The Parliamentarians had in the meantime not been idle. Turn

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[Illustration: THE TOWER, EDGE HILL.]

EDGE HILL:

THE BATTLE AND BATTLEFIELD.

WITH

Notes on Banbury & Thereabout.

BY

EDWIN A. WALFORD, F.G.S.

_SECOND EDITION._

Banbury:

E. A. WALFORD, 71 & 72, HIGH STREET.

London:

CASTLE, LAMB & STORR, SALISBURY SQUARE.

1904.

Preface to Edition, 1904.

For the present edition the available material of the last eighteen years

has been consulted, but the plans of battle are similar to two of those of

my book of 1886. They were then the first series of diagrammatic

representations of the fight published, but in no case has this been

acknowledged in the many plans of like kind subsequently published. Some

new facts and inferences the author hopes may increase the value of the

account.

The letters of Captain Nathaniel Fiennes and Captain Kightley, now added,

may serve to make the tale a more living one. They are reproduced, by the

kind courtesy of the authorities of the Radcliffe Library, Oxford, and the

Birmingham Reference Library.

New pages of Notes on Banbury, and an extended bibliography are also

given.

EDWIN A. WALFORD.

_Banbury,

March, 1904._

Preface to First Edition.

In the following pages an endeavour has been made to give a concise

account of the physical features of the Edge Hill district, as well as to

describe the events of the first great battle of the Civil War, with which

it is so intimately associated. The intention is to provide a handbook for

the guidance of the visitor rather than to attempt any elaborate

historical or scientific work. Though Nugent's "Memorials of John Hampden"

has supplied the basis of the information, Clarendon's "History of the

Great Rebellion," the various pamphlets of the time, and Beesley's

"History of Banbury," have also been freely used. In order to avoid

burdening the pages with foot notes, a catalogue of works upon the subject

is printed as an appendix, and the letters and numbers throughout the text

refer thereto. The catalogue, it is hoped, may be of use to the future

student. The plans of the battle, based upon Nugent's account, must be

looked upon as merely diagrammatic, the scale being unavoidably distorted

for the purpose of showing the conjectured positions of the troops. In the

plans it may be worth note that the troops then known as "dragooners" are

classed with the infantry.

The "Notes on Banbury and Thereabouts" are in part reproduced from a small

pamphlet published in 1879. Much of the detail relating to the older

buildings has been derived from Skelton's "Antiquities of Oxfordshire" and

Parker's descriptions in Beesley's History.

To Mr. W. L. Whitehorn my thanks are due for aid in the revision of "Edge

Hill," and in the compilation of the "Notes."

EDWIN A. WALFORD.

_Banbury,

July 7th, 1886._

EDGE HILL: THE BATTLE AND BATTLEFIELD.

I.

To Edge Hill from Banbury a good road trends gradually up hill nearly the

whole way. It rises from the 300 foot level of the Cherwell Vale to 720 at

the highest ground of the ridge of the hill. At a distance of eight miles

to the North-West is the edge or escarpment of high ground bounded on the

East side by the vale of a tributary of the Cherwell, and on the North and

West by the plain drained by the tributaries of the Avon. From Warmington,

six miles from Banbury, North-Westwards to the point marked on the

Ordnance Map as Knowle End, and thence South-Westwards to the Sun Rising,

once the site of a hostelry on the Banbury and Stratford-on-Avon coach

road, the edge makes a right angle with the apex at Knowle End. The

nearest point of the hill range is at Warmington, where a fine fourteenth

century Church stands high above the rock of the roadway. There is the

first record of the battle--a simple headstone to the right of the path to

the South porch telling how one Captain Alexander Gourdin had died on

October 24th, 1642, the day after the fight. From the church-yard long

flights of steps lead to the roadway and village below, where the house

tops show through the foliage of the apple orchards in which they are

partly hidden. Across the vale, three miles to the North, is the range of

the Burton Dassett Hills, an outlier of the Edge Hill range. The Windmill

Hill, the most distant, bears the Beacon House; the square tower of Burton

Dassett Church may be seen amongst the elms on the lower slopes of Church

Hill; Bitham Hill appears in the foreground of the range with the pretty

spire and village of Avon Dassett close at hand.

Westward of Warmington Church runs Camp Lane. It winds along the ridge,

and commands wide views of the plain lands. A beautiful field path springs

from the South side of the lane leading through the village of Ratley to

the Round House and Ratley Grange. Facing Southwards, one looks upon an

equally pleasant though more circumscribed view--the vale of Hornton. The

Arlescot Woods clothe the Northern slopes, and the Manor House rests

amongst the fine trees below. The terraced fields of Adsum Hollow are

three miles down vale Southward, and Nadbury Camp, supposedly a

Romano-british remain, is but a remnant of similar _natural_ terracing on

the South side of the Camp Lane above Arlescot.

