Battle of Powick Bridge

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Battle of Powick Bridge
partof=the First English Civil War
date=September 23, 1642
place=Worcester
result=Royalist victory
combatant1=Royalists
combatant2=Parliamentarians
commander1=Prince Rupert of the Rhine
commander2=Colonel Nathaniel Fiennes
strength1=1,000 horse [http://www.battlefieldstrust.com/resource-centre/civil-war/battleview.asp?BattleFieldId=35 UK Battlefields Resource Centre - The Civil Wars - The Edgehill Campaign - The Battle of Battle of Powick Bridge ] ]
strength2=1,000 horse
casualties1=negligible
casualties2=40 killed, 100 wounded

The Battle of Powick Bridge, fought on 23 September 1642, was the first major cavalry engagement of the English Civil War and it was a victory for the Royalists who overthrew the Parliamentary cavalry.

Prelude

King Charles I of England had left London and raised his standard in Nottingham on 22 August 1642. Although some skirmishing had occurred throughout the country, it was on 13 September, that the main campaign of the First English Civil War opened. King Charles, in order to reach the armouries of Derbyshire and Staffordshire, and find recruits amongst his sympathisers and trained bands, and also to be in touch with his disciplined regiments in Ireland by way of Chester, moved westward from Nottingham through Cheshire to Shrewsbury. The Earl of Essex with an army of about 20,000 men followed suit by marching his army from Northampton to Worcester.

Battle

Near Worcester, a sharp cavalry engagement, now known as the Battle of Powick Bridge, took place on 23 September between the advanced cavalry of Essex's army, and a force under Prince Rupert, which was engaged in protecting a small Royalist force which had been compelled to evacuate Oxford on 10 September.

The result of the fight was the immediate overthrow of the Parliamentary cavalry, and this gave the Royalist troopers a confidence in themselves and in their brilliant leader, which was not shaken until they met Oliver Cromwell's Ironsides.

Aftermath

Rupert soon withdrew north to Shrewsbury, where he found many Royalist officers eager to attack Essex's new position at Worcester. But the road to London now lay open and it was decided to take it. The intention was not to avoid a battle, for the Royalist generals wanted to fight Essex before he grew too strong, and the temper of both sides made it impossible to postpone the decision. In the Earl of Clarendon's words: "it was considered more counsellable to march towards London, it being morally sure that Essex would put himself in their way". Accordingly, the army left Shrewsbury on 12 October, gaining two days' start on the enemy, and moved south-east. This had the desired effect.

Parliament, alarmed for its own safety, sent repeated orders to Essex to find the King and bring him to battle. Alarm gave place to determination, when it was discovered that Charles was enlisting papists and seeking foreign aid. The militia of the home counties was called out. A second army under Earl of Warwick was formed round the nucleus of the London trained bands, and Essex, straining every nerve to regain touch with the enemy, reached Kineton, where he was only seven miles (eleven kilometres) from the King's headquarters at Edgecote, on 22 October. The inconclusive Battle of Edge Hill was fought the next day.

References

Further reading

* [http://www.battlefieldstrust.com/resource-centre/civil-war/battleview.asp?BattleFieldId=35 Battle of Powick Bridge] part of [http://www.battlefieldstrust.com/resource-centre/ The Battlefields Trust Resource Centre] of [http://www.battlefieldstrust.com/index.asp The Battlefields Trust]
* [http://www.british-civil-wars.co.uk/military/1642-edgehill.htm 1642: First campaigns of the English Civil War] on the [http://www.british-civil-wars.co.uk/ British Civil Wars & Commonwealth website]
* [http://www.thevickerage.worldonline.co.uk/ecivil/powick.htm Powick Bridge] website of [http://www.thevickerage.worldonline.co.uk/ecivil/index.htm English Civil War]