In mid-January
1644, Sir Thomas Fairfax and Sir William Brereton led a force of around 3,000
foot, 1,800 horse and 500 dragoons to the relief of Nantwich. Byron moved
some of his troops across the frozen River Weaver to meet the Parliamentarians,
but in a sudden thaw on the morning of 25 January, a bridge over the river
was swept away, leaving part of the Royalist army stranded. Byron was forced
to make a six-mile detour to unify his army but Fairfax lost the opportunity
for a pre-emptive strike by waiting for his rearguard to come up. Fairfax
then attempted to manoeuvre to a more favourable position. Byron wheeled to
attack the tail of the Parliamentarian column as it moved across country,
forcing two regiments to turn and fight a rearguard action, and the Royalist
right wing advanced to engage the leading Parliamentarian units. Realising
that the Royalist centre was overstretched and the cohesion of the line was
broken by fields and hedgerows, Fairfax turned his entire column to face the
Royalists, the front and rear of the column becoming its wings. The battle
was extremely confused, with disordered regiments struggling through hedgerows
to fight over individual fields. In such terrain, the Royalist cavalry could
do little to help the infantry which was gradually pushed back towards Nantwich.
When reinforcements from the Parliamentarian garrison marched out, Byron fled
with his cavalry to Chester. The rest of Byron's army surrendered to Fairfax,
and most of this first contingent of troops from Ireland joined the Parliamentary
colours.
Additional
Information with kind permission of David Plant. http://www.british-civil-wars.co.uk