{
 "slug": "edgehill",
 "title": "Battle of Edgehill",
 "status": "draft",
 "era": "1600–1760",
 "date_text": "23 October 1642",
 "start": "1642-10-23",
 "end": "1642-10-23",
 "war": "English Civil War",
 "cdb90_war": "ENGLISH CIVIL WAR",
 "place": {
  "name": "Radway and Kineton fields, below the Edge Hill escarpment, Warwickshire, England",
  "lat": 52.1511,
  "lon": -1.4819,
  "wikidata": "Q1478525"
 },
 "lede": "On 23 October 1642 Charles I's army and Essex's met below Edge Hill in the first pitched battle of the English Civil War. Rupert's horse swept the field but rode too far; the bloody stalemate that followed left the road to London open.",
 "result": "Inconclusive; strategic advantage to the Royalists",
 "result_cdb90": "draw",
 "belligerents": [
  {
   "role": "attacker",
   "name": "Royalist field army (the King's army)",
   "commanders": [
    "Charles I",
    "Patrick Ruthven, Earl of Forth",
    "Prince Rupert of the Rhine",
    "Sir Jacob Astley",
    "Henry Wilmot",
    "Robert Bertie, Earl of Lindsey"
   ],
   "strength": {
    "value": 14000,
    "low": 13000,
    "high": 15000,
    "source": "s5"
   },
   "casualties": {
    "value": 2000,
    "low": 1200,
    "high": 2000,
    "source": "s1"
   }
  },
  {
   "role": "defender",
   "name": "Parliamentarian army (Earl of Essex's army)",
   "commanders": [
    "Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex",
    "Sir William Balfour",
    "Sir James Ramsay",
    "Sir John Meldrum",
    "Sir Philip Stapleton"
   ],
   "strength": {
    "value": 14000,
    "low": 12000,
    "high": 14700,
    "source": "s5"
   },
   "casualties": {
    "value": 2000,
    "low": 2000,
    "high": 2000,
    "source": "s1"
   }
  }
 ],
 "sections": {
  "background": "Charles I left London in March 1642, and through the summer King and Parliament raised rival forces. The King failed to take Hull and raised his standard at Nottingham on 22 August, the conventional start of the war. Parliament's Lord General, the Earl of Essex, marched by Northampton towards Worcester, and on 23 September Prince Rupert's horse routed Essex's vanguard at Powick Bridge, the first sign of the Royalist cavalry's edge.\n\nThe King recruited at Shrewsbury while Essex sat about forty miles away at Worcester. On 10 October Rupert led a detachment towards Stourbridge, which persuaded Essex that the Royalists were coming down the Severn. Instead the King's army left Shrewsbury on 12 October and marched south-east for London, by way of Kenilworth, hoping to force a battle on its own terms. Essex set off in pursuit from Worcester on 19 October.\n\nOn 22 October rival quartermasters' parties ran into each other at Wormleighton. The Royalists lay around Edgcote, threatening Parliament's garrison at Banbury; Essex had reached Kineton, about seven miles away, with his army strung out behind him. Early on the 23rd the Royalists drew up on the brow of Edge Hill, a scarp some two miles long and about 300 feet high, looking down over the open fields of Radway and Kineton. Those townships were still largely unenclosed, which is why both commanders chose to deploy there. Essex, still waiting for two regiments and most of his guns, would not climb the slope to attack. To get a battle before he was whole, the King had to bring his army down.",
  "forces": "Both armies were raw, stiffened by officers who had served the Dutch and Swedes in the Thirty Years' War. The King's army had perhaps 13,000 to 15,000 men and the better horse: gentlemen and their followers whom Rupert, as Lieutenant-General of Horse, taught to charge home sword in hand rather than halt and fire. Rupert held the right with Sir John Byron in support, and the King's Lifeguard of Horse insisted on joining his front line, leaving no cavalry reserve. Henry Wilmot held the left with Lord Digby behind him and Sir Arthur Aston's dragoons on the flank. The Lord General, the Earl of Lindsey, resigned on the morning of the battle after Rupert overruled his choice of a simple Dutch formation; the Earl of Forth drew up Sir Jacob Astley's five brigades of foot in a more complex Swedish chequerboard. The foot were poorly armed from scattered arsenals; many pikemen lacked armour and some men carried only clubs.\n\nEssex had about 12,000 to 14,700 on the field. His foot were better equipped, since Parliament held the main arsenals: twelve regiments in three brigades under Sir John Meldrum, Colonel Charles Essex and Sir Thomas Ballard. Sir James Ramsay's loose brigade of about twenty troops of horse, interlined with musketeers and backed by guns, held the left. The right was weaker, its horse covered by dragoons in hedged enclosures, and Sir William Balfour's and Sir Philip Stapleton's regiments of horse stood behind the foot.",
