Battle of Worcester

Oliver Cromwell at the Battle of Worcester, 17th century painting, artist unknown

Cromwell took his measures deliberately. Lilburne from Lancashire and Major Mercer with the Worcestershire horse were to secure Bewdley Bridge, 20 miles (32 km) north of Worcester and on the enemy's line of retreat.[7] Fleetwood was to force his way across the Teme and attack St John's, the western suburb of Worcester. While Lambert commanded the eastern flank of the army which would advance and encircle the eastern walls of Worcester, Cromwell would lead the attack on the southern ramparts of the city.[8]

The assault started on the morning of 3 September and initially the initiative lay with the Parliamentarians. Fleetwood forced the passage of the Teme over the pontoon bridges against Royalists under the command of Major General Montgomery. Colonel Richard Deane's initial attempts to cross the Powick Bridge (where Prince Rupert of the Rhine had won the Battle of Powick Bridge, his first victory, in 1642) failed against stubborn resistance by the Royalists (many of whom were Scottish Highlanders[9]) commanded by Colonel Keith. By force of arms and numbers, the Royalist army was pushed backward by the New Model Army with Cromwell on the eastern bank of the Severn and Fleetwood on the western sweeping in a semicircle four miles (6 km) long up toward Worcester.[10][8]

The Royalists contested every hedgerow around Powick meadows. This stubborn resistance on the west bank of the Severn north of the Teme was becoming a serious problem for the Parliamentarians, so Cromwell led Parliamentary reinforcements from the eastern side of the town over the Severn pontoon bridge to aid Fleetwood. Charles II, from his vantage point on top of Worcester cathedral's tower, realised that an opportunity existed to attack the now-exposed eastern flank of the Parliamentary army. As the defenders on the Western side of the city retreated in good order into the city (although during this manoeuvre Keith was captured and Montgomery was badly wounded), Charles ordered two sorties to attack the Parliamentary forces east of the city. The north-eastern sortie through St. Martin's Gate was commanded by the Duke of Hamilton and attacked the Parliamentary lines at Perry Wood. The south-eastern one through Sidbury Gate was led by Charles II and attacked Red Hill. The Royalist cavalry under the command of David Leslie that was gathered on Pitchcroft meadow on the northern side of the city did not receive orders to aid the sorties and Leslie chose not to do so under his own initiative. Cromwell seeing the difficulty that his east flank was under rushed back over the Severn pontoon bridge with three brigades of troops to reinforce the flank.[11][12]

Although they were pushed back, the Parliamentarians under Lambert were too numerous and experienced to be defeated by such a move. For an hour, the Parliamentarians retreated before the unexpected attack. However, following their reinforcement by Cromwell's three brigades, they reversed the situation and drove the Royalists back toward the city.[12] The Royalist retreat turned into a rout in which Parliamentarian and Royalist forces intermingled and skirmished up to and into the city. The Royalist position became untenable when the Essex militia stormed and captured Fort Royal, (a redoubt on a small hill to the south-east of Worcester overlooking the Sidbury gate), turning the Royalist guns to fire on Worcester.[13][14]

Once in the city, Charles II removed his armour and found a fresh mount; he attempted to rally his troops but it was to no avail. A desperate Royalist cavalry charge down Sidbury Street and High Street, led by the Earl of Cleveland and Major Careless amongst others, allowed King Charles to escape the city by St. Martin's Gate.[15] This cavalry force was composed of the few Midland English Royalists who had rallied to Charles II, and largely consisted of Lord Talbot's troop of horse.[16]

The defences of the city were stormed from three different directions as darkness came on, regulars and militia fighting with equal gallantry. Most of the few thousands of the Royalists who escaped during the night were easily captured by Lilburne and Mercer, or by the militia which watched every road in Yorkshire and Lancashire. Even the country people brought in scores of prisoners, for the Royalist officers and men alike, stunned by the suddenness of the disaster, offered no resistance.[14][8]

