1643 1644 1645 1646 The battle of Babylon Hill was an indecisive skirmish that took place between Royalist and Parliamentarian forces near Yeovil, in South West England, on 7 September 1642, during the early stages of the First English Civil War.

The King appointed the Marquess of Hertford as commander of his forces in the West Country, supported by Sir Ralph Hopton, a local member of Parliament (MP) and an experienced army officer.

Dorset was split in its sympathies: most of the larger towns favoured Parliament; but in more rural areas, and to the north of the county generally,[5] the Royalists had more support.

Hopton led his dragoons in small raids on the enemy camp each night, in conjunction with retaliatory artillery attacks on the besieging army.

[10] As evening approached, Hopton consulted with his commanders and decided to retire to Sherborne for the night, and at 6:00 pm,[11] around half an hour before sunset, began withdrawing the infantry while the cavalry and dragoons covered the rear.

[10] Before all of the infantry had left Babylon Hill a Royalist officer, Colonel Lawdy, spotted an enemy party approaching over the fields by "a secret way".

[14] The account records that when Captain Tomson's cavalry reached the fighting things got chaotic,[14] which concurs with Hopton's recollection that "in very short time, all the horse on both sides were in confusion.

[16] In a letter written by the prominent Royalist, Sir Edward Nicholas, he described how on reaching the summit, the Parliamentarian captain—a son of William Balfour, Parliament's lieutenant-general of horse—"rode out single from his troop brandishing his sword, as if he would dare somebody to combat with him".

[15] Hopton's description of the incident differs slightly, suggesting that another Royalist soldier, James Colborne, shot Balfour with a fowling piece, simultaneous to Stowell's lone charge.

[18] Seizing upon the confusion, Hopton chose to withdraw his infantry again, "covered by a few gentlemen", and in the darkness, the entire Royalist detachment was able to make good their retreat.

[15] It is difficult to ascertain the losses for either side; Royalist propaganda claimed that they had killed between 100 and 140 while only losing 16 men, a figure which included one officer who was taken prisoner.

At Minehead, they found that there were only two boats, and so Hertford sailed with the infantry and artillery to Wales, while Hopton and around 160 horse escaped through north Devon to Cornwall.