THe two and twentieth of October, being Saturday, his Excellency the Earl of Essex came with twelve Regiments of Foot, and two and forty Troops of Horse, and a part of the Ammunition and Artillery, to Keynton, a little Market-Town, almost in the mid-way be­tween Stratford upon the Avon, and Banbury, there being three Regiments of foot, and nine or ten Troops of horse, with seven Pieces of Cannon, and good store of Ammunition coming after, together with six Companies of Dragooners: The Dragooners, and two of the Regiments of Foot, with the Cannon, and nine or ten Troops of horse, came to Keynton on Sunday night, a little before the day went down: The Regiment, viz. the Lord Rochfords, came not into the Army till Monday in the afternoon. The Kings Army was lodged on Saturday night, about Cro [...]reds and Edgeco [...], some 6 or 7 miles from Kenyton; And having, no doubt, got intelligence that part of our Army, and Artillery, with a great part of our Ammunition was behinde us, they thought they could not have a better opportunity to fight with our Army, esp [...]cially if they could get the advantage of the hill before us, it being a very high and steep assent, which if they were put to the worst might serve them for a Retreat, as it did, it being that which sa­ved them, their Carriages, and the Colours of their Regiments of foot that ran away; for of those that fought it out, we took most of them, ex­cepting onely those two Regiments that stood it out till night, and went off with their horse in an orderly way. The enemy having resolved to give us Battell, and no whit doubting of the Victory, they being more then we were, both in horse and foot (a considerable Brigado of our Army being behinde) and having a great opinion of the resolution of their Souldiers, wherein they were partly deceived, and partly not, as it hapned also on our side: They returned back towards Edge-hill, and made all possible speed to gain the hill before us (which they did, by reason that his Excellency had not timely intelligence of their designe, otherwise we were much neerer the hill, and might have been possessed of it before them) And by that time our Army was drawn out of the Town about a mile and half towards [Page 5] the hill, the Dragooners, and some of the enemies Foot were coming down the hill; Their horse having gotten down most of them on their right hand, and placed themselves in a fair Meadow, at the bottom of the hill; Their Cannon and Ammunition, with the Rere of th [...]ir foot, were some­thing long ere they came down. And if we had charged them before their Cannon and all their Foot were come down, we might have had a great ad­vantage: but they got all down in [...]o the Meadow at the foot of the hill, and there drew up their Army very handsomely, their horse being on their right Wing for the most part, and their Dragooners, and some few Troops of horse on their left Wing; some of their prisoners said they had four Re­giments of horse on that wing also; but I could never speak with any of our Army, that either saw any such number of horse, or could tell what they did, unlesse they went directly to Keynton, to plunder the Carriages with­out charging our Army at all.

For our Army, it was drawn up upon a little rising ground, and being amongst the horse, I could not well discern how the foot were drawn up; onely I know they were most of them a good space behinde the horse, when we began to charge: but for the horse, there were three Regiments on the right Wing of our Army, viz. The Lord Generalls Regiment, commanded by Sir Philip Stapleton; Sir William Belfores Regiment, Lievtenant Gene­rall of the horse; and the Lord Fieldings Regiment, which stood behinde the other two, in the way of reserve.

