ABSTRACT
The day after the battle the two armies faced one another for many hours, but fighting was not renewed. Both sides were in a state of shock induced by the bloody nature of the encounter, but they were also uncertain of the outcome. The Parliamentarians seem to have thought that they had won, as the enemy had retreated from the battlefield. Essex was advised to attack the king’s forces, mainly by those who had missed the battle, but he thought better of it, probably because it would have meant advancing across open ground, thus inviting a charge by Charles’s victorious cavalry. The king’s military advisers, on the other hand, were not certain at first whether they had won or lost. They were not inclined to attack, as they knew that Essex’s army had received substantial infantry reinforcements overnight, while their own strength in infantry had been severely depleted, as at least three of their five brigades had been routed. Thus neither side was confident enough to challenge the other to a second day’s fighting. However, Royalist spirits lifted as the musketeers and pikemen belonging to the defeated brigades began returning to their colours. They soared when Essex’s army retired towards Warwick in the late afternoon, whereupon Rupert unleashed his cavalry, causing heavy casualties among the enemy rearguard.
