In March 1644 the Royalist town of Newark was under seige by a Parliament army and a relief force had been ordered by King Charles to go there break the seige. The King’s nephew, Prince Rupert of the Rhine (Ruprecht von der Pfalz, Duke of Cumberland, to give him his full name), was ordered to take a force from his base in Chester to Newark to do this. From Chester he planned to pass through his local garrisons and then Ashby-de-la-Zouch to pick up more troops before heading to Loughborough and then on towards Newark.
The problem with this plan was the Parliament garrison in Leicester which was ideally placed to intercept Prince Rupert’s advance before it got to Loughborough. To head this off, Henry Hastings dispatched a force of about 600 troops from Ashby along with a couple of cannon under the command of Sir Charles Lucas (more famed as a cavalry commander) to Leicester to keep them otherwise occupied until it was too late to intercept the main body.
After they had successfully completed this mission they withdrew northwards along the western back of the River Soar to Mountsorrel on way to leicester to meet up with Prince Rupert. Whilst in town they decided to billet and rest in the local inns and taverns.
On March 15th, a Parliamentary detachment from Newark commanded by Sir Edward Hartropp (Hartop/Hartrup are known alternate spellings) was shadowing this force as it headed north but along the opposite eastern bank of the river with a force of up to 2000 soldiers, (mostly cavalry and dragoons drawn from the brigades of Manchester, Derbyshire, Lincolnshire and Nottingham). Hartropp also sent a scouting troop of approx 60-70 light cavalry (Notts Horse) to follow the Royalists more closely up the western bank; this was under the command of Capt.Lt.George Palmer (the in-field commander of the Notts Horse whilst their overall commander, Col.Thornhaugh, had remained behind at Newark).
This scouting troop was tasked with taking a small hill between Rothley and Mountsorrel from which to observe the local area (this hill/ridge of higher ground sits close to where Rothley Lodge once stood and is now behind the Mountview care home but sadly built over by the A6 bypass). On approaching the hill, the cavalry came across a group of Royalist soldiers trying to make off with a farmer’s plough horses and attacked them, successfully driving most of them off and capturing 3 others. The escaping soldiers quickly warned the rest of their comrades of the unexpected close proximity of the enemy cavalry.
Capt.Palmer then sent word back to Edward Hartropp that he needed reinforcements in order to attack the town which was now aware of his presence; Hartropp informed him that he had moved too fast for the main body to assist and that he was not to attack but to hold position outside the town. This order was reinforced by being hand delivered by another troop commander, Capt.Innys/Ennys (spelling was a bit erratic back then). Whilst these orders were being passed around the defenders of Mountsorrel had roused themselves from the inns and taverns that they had been “relaxing” in and had formed up ready to meet the Parliament forces in the fields to the south of the town.
Ignoring the orders of Colonel Hartropp, and in agreement with Palmer, (probably sensing too much of a good opportunity to miss), Captain Innys agreed to attack the town using his own authority, he and Palmer then charged into Mountsorrel along with the rest of the cavalry scout force. This attack was a huge success and they quickly overran the defenders sweeping into the town and taking it, they quickly set about looting all the spoils of war that they could. Once again Palmer called for reinforcements whilst setting about barricading themselves in the town centre against the inevitable counter attack from the rapidly reorganising defenders.
Colonel Hartropp was furious that his orders had been disobeyed and refused to send any extra troops to aid Palmer and Innys. Upon realising that the attackers were on their own, the Royalists took their revenge and attacked hard enough to push Palmer out of the town and across the Sileby Road (formerly called York Street) bridge (the original 4-arched medieval stone and rubble one that stood where the new metal bridge near “The Waterside” pub now sits) leaving behind his newly acquired loot and prisoners. These prisoners had included a Major Jammot, a well-known senior [French] Royalist officer. The severity and speed of this counter attack isolated a section of Palmer’s troop from any possible retreat and they continued to fight to avoid being killed or captured.
On reaching the main force again, Palmer demanded a meeting with Hartropp and called for more troops to mount a rescue for those that been left behind (as well as a fresh horse). Both demands were refused! Hartropp then threatened Palmer with a Court Martial unless he stood down immediately. The rest of Hartropp’s command had been steadily getting more and more unhappy with how Palmer was being treated and the fact that part their force was seemingly being abandoned to their fate and started openly backing his call for a rescue mission. Major Thomas Sanders/Saunders from the Derbyshire Horse gave him a remount from his own company and a troop of dragoons (likely from the Earl of Manchester’s detachment) joined with Palmer’s remaining troops and jointly attacked back over the bridge again, once more against the explicit orders of Hartropp.
The counterstrike was a success and the remaining previously cut off troops were extracted to behind fresh baricades in the town centre. Hartropp once more ordered that all the cavalry and dragoons withdraw back over the bridge to their own lines immediatley despite the town now being mostly under Parliament control oncew again. This was done, but in doing so all of Palmer’s stores and provisions had to be abandoned in order to withdraw at the necessary speed.
The 2 forces, now on opposite sides of the river once more, steadily moved north 5 miles towards Loughborough (The Royalists moving overnight, and Hartropp inexplicably taking 2 days for the short move).
This set the scene for the following much larger battle at Cotes Bridge (in Loughborough) on the 17th/18th March and the following relief of the Parliamentary siege of Newark on the 21st.
Local legend has it that Slash Lane (which used to join Sileby Road a lot closer to the bridge than it does now) got it’s name from the fighting around there…..
