The Battle of Nantwich was a battle of the First English Civil War which was fought near Nantwich, Cheshire on 25 January 1644 between a Royalist army from Ireland and a Parliamentarian army led by Thomas Fairfax. The battle was a major setback for the Royalist cause in Northern England and for King Charles I's planned military campaign for 1644.
Background[]
In 1643, King Charles I signed a cessation of hostilities with Confederate Ireland, allowing him to recall several English Royalist regiments which had been sent to Ireland amid the Irish Confederate Wars. In November 1643, these regiments were sent to Cheshire where a new field army under Arthur Capell was being formed. In December 1643, John Byron assumed command of the Royalist army, and he launched a southward offensive with 5,000 troops, capturing many Parliamentarian garrisons in Cheshire. The Cavaliers also defeated William Brereton's Parliamentarian army at Middlewich that December, forcing Brereton to retreat to Manchester in Lancashire. By the turn of 1644, Nantwich was the last town in Cheshire to be held by the Parliamentarians. On 18 January 1644, Lord Byron began his siege of Nantwich, but sickness, desertions, and casualties from earlier fighting in Cheshire reduced Byron's army to a strength of 3,800 troops.
Thomas Fairfax and a Parliamentarian cavalry force were sent from the besieged city of Hull to join forces with other Parliamentarian cavalry from the Eastern Association of counties, commanded by Oliver Cromwell. The Parliamentarians secured Lincolnshire after the Battle of Winceby, and, on 21 January 1644, Fairfax and Brereton set out from Manchester to relieve Nantwich.
Battle[]
On 25 January 1644, Fairfax's amry launched an attack amid a heavy rain storm, and the Parliamentarian cavalry outflanked the Royalist right wing and forced it to retreat. The Irish Royalist regiment in the center also broke, and 600 Parliamentarian musketeers from Nantwich sortied out and aided in the overrunning of the Royalist artillery and wagon park. Many Royalists defected to the Parliamentarians, while the rest either surrendered or fled. Byron retreated to Chester with the Royalist cavalry, and King Charles' plan to create a field army in North West England from his Irish reinforcements failed.