The Battle of Edgehill: The First Clash of the English Civil War

1642 marked the volatile split between King and Parliament. Only war would decide the victor. England became staunchly divided along tribal loyalties, and Warwickshire was no exception. It was in this county that the first battle of what became known as the English Civil War took place: Edgehill.

Drawing up battle lines near Kineton, both forces – each around 14,000 strong – were eager for battle. King Charles I, largely a nominal figurehead, delegated command to the Earl of Forth and his dashing nephew, Prince Rupert of the Rhine. Having gloriously served in the armies of continental Europe, Rupert was already a veteran at 23 years old and had total control over the Royalist cavalry. Opposing them, Parliament had assigned the Earl of Essex to command the Parliamentarian host. Despite a plethora of military experience, Essex had gained a reputation as a ‘slow, indecisive, and poor strategist.’

On 23 October, fighting commenced in the afternoon with a mostly ineffective artillery duel initiated by the Parliamentarians. However, it was the Royalists who first gained the advantage. In a daring assault, Prince Rupert and his right wing crashed into the cavalry of the Parliamentarian left, utterly routing them. Meanwhile, Lord Wilmot’s cavalry achieved similar success on the Royalist left, again forcing their adversaries into flight. But rather than fall upon the exposed Parliamentarian centre to ensure total victory, both Royalist cavalry wings pursued the fleeing foe off the battlefield in a disorderly manner. This decision would prove costly.

Both centres, comprising musketeers and pikemen, engaged in a bloody standoff. Musketeers exchanged devastating volleys before the pikemen met for a ‘push of pike,’ shoving and stabbing amongst tight ranks. While the Royalists held superiority in cavalry, the Parliamentarians made up for it with their infantry. Better equipped than their Royalist counterparts, the Parliamentarian infantry applied considerable pressure against the King’s forces.

Moreover, the absence of Royalist cavalry on the battlefield provided an invaluable opportunity for the Parliamentarians. Essex had two aces up his sleeve: cavalry regiments under the command of Sir William Balfour and Sir Philip Stapleton had been waiting in the Parliamentarian reserve, completely unscathed from prior cavalry charges by Prince Rupert and Wilmot. Both Balfour’s and Stapleton’s regiments charged into exposed Royalist flanks. Overwhelmed by superior Parliamentary infantry and surprise cavalry assaults, the Royalist infantry was heavily mauled during its prolonged engagement. It was only the return of some cavalry units that saved the Royalists from total rout, managing to stabilise the situation.

Sunset and darkness brought much-needed reprieve to the fighting. Both sides retired from battle with around 1,000 men dead. There was much confusion over which side had come out victorious. While the Royalist cavalry had annihilated their Parliamentarian counterparts, their rash pursuit of already defeated adversaries snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Meanwhile, the Parliamentarian infantry had outclassed the Royalists in the centre but failed to land a killing blow. Even after the battle, neither side pursued the advantage, with both armies falling back to their home territories, their hunger for battle sated.

However, the battle was not over in some supernatural cases. In the following weeks and months, numerous local reports recounted spectral soldiers refighting the battle at Edgehill, with some of these ghosts identified as casualties. Perhaps this was merely an omen that the fighting of the English Civil War would continue for a decade, intensifying the level of bloodshed first seen at Edgehill.

Bibliography:

Primary Sources

Balfour, William, et. al, An Exact and True Relation of the Dangerous and Bloody Fight between His Majesty’s Army and the Parliament’s Forces near Kineton in the county of Warwick (London: John Field, 1642)

Hyde, Edward, the Earl of Clarendon, The History of the Rebellion and Civil War in England, volume 2, ed. by William D. Macray (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1888)

Maria, Henrietta, Letters of Queen Henrietta Maria, including her Private Correspondence with Charles the First, ed. by Mary A.E. Green (London: Richard Bentley, 1857)

Marshall, Samuel, A Great Wonder in Heaven: shewing the late Apparitions and prodigious noyses of War and Battels, seen on Edge-hill neere Keinton in Northampton-shire (London: Thomas Jackson, 1643)

Secondary Sources

Baker, Anthony, A Battlefield Atlas of the English Civil War (London: Promotional Reprint Co., 1997)

Gaunt, Peter, The English Civil War: A Military History (London: I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd, 2014)

Peck, Imogen, “Edgehill, Naseby, and the Ghosts of the Civil Wars”, Midland History, Vol.49, No.3 (2024)

Young, Peter, Edgehill, 1642: The Campaign and the Battle (Kineton: The Roundwood Press, 1967)

Seymour, William, Battles in Britain: and their Political Background, 1066-1746, Volume II: 1642-1746 (Ware, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions Limited, 1997)