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The Battle of Winceby
The Battle of Winceby
A Clash of Cavalry
by Rob Markham
Although only a small cavalry engagement, the Battle of Winceby helped to secure
the county of Lincolnshire for the Parliament. Oliver Cromwell and Thomas Fairfax, whose future participation in the English Civil War would prove so important, showed their mettle in this small but significant battle.
The second year of the English
Civil War started with hopes of a
quick Royalist Victory. By the county
of Lincolnshire, the Royalists held the
cities of Hull and Newark. Newark,
the strategic key to the region, was
considered the gateway to northern
England. It served as a major recruiting center for the Royalists.
Parliament appointed Major General Thomas Ballard to command a
force of some 6,000 Roundheads to take Newark. Aware of the impending
attack, the Royalist
governor Sir John
Henderson chose to defend the city
rather than seek battle in the open.
Henderson, a Scot, had started his
professional military career in the Imperial Habsburg Army during the
Thirty Years War. He eventually returned to Scotand, where he received
a knighthood and the Governorship of
Dunbarton Castl. Just before the
outbreak of the English Civil War, he
accompanied his brother-in-law
Lord Forth, to England, where through
Forth's influence, he gained a position on
the Permanent Council of War under King
Charles. Henderson was sent to Denmark to
raise money and mercenaries for the crown.
By December he had returned to England and
joined the Royahst cause.
Upon his arrival at Newark, Ballard immediately attacked the Royalists. As a result he suffered a wound and left 200 dead Roundheads. His failure to take the city cost him his
command, and he was replaced with the able
Sir John Meldrum. Meldrum immediately
began rebuilding the Parliamentary army in
Lincolnshire, desperately trying to undo the
damage done by his predecessor.
Time was not on Medrum's side, as the
Royalists continued to gain in strength. In late
February,Queen Henrietta Maria landed at
Briddlington, located in Lincolnshire, with a
large shipment of munitions from the continent.
Her valuable cargo went unmolested by Parlimamentarians as it traveled from the coast to the needy magazines of the Royalists. The arrival of Charles Cavendish's command provided the Royalists with a strike force capable
of harassing the Roundheads, who had been
inactive since their defeat at Newark. Henderson, with his enlarged Royalist force, now
attacked, strikng first at the town of Grantham. On 23 March, Grantham fell after a
brief struggle.
Upon hearing the news of the Royalist
success, Sir Hugh Cholmley defected to the
Royalists and ordered the port of Scarborough
opened to Royalist forces. That turn of events
worried the Parliamentarians who sent
Thomas Fairfax to seize Tadcaster in an effort
to stabilize the situation.
Thomas Fairfax was one of the best cavalry
officers to emerge from the English Civil War.
At the time of Winceby he was just beginning
to show the talents that would later make him
such a great leader. "Black Tom," as his troops
foundly called him, compared favorably with
the Royalist's great cavalry commander Prince
Rupert. Thomas inspired his men and knew no fear in battle,
but lacked a sound gasp of the larger strategic situation. Politically, he
also lacked acumen and was eclipsed by Oliver
Cromwell, who later would become both the capable military and political leader of a united
England.
Fairfax quickly took Tadcaster, but just as quickly lost the town to Royalists under Lord Goring. a Royalist victories followed, Goring
defeating Fairfax at Seacroft Moor and Cavendish defeating the Roundheads at Ancaster Heath.
Parliamentary morale in the Lincolnshire region was truly at an alltime low.
To shore up the situation, Parliment sent Oliver Cromwell to the
area with orders to secure Lincolnshire for the Roundhead cause.
Roundhead forces in Nottingham
under John Gell were ordered to take
Newark and to link up with a small
force commanded by Lord Willoughby.
The Royalists Cavendish and Henderson replied
by joining forces and attacking the
Parliamentarians near Grantham. In a short,
intense battle, the Parliamentarians defeated the
Royalists. However, Lord Willoughby failed to
recognize the extent of his success and withdrew
his forces to Nottingham rather than pursuing his
beaten enemy. The less ambiguous success was
to come from Thomas Fairfax's daring night
attack of Wakefield. There Fairfax captured 1,500
Royalist troops and Lord Goring. Wakefield
succeeded in boosting Roundhead morale, which
increased again when Willoughby seized the town
of Gainsborough.
Cavendish immediately surrounded
Willoughby at Gainsborough and laid siege to the
town. Short on supplies and lacking manpower,
Willoughby could not hope to break the siege and
instead awaited outside help. Relief was to come
in the form of Oliver Cromwell, who had hurried
from Cambridge, gathering what forces he could
as he moved north. Near Scarle, Cromwell
defeated Cavendish's troops, the latter dying in
the battle. The siege was lifted for a few hours
until yet another Royalist force, under the
command of Newcastle, resumed the siege.
Cromwell was sent to Lincoln to get help and
thereby narrowly avoided the fate of those left
behind. In three days time, the large army of
Newcastle's Royalists besieged and took the
town of Gainsborough.
After his success at Gainsborough,
Newcastle decided to lay siege to the city of
Hull. In an attempt to break the siege, Lord
Fairfax, senior, Thomas' father, ordered the
dikes surrounding Hull to be broken.
