Qualla: Battle of Oswestry

Battle of Oswestry: Introduction

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit P.khiao, CC0. At two in the afternoon on 22 June 1644, the spies who had been watching Oswestry's walls reported that the Royalist governor had ridden out earlier that day with Parliamentary prisoners, heading for Shrewsbury. The garrison was thinner than usual. Lord Denbigh's Parliamentarians, who had been waiting nearby, moved at once. By the next morning the walled border town and its castle - the Royalist staging point that controlled communications between Wales, Chester and Shrewsbury - had changed sides. It was a short fight, smartly run, and it broke the Royalist hold on the Welsh Marches.

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Image: P.khiao | CC0

Battle of Oswestry: A Border Garrison

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jaggery, CC BY-SA 2.0. In February 1644, Prince Rupert had moved to Wales to take up the post of President of Wales for King Charles I. By May he was gone again, marching to Lancashire with most of his forces and leaving Colonel Edward Lloyd holding Oswestry with a small garrison. The town's strategic ...

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Image: Jaggery | CC BY-SA 2.0

Battle of Oswestry: The Parliamentarian Plan

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nilfanion, created using Ordnance Survey data, CC BY-SA 3.0. Lord Denbigh (Basil Feilding, 2nd Earl of Denbigh) commanded Parliament's forces in the West Midlands, working with Colonel Thomas Mytton, the local Parliamentarian commander. Their intelligence network in Oswestry was good enough to tell them when the garrison's strength was at ...

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Image: Nilfanion, created using Ordnance Survey data | CC BY-SA 3.0

Battle of Oswestry: St Oswald's and the Gate

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit AtticTapestry, CC BY-SA 4.0. The attack opened with the seizure of St Oswald's church, which stood outside the town walls and had been fortified as an outwork. Once it fell, the Parliamentarians brought up cannon and concentrated their fire on the town's main gate. It collapsed under the bombardment. The def...

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Image: AtticTapestry | CC BY-SA 4.0

Battle of Oswestry: The Relief That Failed

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jaggery, CC BY-SA 2.0. The loss of Oswestry cut the Royalist supply line between Chester and Shrewsbury. Sir Fulke Huncke, the Royalist commander at Shrewsbury, felt obliged to try to retake the town. He marched out with 2,000 infantry and 600 cavalry - a serious force. Lord Denbigh, who had by then re...

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Image: Jaggery | CC BY-SA 2.0

Battle of Oswestry: The Walls Come Down

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jaggery, CC BY-SA 2.0. The Parliamentarians did not intend to hold Oswestry as a fortified town indefinitely. Walls were expensive to maintain and dangerous to leave standing if the war turned again - a Royalist counter-attack might find them as useful as their original builders had. The town's medieva...

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Image: Jaggery | CC BY-SA 2.0