ABSTRACT
Following the dramatic victory at Naseby, Fairfax did not follow the king’s retreat into the west Midlands. After shadowing the remnants of the king’s fi eld army into Leicestershire and receiving the surrender of Leicester from Lord Loughborough, Fairfax chose to prioritise the southwest, to where he had been headed before the king’s march from Oxford in early May. The fi rst target was Lord Goring who had united the royalist forces in the south west and assembled an army of 7,000 with the aim of rejoining the king and rebuilding the main fi eld army. The New Model Army moved through Wiltshire towards Goring who began to march towards Bridgewater to get to the king in the west Midlands. Goring sent Major General George Porter towards Taunton to distract Fairfax from the route to Bridgewater, and a detachment was duly sent in pursuit. Porter was caught and defeated at Ilchester, allowing Fairfax to concentrate on Goring. On June 10 the New Model pressed on through Somerton towards Goring’s army at Langport. The royalists had a strong position on rising ground east of a brook: the Wagg Ryhne. Goring had displaced his men to cover the crossing point on the Wagg Ryhne and the marshy ground across which the New Model Army would have to cross to get at him, with only one narrow passage and bridge for any attacking army, the royalists were in a position to infl ict serious damage upon an approaching army. The chief problems for Goring were lack of
artillery and numbers: Fairfax’s forces, if they could get across the brook, could overwhelm Goring.