At Knowle End, where the road to Kineton plunges steeply down hill, is the

first point of the battle ground and the commencement, strictly speaking,

of Edge Hill. A short distance down the Kineton Road, a pathway on the

right leads under overspreading beech and oak trees for some distance

along the crest of the Knoll, whence a good side view of the hill may be

got. The gate on the opposite side of the Kineton Road opens to a path

through the Radway Woods, and from it, where the foliage is less dense a

prospect opens of many wide leagues of fair midland country--a veritable

patchwork of field and hedgerow. The furze below covers in part Bullet

Hill, the last stand of the Royalists on the battle ground. The road from

Kineton as well as the footway through the woods leads to Edge Hill Tower,

or Round House. Covering the steep hill sides are beech, elm, chestnut

and lime trees of exceptionally fine growth and a wealth of common wild

flowers. The Tower or Round House is an inn, which, with a

_modern-antique_ ruin, makes as it were a landscape gardening adjunct to

Radway Grange lying in the park below. From its upper room is obtained a

fine view of the country. It is an octagonal tower, and was erected with

artificial ruins in 1750 to mark the spot where the King's Standard was

displayed before the Royalist army descended into the plain to give

battle. The village of Radway rests amongst the elms near the foot of the

hill, the church spire being one of the prominent objects of the

foreground. Kineton lies about four miles directly to the North, beyond

which Warwick Castle may be sometimes descried, or the yet more distant

spires of Coventry. Some distance from the Burton hills the smoke of the

Harbury lime works drifts across the landscape. The farms Battledon and

Thistledon, about midway between Radway and Kineton, marked by the

coppices which almost hide the homesteads, are noted from the fact of so

much of the fight having revolved round them.

The footway to the Sun Rising, 1-1/2 miles S.W. of the Round House,

follows the hill side, and though still pleasantly wooded, soon gets

clear of that heavy growth of foliage which has hitherto shut out so much

of the view. The eye ranges over the flat Warwickshire plain in front, to

the hills of Gloucestershire and Worcestershire on the West and the

North-West. The North-Eastern outliers of the Cotteswolds, the hills of

Ebrington and Ilmington, are the nearest in prominence Westwards, beyond

which a clear day will allow even the distant slopes of the Malverns to be

seen. The Bromsgrove, Clent and Clee hills fringe the North-West horizon,

and sometimes the Wrekin is said to appear "like a thin cloud" far away.

At the point where the pathway enters the Stratford-on-Avon road stands

Edge Hill House (the Sun Rising) wherein years ago were some curious

relics of the fight: breast-plates, swords, matchlocks, and a sword

supposed on the evidence of emblems in its decoration to have belonged to

the Earl Lindsay, who commanded the royalists forces prior to the battle,

and who received his death wound in the fight.

In a fir coppice about 200 or 300 yards to the South of the house, the

figure of a red horse roughly cut in the turf of the hill side might

formerly be seen. Dugdale[h] gives the following account of it: "Within

the Precinct of that Manour in Tysoe, now belonging to the E. of

Northampton (but antiently to the Family of Stafford, as I have shewed)

there is cut upon the side of Edg-Hill the Proportion of a Horse, in a

very large Forme; which by Reason of the ruddy Colour of the Earth, is

called THE RED HORSE, and gives Denomination to that fruitfull and

pleasant Countrey thereabouts, commonly called The Vale of Red Horse. The

Trenches of which Ground, where the Shape of the said Horse is so cut out,

being yearly scoured by a Freeholder in this Lordship, who holds certain

Lands there by that service." There is a tradition quoted by Beesley[b] of

its having been cut to commemorate the slaughter of a chieftain's horse at

the battle of Towton, in 1461, the chieftain preferring to share the

perils of the fight with his followers.

II.

The reign of King Charles I. showed a widening of the difference between

the ecclesiastic and puritan elements of the English community--elements

which were the centres of the subsequently enlarged sections, royalist and

parliamentarian. In the later dissentions between the King and the Commons

it was early apparent how widespread had been the alienation of the

people from the King's cause--an alienation heightened, as Green in his

"Short History" tells us, by a fear that the spirit of Roman Catholicism,

so victorious on the continent, should once more become dominant in

England. How great was the tension may be known from the fact of the

contemplated emigration to the American colonies of such leaders as Lord

Saye and Sele, Lord Warwick, Lord Brooke, and Sir John Hampden and Oliver

Cromwell. When the rupture at last came, the Parliament was found to have

secured the larger arsenals, and also to have forces at its disposal in

the trained bands of London and in the militia, which it was enabled

rapidly to enrol. Though the unfurling of the Royal Standard near

Nottingham failed to secure many adherents to the King's cause, Essex

hesitated to attack the royalists when they might have been easily

dispersed, thinking no doubt to overawe the King by mere show of force.

