The two armies faced each other at Cropredy Bridge, near Banbury; but the Charwell ran between them.

Next day, the king decamped, and marched towards Daventry.

Waller ordered a considerable detachment to pass the bridge, with an intention of falling on the rear of the royalists.

He was repulsed, routed, and pursued with considerable loss.[*] Stunned and disheartened with this blow, his army decayed and melted away by desertion; and the king thought he might safely leave it, and march westward against Essex.

That general, having obliged Prince Maurice to raise the siege of Lyme, having taken Weymouth and Taunton, advanced still in his conquests, and met with no equal opposition.