Battle of Cropredy Bridge

Date	29 June 1644
Location	Cropredy, near Banbury, Oxfordshire
Result	Royalist victory

Belligerents

Parliamentarians

Royalists

Commanders and leaders

Sir William Waller

King Charles

Strength

5,000 horse
4,000 foot
(only part engaged)

Casualties and losses

700
11 guns captured

unknown

The Battle of Cropredy Bridge was a battle of the English Civil Wars, fought on 29 June 1644 between a Parliamentarian army under Sir William Waller and the Royalist army of King Charles. After a Parliamentarian attack on the Royalist rearguard was repulsed, Waller's army became demoralised and ineffective, allowing the King to retrieve the Royalists' fortunes after other defeats during the earlier part of the year.

In the early part of 1644, the Royalists suffered several setbacks. Two field armies were defeated at Nantwich and Cheriton, and a Scottish Covenanter army invaded the north of England, driving the Royalists there into York, where they were besieged.

King Charles held a council of war in Oxford, his wartime capital, between 25 April and 5 May. It was agreed that while the King remained on the defensive in Oxford, protected by several outlying fortified towns, his nephew Prince Rupert of the Rhine (the foremost Royalist field commander) would proceed to retrieve the situation in the north.

After Rupert departed, the King's council changed this policy. To find reinforcements for the West Country where Rupert's brother Prince Maurice was besieging Lyme Regis, they ordered the fortress of Reading, in Berkshire, to be abandoned. This did indeed release 2,500 foot soldiers for service elsewhere, but it also allowed the Parliamentarian armies of the Earl of Essex and Sir William Waller to concentrate against Oxford. On 19 May, they began advancing from Reading. On 25 May, the Royalists abandoned Abingdon in the face of Essex's advance. Essex occupied the town and then crossed the Thames to capture bridges over the River Cherwell north of Oxford, while Waller passed south of Oxford to capture a crossing over the Thames to the west at Newbridge.

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Wikipedia