ABSTRACT
On 10 July Sir William Waller, having pursued the royalists to Devizes, faced them drawn up on Roundway Hill, but Prince Maurice abandoned his position and withdrew into the town. Waller moved forward and established his army to the north. The royalist commanders decided to split their army, sending the horse to Oxford, whilst the wounded Hopton held Devizes with the foot. Prince Maurice moved rapidly, entering Oxford on 11 July after a night march, to find reinforcements already on their way west. Whilst Waller bombarded Devizes, the royalist cavalry returned under Henry Wilmot, the intention being to synchronise an attack on Waller by relief forces and garrison. Advised of Wilmot’s approach, Waller drew off from the siege, but the garrison commanders declined to march out in pursuit of him, thus obliging Wilmot to face 4, 500 parliamentary troops with a mere 1,800 of his own. The parliamentarians marched onto Roundway Down, Sir Arthur Hesilrige’s ‘impenetrable’ regiment on the right wing of cavalry. After initial skirmishing, Wilmot charged, and Hesilrige, who blocked his own cannon’s line of fire, saw his famous regiment broken and outflanked. The parliamentarian cavalry abandoned the field in large numbers, leaving the foot to fight it out. Within Devizes, Hopton finally overcame the reluctance of his fellow commanders, and the Cornish infantry left the town to join the action on the Down. The parliamentary foot were broken up, and Waller’s potentially fine army had been destroyed. The royalist cavalry had again proved their worth.
