In the aftermath of the first battle of Newbury (September 1643), the King's Oxford army re-occupied Reading while the Earl of Essex withdrew to London. The Royalist strategy of a triple advance towards London had faltered: the Earl of Newcastle's northern army was committed to the siege of Hull in Yorkshire and the remnant of Hopton's western army was reducing Parliamentarian strongholds in the south-west; the central Oxford army was not strong enough to attack the capital alone. The King's Council of War resolved to break the deadlock by creating two new armies: one in Cheshire under Lord Byron, which was expected to assist the northern Royalists, and a new western army under Lord Hopton which was to advance on London through Wiltshire and Hampshire. Both Royalist armies were reinforced with regiments released from service against the Irish Confederates by the signing of the Cessation of Arms.
First Siege of Basing House, Hampshire, November 1643
While Lord Hopton's western army was mustering, Parliament formed a new South-Eastern Association army commanded by Sir William Waller to safeguard the counties of Surrey, Hampshire, Sussex and Kent. Early in November 1643, Waller mustered his forces at Farnham Castle in Surrey. With the addition of three regiments of the London Trained Bands, Waller's army consisted of sixteen troops of horse, five companies of dragoons, 36 companies of foot and a train of artillery. Rather than march directly against Hopton's army, however, Waller decided first to attack the Royalist stronghold of Basing House near Basingstoke in Hampshire.
Basing House was the seat of John Paulet, the Catholic Marquis of Winchester, one of the wealthiest landowners in the kingdom. During the 16th Century, Paulet's ancestor the first Marquis of Winchester had transformed Basing from a medieval manor house into a massive palace and fortress five storeys high with nearly 400 rooms. There were two main buildings: the Old House, built within the ramparts of a medieval castle, and the New House, a large mansion built in the bailey some years later. A bridge and gateway linked the two houses. Beyond these were outbuildings, orchards and gardens, all contained within a boundary wall approximately one mile in circumference.
Basing was attacked by local Parliamentarians under Colonel Richard Norton in July 1643. The Marquis and a few retainers succeeded in holding them off until the timely arrival of 100 musketeers from Oxford commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Peake of Colonel Marmaduke Rawdon's regiment. Shortly afterwards, Rawdon himself arrived with the rest of his regiment and three pieces of artillery to take over as military governor of Basing. During the summer and autumn of 1643, Rawdon supervised the strengthening of Basing's defences with the addition of an extensive system of earthwork banks, ditches and bastions that transformed it into a formidable fortress commanding the main road from London to the west. By the time of Waller's attack, the Basing garrison numbered about 400 men.
Waller set up his artillery on Cowdray's Down to the north of the House. His summons for the Marquis to surrender was courteously declined. At dawn on 7 November 1643, the Parliamentarian siege guns opened fire. While the bombardment continued, Waller's musketeers advanced to seize Basing church and the remains of cottages and outbuildings burned down by the Royalists, from where they harassed the defenders behind the walls. The firefight continued until the late afternoon when the wind suddenly rose and brought in a heavy rainstorm. Waller ordered a general withdrawal to Cowdray Down. When the weather showed no sign of abating, the Parliamentarians withdrew to find shelter in Basingstoke and the surrounding villages.
Waller mounted a second attack on 12 November. After a two-hour bombardment, the Parliamentarians stormed the defences from several directions at once. They were met by fierce resistance which so discouraged some of the newly-raised auxiliary regiments of the Trained Bands that they refused to obey orders to advance. Waller's regular troops carried the fight to the walls of Basing but the Royalist defence could not be broken. When darkness fell, Waller ordered a withdrawal. The following day, the rain turned to sleet and snow. Whole companies of the Trained Bands began to desert and march back to London. When news reached Waller that Lord Hopton's army was on the march he had no choice but to abandon the siege. He returned with his remaining regiments through the driving sleet to Farnham Castle, where he wrote urgently to Parliament requesting reinforcements, supplies and money to pay his troops. The Royalist commander Colonel Rawdon was knighted for his defence of Basing.
