In October, 1642, Charles
I and his Royalist
forces began marching on London. The Parliamentary
army attempted to block their way and engaged the Royalists at Edgehill
on 23rd October. It is estimated that both sides had around 14,000
men.
Prince
Rupert and his Cavaliers made the
first attack and easily defeated Robert
Devereux, the
commander of the left-wing of the Parliamentary forces. Henry
Wilmot also had success on the right-wing and this left the foot
soldiers of both sides to fight it out in the centre. The Parliamentarians
held their line and their calvary managed to attack the Royalist flank.
Prince Rupert's cavalrymen
lacked discipline and continued to follow those who ran from the battlefield.
John Byron and his regiment also joined
the chase. The royalist calvary did not return to the battlefield
until over an hour after the initial charge. By this time the
horses were so tired they were unable to mount another attack against
the Roundheads. The fighting ended
at nightfall.
Robert
Devereux decided
to withdraw his men to Warwick. This left the Royalists free to march
on London. However, Charles
I decided to
make his way to Oxford, which became his
headquarters for the duration of the war.
(1)
Eyewitness account of the footsoldiers that fought in the royalist
army at the Battle of Edgehill on 23 October, 1642.
Arms were
the great deficiency, and the men stood up in the same garments in
which they left their native fields; and with scythes, pitchforks,
and even sickles in their hands, they cheerfully took the field, and
literally like reapers descended to the harvest of death.
(2)
Edmund Verney, royalist officer, letter to his son before the Battle
of Edgehill (October, 1642)
Our men are very raw, our
victuals scarce and provisions for horses worse. I daresay there was
never so raw, so unskilful and so unwilling an army brought to fight.
(3)
A
pamphlet An Exact and True Relation of a Dangerous and Bloody Fight
near Kineton, was published soon after the Battle of Edgehill
(October, 1642)
The field was covered with
the dead, yet no one could tell to what party they belonged... Some
on both sides did extremely well, and others did ill and deserved
to be hanged.
(4)
Earl
of Clarendon, The Civil
Wars in England (1667)
At Edgehill... the foot
soldiers stood their ground with great courage; and though many of
the King's soldiers were unarmed and had only cudgels, they kept their
ranks, and took up the arms which their slaughtered neighbours left
to them.
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