Battle of Lostwithiel

Battle of Lostwithiel
Part of the First English Civil War
Date 21 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
King Charles I Prince Maurice Sir Richard Grenville Lord Goring	Earl of Essex William Balfour Philip Skippon
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

Lostwithiel

Plymouth

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]