After the Parliamentarians secured victory at Naseby in Northamptonshire in June that year, Sir Thomas Fairfax turned his attention, and the newly formed New Model Army to the south-west.

They defeated the Royalists again at Langport in July, forcing the King's army in the west country to retreat to Exeter, though the cavalry were not allowed in the city.

[3][4] News reached the Parliamentarian commanders of the enemy forces' approach, and Fairfax split part of his army off from the siege to face the new threat.

[3] Fairfax subsequently led his army into south Devon, but found that the Royalists had abandoned their garrisons in Ashburton, Totnes and other villages in the area.

Exeter fell to the Parliamentarians in April,[1] and when first King Charles I and then the Royalist-held Oxford surrendered, the First Civil War was effectively concluded in June 1646.