Yet when Charles began recruiting in the neighbourhood of Shrewsbury, he

was soon able to gather an army, and on October 12th, 1642, he commenced

his march upon London. The astute and carefully moderate policy of the

Commons was to rescue the King from his surroundings, and to destroy the

enemies, especially the foreign enemies, of the State, about the King's

person. The sanctity of the King's person was yet a prominent factor--the

belief in divinity of Kingship, notwithstanding all the misrule there had

been, was yet alive in the hearts of the people. Therefore when the King

had gathered his forces together and began his Southward march, Lord Essex

with his army was commissioned "to march against his Majesties Army and

fight with them, and to rescue the persons of the King, Prince and Duke of

York." The Earl of Essex, with the Parliamentarian forces, was at that

time in Worcestershire, endeavouring to prevent the recruiting of the

King's troops; and though the Earl moved two days later on by rapid

marches into Warwickshire, it was only to find that he had been

out-marched by the King, who, after resting at Southam, stood with the

Royalist army at Edgcot across the way to the capital. That this had been

accomplished, notwithstanding the opposition of the strongholds of Warwick

and Coventry, speaks not unfavourably for the generalship of Earl Lindsay,

the King's Lieutenant-General, whom we find at Edgcot contemplating an

attack upon Banbury Castle. The King's was a good position: it commanded

all the roads to London, held Banbury in its hand, covered the Cherwell

bridge and fords, and had within touch the dominating escarpment of Edge

Hill. If the purpose was the subjection of some prominent leaders of the

Parliamentarians it succeeded only in the taking of Lord Saye and Sele's

house at Broughton, and of Banbury, and Banbury Castle; in the partial

destruction of Lord Spencer's house[B] at Wormleighton, and in sending a

summons to Warwick Castle[P] to surrender.

Kineton, on October 22nd, was the headquarters of the Parliamentary army,

the troops in the evening disposing themselves on the surrounding plain.

"The common soldiers have not come into a bed, but lain in the open field

in the wet and cold nights," says the Worthy Divine[PG] "and most of them

scarcely eat or drank at all for 24 hours together, nay, for 48, except

fresh water when they could get it." The want of transport, which had

necessitated Hampden and Hollis struggling behind a day's march in the

rear in the neighbourhood of Stratford-on-Avon, had no doubt entailed

these privations upon the army. Nor do the Royalists appear to have fared

better, for Clarendon[B381] complains of the hostility of the country

people, stating also that the circuit in which the battle was fought,

being between the dominions of Lord Saye and Lord Brooke, was the most

eminently corrupt of any in the kingdom. The King's forces seem to have

been quartered about the country between Wormleighton and Cropredy, Prince

Rupert with his cavalry near Wormleighton, the King himself staying at

Edgcot House, whilst the main body of the army occupied the slopes and

high lands on the Northamptonshire side of the Cherwell vale near by. Thus

the three roads North of Banbury were dominated by the Royalist troops,

and the fourth, the old London road, was within striking distance.

The preaching of the local divines, Robert Harris, John Dod, and Robert

Cleaver, had no doubt added largely to the enthusiasm of the country folk

for the cause of the Commons. Though no great increase of the King's

forces could be expected in such a district, yet there is an interesting

account in Kimber and Johnson's Baronetage[NO] (1771) of a country

gentleman Mr. (afterwards Sir Richard) Shuckburgh:

"Sir Richard Shuckburgh, Knt., eldest son and heir, was in no way inferior

to his ancestors. As King Charles I. marched to Edgecot, near Banbury, on

October 22nd, 1642, he saw him hunting in the fields with a very good pack

of hounds, upon which it is reported that he fetched a deep sigh, and

asked who the gentleman was that hunted so merrily that morning when he

was going to fight for his crown and dignity; and being told that it was

this Richard Shuckburgh, he was graciously ordered to be called to him,

and was by him very graciously received. Upon which he went immediately

home, armed all his tenants, and the next day attended him in the field,

where he was knighted, and was present at the battle of Edge Hill. After

the taking of Banbury Castle, and his Majesty's retreat from those parts,

he went to his own seat and fortified himself on the top of Shuckborough

Hill, where, being attacked by some of the Parliament forces, he defended

himself till he fell, with most of his tenants about him; but being taken

up and life perceived in him, he was carried away prisoner to Kenilworth

Castle, where he lay a considerable time, and was forced to purchase his

liberty at a dear rate."

A fight for the possession of Lord Spencer's house at Wormleighton was the

Saturday evening's prelude to the Sunday's battle. It had been garrisoned

by some Parliamentarian troops sent by Essex, and in Rupert's attack some

prisoners were taken, from whom, it is said, the whereabouts of the

Parliamentarian army was learned.[Y] The house is said to have been

partly burned down in the fight, but it is not clear whether it happened

then or in the year 1643. Though with the Parliamentarians in the early

part of the Rebellion, Lord Spencer became Royalist long ere the campaigns

were over. The fact of an outpost being pushed so far as Wormleighton

shows that the Dassett Hills were held by the Parliament forces. The

Royalists had marched into the heart of a hostile country, Warwick Castle

and Lord Brooke on the N.W., Fawsley House and the Knightleys on the N.E.,

and on the South, Sir A. Cope and Hanwell Castle, and Banbury and

Broughton Castle. Lord Northampton's lands on the Western border of

Oxfordshire were near enough to find touch with the King. His house played

locally a most prominent part for the Royalist cause, and its military

leadership was of the best.

III.

