The Battle of Stow-on-the-Wold was the final major battle of the First English Civil War, fought on 21 March 1646 between a Parliamentarian army and the last Royalist field army in England. Forced to stand and fight, the Royalist infantry won some initial successes, but its cavalry was broken. The infantry fought a rearguard action as it retired from this, the last major action of the First Civil War.
Background[]
By 1646, King Charles I and the Royalist cause was on the verge of defeat in the First English Civil War, as he had no army and his resources were exhausted. On 22 December 1645, his general Jacob Astley left Oxford to gather troops from the Royalist garrisons in the West Midlands. He arrived at Worcester in early 1646, but he failed to relieve Chester, which fell to the Parliamentarians in February 1646. Astley then set out to collect forces to relieve the Siege of Oxford, and he marched back to Worcester, only to find that he could not cross the Avon in Warwickshire because the Parliamentarians held Evesham. He marched back to Droitwich, but, by then, William Brereton was sent to intercept the Royalists.
Battle[]
On 20 March, the two armies met at Stow-on-the-Wold in Gloucestershire. Astley chose to make his last stand on a hilltop, and the Parliamentarians attacked the wearied Royalists in the dark, two hours before dawn, on 21 March. The Royalists twice repulsed the Parliamentarians before being forced to engage in a running retreat into the streets of Stow. There, the Royalists surrendered, putting an end to the last Royalist field army. The defeat of the Royalist army prevented the Royalists from lifting the siege of Oxford, sealing Charles' fate.