About 3,000 men were killed during the battle and a further 10,000 were taken prisoner at Worcester or soon afterwards. The Earl of Derby was executed, while the other English prisoners were conscripted into the New Model Army and sent to Ireland. Around 8,000 Scottish prisoners were deported to New England, Bermuda, and the West Indies to work for landowners as indentured labourers, or else to work on fen drainage.[17] Around 1,200 "Scotch prisoners" were taken to London; many died from disease and starvation at Tothill Fields and other makeshift prison camps.[18] Parliamentary casualties numbered in the low hundreds.[17]

Painting, oil on canvas, The Proscribed Royalist, 1651 by John Everett Millais from 1853, depicting a fleeing Royalist after the Battle of Worcester being hidden within the trunk of a tree by a young Puritan woman

Plaque on at the Sidbury Gate, Worcester, U.K., inscribed with part of Cromwell's post-victory despatch: "IT IS FOR AUGHT I KNOW A CROWNING MERCY".[19]

Charles II's escape included various incidents, including one of his hiding from a Parliamentarian patrol in an oak tree in the grounds of Boscobel House.[20] He reached the south coast of England, and at Shoreham found transport to take him to safety in France.[21] The result of the battle was, in brief, one of those rare victories in which a pursuit is superfluous.[8] In announcing the Worcester victory of the day earlier, Cromwell's 4 September despatch to William Lenthall, the Speaker of the House of Commons, has become famous: "The dimensions of this mercy are above my thoughts. It is, for aught I know, a crowning mercy".[19][22] Hence, Cromwell thought the victory was the greatest of all the favours, or mercies, given to him by God. The expression "crowning mercy" is frequently linked to the battle as it heralded the end of the English Civil War by completely destroying the last major Royalist army.[23][8]

The Parliamentary militia were sent home within a week. Cromwell, who had ridiculed "such stuff" six months ago, knew them better now. "Your new raised forces", he wrote to the Rump Parliament, "did perform singular good service, for which they deserve a very high estimation and acknowledgement".[8] The New England preacher Hugh Peters gave the militia a rousing farewell sermon "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", referring to the first clash of the Royalist and Parliamentarian Armies at the Battle of Powick Bridge on 23 September 1642, almost exactly nine years before.[24]

Prior to the battle King Charles II contracted the Worcester Clothiers Company to outfit his army with uniforms but was unable to pay the £453.3s bill. In June 2008 Charles, Prince of Wales paid off the 357-year-old debt (less the interest, which would have amounted to around £47,500.)[25]

Cromwell's plan of battle divided his army into three parts, each part having a specific target: Colonel Robert Lilburne from Lancashire and Major Mercer with the Worcestershire horse were to secure Bewdley Bridge on the enemy's line of retreat. Lambert and Fleetwood were to force their way across the Teme and attack St John's, the western suburb of Worcester. Cromwell himself and the main army were to attack the town itself.[26]

This plan was executed, and in the opinion of C.F. Atkinson the author of the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition article on the Civil War, the Battle of Worcester was indeed—as a German critic, Fritz Hoenig, pointed out—the prototype of the Battle of Sedan.[26][lower-alpha 1] Worcester resembled Sedan in much more than outward form. Both were fought by "nations in arms", by citizen soldiers who had their hearts in the struggle, and could be trusted not only to fight their hardest but to march their best. Only with such troops would a general dare to place a deep river between the two-halves of his army or to send away detachments beforehand to reap the fruits of victory, in certain anticipation of winning the victory with the remainder. The result was, in brief, one of those rare victories in which a pursuit is superfluous.[26]

In early April 1786, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson visited Fort Royal Hill at the battlefield at Worcester. John Adams wrote that he was "deeply moved" but disappointed at the locals' lack of knowledge of the battle, and gave the townspeople an "impromptu lecture":

The people in the neighborhood appeared so ignorant and careless at Worcester that I was provoked and asked "And do Englishmen so soon forget the ground where liberty was fought for? Tell your neighbors and your children that this is holy ground, much holier than that on which your churches stand. All England should come in pilgrimage to this hill, once a year".

— John Adams.[27]

• Siege of Worcester
• Third English Civil War
• Wars of the Three Kingdoms
• The Proscribed Royalist, 1651 (painting)

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Atkinson, Charles Francis (1911). "Great Rebellion". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 420–421. See section 57, The Third Scottish Invasion of England.