ABSTRACT
Following upon his defeat at Naseby in June 1645, the King withdrew to Hereford and made contact with Charles Gerard, the able royalist commander in South Wales. Gerard had been sent into the country early in 1644 to recover the royalist control there, lost by the earl of Carbery to the efficient Rowland Laugharne. Gerard’s overwhelming success, accompanied by some brutality, made South Wales a potential recruiting ground for the King, and Charles was at Raglan Castle when news of Langport reached him. Initially the King planned to use Bristol as his base for future campaigns, but the fall of Bridgwater and the loss of Goring’s army rendered the plan impossible. Rupert was now convinced that the King should treat with Parliament, but he was isolated at the court, the King intent upon continuing the war. His hopes lay in Montrose, but a great distance lay between South Wales and the Scottish royalists, and only on 5 August did the King march from Cardiff, with less than 3,000 men. Four days previously the royalist hold on South Wales had been shaken by a battle at Colby Moor won by Laugharne with naval help. With the collapse of most of the northern fortresses, the Scots were active further south, and the earl of Leven was besieging Hereford. Charles bypassed him, made for Lichfield, and on 18 August entered Doncaster, only to retire towards Huntingdon when threatened by Scottish troops and parliamentary forces under Sydenham Poyntz. There had been token royalist risings in Yorkshire but these were easily contained, and the despondent royalist army wended its way back to the Welsh border country and entered Hereford on 4 September, whilst Leven withdrew to Gloucester.
