Battle of Stratton
50°50′10″N 4°31′08″W / 50.836°N 4.519°W / 50.836; -4.519
Sir Bevil Grenville
Sir Nicholas Slanning
James Chudleigh
500 horse
8 guns
200 horse
13 guns
1,700 captured
- v
- t
- e
- 1st Hull
- Marshall's Elm
- Portsmouth
- Plymouth
- Babylon Hill
- Powick Bridge
- Kings Norton
- Edgehill
- Aylesbury
- Brentford
- Turnham Green
- Farnham Castle
- Piercebridge
- Tadcaster
- 1st Exeter
- Muster Green
- 1st Bradford
- Chichester
1643
- Braddock Down
- Leeds
- 1st Middlewich
- Hopton Heath
- Seacroft Moor
- Camp Hill
- Lichfield
- Ripple Field
- Reading
- Sourton Down
- 1st Wardour Castle
- Stratton
- Wakefield
- 1st Worcester
- Chalgrove Field
- Adwalton Moor
- 2nd Bradford
- Burton Bridge
- Lansdowne
- Roundway Down
- 1st Bristol
- Gainsborough
- Gloucester
- 2nd Hull
- Aldbourne Chase
- 1st Newbury
- Winceby
- Olney Bridge
- 1st Basing House
- Heptonstall
- 2nd Wardour Castle
- Alton
- Bramber Bridge
- Arundel
- 2nd Middlewich
1644
- Nantwich
- Newcastle
- 1st Lathom House
- Newark
- Boldon Hill
- Stourbridge Heath
- Cheriton
- Selby
- Lyme Regis
- York
- Lincoln
- 1st Oxford
- Bolton
- 2nd Basing House
- Tipton Green
- Oswestry
- Cropredy Bridge
- Marston Moor
- Gunnislake New Bridge
- Ormskirk
- Lostwithiel
- Tippermuir
- 1st Aberdeen
- Montgomery Castle
- 1st Chester
- 1st Taunton
- Carlisle
- 2nd Newbury
1645
- Inverlochy
- High Ercall Hall
- Weymouth
- Scarborough Castle
- 2nd Taunton
- Auldearn
- 3rd Taunton
- 2nd Oxford
- Leicester
- Naseby
- Alford
- 2nd Lathom House
- Langport
- Hereford
- Kilsyth
- 2nd Bristol
- Philiphaugh
- 2nd Chester
- Rowton Heath
- Sherburn in Elmet
- 3rd Basing House
- Annan Moor
- Denbigh Green
- Shelford House
- Newark
1646
- Bovey Heath
- Torrington
- Stow-on-the-Wold
- 3rd Oxford
- 2nd Aberdeen
- Lagganmore
- 2nd Worcester
The Battle of Stratton, also known as the Battle of Stamford Hill,[4] took place on 16 May 1643, at Stratton in Cornwall, during the First English Civil War. In the battle the Royalists destroyed Parliament's field army in Devon and Cornwall.
Background
When the war started, Cornwall was generally supportive of the Royalist cause, while Devon and Somerset were sympathetic to Parliament, though significant opposition existed in both areas.[5] In July 1642, King Charles named the Marquess of Hertford his Lieutenant General in the West, with Sir Ralph Hopton as his deputy. The Earl of Stamford was given command of Parliament's army in the West Country in January 1643, and appointed James Chudleigh his deputy.[6]
At Sourton Down in April, Chudleigh captured letters ordering Hopton to join forces with the Marquis of Hertford and Prince Maurice in Somerset. Hoping to destroy Hopton's army before the Royalists forces could combine, Stamford raised the largest army that he could by stripping Parliamentary garrisons throughout Devon and bringing in reinforcements from Somerset.[7]
After Stamford had his army assembled and began to move into Cornwall, he sent most of his cavalry on a diversionary raid commanded by Sir George Chudleigh to attack the Royalist garrison at Bodmin and prevent Hopton from drawing on the Bodmin garrison to reinforce his army. The ploy seemed to work as ultimately Hopton was only able to assemble a Royalist force of 2,400 foot and 500 horse to counter Stamford's invasion force of 5,600. On 15 May, Stamford and the Parliamentarian army reached Stratton. Stamford deployed his infantry facing southwest along the top of a rectangular hill that ran from the northwest to the southeast.[1][2][8]
Battle
At 5:00 am on 16 May, Hopton attacked the hill by means of four widely spaced simultaneous assaults on the face of the hill. Each of the assault columns was composed of 600 foot soldiers and 2 guns. Hopton led the first column from the southeast, while Francis Bassett led a second column and attacked from the northwest. The final two columns led by Sir Bevil Grenville and Sir Nicholas Slanning operated as separate units and attacked from the southwest. In this manner, the Royalist columns focused the strength of their attacks at four particular places along a long and dispersed Parliamentary line. In reserve behind the four Royalist columns was their cavalry.[1][2]
Close action fighting followed for the next eight hours, with determined efforts on both sides. With the Royalist troops running short of ammunition, the Parliamentarian pikemen under Major-General James Chudleigh charged Grenville's regiment at push of pike.[9] Grenville was knocked over and his troops shaken, but Sir John Berkeley's musketeers made a counter-attack that stopped the Parliamentarian momentum and began to push them back up the hill.[2]
Against the odds, the Royalist troops pushed forward reaching the top of the hill before 4:00 pm. At that point the Parliamentarians gave way and Stamford's army fled the field. Three hundred Parliamentarian dead remained on the field, together with seventeen hundred prisoners. Royalist losses were estimated to be 90 men.[1][2]
Aftermath
James Chudleigh was taken prisoner and promptly defected to the Royalists. The Earl of Stamford retreated to Barnstaple and then to Exeter, blaming the defeat on Chudleigh. George Chudleigh abandoned the Bodmin campaign and returned to Exeter. In the end, Hopton had secured Cornwall for the King and would take control of most of Devonshire within a matter of days.[10]
Citations
- ^ a b c d e MacKenzie 2020.
- ^ a b c d e Plant 19 October 2014.
- ^ Barratt 2005.
- ^ Battle of Stratton 2020.
- ^ Barratt 2005, p. 6.
- ^ Hopper 2020.
- ^ Barratt 2005, pp. 32–38.
- ^ The Battle of Stratton.
- ^ Reid, Stuart (1987). Gunpowder Triumphant. Partizan Press. p. 25.
- ^ Gardiner 1886, p. 162..
References
- Barratt, John (2005). The Civil War in the South-West. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Military. ISBN 1-84415-146-8.
- "Battle of Stratton". Imperial War Museums. 2020. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
- "The Battle of Stratton". UK Battlefields Resource Centre. Retrieved 27 March 2020.
- Gardiner, Samuel Rawson (1886). History of the Great Civil War, 1642-1644. London: Longmans, Green & Co. ISBN 9780900075209.
- Hopper, Andrew J. (2020). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- MacKenzie, John (2020). "Battle of Stratton". BritishBattles.com. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
- Plant, David (19 October 2014). "Stratton, Cornwall, 16 May 1643". BCW Project. David Plant. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
Further reading
- Guest, Ken & Denise, British Battles (1997) ISBN 978-0-00-470968-0