  "course": "**Morning: the descent (08:00 to about 14:00).** Essex's outposts reported the Royalists massed on Edge Hill at about 8 a.m., and he drew up about halfway between Kineton and the hill, using what hedges there were to cover his flanks. The King's quarters were so scattered that, by one contemporary account, his horse reached the rendezvous between ten and eleven and the rear of the foot and artillery two hours after the van. The army came down the scarp some time after midday, the horse probably by the roads at either end, and was formed in Radway field by about two o'clock. Essex made no move to strike it while it descended.\n\n**Afternoon: the guns and the cavalry charges (about 14:00 to 15:00).** The sight of the King riding along his regiments with his entourage seems to have provoked the Parliamentarians into opening fire. An artillery duel followed, of little effect; many Royalist guns were placed too high on the slope. Sources put the opening between about two and three o'clock; CDB90 starts the battle at 15:00. Meanwhile Royalist dragoons on each flank cleared the musketeers from the hedges. Rupert then charged Ramsay's wing. Captain Faithful Fortescue's troop changed sides as the Royalists came on; the rest of Ramsay's men fired one ineffectual pistol volley and fled. Rupert and Byron overran the guns and musketeers on that flank, and Charles Essex's brigade broke with the cavalry. On the other flank, over more broken, hedged ground, Wilmot's charge scattered the Parliamentarian horse opposite. Both Royalist wings, second lines included, pursued some four miles to Kineton and beyond, and many troopers fell to plundering the baggage.\n\n**The infantry fight.** Astley's foot advanced to musket range and then to push of pike. Ballard brought up the reserve brigade, Denzil Holles's regiment was praised for steadying the line, and Essex himself is said to have fought with a pike. Now Balfour's and Stapleton's horse, unbeaten behind the foot, came through the gaps. Balfour broke Sir Richard Fielding's brigade, taking Fielding, Lunsford and Stradling prisoner, and rode on to the Royalist guns, killing gunners and cutting traces; the King had his sons, the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York, led to safety. Returning, Balfour's men were fired on by their own side.\n\n**The Royal Standard.** In a second attack Parliamentarian foot struck Byron's brigade while Balfour and Stapleton hit its flank, exposing the King's Lifeguard of Foot. Lindsey, fighting at the head of his own regiment, was mortally wounded and captured; his son was taken trying to rescue him. Sir Edmund Verney, the standard-bearer, was killed and the Royal Standard taken by Ensign Arthur Young. Sir Charles Lucas and Lord Grandison rallied about 200 horse, and the standard was recovered as it was carried to the rear: by Captain John Smith, or by Lieutenant Colonel Robert Welch, by a ruse, according to different sources.\n\n**Dusk: stalemate (to about 18:00).** The Royalist foot fell back towards their guns and held behind a ditch with effective artillery support. Rupert's horse came back blown, too late to charge; at Kineton some plunderers had been driven off by Hampden's newly arrived troops. As light and powder failed, the battle ended in a firefight across the ditch.",
  "aftermath": "Both armies spent a bitterly cold night on the field; contemporaries believed the hard frost saved wounded men by congealing their wounds. Losses are uncertain. Clarendon put the dead at 5,000; modern estimates are far lower, Britannica giving about 1,000 killed and 2,000 wounded from some 26,000 engaged, and Wikipedia's infobox 500 killed and 1,500 wounded on each side. The Royalists lost heavily in officers, among them Lindsey and Verney.\n\nOn 24 October both sides formed up again but neither attacked. Charles's herald, offering pardon, was roughly handled. That evening Essex withdrew to Warwick, leaving seven guns, and early on the 25th Rupert fell on the remains of his baggage at Kineton. The King took Banbury on 27 October and moved slowly on London by Oxford and Reading; Rupert had urged a dash with the horse. Essex got there first, and on 13 November, reinforced by the Trained Bands, faced the King down at Turnham Green. Charles fell back to Oxford, his capital for the rest of the war.\n\nEdgehill is often called a bloody draw, but the Battlefields Trust argues it was a real Royalist advantage thrown away. Forth was confirmed as Lord General; Ramsay was cleared by a court martial. The battlefield is registered, and much of it lies within the Kineton munitions depot built in the late 1940s.",
