ABSTRACT
On the Sunday afternoon, the armies faced each other across a tract of arable and meadow just to the northwest of the Edgehill escarpment, with infantry in the centre and cavalry on the wings as was customary in open country. On the Royalist right wing was Prince Rupert with about 1,400 troopers drawn up in two lines, the second of which was commanded by Sir John Byron, the senior cavalry colonel. In the centre were five brigades of infantry, 10,000 strong, set out in checkerboard formation in the Swedish rather than the Dutch manner, but not interspersed with squadrons of cavalry. On the left wing Henry Wilmot headed a smaller force of about 1,100 troopers, also drawn up in two lines. There were no substantial reserves behind the main body of the army, only a single troop of gentlemen pensioners, Charles’s bodyguard, and a company or so of infantry protecting the position where the artillery had been positioned. 1