Early on the morning of Sunday, October 23rd, Prince Rupert forwarded

information to the King that the camp fires of the Parliamentarian army

had been seen on the plain between Edge Hill and Kineton. With keen

foresight Earl Lindsay abandoned the intended advance upon Banbury, and

speedily began the movement of the Royalist army towards the fringe of

hills which dominates the Warwickshire vale. It seems at first strange

that the Parliamentarians, familiar as so many of them were with the

physical features of the neighbourhood, should have neglected when so near

to secure possession of some part of the Edge Hill ridge. This, however,

is explained in a pamphlet of the time,[PH] "An Exact and True Relation of

the Dangerous and Bloudy Fight between his Majestie's Army and the

Parliament near Keynton." Therein we learn that the artillery were

unready, for want of draught horses, and with Colonel Hampden and Colonel

Grantham were forced to be left behind, and hence no advance could safely

be made beyond Keynton.

Hampden had with him three regiments of foot, nine or ten troops of horse,

some companies of dragooners, and seven pieces of cannon, with the

necessary ammunition train,[PB] perhaps about 4,000 men in all. The troops

of the Parliament were quartered in the villages of the plain. Tradition

says that Tysoe was occupied, and that the soldiers took the bread from

the village ovens ere they marched down street to the fight. But of the

doings at Compton in the Hole, barely a mile distant, during the

occupation we know nothing.

It is hard also to understand that there should have been anything in the

nature of a surprise[B] in the Royalist advance, for within a district so

sympathetic to their cause, one would have supposed the Puritan leaders to

have been immediately informed of every movement of their enemies. Indeed,

in another quaint pamphlet, "A Letter sent from a Worthy Divine,"[PG] the

writer says that the alarm came at about eight o'clock in the morning,

that the enemy were advancing, and that "it pleased God to make myself the

first instrument of giving a certain discovery of it, by the help of a

perspective glass, from the top a hill."

Deploying, therefore, before daybreak, across Cropredy Bridge, then

narrower than at present, and no doubt crossing the Cherwell at certain

fords also, the King's forces marched by way of Mollington to Warmington,

where they had been preceded by Prince Rupert's horse, who would have

travelled across the Southern part of the Dassett Hills. It is said[B]

that "the foot were quartered at so great distance that many regiments

marched seven or eight miles to the rendezvous, so that it was past one of

the clock before the King's forces marched down hill." Much delay would be

occasioned in getting the troops across the river Cherwell, not so easy

to be forded at that time of the year. The narrow bridge[1] would allow

but slow passage for 10,000 or 12,000 men, with all the impedimenta of war

material. Another pamphleteer[PA] says "the King's horse were at the

rendezvous between ten and eleven; the van of the foot an hour later, and

the rear and artillery, including the Lord Lt. General's own regiment, not

until two hours after."

As the Parliamentarian troops take up their position upon the plain, it is

worth while to pause for a few minutes to look at the composition and

armament of the two forces. Many of the troops on both sides appear to

have been indifferently provided with weapons. Implements of warfare that

had not been in use since the Wars of the Roses--the long bow, the cross

bow, &c.--resumed their places amongst the accoutrements of the men at

arms.[a] There were the heavy horse in iron casques, breast-plates and

greaves, the musketeers with their matchlocks, and the dragoons or

dragooners,[J118] with sword and matchlock. These last seem to have been

so called from the drake, the firearm they once carried, and though not

strictly speaking cavalry, yet accompanying and supporting them. Each

regiment of Lord Essex's army carried a standard inscribed on the one side

with the watchword of the Parliament, "God with us," and on the other side

the motto of the regimental commander; Lord Saye and Sele's were the blue

coats, the Commander's were orange and Lord Broke's purple; Colonel

Ballard's troops were clad in grey, Colonel Holles' in red, and Lord

Mandeville's in blue. Across his breastplate each officer of the

Parliamentary army wore an orange scarf, the commander's colour.

There were on the side of the Parliament eleven regiments of foot,

forty-two troops of horse, and 700 dragoons, numbering according to Nugent

about 13,000, though the officers in their account[PH] place their

strength as low as 10,000, which may have meant prior to the arrival of

Hampden with the artillery and rear troops. The Royalist army is stated to

have possessed 1,000 horse and 4,000 foot more;[G256] in all 14,000 foot

and 4,000 horse and dragoons--but as very few troops were of full

compliment the numbers were no doubt over estimated. The _full_ strength

of a foot regiment was 1,200, of a troop of horse about 120[x26] and of

dragooners about the same number to each company.

The Red and the Blue Regiments of the King's foot were so named from the

colour of their uniforms, the former being the King's foot guards. In

cavalry, however, it was that the Royalist army was predominant--more so,

perhaps, from the quality of the material than from any superiority of

equipment, Prince Rupert's show troop being a prominent example. Cromwell,

in a speech before Parliament,[q] bore testimony on this point, explaining

his reconstruction of the army as having arisen from the fact that "such

base and mean fellowes," tapsters and serving men as they then had, not

being "able to encounter gentlemen that had honour and courage and

resolution in them, He strove to find such as had the spirit of God in

them."

