As darkness drew in on the evening of Monday, 4th March 1644, a minor action typical of so many which took place during the Civil War was fought out in and around the Leicestershire town of Hinckley. Perhaps a dozen men (all of them Royalists) died, together with a Captain of horse: the common soldiers are anonymous, but the officer is commemorated in the parish register and was mentioned in passing by a former comrade when the "List of Indigent Officers" was being compiled almost 20 years later.

Three contemporary accounts (1) allow us to build up a picture of that night's events. The officer commanding the Parliamentarian force, Lt. Col. Henry Grey (2) described the action in a letter (subsequently published) to his superior, Lord Grey of Groby. A report appeared in "Military Scribe, publishing his true warlike preparation to the People" dated 5th March, based on additional letters from Leicestershire. This was obviously the source used to produce the third account in Vicars' "Magnalia Dei Anglicana or, England's PaHiamentary Chronicle" but the author appears to have allowed his imagination free rein in embellishing the original story.

At about 11pm on Sunday 3rd March, Lt. Col. Grey received at Leicester a report sent by Captain Bodle (3), warning him that some 350 Royalist horse had passed the village of Nailstone (4) and were marching in the direction of Lutterworth, about 10 miles south of the city "with a purpose to sweep the whole country on Monday."

Vicars' account is alone in suggesting that the raiders were led by Colonel Henry Hastings (Lord Loughborough) in person, but this is obviously based on a careless reading of "Military Scribe", which merely states that they were Hastings' men. He also states that they consisted of "four troops from Bever-Worton house" (5).

Grey identifies them with greater precision as "three troops that came out of Newark, two of Lichfield, one of the Lord of Loughborough's, one from Tiffington and one from Wiverton, besides dragoons..." The troops from Lichfield were presumably drawn from Colonel Sir Richard Bagot's regiment of horse which was in garrison there; as the one identifiable fatality was a member of Baptist, Lord Campden's Horse (believed to have been based at Belvoir Castle), this regiment was no doubt also represented. In the preamble to Grey's account (6), "Colonel Nevel's trumpeter" is referred to, indicating the presence of Colonel Richard Nevill's horse from Newark.

Interception

Grey's first concern was to assemble a force to intercept the raiding party. This presented problems, as a pamphlet published the following year explains:

"The greater part of our Horse were ingarrison'd abroad neere the enemie, and were so active, that they kept the enemie's Garrisons in such awe, that they durst not stirre out but like Theeves, in the night... " (7)

"Military Scribe", followed by Vicars, claims that "though all their horse was gone to Newark yet they resolved, every private man [in Leicester], to spare his own horse and so sent away presently 120 of the foot soldiers and some 30 troopers, that lay at Bagworth House to keep it from the enemy..." It is certainly true that, during February and March 1644, a large body of Leicestershire and Derbyshire horse was detached under the command of Sir Edward Hartop to assist Sir John Meldrum at the siege of Newark.

However, Grey makes no mention of horses being borrowed from private citizens but simply reports that he "drew forth Major Bingley, Captain Hacker's and Captain Bodle's troops to go and fight with them..." Francis Hacker (the future regicide) certainly commanded a troop of horse: had it been before Newark, it is most unlikely he would not have been with it. If not in Leicester itself, he and his men may be assumed to have been in one of the county's garrisons.

As noted above, Captain Bodle's command was probably at Bagworth House. It was evidently a mixed force, as in a later referencr to the distribution of captured arms, Grey mentions that he "gave most unto Captain Bodle for his troop and dragoons." He gives the number of horse which he assembled (presumably including dragoons) as 120, added to which were "50 musketeers of my cousin Grey's company": it is not unlikely that these men would have been hastily mounted on any available horses in order to take part in the pursuit, and that this is what the other accounts are referring to.

Wherever Major Bingley and Captain Hacker may have been, the troops at Bagworth were about ten miles from Leicester. Bearing in mind that it must have been approaching midnight before a messenger could be despatched with orders for them, a considerable delay was inevitable before Grey could concentrate his forces, particularly if hasty arrangements had to be made for putting the musketeers on horseback.

Add to this the difficulty of establishing contact with a body of horse which waa on the move somewhere miles away in the darkness, and it can be seen that there could be no question of mounting a hot pursuit of the Royalist Force. In fact, Grey did not arrive at Hinckley until 7pm on Monday, having apparently covered about 15 miles - which suggests that he may not have left Leicester until midday.

Marauding Royalists

The Royalists had not been idle in the interval but had been marauding rather nearer at hand than Grey may have been led to believe: by his own account, they seized two ministers and thirty or so hapless civilians from the villages of Cosby and heir, the former only about six miles from Leicester. They also acquired a large number of cattle and horses, presumabb for the u" of the garrison at Ashby de la Zouche (as they began to make their way back towards that town after completing their trawl through the countryside).

"Military Scribe" recounts the sufferings of "a minister named Mr Warner" but Vicars has an altogether more sensational tale in which the Royalists "coursed about the country as far as Dunton and Lutterworth, and took near upon an hundred of the clergymen and others, and carried them prisoners to a town called Hinckley, intending to have carried them to Ashby de la Zouche etc, using them very coarsely and threatening to hand them all that should take the Parliament's Covenant" (this being the reason he gives for so many ministers being on the road to Leicester).

