Siege of Gloucester, 10 August-5 September 1643
After the capture of Bristol by the Royalists in July 1643, Prince Maurice and Lord Carnarvon were sent to attack remaining Parliamentarian towns in the south-west. In August 1643, the King took the main Oxford army to besiege Gloucester. The city was the only major Parliamentarian stronghold between Bristol and Lancashire; its capture would secure the routes into England from the Royalist recruiting grounds in Wales.
King Charles expected Gloucester to surrender when he summoned the city on 10 August but the governor, Colonel Massey, was defiant. Although Massey had only 1,500 regular troops under his command, many citizens joined the soldiers in working to strengthen Gloucester's ancient Roman walls and medieval castle. Prince Rupert realised that the city's defences were barely adequate and recommended taking it by storm. King Charles, however, preferred to avoid a repetition of the heavy casualties sustained at the storming of Bristol so ordered a formal siege, which was directed by the Earl of Forth. Artillery opened fire on the walls of Gloucester while entrenchments were constructed and sappers began building a mine under the east gate. Siege engines were built to provide cover for musketeers in preparation for an attack when a significant breach had been made. However, the Royalist plans suffered a setback when heavy rain flooded the mine before it could be fired. Massey conducted a vigorous defence, mounting several successful counter-attacks and encouraging the defenders with reassurances that help would soon be on its way.
News of the siege had a galvanising effect on London, where the mood had grown gloomy from so many Royalist successes around the country during the summer of 1643. Inspired by the resolution of Colonel Massey and the defenders of Gloucester, Londoners flocked to the colours. Three new regiments of foot and one of horse were raised to march with the London Trained Bands to the relief of Gloucester. Commanded by the Earl of Essex, the London regiments marched from Uxbridge on 26 August. Essex took a northerly route around Oxford via Brackley, Stow-on-the-Wold and Cheltenham. After fending off harassing cavalry attacks by Lord Wilmot and Prince Rupert, Essex reached Prestbury Hill, ten miles from Gloucester, on 5 September. King Charles broke up the siege and withdrew rather than risk becoming trapped between Essex's army and the Gloucester garrison. The London regiments occupied Gloucester on 8 September. They had arrived in the nick of time — Massey's garrison was down to its last three barrels of gunpowder.
Aldbourne Chase, Berkshire, 18 September 1643
After the relief of Gloucester, the Earl of Essex was faced with the task of bringing his army home to London. The Royalist high command knew that if Essex's army could be defeated as decisively as Waller's had been at Roundway Down, London would be left defenceless. On 10 September, Essex marched north from Gloucester through the Severn Valley towards Tewkesbury. His intention was to make the Royalists believe that he intended to attack Worcester, but the King's Council of War was not deceived. The Royalist army advanced to Pershore to block the route back to London through Warwick. Essex decided to make a dash for London via the southern route through Swindon, Newbury and Reading. On 15 September, the Parliamentarian army turned south and made a night march to Cirencester, where the Royalist garrison was scattered and its provisions and ammunition captured.
The King's army pursued Essex, marching on a roughly parallel route but aiming to cut off his retreat at Newbury. Through wet, windy conditions, Essex's army marched doggedly towards Newbury but Prince Rupert's cavalry rode ahead of the main Royalist army and intercepted Essex at Aldbourne Chase on the Berkshire Downs on 18 September. Rupert's harassing attack slowed Essex enough for the main Royalist army to occupy Newbury ahead of him, blocking the London road and forcing a battle he had hoped to avoid.
First Battle of Newbury, Berkshire, 20 September 1643
The Royalist army was commanded by King Charles in person with his Lord-General the Earl of Forth as his chief of staff. The Earl of Essex commanded the Parliamentarians with Major-General Philip Skippon as his second-in-command. The exact sizes of the armies are not known for certain; they are thought to have been around 15,000 men each. Both armies had around 20 artillery pieces, including a number of heavy guns.
Although the Royalists had arrived at Newbury ahead of the Parliamentarians, they made a fatal mistake in failing to secure Round Hill, which dominated part of the battlefield. In the early morning of 20 September, Major-General Skippon placed two artillery pieces on Round Hill, from where they proceeded to bombard the Royalist lines. The whole area was intersected with lanes and hedgerows, which seriously hampered the Royalist horse and negated their advantage over the Parliamentarians. The vital task of dislodging Skippon fell to Sir Nicholas Byron's brigade of foot, and his nephew Sir John Byron's cavalry. During several assaults on Round Hill, Byron's cavalry briefly succeeded in gaining the summit but were unable to hold it when Skippon committed his reserve regiments of Trained Band infantry. Byron later blamed the Royalist foot for failing to advance in support of his cavalry. On Wash Common to the south of Round Hill, the main body of Prince Rupert's cavalry routed Sir Philip Stapleton's horse but was unable to dislodge the Parliamentarian infantry. A Royalist battery was formed on Wash Common while Skippon stabilised the Parliamentarian centre and brought up his heavy guns to engage the Royalists in an intense artillery duel, said to have been the fiercest and most sustained of the whole war. The resolution of the London Trained Band regiments, who endured pounding by Royalist artillery and repeated cavalry attacks, saved the day for the Parliamentarians.
By nightfall, both armies were exhausted and neither had gained a clear advantage. The Royalists still blocked the road to London; Prince Rupert and Sir John Byron were in favour of continuing the battle the next day, but when Lord Percy pointed out that the Royalist army had used up almost its entire supply of gunpowder, King Charles ordered a withdrawal to Oxford. This came as a surprise to the Parliamentarians, who had also expected the battle to continue. The King was appalled at the carnage: around 3,500 men were killed at Newbury including the senior Royalists, Lord Carnarvon and Lord Sunderland. Most painful of all to the King was the death of Viscount Falkland, his Secretary of State, who is said to have ridden deliberately to his death on Round Hill, in despair at the horror of civil war.
Around midday on 21 September, Essex resumed his march to London. Prince Rupert disrupted Essex's withdrawal with an attack on his rearguard, during which Sir Philip Stapleton is reported to have rode up to Rupert and fired point-blank in his face. Fortunately for Rupert, the pistol failed to go off. Parliamentarian musketeers fended off Rupert's attack and Essex's army withdrew to Reading. Deciding that the town could not be held, Essex evacuated the garrison there and continued on to London. At the head of his battered army, he arrived home to a hero's welcome on 28 September.
Civil War in the South 1643-4 >
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
P.R. Newman, Atlas of the English Civil War,1985
William Seymour, Battles in Britain 1066-1746, 1997
Links:
First battle of Newbury : UK Battlefields Resource Centre