Battle of Roundway Down - Aftermath

Aftermath

Roundway Down was the greatest cavalry victory of the English Civil War. The Royalists christened the battle "Runaway Down". The defeat of an army arrayed in proper battle order on high ground by a column of cavalry that had just ridden down from Oxford was regarded as remarkable.

Waller had previously been favoured to replace the Earl of Essex as Lord General of the Parliamentarian armies. His defeat at Roundway Down made this impossible. Waller and his supporters criticised Essex for his perceived inactivity, which had allowed the royalists to detach Wilmot's cavalry from Oxford.

The Parliamentarian field army in south-west England was destroyed, allowing the Royalists to capture the port and major city of Bristol a few weeks later; this period of Royalist successes was referred to as the "Royalist summer".

The "village" of Roundway is today a small hamlet 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) north of central Devizes, with a population of around 25 residents. There is a discussion of possible burial sites for the battle on the Devizes heritage website with an outline of the research evidence.