“Though they be rebels and deserve the punishment of traitors, they deserve the same treatment as our own men.”
- --King Charles I on the treatment of Roundhead prisoners
As Balfour returned, he found the third and most amazing mistake when some of his canons opened fire on him, thinking that because he came from the Royalist ranks, he was of their party.
Darkness was approaching the two armies now, when Essex ordered Lord Robartes to charge Nicholas Byron’s brigade and complete what Stapleton’s horse had tried to do.
In this bloody and most fought struggle, Byron’s brigade only succumbed when Ballard’s men and the horse of Stapleton and Balfour joined Robartes. In this part of the battle, Lord Lindsey, the former Royalist commander in chief was slain down, with Lord Willoughby. Lindsey’s son on hearing of his father, broke ranks and hastily made his way to him to help, fighting like a beast to get through the enemy. He stood by his father fighting the enemy, rather than leaving him with them.
With the Kings Lifeguard however, things were just as bad. Sir Edmund Verney, who held the Kings huge standard, was in the thick of fighting and had killed several. Verney's body was undefended, refusing as he did to wear armour and the enemy soon sliced at him, killing him and cutting his hand clean off. The attacker who had slain Verney, Arthur Young, released the standard from his death grip and the importance of the standard went off to the enemy as it travelled out of the Royalist ranks, much to their horror.
The Parliamentarians carried it off with glee, showing it to their men as it went, until it reached Lord Essex’s hands. Handing the standard to his secretary, Robert Chambers, he told chambers to take it to the rear.
Sir Charles Lucas, the Royalist commander who had rallied around 200 horsemen from the victorious Royalist left wing, now launched an attack on Meldrum and Ballard’s Parliamentarian foot. As he charged towards the rear of the seven unbroken enemy regiments, Lucas’s horsemen were then swarmed, by fleeing Roundheads from other broken regiments. This cushioned his charge and broke his men up, some breaking off to chase these runaways for easy prizes.
It was not long before Lucas’s charge lost its impetuous after near 3 charges, but one incident from the charge was a real success.
Captain John Smith had charged into Lord Wharton’s regiment, capturing one of the standards. Looking round his shoulder, Smith realised he was alone, save one other Royalist and hastily retired back toward his ranks. He passed by six horsemen who were closely escorting a man carrying a colour, which looked like one of the Kings Lifeguards. Smith was startled when a boy shouted to him, “Captain Smith! Captain Smith, they are carrying away the standard!”
After spending a little time convincing Smith it was indeed the great Banner Royal, Smith hurled himself at the men like a gust of wind shouting, “They shall have me with it, if they carry it away!
As he clashed toward the surprised thieves, Smith again bellowed, “Traitor, deliver the standard!” His furious charge killed one Roundhead, wounded another and sent the rest whirling away, like they were being carried by the wind. Not content with this victory, Smith was later to free Colonel Richard Fielding from captivity.
All the while in this later stage of the battle, Roundhead troops were beginning to arrive. The troops had been late for the start of the battle, but as most arrived, they were met with fleeing men who claimed the battle was the Kings, demolishing any confidence they had arrived with and making many join the rout.
Push of Pike
It was soon after this stage that some of the Royalist horse managed to get back to their start positions, finding no easy victory, which they had imagined, assured by their charge. The two sides fought long and hard with their foot regiments. The Royalist right wing of foot stood fast behind a ditch with cannon further behind and was as unmoveable as a rock.
The Parliamentarian left wing of foot again went toward this rock, but the swinging pendulum of time went violently against them. The Royalist right wing of horse had returned from the chase in some disorder after their exertions. Seeing their own foot being assaulted, they quickly formed up and struck the Roundhead foot, before the Parliamentarians again stumbled back to their retreating positions. Both sides saw the spectre of father time clearing the battle up and each side was as exhausted as the other. It had been a hard fight and still no one was sure of things, the final result was even now on a tightrope.
Many Royalists pressed their horsemen to repeat their performance on the remaining Parliamentarian foot, but Lord Wilmot summed up the answer. Wilmot had led the royalist left wing of cavalry in their furious hunting charge and insanely continued to lead his men in an unnecessary pursuit of the fleeing Roundheads, rather than reforming. When asked by Lord Falkland to make another charge, he replied, “My Lord, we have got the day, let us live to enjoy the fruits thereof.”
It goes without saying that the officers of horse could not get their tired horses and men to exert themselves again.
Now as darkness spread across the sky, fighting had all but died down, only a few desultory shots pierced the dusk, each side watching each other warily, waiting to see if this was indeed the end of the battle. The King still stood with his army, but then some officers proposed he should take as many horse as possible and ride westwards. Defiant as ever and determined to stay with the men who he had rallied and directed in the midst of battle all day, he refused point blank. Charles added more courage to his person through his behaviour and courage that day, declaring he would not move until morning and did not need Sir John Culpepper to declare that he was ruined if he listened to servants who told him to leave.
Within cannon shot of each other, the two remnants of armies lay, preparing to settle down for the night as best they could in the frost and bitter cold. Unknowingly to them, the cold would be merciful; it froze wounds and stopped many a man bleeding to death. The battle was over but no one could quite foretell what would happen next. That night, the Royalists went back up Edgehill to rest and doss down. In the early morning, the King finally went to his coach to get a few hours rest.
The Morning After
The following day, both armies again observed each other with wary and reluctant eyes. Both sides didn’t want to renew the contest, despite a few on each side calling for one charge to settle all. For three to four hours they watched each other, only Prince Charles’s tutor being captured and then rescued broke the silent apprehension, while the King dined in the field on a drumhead. After the King sent Sir William Le Neve, his Clarencieux King at Arms, with a pardon to all rebel soldiers who would lay down their arms, each side eventually withdrew from the field by mutual consent. Essex retired to Warwick while the King moved off toward their quarters.
Overall, the battle was a draw and neither side had any grounds or argument to disprove this.
The Royalists had lost the biggest opportunities of the battle, but were proved superior and had the best moral. The Royalists could boast probably less casualties than their enemies and having gained the whole advantage of the battle by separating Essex in Warwick from the undefended London, which the King was free to advance upon.
The Parliamentarians had lost moral, honour and shown themselves more apprehensive of fighting their King. On this note, they had shown their objective, that of saving the King from his evil advisors, to be false. They had left the King with a free hand of taking London and temporarily destroyed their sides fighting ability by their behaviour on the field. It was not all bad though, for after seeing both their wings of horse flee, the foot fought on with courage and held the Royalists at bay long enough to stop the shadow of defeat from catching them up.
It would be seen now whether the Royalists could exploit the opportunity given them and what would happen after the first battle, which many men thought was sufficient to settle the war altogether.
Above many acts of bravery on both sides, one stands out. John Smith’s spectacular rescue of the Kings standard deserves highlighting. The day after the battle, Smith received the gratitude of the King. As Colonel John Smith kneeled to be knighted, Sir John Smith was the man who rose from his knees; an inspiration and example of loyalty and courage to the Royalists for years to come.
More Edgehill
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© Copyright 2002 by Mark Turnbull.
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