Second Siege of Basing House, 1644 >
Arundel & Alton, Sussex & Hampshire, December 1643
During late October 1643, the first regiments to return from service in Ireland arrived in England and were incorporated into Lord Hopton's new army. The newly-returned regiments were unruly and mutinous; Hopton hanged a number of the ringleaders to restore order. By the beginning of November, Hopton was ready to take the field with an army of around 3,000 foot and 1,500 horse. He intended to reduce remaining Parliamentarian strongholds in Dorset and Wiltshire before advancing eastwards towards London, but the King ordered him to march for Winchester in Hampshire which had been captured in a surprise attack led by Sir William Ogle. Hopton occupied Winchester in mid-November then advanced towards Sir William Waller's headquarters at Farnham Castle. However, the Parliamentarian army was weak after its abortive attack on Basing House and Waller refused to give battle.
In early December 1643, Hopton attempted to seize territory in Sussex in preparation for a future campaign in south-eastern England. He secured the environs of Winchester by posting garrisons at Romsey and Alton then marched to Arundel Castle in west Sussex which surrendered to him on 9 December. Hopton intended to push on to Lewes, but found the bridge over the River Adur at Bramber defended by Parliamentarians commanded by Captain Temple. On 12 December, the Royalist advance was driven back from Bramber with heavy casualties.
The Royalist army had become strung out on a front of nearly 30 miles, leaving isolated units vulnerable to attack. Around the time that Hopton's advance guard was driven back from Bramber, Colonel Richard Norton, the Parliamentarian governor of Southampton, attacked the Royalist garrison at Romsey and inflicted serious losses. At Farnham, Sir William Waller was reinforced with two London regiments of foot and 600 horse, then marched against the garrison at Alton. Setting out on the evening of 12 December, Waller marched through the night to Alton, taking a circuitous route to launch a surprise dawn attack. The Earl of Crawford fled with the cavalry, leaving the infantry under Colonel Richard Bolle to fend for themselves. Waller's attack drove the Royalists back into St Lawrence's churchyard and then into the church itself where they continued to resist, climbing scaffolding within the church to fire from the high windows. Roundhead pikemen forced open the church door. Colonel Birch led the charge into the church, where Royalist musketeers continued to fire from behind the corpses of several horses piled up and laid across the aisle. Colonel Bolle took up a position in the pulpit and swore that he would run his sword through the heart of the first Royalist to call for quarter. He is said to have killed seven Roundheads before being struck dead by a blow from the butt of a musket. A few desperate Royalists continued to fight after Bolle's death but were soon overwhelmed.
Waller followed up the victory at Alton by advancing into Sussex. He arrived at Arundel on 19 December. The Royalist garrison took refuge in the castle but surrendered after a two-week siege on 6 January 1644. With heavy snowfall setting in, Waller was obliged to settle his army in winter quarters. Meanwhile Lord Hopton, who was deeply disheartened by the setbacks at Alton and Arundel, withdrew to Winchester.
Battle of Cheriton (Alresford), Hampshire, 29 March 1644
Early in March 1644, reinforcements were sent from Oxford to Lord Hopton to bring the strength of his army at Winchester up to around 3,500 foot and 2,500 horse. The reinforcements were led by the Earl of Forth, General-in-Chief of the King's army and Hopton's senior officer, perhaps indicating that the Oxford commanders had lost confidence in Hopton after the setbacks of the previous winter. However, Forth was badly afflicted with gout so the practical leadership continued to fall to Hopton, which resulted in confusion in the Royalist army over who was actually in command. Sir William Waller's Parliamentarian army was also reinforced during the winter to bring its strength up to 6,500 foot and 3,500 horse, which significantly outnumbered the Royalists. When the 1644 campaigning season began, both sides were eager for battle; Forth and Hopton issued a challenge to Waller in the medieval manner, offering to meet at a prescribed place and time. Waller preferred to fight when and where he could gain the best advantage.
