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. 



*" Published in London by H. Hall, 1643, and now in the Bodleian Library. 

 * Letter of same year, also in Bodleian. 



260 



