51°24′50″N1°20′06″W / 51.414°N 1.335°W /51.414; -1.335
| Second Battle of Newbury | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part ofFirst English Civil War | |||||||
 Site of the battle, nowDonnington Grove Country Club | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Royalists | Parliamentarians | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Charles I Prince Maurice | Earl of Essex Earl of Manchester Sir William Waller | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 8,500[a] | 19,000[b] | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 1,500 | 2,000 | ||||||
TheSecond Battle of Newbury was a battle of theFirst English Civil War fought on 27 October 1644, inSpeen, adjoiningNewbury in Berkshire. The battle was fought close to the site of theFirst Battle of Newbury, which took place in late September the previous year.
The battle ended indecisively, theParliamentarian army, commanded by Sir William Waller and theEarl of Manchester, attempted to trap the royalist forces in a pincer by attacking both sides of Charles' army simultaneously. The Parliamentarian attacks were repulsed by theRoyal army. Charles however realised following the battle, his position had been rendered untenable and withdrew towards Oxford during the night. The exhausted Parliamentarian army was unable to block the royalist retreat and Charles was able to leave unmolested, despite being heavily outnumbered.
The tactical failures in the command and control of theParliamentarian army during this battle led to severalmajor military reforms that resulted in the creation of theNew Model Army for Parliament the following year.
In the early months of 1644, the Parliamentarians had won victories atCheriton in the south of England andNantwich in the northwest. Also, they had secured the allegiance of the ScottishCovenanters, who sent an army into the north east. These developments both distracted the Royalists and weakened their forces aroundOxford,King Charles's wartime capital.
Early in June, the Parliamentarian armies of theEarl of Essex and SirWilliam Waller threatened to surround Oxford. King Charles made a night march to escape toWorcester. He was still in danger but on 6 June, Essex and Waller (who disliked each other) conferred atStow-on-the-Wold and fatally decided to divide their armies. While Waller continued to shadow the King, Essex marched into theWest Country, to relieveLyme which wasunder siege, and then to subdueDevon andCornwall.[1]
This allowed the King to double back and return to Oxford to collect reinforcements. On 29 June, he then won a victory over Waller atCropredy Bridge. Waller's army, most of which was unwilling to serve far from its home areas in London and the southeast,[2] was subsequently crippled for several weeks by desertions and threatened mutinies. The King was thus free to march after Essex's army.
Essex was soon trapped against the coast atLostwithiel. He relied on support from the Parliamentarian navy, but contrary winds prevented the Parliamentarian ships leavingPortsmouth. Although Essex himself escaped in a fishing boat and his cavalry broke out of encirclement, the rest of his army was forced to surrender on 2 September, losing their arms and equipment. The troops were paroled, but suffered severely from exposure and attacks by country people during their march to Portsmouth. Although they were re-equipped, only 3,000 infantry (out of the 6,000 who started) were fit for service.[3][4]
After the victory at Lostwithiel, King Charles first probed the Parliamentarian defences atPlymouth[5] then marched back across the southern counties of England to relieve several garrisons (includingBanbury,Basing House andDonnington Castle, near Newbury), which had been isolated while he had been campaigning in the west.[6] King Charles was joined briefly byPrince Rupert, who had been defeated at theBattle of Marston Moor in northern England on 2 July. The King ordered Rupert to march intoGloucestershire in an attempt to draw some of the Parliamentarian armies after him. However, the Parliamentarians did not send any units to follow Rupert, and his manoeuvre divided the Royalist forces, rather than those of Parliament.
By the time that King Charles arrived in Berkshire with his army, the Earl of Essex had assembled three Parliamentarian armies and positioned them to block any Royalist advance on London. By 19 October Waller was at Basingstoke where he was joined by the Earl of Manchester with theEastern Association army the next day. The Earl of Essex also arrived at Basingstoke on 20 October with an army composed largely of elements of the cavalry and infantry that had survived the battle at Lostwithiel.[7]
On 22 October, Charles relieved Donnington Castle. He knighted Lieutenant ColonelJohn Boys, the commander of its garrison, and promoted him to colonel.[8] He hoped to relieve Basing House next, but the combined Parliamentarian armies were too strong for him to risk an advance. He therefore waited around Newbury for Rupert, and another detachment under theEarl of Northampton which had been sent to relieve Banbury, to rejoin him.
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Charles' army held three strong points: Donnington Castle north of Newbury,Shaw House northeast of the town and the village ofSpeen to the west. TheRiver Kennet prevented the Parliamentarians making any outflanking move to the south, but the smallRiver Lambourn divided the Royalists at Speen and Newbury from those at Shaw House and Donnington Castle.