The ordinance requiring all Englishmen over 18 to take the Covenant had been passed on 5th February, and a report from Grey had recently been read in the Commons stating that "divers ministers of that country refused taking the Covenant, whom they have as yet restrained at Leicester until further orders..."(8) However, as Grey is quite specific that he released only about thirty captives and "Military Scribe" quotes twenty six, the suspicion must be that Vicars decided to add a little extra colour to his tale.

Royalists at Hinckley

The Royalists entered Hinckley with their prisoners and booty at about 5pm, and began making preparations to spend the night there before resuming their march to Ashby de la Zouche next morning. Scouts were sent out to patrol the approaches to the town, the prisoners were secured in the church and guards posted at all points of access.

In accordance with normal practice, the market place seems to have been designated as the "Alarm Place" where the troops would fall in under arms in the event of attack. Having been on horseback all day and most of the previous night, those not on watch must have been only too glad of the opportunity to rest.

During the day, Grey had been in search of the raiding party with his force from Leicester. His first plan was to intercept them at the village of Sutton (9), where their presence had been reported, but by the time he arrived on the scene the Royalists had moved on. However, Grey was able to glean the information that they intended to quarter at Hinckley for the night, and set off in pursuit. What followed is best told in his own words:

"I came to Hinckley about seven o'clock (10), where I found all passage into the town blocked up. About half a mile from the town, I took one of their scouts, who affirmed them to be 300 horse and 50 dragoons, and that they had been in their quarters two hours. I entered the town at the end towards Barwell (11), first causing my dragoons to light by the mills, where I left their horses with a small guard, and caused my dragoons to advance with the forlorn hope of 30 horse, commanded by Captain Fitzgarret, to force the passage; which after some resistance, was effected (12). Myself, with the small body that I had, 120, charged up to the cross, where I found the enemy in a body and, after quarter of an hour's fight, we beat them out of the town.

Being in the field, they rallied again and were advancing to charge us, whereupon I drew up my dragoons and caused them to advance with my horse into the field, where, after some shots made, the enemy gave way. Then I charged them again with my horse; which they stood not to receive but wheeled off and fled. I pursued them above half a mile but being in the night and in a dirty country I thought it not safe to pursue them any further, knowing there were as many more as I had."

Grey refers to about a dozen Royalist common soldiers being killed, together with "many wounded, for I hear that there were some went into the houses, and died by the way." The other sources claim "four or five" Royalist dead, together with nine others wounded "very sore". All mention "one of the enemy's captains named Manwaring" as the most notable casualty, and there can be little doubt that this is the member of Baptist, Lord Campden's Horse mentioned in "Indigent Officers" (13). The parish register (14) records the burial of "Adam Manwayring miles" following the action. The Parliamentarian casualties were apparently, four wounded.

In one of several hints that their informant(s) were less than wholehearted supporters of Grey, the other two sources both report that one of these men was a casualty hurt by Colonel Grey, because he forgot their word in the flight, which was 'God prosper us', the enemy's word being 'For the King!' (15).

Besides releasing the civilians captured by the Royalists, Grey took a number of prisoners. One of these, a lieutenant, was none other than your Lordship's brother", Lord Grey of Groby was informed. (16) the others were Lieutenant Rawlings; Quartermaster Deekins; the trumpeter mentioned earlier "with his silver trumpet" and 44 common soldiers (17), 80 cattle and over 150 horses were recovered and "being most taken from our friends, were most restored, some little satisfaction being made to the soldiers..." There were also "a great many arms" (which, as noted earlier, mostly found their way to Captain Bodle) and "divers packs with some ammunition".

From Henry Grey's point of view, it had been a highly successful engagement but it could have gone badly wrong. The delay incurred while dismounted dragoons and the forlorn hope of horse overpowered the pickets at the edge of town had given his opponents time to form up around the market cross, where the action had been fought out for fifteen minutes before the Royalists withdrew - only to reform once they reached open ground.

Even at this stage, and assuming that the majority of the 60 or so Royalist casualties and prisoners lost during the engagement had already been left behind after the fighting in the town, Grey could well have been near the mark in claiming that he was outnumbered two to one, and he was surely right in saying "had they stood it, when they were got into a body in the field, we should have had the worst of it".

However, he had seized and held the initiative and, in the confusion of the street fighting, the Royalists may not have realised that they had the advantage of numbers, particularly with the approach of night. It speaks well for their discipline that they were able to regroup, even in the darkness, and threaten a counterattack: reading between the lines of Grey's account, the impression given is that they withdrew in reasonably good order and that he felt they might well rally once more.

The Parliamentarians were no doubt glad of the small profit they reaped from the recovery of the booty, and proud of their success; the Royalists correspondingly downcast. But for Adam Manwaring and the others, now only statistics among the estimated 180,000 dead (18) of the Civil Wars, it had been the end of the road.

Appendix: Lt Col Henry Grey