The Battle of Roundway Down was fought on July 13, 1643, during the English Civil War. A Royalist cavalry force under Lord Wilmot won a crushing victory over the Parliamentarians under Sir William Waller who were besieging Devizes in central Wiltshire, which was defended by Lord Hopton.
Campaign
On July 5, Hopton's army had driven Waller from his position at the indecisive Battle of Lansdowne. In doing so they suffered many casualties and desertions. Sir Bevil Grenville, the popular commander of Hopton's Cornish troops, was killed in the battle. Hopton himself was temporarily blinded the next day by an exploding ammunition cart, which also left the army very short of gunpowder. The Royalist army was forced to withdraw towards Oxford, the Royalist capital, so that they could receive reinforcements and supplies.
Although Waller's had been forced to withdraw, it remained intact, and Waller soon obtained reinforcements from the Parliamentarian garrison of Bristol. He followed up Hopton's army closely, and on the night of July 8 he occupied Roundway Down, the high ground north of Devizes, barring the Royalists' further retreat. The Royalists fell back into the town, and their commanders held a hasty council of war. It was agreed that Prince Maurice would break out and make for Oxford with the 300 cavalry remaining with the Royalist army. While Hopton's Cornish infantry defended Devizes, Maurice was to collect a relieving force from Oxford.
Prince Maurice and his 300 horse escaped just before Waller surrounded the town. Unaware of Prince Maurice's escape to Oxford, Waller set up his guns and began a siege of the vulnerable unfortified town of Devizes the next day. On July 12, he captured a convoy bringing ammunition to Hopton, and demanded a surrender. This was refused, and the next morning, the Royalist relief force appeared on Roundway Down.
Prince Maurice had reached Oxford late on July 10. Lord Wilmot, Lieutenant General of Horse for King Charles, set out almost at once for Devizes with 1,500 cavalry and two light "galloper guns", an early form of horse artillery, collecting Prince Maurice's 300 horse on the way.
The Battle
Early on the morning of July 13, Wilmot's relieving force reached Roughridge Hill, five miles north east of Devizes, and fired two rounds from their guns as a signal to the besieged. They were organised as two strong brigades under Wilmot himself and Sir John Byron, and a weaker one under Lord Crawford.
Waller had been informed of their arrival, and he abandoned the siege and marched to occupy the highest point of Roundway Down, hoping to defeat Wilmot before Hopton could sally from Devizes against his rear. He deployed his infantry and artillery in the centre of his line, with cavalry on each flank.
Although Waller held the higher ground, the Royalists attacked first. Wilmot's brigade attacked the Parliamentarian left. The leading troops of this Parliamentarian wing were a fully armoured regiment of cuirassiers, the London lobsters, under Sir Arthur Haselrig. They appeared to have met Wilmot's charge at the halt, and were thrown into confusion and driven back into their second line. After a brief contest, they retreated in disorder.
Byron attacked the Parliamentarian right, under fire from the guns and musketeers of their centre. Once again, the Parliamentarians halted to receive the charge, and were shaken by the clash. They too gave way and fled, pursued by Byron. Some of the fleeing Parliamentarians died when they were forced to gallop over an unseen 300 ft (91 metre) precipice near Roundway village.
Wilmot's and Byron's troopers rallied and turned on the Parliamentarian centre. The Roundhead foot held out for a while, until Hopton's infantry who had marched up from Devizes deployed to attack. The Roundheads then tried to retreat northwards, but failed and the survivors threw down their arms.
Aftermath
Roundway Down was the greatest cavalry victory of the English Civil War. The Royalists christened the battle "Runaway Down". The defeat of an army arrayed in proper battle order on high ground by a column of cavalry that had just ridden down from Oxford was regarded as remarkable.
Waller had previously been favoured to replace the Earl of Essex as Lord General of the Parliamentarian armies. His defeat at Roundway Down made this impossible. Waller and his supporters criticised Essex for his perceived inactivity, which had allowed the Royalists to detach Wilmot's cavalry from Oxford.
The Parliamentarian field army in south-west England was in effect destroyed operationally, allowing the Royalists to capture the port and major city of Bristol a few weeks later; this period of Royalist successes was referred to as the "Royalist summer".
Notes
References
- Battles and Generals of the Civil Wars, Colonel H.C.B. Rodgers, Seeley Service & Co. Ltd, 1968
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