Shaw House and its grounds including someIron Age embankments incorporated into the defences, were defended byLord Astley, with three "tertias" or brigades of infantry under his son, Sir Bernard Astley, ColonelThomas Blagge and ColonelGeorge Lisle.[9] Speen was held by Rupert's brotherPrince Maurice, with a mixed detachment from the Royalist forces from the west country. Charles's cavalry underGeorge, Lord Goring were in reserve. They were divided into four brigades under Goring himself, Lord Wentworth, theEarl of Cleveland and Sir Humphrey Bennett.[9] TheEarl of Brentford was the Lord General, and Charles' deputyLord Hopton commanded the artillery.
Early on 26 October, the combined Parliamentarian armies advanced to Clay Hill, a few miles east of Newbury, where they set up an artillery battery. Intermittent exchanges of cannon fire took place throughout the day. Essex had been taken ill, and Waller and Manchester decided that a frontal attack on Donnington Castle and Shaw House would be too costly. They opted instead to divide their forces. While Manchesterdemonstrated with 7,000 infantry against Shaw House, Waller took 12,000 men (including the infantry from the Earl of Essex's army, a brigade of theLondon Trained Bands and most of the cavalry) on a long march of 13 miles (21 km) around the Royalist position to fall on Speen from the west. It was intended that on hearing the opening cannonade from Waller's guns, Manchester would then put in a full-scale attack on Shaw House.
Waller set off late on 26 October and camped overnight far to the north. His force broke camp and resumed its outflanking move on 27 October while Manchester launched a diversionary attack on Shaw House. Although the Royalists at Donnington Castle observed Waller's movement, and even sent a small detachment of cavalry to harry his rearguard, the troops at Speen were not warned of the danger.[10] Waller's force crossed to the south bank of the Lambourn atBoxford, and formed up and attacked at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, with cavalry underOliver Cromwell on the left flank, infantry underPhilip Skippon in the centre and cavalry under SirWilliam Balfour on the right.
Maurice's forces had been dispersed to forage, and were caught unprepared. Although they repelled the first attack on Speen, the Parliamentarian infantry rallied and stormed the village, capturing several cannon (including some which the Royalists had captured at Lostwithiel).[11] Balfour routed Maurice's cavalry and also defeated the Earl of Cleveland's brigade, but was then checked by the fresh Queen's Regiment of horse and musketeers under Sir Thomas Blagge lining hedges east of Speen.[12] Cromwell was uncharacteristically slow in coming into action and his wing was thrown back by a charge by Goring's remaining cavalry under Goring himself.
The Earl of Manchester was slow to throw in his own attack, pleading that the noise of Waller's guns had not been heard over the exchanges of artillery fire at Shaw House. Just before dark, he made a determined attack on Shaw House, but was beaten back.[11]
Casualties in the day's fighting were heavy, but roughly even on both sides.
The Royalists had held off the Parliamentarian forces but Charles knew his army was not up to another day's fighting. He was outnumbered and with the loss of Speen, his forces were vulnerable to another attack the next morning. He hastily retreated to the north, leaving his wounded and most of his guns and baggage in Donnington Castle. Much of the Royalist army withdrew over a bridge over the River Lambourne which was an obvious line of retreat, but no Parliamentarian troops blocked their path, and the Royalists were free to withdraw.[13]
The following day, the Parliamentarian commanders held acouncil of war at Speen. Cromwell, Balfour and SirArthur Hesilrige eventually were allowed to take cavalry in pursuit of the King's army, but soon found that the Royalists had already crossed theRiver Thames atWallingford and had reached the safety of the neighbourhood of Oxford. The Parliamentarians called off the pursuit and instead made a hasty attack on Donnington Castle. The attack was defeated with heavy casualties.[14]
By 1 November, Charles had been reinforced by Rupert, Northampton and other forces to a strength of 15,000 men, and was able to relieve Donnington Castle again on 9 November. The Parliamentarians declined to contest the second relief of Donnington, and the Royalists found on 19 November that they had also raised thesiege of Basing House. Charles thus ended the campaigning season with a notable success.
The Parliamentarian armies' unwieldy council of war was divided. When the King offered battle on 9 November, Manchester made his famous remark that "The King need not care how oft he fights... If we fight 100 times and beat him 99 he will be King still, but if he beats us but once, or the last time, we shall be hanged, we shall lose our estates, and our posterities be undone." Cromwell, his lieutenant general, made the equally famous rejoinder, "If this be so, why did we take up arms at first? This is against fighting ever hereafter. If so, let us make peace, be it never so base".[15]
The dissatisfaction expressed by Cromwell and other Parliamentarians over the failure to trap Charles after the battle and the subsequent half-hearted operations, eventually resulted in the passing of theSelf-denying Ordinance, which deprived Essex, Waller and Manchester of their commands, and the formation of theNew Model Army, with which Parliament gained victory the next year.
Newbury was one of the few battles of the English Civil War in which an army attempted a wide outflanking move. Waller and Manchester took a risk in dividing their army, but were aware that they enjoyed superiority of numbers.
