamentarian forces to cross the river Kennet.
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At one point in the battle a lone horseman rode up to Rupert and fired at point blank range. The bullet glanced off his helmet and he was unharmed. The rider was in fact Sir Philip Stapleton. | |
| Sep 21 | The Royalists seemed to have the upper hand at the end of
the day, but due to low stocks of gunpowder they withdrew to the town of
Newbury and on towards Oxford.
Essex was amazed to find them gone and continued his journey towards London.
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Rupert spent all night raising a troop of horsemen to harass Essex's army and they sprang an ambush near Aldermaston which killed a considerable number of the enemy. |
| Royalist losses included The Earl of Carnarvon, the Earl of Sunderland and Lord Falkland. | ||