Parliament's Western Association forces, commanded by Major
General Sir William Waller, controlled the area around Bath. The
king despatched additional troops to Sir Ralph Hopton in the West
Country, bolstering his forces to 4,000 foot, 2,000 horse and 300
dragoons. By comparison, Waller was seriously lacking in infantry
having no more than 1,500 foot and 2,500 horse. After some
preliminary skirmishing, both Waller and Hopton made for Lansdown
Hill, a few miles north of Bath. On the morning of July 4th Waller
arrived first and occupied the crest. Hopton then manoeuvred around
the steep north face and, unable to find and favourable line of
attack, decided to break contact in order to conserve his limited
ammunition.
Early in the morning of the 5th Waller moved his troops to the
north of the high ground at Hanging Hill to face the Royalist
forces on Freezing Hill - another area of high ground to the
north. Dragoons from each side met in the hedges of the valley
below. The Royalist dragoons were forced to retreat. Although the
parliamentarians were outnumbered, the ground was greatly to their
advantage and at 3 P.M. Waller decided to unleash his cavalry in
the hope of converting the Royalist withdrawal into a rout. Sir
Arthur Hesilrige's regiment of horse, supported by dragoons,
charged down the steep slopes of Lansdown Hill to hit Hopton's
retreating Cornishmen in the rear.
Captain Richard Atkyns, in the Royalist ranks, considered this
“...the boldest thing that I ever saw the enemy do; for a
party of less than 1,000 to charge an army of 6,000 horse, foot and
cannon, in their own ground, at least a mile and a half from their
[main] body.” This audacious attack enjoyed initial
success. Disordering the Royalist horse, which ploughed through the
rear of their own retiring infantry in their haste to
retreat. However, the stoical Cornish foot regiments, the backbone
of Hopton's force, rallied around their flags and held off the
Parliamentarian attack until more Royalist horse, under the Earl of
Carnarvan, charged to their relief.
At the same time, Sir Nicholas Slanning, rushing up with two or
three hundred musketeers, fell upon the Parliamentarian dragoons
still lurking in reserve. The action rolled back and forth through
the hedged fields as more troops from both sides joined the
fray. Outnumbered and outflanked, the Parliamentarians gave ground
and the Royalist army advanced towards Lansdown Hill, enticed into
the very heavy battle which Hopton had earlier decided not to
fight. The Royalists took breath at the base of the hill. The
precipitous slope was crowned with the breastworks of Waller's army
and above them, silhouetted against the summer sky, the
Parliamentarian horse stood ready and waiting. Waller had made
shrewd use of his ground and “...thus
fortified...”, as one Royalist officer was later to
recount, “...stood the fox gazing at us.”
While the Royalist commanders deliberated, Waller's artillery
battered the lines below. This so galled Hopton's doughty
Cornishmen that they begged to be allowed to repeat their
remarkable uphill storming of Braddock Down. At last, convinced
that the morale of his army would carry them through, Hopton
agreed. There now began a furious contest for possession of
Lansdown Hill. Deployed in an unusual formation, with the horse in
the centre instead of on the flanks, the Royalist army was soon
bowed into the steep slope. Although the central cavalry attack
was quickly repulsed, the momentum of the advance was maintained by
Sir Bevil Grenville's pikemen who bore in on the hail of enemy fire
until they “...gain'd with much gallentry the brow of the
hill receiving all [the enemy] small shott and cannon from their
brest worke...” Holding firm upon ground which was
“the eaves of a house for steepness”,
Grenville's stand of pikemen preserved the Royalist army from total
rout. Twice they withstood the charge of Sir Arthur Hesilrige's
horse but under the third assault many fell; among them Sir Bevil
Grenville himself, who fought with his men to the last.
By this time, according to the Captain Richard Atkyns,
“...the air was so darkened by the smoke of the powder,
that for a quarter of an hour ... there was no light seen, but what
the fire of the volleys of shot gave; and 'twas the greatest storm
that I ever saw, in which I knew not whither to go, nor what to do,
my horse had two or three musket balls in him presently, which made
him tremble under me ... and I could hardly with spurs keep him
from lying down; but he did me the service of carrying me off to a
led horse, and then died...” The fire was so intense
that the bulk of the Royalist cavalry was forced to retire. Sir
Nicholas Slanning survived a near miss when his horse was killed
under him by a cannon shot.
Hopton's men endured two more Parliamentarian charges and were
beaten into disorder “Yett at last they recovered the
hill, and the enemy drew back about demi-culvern-shott, within a
stone-wall, but there stoode in reasonable good order, and eache
part played upon the other with their ordinance, but neither
advanced being both soundly batter'd”. Here, barely 400
yards apart, both sides stood their ground, cannon
“playing without ceasing till is was darke, legs and arms
flying apace”.
Although Waller has suffered relatively few casualties in
comparison to the Royalists, who could count several hundred dead
and wounded, it was crucial that he preserve his smaller force from
further loss. At around one in the morning, he ordered a sudden,
savage volley of musket fire. Then as the Royalists leapt to their
weapons the parliamentarians crept away leaving “all
their light matches upon the wall and whole bodys of pikes standing
upright in order within the walls as if men held
them”. As Waller summarised: “We had a weary
and dangerous days fight, the night parting us and so well did we
knock each other than in the night we both retreated ... We had the
advantage of the ground but the Cornish hedgers beat us from it,
though they bought it at a dear rate ... ”
The day after the battle, Hopton had ridden over to inspect some
prisoners who were being carried on a wagon with some
advanced being both soundly batter'd”. Here, barely 400
yards apart, both sides stood their ground, cannon
“playing without ceasing till is was darke, legs and arms
flying apace&rdquo.
Although Waller has suffered relatively few casualties in
comparison to the Royalists, who could count several hundred dead
and wounded, it was crucial that he preserve his smaller force from
further loss. At around one in the morning, he ordered a sudden,
savage volley of musket fire. Then as the Royalists leapt to their
weapons the parliamentarians crept away leaving “all
their light matches upon the wall and whole bodys of pikes standing
upright in order within the walls as if men held
them”. As Waller summarised: “We had a weary
and dangerous days fight, the night parting us and so well did we
knock each other than in the night we both retreated ... We had the
advantage of the ground but the Cornish hedgers beat us from it,
though they bought it at a dear rate ... ”
The day after the battle, Hopton had ridden over to inspect some
prisoners who were being carried on a wagon with some
ammunition. One of them used a match to light his tobacco and a
spark blew up eight barrels of the gunpowder killing Major Thomas
Sheldon and seriously injuring Hopton. Hopton had already been
wounded in the arm and was now temporarily blinded
and“miserably burnt, his horse singed like parched
leather”