Newcastle's army was not dissuaded, however,
but conducted a lethargic siege. It was so
lacking in vigor that many Roundheads,
including Cromwell, easily penetrated the siege
lines and successfully entered Hull. Still, the
outlook for Hull was bleak, because sooner or
later even a lethargic siege would cause Hull to
surrender.
On September 16, Parliamentary morale
rose with the taking of the town of Lynn by the
Earl of Manchester's forces. Manchester then
divided his forces, sending his cavalry north
under the command of Oliver Cromwell to join
Willoughby and 500 infantry north to join with
the forces at Hull. Meanwhile, the governor of
Lincoln, Sir William Widdrington, ordered
Henderson's Cavalier cavalry to Bolingbroke to
defend it from an expected Roundhead attack.
As Cromwell's and Henderson's forces closed,
the scene was set for the battle of Winceby.
The remainder of Manchester's army proceeded to Bolingbroke, following in the wake of Cromwell's cavalry. Manchester laid siege to Bolingbroke Castle on October 9, while Henderson's Cavaliers advanced towards the castle unaware of the Roundheads' presence. Henderson's first indication of a Roundhead presence was at Horncastle, where he encountered a Parliamentarian garrison. Later in the day, when Manchester heard about the Horn-
castle skirmish, he immediately dispatched
Cromwell there.
On October 11 in the year of our Lord
1643, the two opposing forces of Cavaliers
and Roundheads met at the town of Winceby.
The Roundheads, first to spot their oppo-
nents, deployed their forces south ofthe town.
With the arrival of the main Parliamentarian
forces, led by Thomas Fairfax, Cromwell's
apprehensions about engaging the enemy due
to the depletion of forces, because of his hard
campaigning of the previous month, disappeared.
Now aware of the Roundheads, the Royalists began to deploy their forces along a
narrow front, with Widdrington's dragoons
screening the rest of the force. Henderson
deployed his main force with Lord Eythin on
the left and William Saville at the center and
the right flank. Henderson was confident that
his army, angered by Cavendish's death, would
perform excellently. His intention was to
strike at the Roundheads with his concen-
trated forces on the left, while Saville held his
right.
As both forces-approximately equal in
strength-jockeyed for an advantageous position, it became clear that neither force could
depend on its infantry, who were too far away,
and that the ground only slightly favored the
Roundheads.
The Roundheads began the battle with a
charge at the Royalists' center led by Vermuyden and Cromwell. Widdrington ordered his
Royalist dragoons to dismount and fire upon
the roundheads. Cromwell's cavalry hit the
dragoons, who had only managed one volley
against their attackers, with a fury and scattered them. In the confusion of the fight,
Cromwell's horse was killed, but fortunately
for the Roundhead cause he survived and
quickly mounted one of his trooper's horses
and resumed command.
The Royalists under William Saville
charged Cromwell's right flank in reaction to
the Roundhead assault. Saville, an ardent supporter of King Charles, thought he would
destroy Cromwell's forces with his attack but
failed to anticipate the quick response of Fairfax. William Saville so ardently supported the
King's cause against Parliament that he ordered his home of Thornhill burned to the
ground rather than have it used by the Roundheads as a base of operations. Soon it was
Saville, not Cromwell, who had his flank un-
der attack as the Roundheads closed in for the
kill. Quickly, Saville ordered his men to "face about," but alas in the confusion his men thought he had ordered a retreat. In the resulting struggle, Saville's forces disintegrated and fled from the battlefield with only the dismounted dragoons remaining.
On the Royalist left, Henderson and Eythin enjoyed an initial success against the
Roundheads that lessened
considerably as their center and
right flank crumbled under
Cromwell's onslaught. As Henderson
attempted to extricate his army
from a potential envelopment,the
morale of his toops began to
weaken. Crommwell, with his
cavalry now reformed after their
devastating blow on the Royalist
right and center, struck at the
remaining Royalist force.
Henderson's troops' will to fight
deserted them,and they fled for
their lives with the Roundheads in
pursuit.
For the remainder of the day,
Roundhead cavalry sought out and
killed the fleeing Royalist
troops. Later, names like Slash
Hollow and Slash Lane would be
given to places where Rogalists
met their end by a Roundhead
sword. By dusk there was little
left ofthe Royalists, and the
Roundhead cavalry was recalled by
the Earl of Manchester.
Although Winceby was a small
battle in the English Civil War,
its ramifications were great. The
Roundhead victory ensured the
fall of Bolingbroke Castle and
ended the Royalist siege of Hull.
Finally, it ensured that
Lincolnshire would remain
Parlamentarian. The early gloom
in which 1643 had begun was
replaced with new hope for the
cause of Parliament against the
King.
Note on Sources
Winceby is unfortunately not
covered in some detail in most
sources. By and far the best
source of information on the
battle and the basis for both the
article and game is The Battle
of Winceby 1643 by David
Frampton and Peter Garnham,
published by Partizan Press.
Chronology of the English Civil Wars
Winceby: Game Rules
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