Second Battle of Newbury, 1644: the king slips away

Newbury in Berkshire saw two battles of the English Civil War in little more than a year. The first was fought in September 1643. The second, fought on 27 October 1644 just north of the town, around the village of Speen and the manor of Shaw House, is remembered less for what happened on the field than for what Parliament failed to do afterward. The date is given in the Old Style calendar that England used until 1752.³

Background: the autumn of 1644

The summer had brought both sides a great reverse. In July the Royalists lost the north of England at Marston Moor; in September Parliament's army under the Earl of Essex was trapped and beaten at Lostwithiel in Cornwall. Charles I then marched east. His aim was not London but the relief of three Royalist garrisons under siege, at Banbury, Basing House and Donnington Castle, the stronghold on a hill just north of Newbury.⁴

Donnington was worth fighting for. It commanded the road from Southampton to Oxford and the road from London to the west, and its governor, John Boys, had ringed the old castle with earthworks. A Parliamentary bombardment that autumn shattered three of its towers, but the garrison held out.⁵

Armies and commanders

Parliament gathered its forces at Basingstoke: the Earl of Manchester's army of the Eastern Association, Sir William Waller's army and what was left of Essex's army after Lostwithiel. Essex himself fell ill and took no part in the battle, so the combined force was led by Manchester and Waller, with Oliver Cromwell as Manchester's lieutenant general of horse.⁶

The sources agree that Parliament had the larger army but not on the numbers. The British Civil Wars site of Newcastle University gives about 19,000 Parliamentarians against the king's 10,000; David Plant's BCW Project almost 17,500 against around 9,000; and the Battlefields Trust some 16,600, of whom 7,300 were horse, against about 4,000 Royalist horse and 5,500 foot. Part of the king's cavalry had been sent north to relieve Banbury.⁷

Charles took up a strong defensive position north of Newbury, between the rivers Kennet and Lambourn and under the guns of Donnington Castle. On the west side his nephew Prince Maurice held the village of Speen and built earthworks for his guns. On the east stood Shaw House, a fortified mansion whose defenders David Plant places under Colonel George Lisle; Newbury Today names Jacob Astley.⁸

The battle in phases

The Parliamentarians came up from the east and on 26 October skirmished for Clay Hill, which overlooked Shaw House; once they held it, they set up a battery there. Rather than attack head on, they then split their army. Waller, with most of the troops, about 12,000 men, and with Cromwell and Sir William Balfour leading the horse, set off on a long night march to the north, around Donnington, to strike Speen from the west. Manchester stayed at Clay Hill, to attack Shaw House when Waller's signal told him that the western attack had begun.⁹

The plan went wrong from the start. At dawn on 27 October Manchester made an early attack on Shaw House, meant only as a feint; it was thrown back. Waller's march took so long that he was not in position until about two in the afternoon.¹⁰

When he did attack, his infantry stormed the earthworks at Speen, captured Prince Maurice's guns and drove the Royalists out of the village. Then the Parliamentary cavalry went in. Balfour's horse at first drove back the Royalists and came so close that the king himself was nearly surrounded, until the royal Life Guard charged and pushed them back. Cromwell's horse, usually so effective, was beaten, and the Royalist infantry halted Waller's foot.¹¹

Turning point: the attack that came too late

Manchester never moved in time to support Waller. Newbury Today says he delayed his main attack, and the Newcastle site that he never heard the signal. Only at about four o'clock, as darkness was falling, did he attack Shaw House a second time. Its defenders held, and the fighting died away with the light.¹²

The Battlefields Trust puts the losses at 500 to 700 on each side; Newbury Today says only that both armies lost heavily. Both the Newcastle site and the BCW Project call the result a draw.¹³

Aftermath: the king slips away

Charles had held his ground, but his army was outnumbered and caught between two forces, and his commanders judged the position untenable. That night it marched away north toward Oxford, leaving the wounded and the artillery in Donnington Castle. Parliament made no serious pursuit.¹⁴

Less than a fortnight later, on 9 November, the king came back with fresh troops, recovered his guns from the castle and offered battle. The Parliamentary commanders argued over whether to accept it: Cromwell wanted to attack, Manchester preferred caution. The Royalists marched away again unhindered.¹⁵

Legacy and memory

For Parliament a battle fought with nearly twice the enemy's numbers had slipped away. Cromwell blamed Manchester, and their quarrel became public. It strengthened those in Parliament who wanted to change the way the war was fought, and in April 1645 the Self-denying Ordinance barred members of Parliament from military command. The armies of Essex, Manchester and Waller were merged into the New Model Army.¹⁶ › Battle of Worcester, 1651

Donnington Castle held out through a siege of twenty months, until April 1646.¹⁷

Visiting the battlefield today

Much of the ground has changed, but parts of it can still be seen. Shaw House, the Royalist strongpoint, still stands. North of the town the ruins of Donnington Castle, in the care of English Heritage, still look down on the fields where the armies stood.¹⁸