Page:VCH Staffordshire 1.djvu/304

 A HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE Gell fell back to form a junction with Sir William Brereton, and then moved again towards Stafford. The earl marched to meet them with about 1,000 men, the forces of the Parliament being about double, and found them await- ing him at Hopton Heath ; he charged them at once and dispersed them, taking eight pieces of cannon ; but in the second charge the earl's horse was killed under him, and he was surrounded. He refused to surrender, and was killed fighting gallantly. After this Sir Thomas Byron, who commanded the Prince of Wales Regiment, attacked the enemy's infantry, but the approach of night and the fact that many coal pits made the ground unfavourable to cavalry caused fighting to cease. In the night the enemy decamped, the Royalists, much fatigued and harassed, and having no officers to direct them, for Lord Compton and Byron were both disabled, retired to Stafford the next day. Clarendon puts the Roundhead loss at two hundred killed, and the Cavaliers' at twenty-five. 290 The Parliamentary story of the fight is given by Sir William Brereton. 291 On 19 March, about two o'clock in the afternoon, he joined Sir John Gell near ' Salt Heath,' and found the Royalists in much superior force, especially in cavalry, of whom, according to some, they had 2,500, whereas he only had 400 and some dragoons. He says the enemy came on with great resolu- tion and in good order, and they fought till all their powder and bullet was spent, and then fell to with the butt-ends of their muskets. The Roundhead horse, however, gave way, was disordered, and routed. He estimates his infantry force at 500 men, who were attacked by the royal cavalry, and by the first volley did great execution. This drove them back, only to make a second desperate charge which was repulsed, and this decided the day. Sir William puts the enemy's loss at 600 dead, and his own at thirty ; and among the enemy's slain were Captains Middleton, Baker, Leeming, Cressitt Bagott, and Biddulph of Biddulph, ' a recusant in Staffordshire.' Except with regard to the losses, the two accounts are not so divergent as many stories of battles written from opposing sides. The true account of the engagement seems to be that the Royalist cavalry drove the enemy off the field with their usual impetuosity, and pursued them too far. Brereton came up with fresh troops, and enabled those of the Puritans who were left to hold their ground. 292 A letter 293 written by a Royalist who took part in the battle says that, besides those mentioned by Brereton, Captain Harvey and Ensign Bowyer, Lieutenant Greene and Cornet Hall were killed ; and Northampton's son, writing to his mother from Stafford on 22 March, confirms the story of the refusal of the Parliamentary generals to deliver up the body of Lord Northampton. Gell and Brereton also informed the son that his father's armour was so good that they could not kill him till he was ' downe and had undone his headpiece.' 2M As Northampton had failed in the object of his expedition, the recapture of Lichfield, the battle must be taken as a Royalist defeat. Rupert was sent 190 A contemporary letter published in London, now in the Bodleian Library, agrees in the main with this account. 191 Shaw, Hist, of Staffs. , 54. Shaw states that his account of the Civil War was derived from contem- porary MSS. letters and papers which he had access to. B> S. R. Gardiner, Civil War, i, 123. 260
 * " Published in London by H. Hall, 1643, and now in the Bodleian Library.
 * Letter of same year, also in Bodleian.