Battle of Langport The Battle of Langport was a Parliamentarian victory late in the First English Civil War which destroyed the last Royalist field army and gave Parliament control of the West of England , which had hitherto been a major source of manpower , raw materials and imports for the Royalists . The battle took place on 10 July 1645 near the small town of Langport , which lies south of Bristol . Campaign . Taunton had been captured by the Parliamentarian army under the Earl of Essex in June 1644 . After Essex ' s army was forced to surrender at Lostwithiel in Cornwall in September , the Royalists maintained a Siege of Taunton , although the town was briefly relieved by Sir William Waller in late November . When determining strategy for 1645 , King Charles I had despatched George , Lord Goring , the Lieutenant General of the Horse ( cavalry ) , to the West Country along with orders to retake Taunton and other Parliamentarian outposts in the area . Although Goring briefly rejoined the King ' s main ' Oxford Army ' , tensions between him and Prince Rupert , the King ' s Captain General and chief adviser , resulted in Goring ' s force returning to the West . Parliament had meanwhile sent a substantial detachment of one cavalry regiment and four infantry regiments from their New Model Army to relieve Taunton . They raised the siege on 11 May 1645 , but were themselves besieged by Goring ' s returning army ( although there was no longer any danger of the Royalists storming the town ) . On 14 June 1645 , the main body of the New Model Army under Sir Thomas Fairfax , with Oliver Cromwell as Lieutenant General of the Horse , won the decisive Battle of Naseby , destroying King Charles ' s main army . After the Royalist garrison of Leicester surrendered four days later , the New Model Army was free to march to the relief of Taunton . The Army marched first south and then west , keeping near the coast so as to keep touch with Parliament ' s navy . On 4 July it reached Beaminster , where Fairfax learned that Goring had raised the siege and was retreating towards the Royalist stronghold at Bridgwater . To cover the retreat of the baggage , Goring ' s army was spread over a front of along the north of the River Yeo , from Langport to Yeovil . The Royalists were outnumbered by Fairfax ' s army , and their discipline was poor , mainly because a succession of lax Royalist commanders had allowed their men too much license to pillage ( which also alienated many of the local people ) . Fairfax was joined by the New Model detachment from Taunton , under Colonel Ralph Weldon , and started in pursuit . On 8 July , Fairfax captured Yeovil and crossed to the north side of the River Yeo . He sent another Parliamentarian force ( part of the Army of the " Western Association " under Major General Edward Massie ) to deal with an attempted diversion in the direction of Taunton by some of Goring ' s cavalry under George Porter , a notoriously unreliable officer . Porter ' s men failed to post proper sentries and outposts , and were taken by surprise by Massey and destroyed at Isle Abbots in the early hours of 9 July . Fairfax had meanwhile advanced westward , and encountered Goring ' s main position at Langport late on 9 July . Battle . The battle of Langport took place the next day . Goring had occupied a strong rearguard position to cover the withdrawal of his slow - moving artillery and baggage . His main force held a ridge running north to south , a mile east of Langport . In front of the ridge was a marshy valley occupied by a stream named the Wagg Rhyne . Only a single narrow lane lined with trees and hedges ran across the stream via a ford , and up to the top of the ridge . Goring placed two light guns in position to fire down the lane , and disposed two raw units of Welsh foot soldiers in the hedges . Three bodies of horse ( Goring ' s Life Guard , and Goring ' s and Sir Arthur Slingsby ' s Regiments ) waited at the top of the ridge . Goring hoped that Fairfax would be forced to make time - consuming outflanking moves . Fairfax was prepared to rely on the superior morale of his cavalry to overcome Goring ' s position . While his artillery silenced Goring ' s two light guns , he sent 1500 detached musketeers through the marshes to clear the Welsh infantry from the hedges . He then ordered two ' divisions ' ( half regiments of horse ) to charge up the lane . These two divisions were from regiments ( Fairfax ' s and Whalley ' s ) which had originally been part of Oliver Cromwell ' s double regiment of Ironsides before being merged into the New Model Army . The first division under Major Christopher Bethel galloped up the lane four abreast , deployed into a line and charged and broke two of the Royalist cavalry regiments . A third Royalist regiment counter - attacked but the second division of Parliamentarian horse under Major John Desborough charged and routed them . As more Parliamentarian reinforcements streamed up the lane , Goring ' s men broke and fled the field . Cromwell halted his well - disciplined cavalry at the top of the ridge until his forces had reformed . Then they moved rapidly in pursuit . Goring had set fire to Langport to delay the pursuers and tried to rally his army two miles further on , but his army dissolved as Cromwell ' s troopers approached , abandoning their baggage and most of their weapons . Many of the fugitives were attacked by local clubmen who had banded together to resist exactions by the armies of both sides in the Civil War . Results . Goring ' s army had been the last effective field army available to the Royalists , whatever its quality . Its loss was a major blow to Royalist morale . Fairfax captured the town of Bridgwater on 23 July and stormed the city of Bristol on 10 September , depriving the Royalists of their major manufacturing centre . King Charles had appointed Prince Rupert as governor , but he considered that Rupert had surrendered prematurely , and the two became increasingly estranged . These Parliamentarian successes isolated the remaining Royalists in the West Country from King Charles ' forces in Oxford and the Midlands . The Royalists were no longer able to raise effective field forces and First Civil War ended less than a year later , after the Parliamentarians captured most of the isolated Royalist garrisons .