Towards mid-day the royalist army had occupied the whole length of the

brow of the hill between the Sun Rising and Arlescot; the left wing at the

Sun Rising, the centre at about the point where the Round House now

stands[2] and the right wing at Knowle End, where the road to Kineton

descends the hill. Well had it been for the King had the advice of so able

a soldier as Earl Lindsay prevailed at the council of war over the more

impetuous policy of Rupert. He had the strong position of the hill crest,

with convenient roads for the rapid movement of troops, and, moreover,

natural advantages which would have masked those movements. Essex would

have hesitated to risk the assault of a position of such strength,

especially when defended by a force greater than his own. These advantages

were, however, abandoned for the more dashing policy of Rupert to descend

to the plain and at once give battle. It must not be forgotten, however,

that the knowledge of the enemy's artillery with part of the army being

far in the rear,[PB] but approaching with what speed they could, and the

difficulty of provisioning the army in a hostile district,[B] would give

weight to Rupert's counsel. Brilliant cavalry officer as he undoubtedly

was, his defiance of control caused the Earl to resign his command, and

the disposition of the forces to devolve upon Earl Ruthven, and so he

decided against the King the fortunes of the then commencing war.

The Parliamentarians had in the meantime not been idle. Turning aside from

church, whither they had been going, the divines encouraged the soldiers

as they stood drawn up ready for the fight. Poor retrenchment as they were

said to have had, the ground lent itself to preparation for defence: the

thick growth of furze tied and wattled together on the gently sloping

upland: (the old phrase a "good bush whacking" may point to its service in

fight). Also there was the long ditch with its wet clay banks covering the

front. It is certain that a large number of the force were fighting on

their own ground and for their own homes. Evidence shows how heavy the

fight was thereabouts.

The centre consisted of three regiments of infantry, including one of the

general's, under Lord Brooke and Colonel Ballard, another regiment, under

Colonel Holles, being in the rear. These faced the Battledon Farm, about

one mile North-West of Radway, and on some rising ground to the right the

artillery was posted.

The right wing moved towards the Sun Rising. It was composed of four

brigades of horse, under Sir John Meldrum, Col. Stapleton, and Sir William

Balfore (the divisional general), with Col. Fielding's brigade and some

guns in the rear. Capt. Fiennes' regiment was with this wing, which was

covered on the right by some musketeers. Captain Oliver Cromwell fought

there also. Infantry, including the Oxfordshire Militia under Sir William

Constable and Lord Roberts, took up the intervening space between the

centre and the right wing. The cavalry of the left wing, covering the

Kineton road, was made up of twenty-four troops, under Sir James Ramsay:

the infantry in five regiments, officered by Cols. Essex and Chomley and

Lords Wharton and Mandeville, with Sir Wm. Fairfax in reserve, occupied

the ground between the cavalry and the main body. A few guns were placed

in the rear of the horse.

Imposing indeed must the sight have been in bright sunlight of that early

Sunday afternoon as the Royalist troops, began to descend the hill side!

The slopes do not appear to have been so thickly wooded as they are now,

and the unenclosed country, without the many obstacles of fence and

hedgerow,[B388] offered all that a cavalry officer could desire for the

exercise of his art and arm. Before this[PF] the King had summoned the

officers to the royal tent, and in his brief speech had said: "My Lords

and Gentlemen here present,--If this day shine prosperously for us, we

shall be happy in a glorious victory. Your King is both your cause, your

quarrel, and your captain. The foe is in sight. Now show yourselves no

malignant parties, but with your swords declare what courage and fidelity

is within you. * * * Come life or death, your King will bear you company,

and ever keep this field, this place, and this day's service in his

grateful remembrance." The King,[a286] wearing a black velvet mantle

over his armour, and steel cap covered with velvet on his head, rode along

the lines of his troops and spoke to them: "Matters are now to be declared

with swords, not by words."[PF] Perhaps, however, the most beautiful of

these records is that of the truly soldier-like prayer of Lord

Lindsay,[a286] "O Lord, Thou knowest how busy I must be this day; if I

forget Thee do not Thou forget me."

[Illustration: I

BATTLE OF EDGE HILL

(Commencement of Battle.)]

The King's centre, under General Ruthven, moved forward as far as the

village of Radway. The six columns of infantry of which it was composed

were under the divisional command of Sir Edmund Verney and Sir Jacob

Astley; Earl Lindsay and Lord Willoughby led their Lincolnshire regiment.

Between these and the right wing were eight other regiments of infantry.

The cavalry of the right wing, under Prince Rupert, commenced slowly the

steep descent of the road through Arlescot wood and the Kineton road, the

base of which is known as the Bullet Hill, and drew up there in a meadow

at the bottom of the hill.[PB] Fiennes states that the better opportunity

for the Parliamentarian attack would have been before the artillery and

rear came down the hill, which they were a long time in doing. The left

wing rested upon the Sun Rising, Col. Ennis and Col. Lisle's dragoons

covering the flank; near by were the Welsh soldiers and Carnarvon's

regiments of pikemen. In advance Wilmot's two regiments of horse were

working across the Vale of the Red Horse, Digby's reserve covering the

crest of the hill.

