The Battle of Langport was a major battle of the First English Civil War which was fought in Somerset on 10 July 1645. Following the Battle of Naseby, Thomas Fairfax marched next into the West Country and cleared it of Royalists in a brisk campaign.
Background[]
In 1645, King Charles I dispatched his general George Goring to recapture Taunton in Somerset and other Parliamentarian outposts in the West Country, but the destruction of Charles' main army at the 14 June 1645 Battle of Naseby and the surrender of the Royalist garrison of Leicester four days later enabled the New Model Army to march to the relief of Taunton. On 4 July, Goring lifted the siege and began a retreat towards the Royalist stronghold of Bridgwater. On 8 July, Fairfax captured Yeovil, and he came across Goring's main position at Langport on 9 July 1645.
Battle[]
The next day, after an artillery barrage, Fairfax sent forth 1,500 detached musketeers under Thomas Rainsborough through the marshes to clear the Welsh Royalist infantry from the hedges. He then ordered two cavalry divisions to charge up the lane, and the cavalry charge broke two of the Royalist regiments. A third Royalist regiment counterattacked before Major John Desborough's cavalry division attacked and routed them. Oliver Cromwell rallied the Parliamentarian cavalry and led them in pursuit, destroying the last effective field army available to the Royalists. Fairfax went on to take Bridgwater on 21 July, Sherborne on 17 August, and Bristol on 10 September, isolating the remaining Royalists in the West Country from those in Wales, Oxford, and the Midlands.