Parliament's Committee for Both Kingdoms hoped to follow up Sir William Waller's victory at Cheriton with an attack on the Royalist capital Oxford. The Committee ordered the Earl of Essex and the Earl of Manchester to rendezvous at Aylesbury on 19 April 1644 and from there to advance against Oxford, leaving Waller free to march into the west against Prince Maurice. However, the senior Parliamentarian generals were slow to obey the Committee's orders. Waller's army was weakened when his mutinous London regiments marched for home, so he returned to his base at Farnham Castle to await reinforcements. The Earl of Manchester was reluctant to leave Lincolnshire because Prince Rupert's recent campaign to lift the siege of Newark threatened a Royalist advance into East Anglia. The Earl of Essex complained that Parliament favoured Manchester with supplies and money and petulantly refused to co-operate with anyone.
The Oxford Campaign, April-June 1644
On 25 April 1644, King Charles convened a Council of War at Oxford. Prince Rupert advised the King to maintain the ring of fortresses around the city and to defend them with a central cavalry force. With the Royalist capital secure, Prince Maurice could complete the conquest of the west while Rupert himself went north to assist the Marquis of Newcastle against the Scots. Rupert's plan was adopted but proved difficult to implement in practice because the Oxford army was short of cavalry. By the middle of May 1644 the Parliamentarian commanders Essex and Waller were at last marshalling their forces and preparing to attack Oxford. The Earl of Brentford (formerly Lord Forth) advised abandoning Rupert's plan and withdrawing from outlying strongpoints, incorporating their garrisons into the main Oxford army. On 18 May, the Royalists evacuated Reading, which was a difficult garrison to support. A week later, the Royalists also abandoned Abingdon, thus conceding one of the inner ring of fortresses that protected Oxford. The Parliamentarians occupied the abandoned garrisons and began to tighten the noose on Oxford itself.
Early in June 1644, Sir William Waller captured Newbridge to control crossings of the Thames above and below Oxford, while the Earl of Essex occupied Islip, a few miles north-east of the city. Rather than allow himself to become trapped in Oxford, King Charles left a garrison of 3,000 infantry in the city and set out with a force of 5,000 horse and 2,500 musketeers towards Worcester, having first made a feint towards Abingdon that induced Waller to fall back to its defence. The King's initiative was successful. He reached Worcester unscathed on 6 June, yet his situation remained precarious. Essex and Waller bypassed Oxford to pursue the King; Colonel Massey was also active in the region, having captured Malmesbury and Tewkesbury. With Prince Rupert campaigning in the north, the King was not strong enough to take on the armies ranged against him. At this critical point, however, the Earl of Essex made an extraordinary decision to abandon his pursuit of the King and march into the west to relieve the siege of Lyme with the bulk of the Parliamentarian army, leaving Waller to deal with the King and the Oxford army.
On 12 June, the King marched northwards from Worcester to Bewdley, giving the impression that he was making for Shrewsbury. Waller hurried north to Stourbridge to intercept him. However, the King planned to return to Oxford to gather reinforcements before confronting Waller; he outmanoeuvred him by summoning boats to ferry the Royalist infantry down the River Severn, then doubled back to Worcester. From there, the Royalists hurried towards Oxford via Evesham and Witney. On 21 June, the Oxford army mustered at Woodstock. Reinforced by the infantry and train of artillery from the Oxford garrison, the King marched to Buckingham. The Committee for Both Kingdoms feared that he intended to strike East Anglia, which was undefended while the Eastern Association army was at the siege of York. With the Earl of Essex beyond the Committee's control, frantic orders were sent to Waller to intercept the King's army. A London brigade of 4,500 troops under Major-General Browne was also mobilised to support Waller.
Cropredy Bridge, Oxfordshire, 29 June 1644
The King's army was marching north from Banbury towards Daventry along the eastern bank of the River Cherwell when Sir William Waller's army approached from the west. The armies were equal in size but King Charles and his general-in-chief the Earl of Brentford intended to fight Waller on ground of their own choosing. As the Royalists advanced along the eastern bank of the Cherwell, the Parliamentarians shadowed them on the western bank. The two forces were in full view of one another and little more than a mile apart. As the Royalists approached the village of Cropredy, news came in that a force of 300 Roundhead cavalry had been sighted two miles ahead, probably on its way to join Waller. Brentford covered the left flank of the Royalist column by sending a force of dragoons to guard the crossing at Cropredy Bridge then ordered the advance guard to ride ahead and secure Hays Bridge, the next crossing over the Cherwell.
Observing from Bourton Hill, Sir William Waller noticed that the rapid advance left the Royalist column widely strung out as the main body of infantry struggled to keep up with the vanguard. Seizing his chance, Waller ordered two cavalry columns to attack. Lieutenant-General Middleton scattered the dragoons guarding Cropredy Bridge and crossed the river while Waller himself led the second column across the ford at Slat Mill, a mile south of the bridge, intending to surround and isolate the Royalist rearguard.
Having crossed the river, Middleton's cavalry advanced towards Hays Bridge while Parliamentarian infantry secured the position at Cropredy Bridge. The Earl of Cleveland led a counter-attack and a running cavalry fight developed as Middleton was driven back towards Cropredy Bridge. With Hays Bridge secure, Lord Bernard Stuart led the King's Lifeguard to assist Cleveland. A number of Parliamentarian guns that had been prematurely moved across the Cherwell were captured by the Royalists, along with the artillery officer Colonel Wemyss. Meanwhile, Sir William Waller's advance across Slat Mill ford was thrown back by the Earl of Northampton's cavalry. Dismayed, Waller withdrew most of his forces to his position on Bourton Hill leaving detachments to guard the river crossings against Royalist attacks. Under the command of Colonel Birch, the Tower Hamlets regiment stoutly defended Cropredy Bridge itself and the Royalists were unable to recapture it. Royalist infantry forced a crossing at Slat Mill, but Waller's heavy guns on Bourton Hill prevented them from advancing any further.
The two armies remained in position facing one another across the Cherwell until the following day when King Charles received word that Major-General Browne's London Brigade had reached Buckingham. On the morning of 1 July, the Royalists marched away westwards, arriving at Evesham two days later. The battle of Cropredy Bridge had lifted the morale of the King's army but had the opposite effect on Waller's men, many of whom refused to fight again and marched for home. Badly disrupted, Waller's army was no longer a danger to Oxford.
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
P.R. Newman, Atlas of the English Civil War,1985
Links:
Cropredy Bridge : UK Battlefields Resource Centre