The Battle of Powick Bridge was a battle of the English Civil War which was fought on 23 September 1642 just south of Worcester, England between 1,000-strong Royalist and Parliamentarian cavalry forces commanded by Prince Rupert of the Rhine and Colonels John Brown and Edwin Sandys, respectively. In the early stages of the First English Civil War, Parliamentary and Royalist cavalry unexpectedly came across each other near Worcester. The Royalists routed their opponents, establishing a superiority that lasted for some time.
Background[]
On 22 August 1642, following a failed attempt to subdue the rebellious Parliamentarian stronghold of Hull, King Charles I of England raised his royal standard at Nottingham, effectively declaring war on Parliament. His 7,800-strong army was heavily outnumbered by the Parliamentarian general Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex's 20,000-strong field army, which encamped at Northampton, halfway between the King and the Parliamentarian capital of London. The King proceeded to moev his army through Derbyshire and Staffordshire to Shrewsbury, where he planned to await reinforcements from Royalist regiments raised in Wales, North West England, and South West England. The two armies did not significantly move against each other until mid-September, when a 1,000-strong Parliamentarian cavalry force commanded by Colonels John Brown and Edwin Sandys decided to give chase to a 160-strong Royalist regiment under Sir John Byron, who had withdrawn from Oxford on 10 September with a large convoy of gold and silver gifted by Oxford University to fund King Charles' war effort. The small Royalist force sought shelter in Worcester after hearing of the Parliamentarians' approach, and they were reinforced by a sizable cavalry force commanded by the King's nephew, Prince Rupert of the Rhine. The Parliamentarians arrived at Worcester on 22 September, unaware that Prince Rupert had arrived to reinforce Byron, and, at 4:00 PM, the Parliamentarians decided to advance on Worcester upon hearing word that Byron was preparing to leave the city.
Battle[]
The two cavalry armies in battle
The Parliamentarian horse were ambushed by Royalist dragoons who had lined the hedges of a lane extending from the narrow Powick Bridge to the city of Worcester. The Parliamentarians panicked and bolted forwards into Wick Field, where, before they could regroup and return fire, they were charged by Prince Rupert's cavalry, who were alerted to the Parliamentarian attack by the earlier gunfire. The Parliamentarian cavalry fought a rearguard action to protect Sandys' routing men, and Prince Rupert chose not to pursue them farther than Powick Bridge. Both sides lost 30 dead in the first skirmish, but drownings, desertions, and prisoners swelled the Parliamentarian losses to 150 men. The Royalist officers Prince Maurice of the Palatinate and Henry Wilmot were wounded, and Prince Rupert became famous for his victory.
Aftermath[]
After the battle, the Royalist convoy and Prince Rupert's army abandoned the indefensible city of Worcester, and the convoy continued on to join the King at Shrewsbury. Prince Rupert's army, meanwhile, returned north to Shropshire. The next day, the Earl of Essex's army arrived in Worcester, forcing the city to pay for the transportation of the wounded and to bury the dead from the battle before ransacking the city and its cathedral, claiming that the city - which had previously declared for Parliament on 13 September - had helped the Royalists. On 12 October, King Charles would finally march out of Shrewsbury, aiming towards London, and, on 23 October, the two armies fought to a draw at the Battle of Edgehill, which enabled Charles to slowly advance on London before withdrawing to Oxford following indecisive clashes at the Battle of Brentford and the Battle of Turnham Green.