Roundway Down, 1643
July 10 Hopton moved on to Devizes with his army - much battered after Lansdown Hill. They were followed and harassed by Waller's men.

Waller arrived at the north end of Devizes and set up his troops on Roundway Hill. He then started to bombard the town with cannon fire. 

Hopton himself wounded after Lansdown Hill commanded the Royalist troops in the town. He was very short of ammunition and the cavalry had been severely depleted.

Hertford and Prince Maurice managed to escape from the town before Waller could completely surround it and headed to Oxford to get help from the Royalist forces there.

Troops were very quickly sent to assemble at Marlborough.
July 13 1800 horse led by Wilmot, Byron and Crawford from Marlborough rode to rescue Hopton in Devizes. They surprised Waller and streamed over Morgan's Hill. The Parliamentarian forces had to wheel around to face the approaching cavalry.

 
The Royalists rode up the hill and Waller ordered his cannons to fire on them from above. 

Wilmot first led a cavalry charge on the left followed by Byron charging on the right. Several times, the Royalist cavalry charged up the hill. Eventually the Parliamentary horse realised they were losing and fled westwards. They were pursued by Crawford and some of the Royalist cavalry.

Wilmot charged the remaining parliamentary horse who fled - they were unaware of a steep drop at Oliver's Castle and many men were lost as they fell over the edge.

The Parliamentary infantry unprotected now by the cavalry, fought bravely and repelled the repeated charges of the Royalist cavalry.

 

 Waller had 2500 foot in the centre flanked by 1000 horse on each side.

 
Hopton rode out of Devizes with his Cornish infantry to join the battle and Crawford's cavalry returned. The parliamentary infantry were now being attacked from all sides. Waller gave the order to retreat but this turned into a rout and they were virtually destroyed as they fled.

Waller escaped to Bristol.

After the battle it was the Marquis of Hertford's men who occupied Bath.

 Many of the parliamentary infantry were killed as they fled. The foot of the hill was named 'Bloody Ditch'.
Parliament : William Waller, Haselrigge

Royalist : Wilmot, Sir John Byron, Crawford, Maurice, Marquis of Hertford, Ralph Hopton.

 In his memoirs Waller referred to 'my dismal defeat at Roundway Down'.
This battle demonstrates the superiority of the Royalist horse and the success of prince Rupert's training methods.

After the defeat, Waller blamed Essex for allowing the King to send reinforcements - Essex was not happy about the resources diverted to Waller and blamed him for losing such a fine army. Waller's defeat ensured Essex's favour with Parliament.