Lord Essex's artillery were the first to break the peace of the day, a

challenge immediately replied to by the Royalist guns near Radway. Wilmot,

of Adderbury, made the first aggressive movement in a charge upon the

Parliamentarian right, and though some success seems to have attended it,

yet it can scarcely have been of so much importance as Clarendon the

Royalist historian[B] makes out, for he writes: "The left wing, commanded

by Wilmot, had a great success, though they had to charge in worse ground,

amongst hedges and through gaps and ditches which were lined with

musketeers. Sir A. Aston, with great courage and dexterity, beat off these

musketeers with his dragoons; and then the right wing of their horse 'was

easily dispersed, and fled the chase fearlessly.' The reserve, seeing none

of the enemy's horse left, thought there was nothing more to be done but

to pursue those that fled, and could not be contained by their commanders,

but with spurs and loose reins followed the chase which the left wing had

led them. Thus while victory was unquestionable, the King was left in

danger from the reserve of the Parliament, which, pretending to be

friends, broke in upon the foot, and did great execution." Certainly in

charge and counter charge at this stage of the attack, the

Parliamentarians show to no advantage, and the dispersal of the dragoons,

musketeers, and part of Fielding's horse, seems to have taken place, but

the subsequent successful charge of Balfour's and Stapleton's brigades

makes it clear that _they_ were not involved in any disaster.

On the right wing, soon after the time of Wilmot's charge near the Sun

Rising, Rupert's troops moved down the foot of the hill in the direction

of the Kineton road and towards Ramsay's horse, which advanced to meet

them. The Parliamentary general had lined the hedgerows on his flank with

musketeers, and had placed ranks of musketeers between his horse. But as

the cavaliers[3] swept down the slope a defect was visible in the

Parliamentarian ranks, and Sir Faithful Fortescue's Irish troop threw off

their orange scarves and deserted bodily, not quite soon enough, it seems,

to save themselves, for a score or so of saddles were emptied in the

onrush of Rupert's cavaliers. The roundhead ranks were disordered, for

the troops had fired their long pieces wildly, and scarcely waiting the

meeting, they fled, leaving the musketeers to be cut up. The troops of

cavaliers swept through them scattering and destroying all in their way;

then deflecting a little to the left they pressed back the mass of

fugitives upon the foot regiments of Essex, Mandeville and Chomley which

in turn were overthrown, and the artillery captured. Even Wharton's

regiment and Fairfax's reserve were hurled back. Ramsay, the cavalry

general, was carried for two miles in the melee, and with some of his

troopers found a way through the hostile lines to Banbury.[a] Rupert

continued in unsparing pursuit even into the streets of Kineton and as far

as Chadshunt. Thus was the left wing of Lord Essex's army dispersed,

though to reform for a later phase of the fight. After so much success the

baggage proved to be too attractive to the victors, and had the time

wasted in plundering been spent in an attack upon the rear of the

Parliamentarian army, then the reign of Charles Stuart might have had a

less tragic ending. But with all this, it must be borne in mind that the

incident of the rolling up of a wing was repeated in other battles of the

war which were more disastrous to the King's cause. Sir James Ramsay at a

Court Martial at St. Albans[Vn] in November of the same year made a

vindication of his conduct.

An amusing letter from Captain Kightley tells of this phase of the fight.

He admits that in part his own regiment ran away, and it seems to be

probable that Captain John Fiennes was in no better way, though in the

subsequent rally and attack upon Prince Rupert both did very good service.

The right wing of the Puritan forces had in the meantime become

aggressive. It was the beginning of the great turning movement which was

repeated in each of the great battles of the war by the Parliamentarians,

in fact, so evident at Naseby and Marston Moor, as to compel belief in

studied uniformity of plan. The abandonment or weakening of one wing, then

the use of all the weight of the other wing with the foot as a centre

pivot, to out-flank, attack, and crush in succession the opposing wing and

centre of the Royalist army. Balfore, Meldrum, and Stapleton's brigades

charged Wilmot's cavalry with such vigour that these were thrust back upon

the three regiments of pikemen, under Lord Carnarvon, and chased up the

hill side. Cannon balls and other remains of the fight found on the hill

slopes at Lower Westcote near the Sun Rising are evidence of this attack.

The infantry under Roberts and Constable having moved forward to aid in

the attack upon Carnarvon, now wheeled upon the King's centre, which soon

became the focus of a fierce and bloody fight, for the elated Roundhead

horse, after crushing in the Royalist left wing, hurled themselves also

upon the flanks of the nearest troops of the King's centre, and the

blue-coated Broughton horsemen had a busy time of it amongst the royalist

gunners as they rode through the battery. Earl Lindsay's Lincolnshire

regiment, which he had led pike in hand, received the brunt of the attack;