  "wargaming": "Edgehill is a big but simple battle: two armies of about 14,000, each in a conventional line of horse wings and a foot centre, on a field you can fit on one table. Brigade-level play, with each base a regiment of horse or a brigade of foot, suits it; a game of six to ten turns covers the three hours or so from the guns opening to dark, and the short autumn afternoon should be a hard clock.\n\nTerrain matters at the edges. The Edge Hill scarp behind the Royalists can be a deployment zone or, for an opening scenario, an obstacle the King's army must descend under the threat of attack. The open fields of Radway are good cavalry country, but hedges on both Parliamentarian flanks give cover to musketeers and dragoons that the Royalist dragoons must clear first. Kineton and the baggage can sit at or off the table edge as a magnet for pursuing horse, and the ditch near the Royalist guns gives the beaten foot a rallying line.\n\nThe rules need two things: Royalist horse that wins easily but is hard to stop, and a hidden Parliamentarian reserve in Balfour and Stapleton. Optional events include Fortescue's defection, the capture and recapture of the Royal Standard, and Hampden's late arrival. What-ifs: Essex attacks during the descent; Byron or the Lifeguard are held back as a reserve; Lindsey's Dutch formation replaces the Swedish one; Hampden and the missing guns arrive in time."
 },
 "images": [
  {
   "file": "File:72 of 'History of the Great Civil War, 1642-1649' (11304991576).jpg",
   "kind": "map",
   "caption": "Battle of Edge Hill, 23 October 1642: the marches of both armies and their positions between Edge Hill and Kineton, from S. R. Gardiner's History of the Great Civil War (1886).",
   "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/72_of_%27History_of_the_Great_Civil_War%2C_1642-1649%27_%2811304991576%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original",
   "thumb": "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/62/72_of_%27History_of_the_Great_Civil_War%2C_1642-1649%27_%2811304991576%29.jpg/960px-72_of_%27History_of_the_Great_Civil_War%2C_1642-1649%27_%2811304991576%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail",
   "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:72_of_%27History_of_the_Great_Civil_War,_1642-1649%27_(11304991576).jpg",
   "licence": "No restrictions",
   "licence_url": "https://www.flickr.com/commons/usage/",
   "artist": "The British Library",
   "credit": "Image taken from page 72 of 'History of the Great Civil War, 1642-1649'",
   "width": 1285
  },
  {
   "file": "File:Battle of Edgehill map.svg",
   "kind": "map",
   "caption": "A modern interpretation of the deployment in Radway field: Royalists blue, Parliamentarians red.",
   "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/Battle_of_Edgehill_map.svg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original",
   "thumb": "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/49/Battle_of_Edgehill_map.svg/960px-Battle_of_Edgehill_map.svg.png?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail",
   "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Battle_of_Edgehill_map.svg",
   "licence": "CC BY 2.5",
   "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5",
   "artist": "Jlorenz1",
   "credit": "own creation",
   "width": 1460
  },
  {
   "file": "File:Prince Rupert at Edgehill.jpg",
   "kind": "illustration",
   "caption": "Prince Rupert leading the Royalist cavalry at Edgehill (illustration of 1873).",
   "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/Prince_Rupert_at_Edgehill.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original",
   "thumb": "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/dc/Prince_Rupert_at_Edgehill.jpg/960px-Prince_Rupert_at_Edgehill.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail",
   "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Prince_Rupert_at_Edgehill.jpg",
   "licence": "Public domain",
   "licence_url": "",
   "artist": "Joseph Swain",
   "credit": "This file is from the Mechanical Curator collection , a set of over 1 million images scanned from out-of-copyright books and released to Flickr Commons by the British Library in London, England. View image on Flickr View all images from book View catalogue entry for book .",
   "width": 2630
  },
  {
   "file": "File:Harvey, Prince of Wales and Duke of York Wellcome M0016114 (cropped).jpg",
