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Battle of Roundway Down 1643

Battle of Roundway Down: Battle-of-Roundway-Down-map
Image: John Kinross, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Outline: officially registered battlefield boundary. Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.

Key facts

Date13 July 1643Wikidata
Year1643Wikidata P585 (point in time)
EraEarly modern (1500–1799)derived from year
LocationEnglandNatural Earth (modern borders)
ContinentEuropeNatural Earth
War / conflictEnglish Civil WarWikidata P361
ParticipantsCavalier, RoundheadWikidata P710
Coordinates51.3850, -1.9800Wikidata P625
Official recordHistoric England list entry 1000030OGL v3
Registered area972.3 haOGL v3

About the battle

The Battle of Roundway Down was fought on 13 July 1643 at Roundway Down near Devizes, in Wiltshire during the First English Civil War. Despite being outnumbered and exhausted after riding overnight from Oxford, a Royalist cavalry force under Lord Wilmot won a crushing victory over the Parliamentarian Army of the West under Sir William Waller.

Viewed as their most decisive victory of the war, the Royalists secured control of South West England which they held until late 1645. Two weeks later they captured the port of Bristol, allowing them to establish links with supporters in Ireland.

Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Roundway Down (revision 1371653569), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; formatting and citations removed. No text added.

Location

51.3850, -1.9800 · England

Google Maps OpenStreetMap

Battlefield boundary © Historic England 2026. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. See also this battlefield on Battlefields of Britain.

Nearby battles

Other battles of the English Civil War

All 22 battles of the English Civil War →

Browse more: battles in England · Europe · Early modern battles

Further reading