Battle of Wigan Lane The Battle of Wigan Lane was fought on 25 August 1651 during the Third English Civil War , between Royalists under the command of the Earl of Derby and elements of the New Model Army under the command of Colonel Robert Lilburne . The Royalists were defeated , losing nearly half their officers and men . Prelude . King Charles II accepted the Scottish throne which led to an invasion of Scotland by the New Model Army under the command of Oliver Cromwell . Although Cromwell defeated a Scottish army at the Battle of Dunbar , Cromwell could not prevent Charles II from marching from Scotland deep into England at the head of another Royalist army . The Royalists marched to the west of England where Royalist sympathies were strongest arriving at Worcester on 22 August 1651 . He planned to rest his predominantly Scottish army there and await English reinforcements before pressing on to London . One Royalist contingent from the Isle of Man and Lancashire under the command of Earl of Derby , was heading towards Worcester , and it was the duty of Colonel Robert Lilburne to stop them . On the day Charles II arrived in Worcester , Lilburne with a company of foot from Manchester , two more from Chester , and fifty or sixty dragoon s marched to Wigan , where the enemy was gathering , hoping to surprise them but found they had moved off to Chorley . The next day , on hearing the Royalists were at Preston , Lilburne set off in pursuit . He bivouacked within two miles of the town and sent out patrols to harass the enemy . The next afternoon they retaliated . " A party of the enemy ' s horse fell smartly amongst us , where our horse was grazing , and for some space put us pretty hard to it : but at the last it pleased the Lord to strengthen us , that we put them to the flight , and pursued them to Ribble bridge ( this was something like our business at Mussleburg ) and killed and took about thirty prisoners . " Lilburne heard Cromwell ' s regiment of foot was approaching Manchester . Cromwell had detached the regiment with a troop of horse from Rutherford Abbey in Nottinghamshire on the 20th or 21st . Lilburne halted by the Ribble , thinking the foot would join him but though it had marched very rapidly as far as Manchester , it was now obliged to advance with caution as Royalists were reported to have 500 men in Manchester and some of Derby ' s levies lying between them and Lilburne . Battle . On the 25th , Lilburne heard Derby was marching towards Wigan , retiring , he supposed . He followed . However it was Derby ' s intention to fall on Cromwell ' s regiment before the horse could join it . When Lilburne reached Wigan , he found the enemy in considerable force , both horse and foot , marching out of the town towards Manchester . Being very short of foot , and the country much enclosed and unfavourable for cavalry , Lilburne determined to avoid a fight . He intended to flank the Royalists in Wigan and join the foot regiment before the Royalists could attack . Derby , aware of Lilburne ' s inferiority in strength , wheeled about and marched back through the town to defeat the Parliamentary forces piecemeal before they could combine . In spite of the unfavourable nature of the ground , Lilburne decided to accept the proffered battle . Lilburne placed his horse in Wigan Lane , and lined the hedges with infantry . As the Royalists approached they were met with a volley of musket ry . A fierce fight ensued in the same lanes through which Cromwell had chased the Scots in 1648 . Derby divided his force into two equal divisions . Derby took command of the vanguard and gave the rear guard command to Sir Thomas Tyldesley . Three times Derby led charges against Lilburne ' s cavalry and failed to break them . By the third charge , the ranks of the Royalists were severely depleted and they were overwhelmed by the superior numbers of Parliamentarians , and after an hour ' s fighting the remaining Royalists fled the field . Lord William Witherington , Sir William Throgmorton ( the Knight Marshal ) , Sir Thomas Tyldesley , Colonel Baynton and 60 others were killed or died of their wounds and 400 prisoners were taken . Cromwell ' s regiment , which had advanced to join Lilburne picked up many stragglers . Derby escaped badly wounded , and joined Charles at Worcester with only 30 horsemen . Aftermath . The Earl of Derby , the Lord of Mann , enlisted ten men from each parish on the Isle of Man , a total of 170 men . David Craine , in " Manannan ' s Isle " states " those who did not fall in the fighting [ were ] hunted to their death through the countryside . " The defeat was a blow to the king as this was the only English Royalist force of any size to attempt to ride to his standard in Worcester . Without large numbers of English Royalists to support him , his position was untenable and nine days later his predominantly Scottish army of about 15 , 000 men was decisively beaten at the Battle of Worcester by a Parliamentary army nearly twice the size under the command of Cromwell . This victory brought to an end Third English Civil War and ushered in nine years of republican rule . Charles escaped to France and lived in exile until his return at the Restoration in 1660 . References . Notes Footnotes Bibliography