it was overpowered, and the unfortunate general left for dead with a

musket ball in his thigh. The Red Regiment moved up in support, only in

turn to be cut up and almost annihilated, and Lord Willoughby was made

prisoner also in the attempt to rescue his father the Earl. Then followed

a brilliant personal fight for the royal standard, but the Puritan

horseman Copley cut down Sir Edmund Verney, knight marshal of the King's

horse, and standard bearer, and secured the prize. The success of this

attack was largely brought about by the ruse alluded to, where,

"pretending to be friends," they broke in upon the King's regiments. If

it is true that they got so near as to shake hands, the business must have

been very simple. Verney had presentiment of his death, and the severed

hand clasping the standard shaft is said to be yet sadly searched for by

the ghost of Claydon House.[Vr] On the finger of the hand was a ring, a

king's gift. Nugent says about the standard's recapture: "The Royal

standard was taken by Mr. Young, one of Sir William Constable's ensigns,

and delivered by Lord Essex to his own Secretary, Chambers, who rode by

his side. Elated by the prize, the Secretary rode about, more proudly than

wisely, waving it round his head. Whereupon in the confusion, one of the

King's officers, Captain Smith, of the Lord John Stewart's troop, seeing

the standard captured, threw round him the orange scarf of a fallen

Parliamentarian, and riding in among the lines of his enemies, told the

Secretary that 'it were a shame that so honourable a trophy of war should

be borne by a penman.' To which suggestions the credulous guardian of this

honourable trophy consenting, surrendered it to the disguised cavalier,

who galloped back with it amain, and before evening received knighthood[4]

under its shadow."

Brooke's, Hollis', and Ballard's infantry, moved across part of the ground

abandoned by Ramsay's horse to attack the right flank of the King's

centre, an attack which soon becomes as disastrous to the Royalists as

that on the other flank where Lindsay has fallen. In fact, the regiments

of foot from the Parliamentary rear with Constable's infantry and

Stapleton's horse, made a combined assault upon the King's centre, which

they commenced breaking up. In vain were the royalist reserves hurried

forward. The Blue Regiment was cut off by Sir Arthur Haselrigge. Stapleton

made a dash, and the King, who had been watching the fickle fortunes of

his soldiers from a mound (now the King's Clump) near Radway, narrowly

escaped being made a prisoner. The timely interference of a body of

royalist horse--an interference not of sufficient weight to _stop_ the

tide of the Puritan attack, but only to stay it for a few moments--enabled

the King to gain the shelter of the hill, whither also the fragments of

some of his regiments are compelled to follow.

[Illustration: II

BATTLE OF EDGE HILL.

Advance of Hampden_Retreat of Rupert & King]

Meanwhile Rupert had been lost to sight in Kineton streets. When he

learned that the fortunes of the day were, in other parts of the field, in

full flow against his cause, he and his cavaliers re-formed for the

retreat. The place is still known as Prince Rupert's Headland. There was,

however, another factor to be taken into consideration. Some of Hampden's

green-coated soldiers, stimulated no doubt by the sounds of the fight, had

in the meantime come up from Stratford-on-Avon, and were prepared to

dispute Rupert's return. They also succeeded in re-forming many of the

fugitives, in which duty Captains Cromwell,[5] Nathaniel Fiennes and

Kightley, took part.[q] The guns and infantry opened fire upon the

retreating cavaliers, who had a hard fight to regain the hill butt, for

Stapleton's horse, after fighting along the whole of the Royalist line,

chased them home. Nevertheless, two of the royal regiments refused to be

beaten; falling back upon their guns, they made a stand, probably along

the line from Radway to Bullet Hill, and there, reinforced by Rupert's

returning troops, they held their ground, repulsing the Parliamentarian

attacks, and so says Fiennes,[PB] "horse and foot stood together against

horse and foot until night, when the Royalists retired up hill." It is

probably from this stage of the fight that Bullet Hill got its name. The

braided lovelock of many a cavalier who rode so exultingly down the hill

in the afternoon sunlight had a stain of a far deeper colour 'ere sunset,

and with the phase of the fight following the straggling return of

Rupert's Horse, the events of the day seem to have ended. The King would

have tried a final charge with some unbroken regiments to test once more

the fortunes of the day, but was with difficulty persuaded from so

perilous an enterprise.

Each side claims that only the night prevented a completely victorious

issue for its cause, but when we consider that the right wing and centre

of the King's army were disorganised, and in part driven up the hill, and

that the Parliamentarians were in possession of the battle ground, the

Royalists retaining possession only of the low ground from Radway to

Bullet Hill, it seems that the advantage rested on the Puritan side.

One[a] remained master of the field of battle, the other kept the London

road.

Amongst the several estimates of the slain, it is hard to say which is

nearest the truth. Clarendon gives the number as 5,000, two parts of whom

were Parliamentarian, and one part the King's, but the probability is

that it was nearer, a half of that number. Fiennes[PB] puts down the

losses acknowledged by the Royalists themselves as 2,000. Certainly the

records show that they were exceptionally heavy in officers, one writer

adducing as a reason that "the rebel officers had fleeter horses, so not

so many of them were slain." During the cold frosty night after the battle

the wounded must of necessity have been left exposed, inasmuch as the

fight stretched over many miles of country, and was continued until night;

nor do the Royalists appear to have been debarred from searching for their

wounded, as we learn by the succour of old Sir Gervase Scroop by his son.

