The Battle of Trowbridge was a major battle fought between the Norman Duke William the Conqueror and King Aelfwig of England in Wiltshire, England in 1066 during the Norman conquest of England.
With the West Country and southern England under Norman control, Anglo-Saxon resistance relocated north of the River Thames, with Kent holding out in London, Essex holding out in East Anglia, Huntingdonshire proving a formidable foe in the northern "Home Counties" in the southern Midlands, and King Aelfwig of England controlling lands in Wiltshire and along the Welsh border. King Aelfwig, mustering his fyrd at the royal estate of Chippenham, attempted to restore Anglo-Saxon fortunes south of the Thames by leading his army south to reclaim Edington from the Norman occupiers. He did so without a fight, but William the Conqueror himself led his army of 1,500 Norman soldiers north to confront his English counterpart in a decisive battle against the Saxons. In the ensuing Battle of Trowbridge, the experienced Norman soldiers repelled an English cavalry charge before outflanking and crushing the peasants who made up the vast majority of Aelfwig's poor-quality army. The victory at Trowbridge enabled William to reclaim lost territory in the west, and to focus on mopping up English resistance in Wiltshire and Gloucestershire.
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