On the right Wing of our Army, was Sir James Ramsey, with some 24 Troops, for many of our Troops were not in the Field that d [...]y. The Ar­mies being thus placed one against another with no great oddes of winde or ground (but what there was of winde the enemies had it, the ground b [...]ing reasonable indifferent on both sides) after m [...]ny shot of Cannon, which did very little hurt amongst us, and very much amongst them, their foot advancing for the most part against our right Wing, and their horse against the left Wing of our army. Their horse had the better of our horse that were on our left Wing, and routing them, drove them back upon our foot, and amongst the rest, upon Colonell Hollis his Regiment, which was in the Rere, and they brake through it, yet they ran not away, nor seemed to be at all dismayed at it; but four other Regiments ran away, and fought not at all, and many of them cast away their Colours, and so the enemy took them np, having scarce got so much as one Colour or Cornet of those Regiments or Troops that fought, whereas all the Colours that we got from them, and the Kings Standard, which we had a long time in our pos­session, were taken out of the midst of their best Regiments that fought it out very resolutely: Our left Wing being thus put to the worst, the day was [Page 6] very desperate on our side; and had not God clearly fought for us, we had lost it; for had the enemies horse when they had routed the left Wing, fal­len upon the Rere of our right Wing, in all probability the army had been wholly defeated: But they made directly to the Town, and there falling upon our Carriages, most barbarously massacred a number of poor Wag­goners and Carters that had no arms to defend themselves, and so fell to pillaging and pursuing those that ran away, so long, till they met with Co­lonell Hampden, who with the other Brigado of the Army (which came with the Artillery and Ammunition which was behinde) was by this time come neer to Keynton, and the enemies Troops falling upon him as they pursued our men that ran away, he gave them a stop, and discharging five pieces of Cannon against them, he slew some of them; whereupon they returned in some fear and disorder: But when they came back into the Field, they found all their Infantry, excepting two Regiments, cut in pieces or defeated and run away; for it pleased God to put such courage into four or five of our Regiments of foot, and two Regiments of horse, the Lord Generalls, com­manded by Sir Philip Stapleton, and Sir William Belfores, that they defeated all their Regiments of foot, except two. Sir William Belfores Regiment of horse charged a Regiment of the enemies foot, before any foot came up to assist him, and breaking into it, cut most of it off; and after, by the assistance of some of our foot, he defeated another Regi­ment, and so we got up to the greatest part of the enemies Ordnance, and took them, cutting off the Geers of the horses that drew them, and killing the Gunners under the Carriages, but were forced to leave them without any to guard them, by reason we were fain to make good the day against se­severall Regiments of foot that still fought with a great deal of resolution; especially that which was of the Kings Guard, where his Standard was, close by which Sir William Belfores Regiment rode when they came from taking the Ordnance; and they taking us to be their friends, and we them some of our Company, shook hands with some of them, which was the cause that after riding up towards the Lord Generals Regiment of horse, they gave fire upon S. William Belfores Regiment, and discerning each other to be firends, we joyned Companies; and so with half the Lord Generalls Regiment, which his Excellency himself led up, charging the Kings Regiment, we de­feated it, took the Standard, took the Generall of the Kings Army, the Earl of Lindley▪ and his son, and Colonell Vavasor, who was Lievtenant Colo­nell of that Regiment, and killed Sir Edward Varney upon the place (who carryed the Standard) Colonell John Munroe, and divers others: In this charge, and generally throughout the day, the Lord Generalls Troop, con­sisting most of Gentlemen, carried themselves most valiantly; and had all [Page 7] our Troops, or our left Wing been made of the same metall, the enemy had not made so easie an impression into them. And what is said of my Lord Ge­neralls Troop, may most truely, and to his high praise, be said of himself; and also that noble Earl, the Earl of Bedford, Generall of the horse, for both of them rode all day, being in the heads of the severall Troops and Regi­ments, to give them directions, and to bring them on upon the enemy, ha­zarding their persons as far and further then any particular Souldier in the Army. By this time all the enemies foot being dispersed and gone, excepting two Regiments, they retiring themselves, found their Ordnance behinde them without any Guard, and there they made a stand, and made use of their Cannon, shooting divers shot at us; at which time our Regiment of foot began to want Powder, otherwise we had charged them both with horse and foot, which in all probability would have utterly ruined their Infantry, for those two Regiments were the onely st [...]ke which they had now left in the hedge: But partly through want of Ammunition, and partly being tyred with fighting all the day (the whole brunt of the Battell having been sustain­ed by two Regiments of horse, and four or five of foot) we made no great haste to charge them, so that the enemies horse that had been pillaging at Keynton had leisure to come about, some on one hand of us, and some on the other, and so joyned with their foot: Yet as they came back on our left hand, Sir Philip Stapleton, with his Troop, went out to charge some 4 or 5 Troops of them, which went away from him as fast as they could upon the spur to the rest of their Company, and their foot that stood by their Ord­nance, most of the enemies horse being gathered to their foot, most of our horse also gathered to our foot, and so we stood horse and foot one against the other till it was night. Our Army being thus possessed of the ground that the enemy chose to fight upon, stood there all night; the enemy having withdrawn their Army to the top of the hill for more security to themselves, where they made great fires all the night long, whilst we in the mean time drew backe some of our owne Ordnance, which they had once in their possession, and some of theirs which they had left behinde.

The next morning, a little before it was light, we drew back our Army towards the Town to our other Brigadoe and Artillary and Ammunition that was come and lodged there, and the enemy drew out their horse in the morning upon the side of the hill, where staying till towards night, whil'st their foot was retyring behinde the hill and marching avvay, at length a little before night, their horse also marched avvay; and about an houre af­ter, our horse also marched tovvards their Quarters, the Foot and som [...] horse staying all night in their Quarters, in and before Keynton; and the next day the vvhole Army both horse and foot marched tovvards Warwicke to re­fresh [Page 8] themselves; instead of vvhich, if they had marched tovvards Banbury, they vvould have found more victuals, and had in all probabilities disper­sed all the foot of the Kings Army, and taken his Canon and Carriages, and sent his horse farther off to plunder, vvhereas novv because vve did not follovv them though they quitted the field to us which we fought on, and left their quarter before us the next day, yet they begin to question who had the day: It is true, there were Colours and Canon taken on both sides, without any great difference in the numbers, but for the number and quali­ty of men slaine and hurt, it is verily believed, they lost foure times as many at the least as vve did, and in saying foure times as many, I am confident I speake much belovv the truth. There vvere slain on their side the Earle of Lindsey Generall of their Army, the Lord Aubigney brother to the Duke of Richmond, Sir Edward Verny Colonell, John Mourse and divers other gen­tlemen and Commanders, and very many hurt. Of our side vvere slaine the Lord St. John, Colonell Charles Essex, Lievtenant-Colonell Ramsey, and none other of note, either killed or dangerously hurt that I can heare of; they acknovvledge that they lost 1200 men, but it is thought they lost 2000: and vvhereas they report vve lost divers thousands, vvhere one man judgeth that vve lost 400, ten men are of opinion that vve lost not 200 Souldiers, besides the poore Waggoners and Carters.

These Persons undervvritten vvere all of the Right vving and never stir­red from their Troops, but they and their Troops fought till the last minute.

• Sir Philip Stapleton.
• Captain Draper.
• Serjeant Major Gunter.
• Lord Brookes.
• Captain Sheffeild.
• Captain Temples.
• Captain Cromwell.

• Sir William Belfore.
• Serjeant Major Hurrey.
• Lord Grey.
• Captain Nathaniell Fiennes.
• Sir Arthur Hasilrigge.
• Captain Longe.