Lansdowne, battle of

views updated Jun 08 2018

Lansdowne, battle of, 1643. This Civil War encounter was part of the early manœuvring for control of the west country, and fought between two old friends, Sir William Waller and Sir Ralph Hopton, who exchanged letters before the fight, lamenting ‘this war without an enemy’. Hopton's royalists attacked Waller on 5 July, trying to drive him from the Lansdowne ridge, 5 miles north of Bath. In hand-to-hand fighting, Hopton's men pushed their way up the wooded slopes and, during the night, Waller made an orderly retreat. A week later his forces were badly beaten at Roundway Down, just outside Devizes. There is a memorial on the field of battle to Sir Bevil Grenville, the Cornish leader killed in the attack.

J. A. Cannon

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