Battle of Lostwithiel

Battle of Lostwithiel
Part of the First English Civil War
Date21 August – 2 September 1644
Location
Near Lostwithiel in Cornwall
50°24′29″N 4°40′01″W / 50.408°N 4.667°W / 50.408; -4.667
Result Royalist victory
Belligerents
Royalists Parliamentarians
Commanders and leaders
Strength
12,000 infantry
7,000 cavalry[1]		 c. 6,500 infantry
c. 3,000 cavalry[1]
Casualties and losses
c. 500 c. 700
c. 5,000 prisoners
Battle of Lostwithiel is located in Cornwall
Lostwithiel
Lostwithiel
Plymouth
Plymouth
Fowey
Fowey
class=notpageimage|
Cornwall and Lostwithiel

The Battle of Lostwithiel took place over a 13-day period from 21 August to 2 September 1644, around the town of Lostwithiel and along the River Fowey valley in Cornwall during the First English Civil War. A Royalist army led by Charles I of England defeated a Parliamentarian force commanded by the Earl of Essex.[2]

Although Essex and most of the cavalry escaped, between 5,000 and 6,000 Parliamentarian infantry were forced to surrender. Since the Royalists were unable to feed so many, they were given a pass back to their own territory, arriving in Southampton a month later having lost nearly half their number to disease and desertion.[3]

Considered one of the worst defeats suffered by Parliament over the course of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, it secured South West England for the Royalists until early 1646.[1]

  1. ^ a b c Battle of Lostwithiel (1644).
  2. ^ Mackenzie (2020).
  3. ^ Royle 2004, pp. 304–305.