The King's troops says Clarenden "had not the shelter of tree or hedge,

and after a very cold night spent on the field, without any refreshment of

victual or provision for the soldiers (for the country was so disaffected

that it not only sent no provisions, but many soldiers who straggled into

the villages for relief were knocked on the head by the common people),

the King found his troops very thin." The Parliamentarians, whose baggage

had been cut up by Rupert, could not have been in much better plight; some

of them, however, fired the Dassett Beacon, and the news of the conflict

was thus flashed across country to London. Though so much is recorded of

Mr. Wilmot's (afterwards Lord Rochester, of Adderbury,) position and work

during the day, nothing other than the mere statement is made of a far

greater leader, Spencer Compton, Earl of Northampton, than that he was at

Edge Hill, with some of the best disciplined men.[MW] It would seem that

the extended movement of the Royalist forces along the hill ridge in the

early part of the day was to give support to Compton Wynyate, or get aid

therefrom. It was but three miles distant. Whether any deflection of

Hampden's force moving from Stratford-on-Avon was made to mask or retard

Compton's men is mere surmise: the main part of Hampden's rear did not

reach the field until the Sunday midnight, when Essex got reinforced by a

regiment of horse and two of foot.

The story of successive campaigns, as in this the first fight, resolves

itself into the superiority of the heavy armament of the Parliamentarian

horse. The improved status of the men added greater force at a later date.

With all the dash, and all the value of the light horse of the King for

foray, when in the field the cavalier went down before the iron armed

horse of the Parliament's army.

On the following day, the two armies again drew up, the Parliamentarians

having in the early morning retired from the hill side towards

Kineton,[PB] but neither showed any disposition to renew the fight. Essex

was pressed to do so by some of his more impetuous officers, but wanted

the daring necessary for so bold a movement. Charles sent a messenger into

the rebel lines with a pardon for Earl Essex, which "messenger returned

with so great a sense of danger as not to have observed the number and

disposition of the Parliamentary forces." Later on, Essex retired to

Warwick with his troops, and Prince Rupert is reported to have followed,

but failed to overtake them, though it is stated that he destroyed many

wagons and carriages with munitions, &c. The reconnaissance appears to

have been otherwise fruitless, for the King at once marched southward, and

received the surrender of Banbury Castle, and also subsequently of

Broughton Castle. Lord Saye, Sir Wm. Cobb, of Adderbury, and John Doyley,

Esq., were not only proclaimed traitors, but were specially exempted from

the King's pardon.[y430]

The position of the graves in which the slain were buried is about 200

yards south of Thistle Farm, the ground bearing still the name of the

Grave Field, and a wych elm marks the site of one of the graves.

The part that Oliver Cromwell played in the struggle has not unnaturally

been the cause of much comment. Carlyle[q101] characteristically cuts the

Gordian knot with the statement, "Captain Cromwell _was_ present, and did

his duty, let angry Denzil say what he will."[6] Denzil Hollis's[o226]

charge that Cromwell purposely absented himself from the field may be

fairly set aside on the ground of malice, his enmity being openly shown,

and moreover it meets contradiction in Cromwell's own statement:[Q249] "At

my first going out into this engagement, I saw our men were beaten at

every hand. I did indeed." Neither can Dugdale's[C] account of Cromwell's

hurried descent from a church steeple by means of the bell rope, when he

saw the Parliamentarian disaster, be received in the face of the letter

written by Captain Nathaniel Fiennes,[PB] which ends thus: "These persons

underwritten were all of the Right wing and never stirred from their

Troops, but they and their Troops fought till the last minute. The Lord

Generall's Regiment--Sir Philip Stapleton, Captain Draper, Serjeant Major

Gunter, Lord Brookes, Captain Sheffield, Captain Temple, Captain Cromwell;

Sir William Belfore's Regiment--Sir William Belfore, Serjeant Major

Hurrey, Lord Grey, Captain Nathaniell Fiennes, Sir Arthur Hasilrigge,

Captain Longe." It is equally curious that Captain Oliver Cromwell, of

Troop Sixty-Seven,[q100] was at Edge Hill in the place he invariably

occupied during the civil war, viz., with the victorious wing, and that

the history of the fluctuations of the fight should be repeated in so many

of the great battles, Naseby and Marston Moor to wit.

A most true and Exact

RELATION

OF

BOTH THE BATTELS FOUGHT BY

HIS EXCELLENCY

and his Forces against the bloudy Cavelliers.

The one on the 23 of _October_ last near _Keynton_

below _Edge_-Hill in _Warwickshire_,

the other at _Worcester_ by

Colonell _Brown_, Captain _Nathaniel_, and

_John Fiennes_, and

Colonell _Sands_ and some others.

Wherein the particulars of each Battel is punctually set

down at large for the full satisfaction of all people, with

the Names of the Commanders and Regiments that valiently

stood it out.

Also the number and Names of the Chief Commanders that were

slain on both sides: All which is here faithfully set down

without favour or partiality to either Army.

Written by a worthy Captain Master _Nathaniel Fiennes_, And

commanded to be Printed.

London, Printed for Joseph Hunscott

Novem. 9. 1642.

Mr. _Nathaniel Fiennes_ his Letter to his Father.

MY LORD,