   "kind": "painting",
   "caption": "William Harvey with the young Prince of Wales and Duke of York at Edgehill, after W. F. Yeames (exhibited 1871).",
   "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/Harvey%2C_Prince_of_Wales_and_Duke_of_York_Wellcome_M0016114_%28cropped%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original",
   "thumb": "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bb/Harvey%2C_Prince_of_Wales_and_Duke_of_York_Wellcome_M0016114_%28cropped%29.jpg/960px-Harvey%2C_Prince_of_Wales_and_Duke_of_York_Wellcome_M0016114_%28cropped%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail",
   "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Harvey,_Prince_of_Wales_and_Duke_of_York_Wellcome_M0016114_(cropped).jpg",
   "licence": "CC BY 4.0",
   "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0",
   "artist": "",
   "credit": "https://wellcomeimages.org/indexplus/obf_images/78/c7/7a6f29487ce85eaa4e7e7e6a33d1.jpg Gallery: https://wellcomeimages.org/indexplus/image/M0016114.html Wellcome Collection gallery (2018-03-29): https://wellcomecollection.org/works/qa75qcgs CC-BY-4.0",
   "width": 2623
  },
  {
   "file": "File:Charles Landseer - The Eve of the Battle of Edge Hill, 1642 - Google Art Project.jpg",
   "kind": "painting",
   "caption": "The Eve of the Battle of Edge Hill, 1642, by Charles Landseer (1845): the King's council of war.",
   "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/Charles_Landseer_-_The_Eve_of_the_Battle_of_Edge_Hill%2C_1642_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original",
   "thumb": "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7f/Charles_Landseer_-_The_Eve_of_the_Battle_of_Edge_Hill%2C_1642_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg/960px-Charles_Landseer_-_The_Eve_of_the_Battle_of_Edge_Hill%2C_1642_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail",
   "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Charles_Landseer_-_The_Eve_of_the_Battle_of_Edge_Hill,_1642_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg",
   "licence": "Public domain",
   "licence_url": "",
   "artist": "Charles Landseer (1799 - 1879) (British) Born in London, England. Died in London, England. Details on Google Art Project",
   "credit": "XQGUNMAEYfaXKw at Google Cultural Institute maximum zoom level",
   "width": 2504
  },
  {
   "file": "File:Mw02134.jpg",
   "kind": "portrait",
   "caption": "Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex, Parliament's Lord General.",
   "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/Mw02134.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original",
   "thumb": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/Mw02134.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled",
   "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mw02134.jpg",
   "licence": "Public domain",
   "licence_url": "",
   "artist": "Unknown artist Unknown artist",
   "credit": "[1]",
   "width": 472
  },
  {
   "file": "File:EdmundVerney.jpg",
   "kind": "portrait",
   "caption": "Sir Edmund Verney, the King's standard-bearer, killed defending the Royal Standard.",
   "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e9/EdmundVerney.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original",
   "thumb": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e9/EdmundVerney.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled",
   "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:EdmundVerney.jpg",
   "licence": "Public domain",
   "licence_url": "",
   "artist": "Anthony van Dyck",
   "credit": "one or more third parties have made copyright claims against Wikimedia Commons in relation to the work from which this is sourced or a purely mechanical reproduction thereof . This may be due to recognition of the \" sweat of the brow \" doctrine, allowing works to be eligible for protection through skill and labour, and not purely by originality as is the case in the United States (where this website is hosted). These claims may or may not be valid in all jurisdictions. As such, use of this image in the jurisdiction of the claimant or other countries may be regarded as copyright infringement . Please see Commons:When to use the PD-Art tag for more information.",
   "width": 401
  },
  {
   "file": "File:View from Edgehill - geograph.org.uk - 37614.jpg",
   "kind": "photo",
   "caption": "Looking north-north-east from the Edge Hill escarpment over Arlescote towards Kineton and the battlefield.",
