Battle of Lostwithiel
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Date: 2021-12-08

Battle of Lostwithiel, by Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki?curid=4160 / CC BY SA 3.0

#Battles_of_the_English_Civil_Wars
#Military_history_of_Cornwall
#1644_in_England
#Battles_involving_the_Cornish
#Conflicts_in_1644
#17th_century_in_Cornwall
#Lostwithiel
Lostwithiel Plymouth Fowey Cornwall and Lostwithiel The Battle of Lostwithiel took place over a 13-day period from 21 August to 2 September 1644,
around the town of Lostwithiel and along the River Fowey valley in Cornwall during the First English Civil War.
A Royalist army led by Charles I of England defeated a Parliamentarian force commanded by the Earl of Essex.
Although Essex and most of the cavalry escaped, between 5,000 and 6,000 Parliamentarian infantry were forced to surrender.
Since the Royalists were unable to feed so many, they were given a pass back to their own territory, arriving in Southampton a month later having lost nearly half their number to disease and desertion.
Considered one of the worst defeats suffered by Parliament over the course of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, it secured South West England for the Royalists until early 1646.
During April and May 1644, Parliamentarian commanders Sir William Waller and the Earl of Essex combined their armies and carried out a campaign against King Charles and the Royalist garrisons surrounding Oxford.
Trusting Waller to deal with the King in Oxfordshire, Essex divided the Parliamentarian army on 6 June and headed southwest to relieve the Royalist siege of Lyme in Dorset.
Lyme had been under siege by King Charles' nephew, Prince Maurice, and the Royalists for nearly two months.
South-West England at that time was largely under the control of the Royalists.
The town of Lyme, however, was a Parliamentarian stronghold and served as an important seaport for the Parliamentarian fleet of the Earl of Warwick.
As Essex approached Lyme in mid-June Prince Maurice ended the siege and took his troops west to Exeter.
Essex then proceeded further southwest tow...