the Civil War
The battle of Edgehill, on Sunday 23rd October 1642, saw the army of the Earl of Essex, the parliamentarian Lord General, and the King’s army clash in the first major action of the Civil War in England. It was fought in the open fields between the villages of Radway and Kineton in Warwickshire.

Battle of Edgehill, (Oct. 23, 1642), first battle of the English Civil Wars, in which forces loyal to the English Parliament, commanded by Robert Devereux, 3rd earl of Essex, fatally delayed Charles I’s march on London. The Battle of Edgehill took place in open country between Banbury and Warwick.

As dusk was approaching, the Parliamentarians withdrew to Warwick leaving the way clear to London. But Charles’ army only reached Reading before Essex’s troops regrouped, so the battle has always been regarded as a draw with no one side victorious.

English Civil Wars, also called Great Rebellion, (1642–51), fighting that took place in the British Isles between supporters of the monarchy of Charles I (and his son and successor, Charles II) and opposing groups in each of Charles’s kingdoms, including Parliamentarians in England, Covenanters in Scotland, and …

Oliver Cromwell, who arrived too late in the day to take part in the battle, later wrote disparagingly to John Hampden, “Your troopers are most of them old decayed servingmen and tapsters; and their [the Royalists] troopers are gentlemen’s sons, younger sons and persons of quality….” Not only were the Parliamentarian …

It may be that the casualties of the battle were around 1,500 in dead, wounded and captured for Parliament and 1,000 for the King. Of the senior officers, the Royalists lost the Lord General, Lord Lindsey, who died of his wound, Sir Edmund Verney, the Earl Marshal, and Lord d’Aubigny killed.

Cromwell was a little known cavalry captain at Edgehill, but it was he who learnt the greatest lesson from the battle. ‘ Three years later that same captain, whose name was Oliver Cromwell, would destroy the royalist army when Prince Rupert repeated the same errors on Naseby field.

October 23, 1642
Battle of Edgehill/End dates

Sir Thomas Fairfax led his troops to victory over King Charles I at the Battle of Naseby on 14 June 1645. His triumph won the First English Civil War (1642-46) for Parliament and ensured that monarchs would never again be supreme in British politics.

Battle of Edgehill/Start dates

King Charles I of England: picture by Sir Anthony van Dyck: Battle of Edgehill on 23rd October 1642 in the English Civil War. Generals at the Battle of Edgehill: King Charles I was the commander of his Royal forces.

Sir Thomas Ballard brought up what was left of the Parliamentarian reserve to close the line and meet the attack, replacing Colonel Essex’s routed brigade to stand with Sir John Meldrum. During the ensuing hand-to-hand struggle, the Earl of Essex fought alongside his men with a pike in his hands.

The Royalists fell back to a brook that ran the length of the battlefield, the banks of which provided a buffer between themselves and the Parliamentary attackers. Stability was then restored with support from their artillery and a timely return of Prince Rupert with a portion of his (exhausted) cavalry.

The Earl of Lindsey was mortally wounded and captured while fighting at the head of his regiment; his son Lord Willoughby d’Eresby killed two Roundhead officers in an attempt to rescue his father but was himself taken prisoner. At this critical point in the battle, the Royalist horse began to return to the field.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6bm6l3oS3E