The Battle of Babylon Hill took place on 7 September 1642. It was fought between Royalist and Parliamentarian forces near Yeovil. The engagement occurred after a failed Parliamentarian siege of nearby Royalist-held Sherborne. The battle was won by a small Royalist force led by Sir Ralph Hopton.
About Battle of Babylon Hill in brief
The Battle of Babylon Hill took place on 7 September 1642. It was fought between Royalist and Parliamentarian forces near Yeovil, in South West England, during the early stages of the First English Civil War. The engagement occurred after a failed Parliamentarian siege of nearby Royalist-held Sherborne. A Royalist detachment was sent to reconnoitre their movements. The Parliamentarian force, which also numbered around 350, made a three pronged cavalry attack, which the Royalists were able to repel. In the confusion, they were eventually able to pull back under the cover of darkness. Neither side suffered heavy casualties; although both sides claimed they had killed sixty or more, a modern estimate suggests that the Royalist lost around twenty, and the Parliamentarians five. The Royalists subsequently withdrew from the area entirely, while around two weeks later, the Parliamentarian army retreated to Dorchester to the south. The battle was won by a small Royalist force led by Sir Ralph Hopton, a local member of Parliament and an experienced army officer.
The King appointed the Marquess of Hertford as commander of his forces in the West Country, supported by Hopton. The county of Somerset was generally more sympathetic towards Parliament than towards the King, and after theRoyalists established quarters at Wells they were constantly under threat. They were forced to leave Wells on 6 August when the local population rose against them, wielding makeshift weapons such as pitchforks. The day after the siege had been lifted, Hertford sent Hopton with around 350 men—150 horse and 200 foot soldiers—to scout the enemy’s movements in Yeovill. Hopton established himself on Babylon Hill, which he identified as a suitable location to watch the town, due to hedge-lined gullies which allowed his troops to climb the hill unobserved. Before all of the infantry had left Babylon Hill a Royalist officer, Colonel Lawdy, spotted an enemy party approaching over the gullies. According to a Parliamentarian account of the battle, Hopton had set six musketeers on each side of the field to entertain the enemy.
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This page is based on the article Battle of Babylon Hill published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 11, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
