Battle of Cropredy Bridge
| date | June 29, 1644 |
|---|---|
| place | Cropredy Bridge , Oxfordshire , England |
| output | Victory of the royalists |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
 England
|
.svg){kind=small} Commonwealth
|
| Commander | |
| losses | |
|
few |
700 dead and deserted |
The Battle of Cropredy Bridge was a battle of the English Civil War , between the on June 29, 1644 parliamentary army under Sir William Waller and the royal army of King Charles I was defeated. At the end of the dispute, Waller's parliamentary army withdrew demoralized.
prehistory
The year 1644 began with some military setbacks for the army of King Charles I. Two armies were defeated in the battles of Nantwich and Cheriton and an army of Scottish covenanters invaded the north of England, so that the royal troops had to retreat to York and were besieged there. King Charles stayed in Oxford , which was his capital during the war. There he held a council of war between April 25 and May 5.
It was decided that the king should entrench himself in Oxford, where he would also be protected by several surrounding fortified cities. The royal commander in chief of the troops, Prince Rupert , should see to it that the situation in the north was settled. After Rupert left Oxford, the council changed its mind and looked for ways to reinforce troops in the west of the country. To do this, they withdrew the troops from Reading Fortress in Berkshire . While this added 2,500 soldiers to the royal army, it also allowed the armies of the Earl of Essex and Sir William Waller to focus on the attack on Oxford. On May 19th they marched from Reading towards Oxford. On May 25, the royal troops withdrew from Abingdon in the face of the advancing troops . Essex took over the city and crossed the Thames to take the bridges over the Cherwell , north of Oxford. At the same time Waller moved with his troops south of Oxford along to Newbridge in order to occupy a Thames crossing there.
King Charles was now in great danger of being surrounded, besieged and forced to surrender in Oxford. On June 3, the king decided to make a push towards Abingdon to force Waller to return. From Abingdon he then marched westward in an overnight march towards Worcester . His troops consisted mainly of cavalry . The Earl of Essex and Waller pursued him, but on June 7th both generals (who didn't particularly like each other) met at Stow-on-the-Wold and decided to part. Essex wanted to move to Lyme Regis and end the siege there and Waller should pursue the king. This allowed the king to return to Oxford and raise reinforcements. He then made another advance which convinced Waller that the king would march north. But he turned south again and had his soldiers transported down the Avon by boats . When Waller realized that he could no longer intercept the royal troops, he moved to Gloucester to take supplies. From there, on June 24th, he marched to Stow-on-the-Wold , where he learned that the king was marching east into the area held by parliamentary troops. Shortly afterwards he received instructions to pursue the king.
On June 27th he had already reached Hanwell Castle above the Cherwell, while the king was about 7 km ahead in Edgecote . On June 28th, the royal troops marched into Banbury . King Charles was determined to face battle, but Sir William Waller was still in more favorable terrain.
The battle
On Saturday, June 29th, the royal army began moving north along the east bank of the Charwell. Waller's army followed her across the river. Although both armies were in sight, neither would dare to attack the other across the river. As they neared Cropredy , the king ordered a small unit of dragoons to occupy the bridge there. At the same time he received news that 300 horsemen from the parliamentary army were approaching from the north to join Waller's army. He ordered his army to march faster to prevent this clash. The army was thereby drawn further and further apart.
The vanguard and the main body of the troops had already crossed a river at the Hay Bridge (near the present-day town of Chipping Warden ), while the rearguard, consisting of two cavalry brigades of the Earl of Cleveland and the only twenty-year-old Earl of Northampton with some infantry, was still stood south of the Hay Bridge. Waller saw the opportunity and sent Lieutenant General John Middleton, 1st Earl of Middleton with two cavalry regiments and nine companies of infantry across the Cropredy Bridge to isolate the rearguard, while he himself sent 1,000 men across the ford at Slat Mill , about 1.5 km south the bridge, led to encircle the royal rearguard in a pincer movement. The royal dragoons who still held the Cropredy Bridge were quickly overwhelmed. Middleton's troops, however, were also pulled apart on their march towards Haybrücke and thus vulnerable. When Middleton arrived at the bridge, it was occupied by royal musketeers who had erected barricades there and blocked the bridge. At the same time, the Earl of Cleveland attacked the parliamentary infantry and artillery behind it. Northampton's brigade attacked Waller's men down the hill and pushed them back across the Slat Mill ford.
The king was concerned that his rearguard was engaged in fighting and ordered his army to turn around. His mounted guard, under the command of Lord Bernard Stewart , was sent back over the Hay Bridge to aid Cleveland. With this support Cleveland was able to launch a second counterattack and push Middleton back over the Cropredy Bridge. They had to leave eleven cannons behind. (Waller's Ordinance, Major General Sir James Wemyss , was also captured). The bridge itself was held by Colonel Ralph Weldon's Kent Regiment and the Tower Hamlet Regiment. Los Blancos tried to take the bridge but were repulsed. Waller's artillery regiment continued to fire steadily from Bourton Hill, forcing the enemy to withdraw from the river.
After the battle
Towards evening the two armies were still facing each other on both banks of the Cherwell. King Charles sent his secretary Edward Walker to Waller as a negotiator to negotiate the surrender. But no agreement was reached. After the king had received information that more parliamentary troops were on their way to the battlefield and his troop supply was running low, his troops left the battlefield under cover of darkness. They took Waller's cannons with them. While the royal troops had few losses to complain about, Waller had lost 700 men, many of whom deserted after the battle. These losses broke the morale of Waller's army, most of which did not want to fight so far from home. This was the opportunity for King Charles to march west and pursue Essex, where he eventually forced him to surrender after the Battle of Lostwithiel .
music
Ralph McTell's song Red and Gold depicts the battle from the perspective of an innocent bystanders. Other artists have also released this song.
literature
- Margaret Toynbee, Peter Young: Cropredy Bridge 1644. The Campaign and the Battle . Roundwood Press, Kineton 1970, ISBN 0-900-09317-X
- Robert Morris: The Battle of Cropredy Bridge 1644 . Stuart Press, Bristol 1994, ISBN 1-85804-047-7 , ( English Civil War battles series ).
Coordinates: 52 ° 6 ′ 54 ″ N , 1 ° 18 ′ 50 ″ W.