   "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/View_from_Edgehill_-_geograph.org.uk_-_37614.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original",
   "thumb": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/View_from_Edgehill_-_geograph.org.uk_-_37614.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled",
   "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:View_from_Edgehill_-_geograph.org.uk_-_37614.jpg",
   "licence": "CC BY-SA 2.0",
   "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0",
   "artist": "David Stowell",
   "credit": "From geograph.org.uk",
   "width": 640
  }
 ],
 "sources": [
  {
   "id": "s1",
   "title": "Battle of Edgehill (Wikipedia)",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Edgehill",
   "kind": "web"
  },
  {
   "id": "s2",
   "title": "Battle of Edgehill: The Armies & the Losses (Battlefields Trust, Battlefields Hub)",
   "url": "https://www.battlefieldstrust.com/resource-centre/battlepageview.asp?pageid=543",
   "kind": "web"
  },
  {
   "id": "s3",
   "title": "Battle of Edgehill: The Battle, with sub-pages Deployment, The Cavalry Attack, The Infantry Engage, Stalemate and Assessment (Battlefields Trust, Battlefields Hub)",
   "url": "https://www.battlefieldstrust.com/resource-centre/battlepageview.asp?pageid=544",
   "kind": "web"
  },
  {
   "id": "s4",
   "title": "Battle of Edgehill: The Battlefield (Battlefields Trust, Battlefields Hub)",
   "url": "https://www.battlefieldstrust.com/resource-centre/battlepageview.asp?pageid=545",
   "kind": "web"
  },
  {
   "id": "s5",
   "title": "Battle of Edgehill, 23 October 1642 (BCW Project)",
   "url": "https://bcw-project.org.uk/military/english-civil-war/edgehill-campaign/battle-of-edgehill",
   "kind": "web"
  },
  {
   "id": "s6",
   "title": "Edgehill: order of battle (BCW Project)",
   "url": "https://bcw-project.org.uk/military/english-civil-war/edgehill-campaign/order-of-battle",
   "kind": "web"
  },
  {
   "id": "s7",
   "title": "N. Geoffrey Parker, 'Battle of Edgehill', Encyclopaedia Britannica (2025)",
   "url": "https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Edgehill",
   "kind": "article"
  },
  {
   "id": "s8",
   "title": "Mark Cartwright, 'Battle of Edgehill', World History Encyclopedia (2021)",
   "url": "https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1899/battle-of-edgehill/",
   "kind": "article"
  },
  {
   "id": "s9",
   "title": "Edwin A. Walford, Edge Hill: The Battle and Battlefield (Banbury, 1904; Project Gutenberg), with reprinted contemporary letters including Nathaniel Fiennes's",
   "url": "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/32958",
   "kind": "book"
  },
  {
   "id": "s10",
   "title": "Peter Young, Edgehill 1642: The Campaign and the Battle (Roundwood Press, 1967; Windrush, 1995)",
   "url": null,
   "kind": "book"
  },
  {
   "id": "s11",
   "title": "Battle of Edgehill 1642, Historic England Register of Historic Battlefields, list entry 1000009",
   "url": "https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1000009",
   "kind": "web"
  }
 ],
 "cdb90": [
  20
 ],
 "order": 6,
 "url": "https://battles.georgewyrd.com/edgehill/",
 "oob": [],
 "oob_lwtv": [],
 "scenarios": [],
 "orbat": null,
 "orbat_lwtv": null,
 "reading": {
  "prose": [
   {
    "work_id": "ia:anarrativebyjoh00ashbgoog",
    "title": "A narrative by John Ashburnham of his attendance on King Charles the First from Oxford to the Scotch Army, and from Hampton-Court to the Isle of Wight ... to which is prefixed a vindication of his character ... and conduct",
    "in": null,
    "author": "John Ashburnham",
    "life": "1603–1671",
    "year": 1830,
    "kind": "memoir",
    "library": "Internet Archive",
    "url": "https://archive.org/details/anarrativebyjoh00ashbgoog",
    "language": "en",
    "contemporary": true,
    "subject": false,
    "references": 1,
    "page": "https://battles.georgewyrd.com/reading/a-narrative-by-john-ashburnham-of-his-attendance-on-king-cha-23203c/"
   }
  ],
  "history": [],
  "fiction": [],
  "poetry": [
   {
    "work_id": "ia:laysofenglishcav00dani",
    "title": "Lays of the English cavaliers",
    "in": null,
    "author": "John Jeremiah Daniell",
    "life": "1819–1898",
    "year": 1866,
    "kind": "poem",
    "library": "Internet Archive",
    "url": "https://archive.org/details/laysofenglishcav00dani",
    "language": "en",
    "contemporary": false,
    "subject": false,
    "references": 1,
    "page": "https://battles.georgewyrd.com/reading/lays-of-the-english-cavaliers-a2823f/"
   }
  ]
 },
 "reading_lwtv": {
  "prose": [],
  "poetry": []
 },
 "photos": [],
 "photos_kind": "photographs",
 "newspapers": null
}