Battle of Powick Bridge

The Parliamentarians did not react to the movement of the Royalist army until 19 September, as they sought intelligence on the King's destination, and then moved on a parallel path through Coventry and towards Worcester. This would again position Parliament's army between the Royalists and London, and Worcester was surrounded by agricultural land which could support Essex's army.[17] While Essex was still some distance away,[18] he received intelligence of the Royalist convoy. He was convinced by one of his cavalry colonels, John Brown, to send a detachment to the city to try and capture the valuables being transported.[19]

Brown led a detachment of around 1,000 mounted troops which reached Worcester on 22 September. They approached the eastern gate but found it well-defended. They withdrew to the south[20] where they secured a bridge across the Severn. One of the Parliamentarian officers present, Nathaniel Fiennes, either wrote a report or had it written for him. In this, it was stated that fellow officer Colonel Edwin Sandys argued they should move closer to Worcester to prevent the convoy from escaping. went on to Powick, just south of the River Teme, around two miles (3 km) south of Worcester. There they spent the night and most of the following day,[19] guarding the route they expected Byron to attempt to escape along.[16]

The Parliamentarians did not send out scouts nor post a lookout in the church tower[16] and so were unaware that Byron had been reinforced early that day. Prince Rupert,[21] the Royalist general of horse, had arrived, also with around 1,000 mounted troops. Rupert's men were just north of the Teme, guarding the southern approach to the city. The modern historian Peter Gaunt suggests that Rupert was probably aware of the presence of the Parliamentarian detachment in the area,[22] but allowed his men to rest in a field known as Wick Field (or Brickfield Meadow) and many removed their armour.[23]

Dragoons typically rode into battle, but dismounted to fight.

Two major categories of mounted troops often referred to simply as "horse", were employed during the First English Civil War. Dragoons were mounted infantry, armed with muskets, who were typically used as skirmishers or as part of advanced guards due to their mobility. They rode into battle but dismounted to fight. The cavalry remained mounted to fight, generally on larger horses than dragoons. Most were harquebusiers, who were armoured with a helmet and plate armour on their torso and carried a sword, two pistols and a carbine.[24] Rupert's force was split roughly evenly between dragoons and cavalry, while the proportion of each in the Parliamentarian force is unknown: records only indicate that they had ten troops of cavalry and five companies of dragoons.[16]

The cavalry tactics of the two forces differed. The Parliamentarians used manoeuvres originated in the army of the Dutch Republic which was the pre-eminent force in the early 17th century, and with whom many English cavalry officers had first experienced battle. In both attack and defence, Parliamentarian cavalry relied on their firepower. When they were on the offensive, one rank at a time moved forwards to fire at their opponents, while in defence the cavalry initially remained stationary and fired into the enemy charge, hoping to break their opponents and then counter-charge.[25] In contrast, Rupert's cavalry used a modified version of tactics used by Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden. Deploying in shallower formations than the Parliamentarians to allow a greater frontage, the Royalist cavalry attacked at the charge,[lower-alpha 2] only using their firearms when they were already among their opponents and often relied on their swords instead.[26]

At around 4 pm, Brown, and Sandys ordered an advance towards the city.[27] The historian Richard Brooks suggests they had received intelligence that Byron was preparing to leave Worcester.[16] Sandys led a small group of troops ahead, across the narrow bridge and along a country lane which allowed no more than three riders abreast.[28] Modern historians vary slightly in their account of the first stage of the engagement: Brooks, Chris Scott, and Alan Turton have the Royalist dragoons already prepared, lining the hedges of the lane. When the Parliamentarians advanced up the path, the dragoons opened fire on them, causing Sandys's men to panic and bolt forwards into Wick Field; the musket-fire alerting the resting Royalist cavalry of their approach.[16][29] Peter Gaunt and Trevor Royle describe all the Royalists as within the field; the noise of the Parliamentarian horsemen alerted Rupert to their approach, allowing him to quickly prepare his men for battle as best as he could.[27][28] He lined the hedges with the dismounted dragoons while the cavalry was drawn up into open order in the meadow. When Sandys and his cavalry troop emerged into the field, they were faced with point-blank gunfire from the dragoons, giving the Royalist cavalry time extra time to prepare.[28]

The Parliamentarians attempted to regroup and return fire but were charged by Rupert's cavalry. Sandys was mortally wounded during the initial assault. With no support from their dragoons, which were stuck behind the cavalry in the narrow country lanes, Sandys's troops were routed.[28][30] Fiennes said that he managed to control his cavalry and hold fire until the charging Royalists were close enough "so that their horses' noses almost touched those of our first rank."[16] Despite this, they were isolated after the retreat of Sandys's men and forced to abandon the fight.[16] The Parliamentarian dragoons made a rearguard stand on Powick Bridge to protect the cavalry's retreat, but Rupert called off the chase at Powick.[31]

The reputation of Prince Rupert, and his Royalist cavalry, was enhanced by the battle.

The Parliamentarian cavalry rode in alarm all the way back to Pershore, 15 miles (24 km) away, where they met Essex's Lifeguard.[lower-alpha 3] Their account of the battle and belief that Rupert's cavalry was still chasing them broke the Lifeguard, which was then carried away in the flight.[33] According to Fiennes, both sides lost around 30 men dead.[31] Other reports place the Parliamentarian losses higher; Brooks estimates that desertions, drownings, and prisoners might have increased the total to 100–150.[16] The Royalists claimed to have lost no one of note, though many of their officers, including Prince Maurice and Henry Wilmot, were injured.[16][34]

The battle established Rupert's reputation as an effective cavalry commander; soldiers from both sides told stories of the battle, according to the Royalist commentator Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon the victory "rendered the name of Prince Rupert very terrible".[35] The historian Austin Woolrych describes Powick Bridge as having "significance ... disproportionate to its scale": it proved that the Royalists had forces capable of standing up to and beating those of Parliament, and affected the morale of both armies leading up to the Battle of Edgehill a month later.[36]

No longer threatened by the Parliamentarians, the convoy was able to continue on its journey to the King and Rupert abandoned the indefensible Worcester and also returned north to Shropshire. The next day, Essex's army arrived in Worcester, where they remained for the next four weeks.[31] Although the city had declared its loyalty to Parliament on 13 September, many in Essex's army thought that Worcester's citizens had helped the Royalists and the city was accordingly treated poorly: it had to pay for transporting the wounded and burying the dead from the battle and much of the city was ransacked, particularly the cathedral.[37]

After the further build-up of the respective armies, King Charles marched out of Shrewsbury on 12 October, aiming towards London. It was considered that either defeating Essex's field army in battle or capturing London had the potential to quickly finish the war.[38] In the event, the two armies met inconclusively at the Battle of Edgehill on 23 October, after which the Royalists were able to continue their slow approach towards London. The Parliamentarians took a less direct route to the capital but still arrived there first. After further battles at Brentford and Turnham Green, Charles withdrew to Oxford to establish winter quarters.[39]

Almost nine years later, the final battle of the Third English Civil War, the Battle of Worcester, was also fought in and around Powick; Oliver Cromwell's Parliamentarian New Model Army secured a decisive victory over King Charles II. The day after the Battle of Worcester, the Puritan preacher Hugh Peter gave a sermon to Cromwell's troops referring to the two battles, "when their wives and children should ask them where they had been and what news, they should say they had been at Worcester, where England's sorrows began, and where they were happily ended".[40]