First Battle of Newbury 1643
Outline: officially registered battlefield boundary. Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 30 September 1643 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1643 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | Early modern (1500–1799) | derived from year |
| Location | England | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | First English Civil War | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | Cavalier, Roundhead | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 51.3822, -1.3403 | Wikidata P625 |
| Official record | Historic England list entry 1000026 | OGL v3 |
| Registered area | 242.2 ha | OGL v3 |
About the battle
The First Battle of Newbury was a battle of the First English Civil War that was fought on 20 September 1643 between a Royalist army, under the personal command of King Charles, and a Parliamentarian force led by the Earl of Essex. Following a year of Royalist battlefield successes, in which they took Banbury, Oxford and Reading without conflict before storming Bristol, the Parliamentarians were left without an effective army in the west of England. When Charles laid siege to Gloucester, Parliament was forced to muster a force under Essex with which to beat Charles' forces off. After a long march, Essex surprised the Royalists and forced them away from Gloucester before beginning a retreat to London. Charles rallied his forces and pursued Essex, overtaking the Parliamentarian army at Newbury and forcing them to march past the Royalist force to continue their retreat.
Essex reacted by making a surprise attack on the Royalist lines at dawn, capturing several pieces of high ground and leaving Charles on the back foot. A series of Royalist attacks led to a large number of casualties and the slow retreat of Essex's force, which was driven from the central hill and almost encircled; Essex succeeded in rallying his infantry, however, and pushed forward in a counter-attack.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article First Battle of Newbury (revision 1370618832), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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
- Second Battle of Newbury 1644 · 4 km
- Battle of Englefield 871 · 18 km
- Battle of Ashdown 871 · 19 km
- Siege of Basing House 1643 · 24 km
- Battle of Basing 871 · 24 km
- Battle of Aldbourne Chase 1643 · 26 km
Other battles of the First English Civil War
- Battle of Edgehill 1642
- Battle of Powick Bridge 1642
- Battle of Turnham Green 1642
- Siege of Hull (1642) 1642
- Siege of Reading 1642
- Battle of Adwalton Moor 1643
- Battle of Aldbourne Chase 1643
- Battle of Braddock Down 1643
- Battle of Burton Bridge (1643) 1643
- Battle of Camp Hill 1643
All 45 battles of the First English Civil War →
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