ABSTRACT
Despite Sir Edward Walker’s contention that the defeat at Cheriton was a turning point that ‘necessitated his Majesty … in the place of an offensive to make a defensive war’, the 1644 campaigning season in the south had not opened all that badly for the king. Waller’s expeditionary force was back at Farnham, and the country to the west of a line between Reading, Basingstoke and Winchester was once more firmly under Royalist control. The only disquieting factor was that Charles and his council of war would eventually have to contend with the armies of both Essex and Waller, whose combined strength would be considerably greater than that of the field army, even after it had absorbed Hopton’s regiments. They might also have the support of a corps of the Eastern Association, as in the spring of 1643. In such circumstances, the king’s field army would be very heavily outnumbered.