On 28 March 1644, the two armies drew up facing one another on opposite sides of a horseshoe-shaped ridge near the village of Cheriton in Hampshire. Forth and Hopton occupied the northern ridge, Waller occupied the slightly lower southern ridge. The ground between the two armies sloped down into a bowl-shaped hollow with the extensive woodland of Cheriton Wood on higher ground to the east. The first stage of the battle involved attempts to secure Cheriton Wood, which potentially provided a covered approach to the enemy's lines without having to descend into the hollow and then attack uphill. At dawn, under cover of mist, Waller sent an advance guard drawn from his London regiments under Colonel Walter Leighton to occupy the wood and threaten the Royalist left flank, at the same time driving back a Royalist outpost under the command of Colonel George Lisle. Lord Hopton also realised the importance of the wood and positioned artillery to cover its edges and fire on the Parliamentarians as they emerged, which forced them back under cover of the trees. As the rising sun burned off the mist, Hopton sent in Colonel Matthew Appleyard with 1,000 musketeers to clear the woods. In fierce fighting, confused by the fact that both sides had coincidentally chosen the same field sign, Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Hopton led a column of Royalist musketeers in a flanking manoeuvre that succeeded in driving the Parliamentarians out of Cheriton Wood.
Lord Hopton was now anxious to attack the vulnerable Parliamentarian right flank, but the Earl of Forth preferred to stand on the defensive and wait for the Parliamentarians either to attack the strong Royalist position or to retreat. As Forth was senior to Hopton, his plan prevailed. But the tension of waiting evidently proved unbearable: the young gallant Sir Henry Bard, acting without orders, led his cavalry regiment in a bold, unsupported charge down into the hollow towards the Parliamentarian left flank. In response, Sir Arthur Haselrig led his formidable regiment of cuirassiers in a well-timed counter-charge that blocked the Royalist retreat and quickly overwhelmed Bard's regiment, so that every man was either killed or captured. Witnessing the fight from the ridge above, Lord Forth sent a second regiment to help Bard, which met with a similar fate. From this point, the battle appears to have spiraled out of Forth's control, with Royalist regiments making uncoordinated charges down into the hollow without mutual support, only to be overpowered one by one. The confused fighting continued for several hours with Royalist infantry regiments also being drawn in. By mid-afternoon, the Parliamentarians' weight of numbers and defensive advantage were telling. The decisive blow was struck when an enterprising Parliamentarian colonel led his regiment in an outflanking manoeuvre against the Royalist right flank on the northern ridge, which was weakened after so many troops had gone to join the fight in the centre.
With their cavalry regiments shattered and the infantry under severe pressure, Hopton and Forth broke off the action and ordered a withdrawal towards the village of Alresford. Under Hopton's direction, the Royalists succeeded in escaping from the battlefield with most of their artillery and baggage. The following day, Hopton and Forth retreated to Oxford while Waller advanced to Winchester where the city, though not the castle, surrendered to him. The remnants of Hopton's army were subsequently absorbed into the King's Oxford army. Waller's victory at Cheriton terminated the Royalist advance in the south-east and ended all hopes of a direct attack on London. It was celebrated by Parliamentarians as their first decisive victory against a Royalist army seeking battle — all major Parliamentarian successes up to that point had been defensive. It also boosted the morale of the "War Party" in Parliament, which was now more than ever determined to inflict a military defeat on the King.
The Oxford campaign and Cropredy Bridge >
References:
A.H. Burne & P. Young, The Great Civil War, a military history, 1959
S.R. Gardiner, History of the Great Civil War vol. i, 1888
Peter Gaunt, The Cromwellian Gazetteer, 1987
William Seymour, Battles in Britain 1066-1746, 1997
Links:
Basing House website
Battle of Cheriton : UK Battlefields Resource Centre