First English Civil War

The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain, Ireland and over... six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland . The British Isles also include three dependencies of the British Crown: the Isle of Man and, by tradition, the Bailiwick of Jersey and the Bailiwick of Guernsey in the Channel Islands, although the latter are not physically a part of the archipelago. The oldest rocks in the group are in the north west of Scotland and Ireland and are 2,700 million years old. During the Silurian period the north-western regions collided with the south-east, which had been part of a separate continental landmass. The topography of the islands is modest in scale by global standards. Ben Nevis rises to an elevation of only 1,344 metres , Lough Neagh, which is notably larger than other lakes on the isles, covers 381 square kilometres .
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England and Wales is a jurisdiction within the United Kingdom. It consists of England and Wales, two of the four countries of the United Kingdom.... Unlike Scotland and Northern Ireland, England and Wales follow the legal system known as English law, and the two form the constitutional successor to the former Kingdom of England. The devolved National Assembly for Wales was created in 1999 by the Parliament of the United Kingdom under the Government of Wales Act 1998 and provides a degree of self-government in Wales, including limited powers to amend Acts of Parliament. These powers were expanded by the Government of Wales Act 2006, and the Welsh Government can now propose and pass its own laws. The Roman occupation of Britain was the first period in which the area of present-day England and Wales was administered as a single unit . At the time, all the native inhabitants of Roman Britain spoke Brythonic languages, and were all regarded as Britons, divided into numerous tribes.
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The Battle of Hopton Heath, in Staffordshire, was a battle of the First English Civil War, fought on Sunday 19 March 1643 between Parliamentarian... forces led by Sir John Gell, 1st Baronet and Sir William Brereton and a Royalist force under Spencer Compton, 2nd Earl of Northampton. The battle ended at nightfall, the victory remaining a matter of opinion: the fact that the Parliamentarian Foot were still in position at nightfall when, as the Royalists themselves admitted, they drew back a little; or the fact that next morning the Royalists occupied the field after the Parliamentarians retreated in the night. The Royalists had captured eight guns, but the Parliamentarians considered their killing of the enemy commander, the Earl of Northampton, of equal significance. Gell had successfully taken the town of Lichfield in Staffordshire and was on his way with about 1,500 men and some artillery pieces to join Brereton in a projected attack on the town of Stafford. They met at Hopton Heath and were attacked there by the Royalists, whose force consisted of about 1,100 cavalry, 100 foot and artillery, including a large artillery piece called "Roaring Meg".
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The Battle of Winceby took place on 11 October 1643 during the English Civil War near the village of Winceby, Lincolnshire about 4 miles east of... Horncastle. During the summer of 1643, the Royalists laid plans to win the war by marching on London. However, before this could be contemplated, it would be necessary for them to defeat the Parliamentarian forces holding Kingston upon Hull and Plymouth; otherwise, as the Royalist forces moved on London, the garrisons of those two towns could sortie out and attack the Royalist rear areas. While these sieges were underway, Charles I of England decided to make the best use of his time by reducing Gloucester, the one great fortress of Parliament in the west. Parliamentary forces relieved Gloucester on 5 September. The relieving army was bought to battle by Royalist forces in the First Battle of Newbury; it was a tactical draw but a strategic victory for the Parliamentarians as it reduced the likelihood of a Royalist attack on London. Meanwhile, the second Royalist siege of Hull had commenced.
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The Battle of Adwalton Moor was a battle in the English Civil War on 30 June 1643. The site of the battle is high ground in Adwalton near Bradford,... which is now in an area of rural-urban fringe, . Parts of the site are protected as "green belt" or other types of open space. It is the only battlefield recognised by Bradford Metropolitan District Council as falling within its boundaries. There are plaques interpreting the battlefield for the visitor. The Earl of Newcastle, the Royalist Commander, was marching on Bradford with 10,000 men. Fairfax, the Parliamentary commander, had 3,000-4,000 men in Bradford. However, despite his inferior numbers, Fairfax came to intercept the Royalist army as Bradford was ill-prepared to resist a siege. The strong Royalists defeated the Parliamentarians. The battle was of medium term significance, consolidating Royalist control of Yorkshire. There is a display relating to the battle at Bolling Hall, Bradford, a museum which lies a few miles from the site and was itself a Royalist base.
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The Battle of Brentford was a small pitched battle which took place on 12 November 1642, between a detachment of the Royalist army, under the... command of Prince Rupert and two infantry regiments of Parliamentarians with some horse in support. The result was a victory for the Royalists. After the Battle of Edgehill King Charles I captured Banbury and was greeted by cheering crowds as he arrived in Oxford on 29 October. Prince Rupert swept down the Thames Valley, capturing Abingdon, Aylesbury and Maidenhead, from where he attempted to capture Windsor though failed due to Parliamentary strength there. After this many officers wanted to open peace negotiations, contrary to Rupert's desire to carry on to London, but the king agreed with the officers and so the Earl of Essex managed to overtake them and reach London with his Parliamentary army by 8 November. While in Reading Charles decided that the peace talks were inconclusive, and that if he advanced on London it might place him in a better negotiating position.
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