n 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 to 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 famous Royalist field commander) would proceed to retrieve the situation in the north. The military command of the forces that remained with King Charles fell to Lord General Patrick Ruthven, 1st Earl of Forth.
On Saturday, 29 June, Charles’s army began marching north along the east side of the River Cherwell. Waller’s forces proceeded to shadow the King’s movements on the other side of the river, the two armies little more than a mile apart and in sight of each other, but neither prepared to cross under the fire of enemy guns.
As they approached Cropredy, Charles ordered a small detachment of dragoons to seize the bridge over the Cherwell. At this point, he received a warning that 300 additional horsemen were approaching from the north to join Waller’s army, and he ordered his army to hasten its march to cut off this detachment. The Royalist army became strung out. The vanguard and main body had crossed a stream at Hay’s Bridge (near the present-day village of Chipping Warden), leaving a rearguard of only two cavalry brigades under the Earl of Cleveland and the twenty-year-old Earl of Northampton, with some infantry, south of Hay’s Bridge.
Waller, seeing his opportunity, sent Lieutenant General John Middleton across Cropredy Bridge with two regiments of horse (those of Sir Arthur Haselrig and Colonel Jonas Vandruske) and nine companies of foot to isolate the Royalist rearguard, while he himself led 1,000 men across Slat Mill Ford, a mile to the south of the bridge, to catch the Royalist rear in a pincer movement.
The Royalist dragoons holding Cropredy Bridge were soon overpowered. As Middleton’s force streamed towards Hay’s Bridge, they became strung out and vulnerable. At Hay’s Bridge, Middleton’s cavalry was checked by Royalist musketeers who had overturned a carriage to block the bridge, while the Earl of Cleveland charged the Parliamentarian foot and artillery behind them. Meanwhile, Northampton’s brigade charged downhill against Waller’s men, and forced them back across the Slat Mill Ford.
The King was alerted that his rearguard was engaged, and ordered his army to turn about. He also sent his own lifeguard of horse under Lord Bernard Stewart back across Hay’s Bridge to aid Cleveland. With their help, Cleveland made a second charge which forced Middleton back across Cropredy Bridge, abandoning eleven guns. Waller’s major general of ordnance, Sir James Wemyss, was also captured.
The bridge itself was held by two Parliamentarian regiments of foot, Colonel Ralph Weldon’s Kentish Regiment and the Tower Hamlets Trained Bands regiment. The Royalists tried to recapture the bridge but were repulsed. Waller’s remaining artillery continued to fire from their vantage point on Bourton Hill, forcing the Cavaliers to fall back from the river.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cropredy_Bridge
Recently we played an English Civil War game using Twilight of Divine Right” rules. The scenario was the Battle of Cropredy Bridge, taken from the Twilight of Divine Right ECW scenario booklet “By the Sword Divided.” All figures were from the excellent Steel Fist 15mm ECW range.
This was a fairly small battle involving approximately 8,000 men on each side. The King’s army was commanded by King Charles himself while the Parliamentarian army was commanded by William Waller. Each army was composed of approximately one half horse and one half foot. The armies had been keeping pace with each other on opposite sides of a river, each looking for an opening to attack the other. The King apparently decided to proceed to the safety of Oxford, but his forces became strung out, leaving the baggage and rearguard under the Earl of Cleveland yet to cross the river at Hay’s bridge. Waller decided to strike the rearguard by crossing the river in two places, Middleton’s command at Cropredy Bridge and Waller himself with the main force at the ford at Slat’s Mill. The game begins with Middleton’s cavalry already across the bridge, but his infantry and artillery, as well as all of Waller’s men, have yet to cross to the Royalist side. The King and the main part of his army are of the table and must roll to return by groups.
The Royalist player recognized that his cavalry was better than their opponents and that Cleveland was rated a better commander than Middleton. Therefore, he early on twice attacked Middleton’s cavalry. However, both attacks were thrown back, causing the Royalists to concentrate on buying time for the baggage to cross the river to safety, which the baggage was attempting to do so at a snails pace.
Middleton apparently felt that his force was too small to do anything without his infantry so he waited for it to cross, but this proved time consuming. This was also the case with Wallers command at the ford. Their difficulties gave the Royalist main army time to begin to return in small groups of units. Eventually, Waller crossed, but by this time about half of the King’s command and the King himself were able to come into action. There was a lively but indecisive cavalry action on the King’s left, but the battle was decided in the center. Under the rules, once a command loses one half of its units, it must take a morale test every turn thereafter. If it fails, all it’s units are removed from the table. Middleton’s command lost half its units and initially passed its morale check. However, it failed to do so on a subsequent turn which required the Parliament army to take an army morale check, which it failed. This replicated to a large extent what happened in the actual battle.
- DF