It was agreed that while the King remained on the defensive in Oxford, protected by several outlying fortified towns, his nephew Prince Rupert of the Rhine (the famous Royalist field commander) would proceed to retrieve the situation in the north.

To find reinforcements for the West Country where Rupert's brother Prince Maurice was besieging Lyme Regis, they ordered the fortress of Reading, in Berkshire, to be abandoned.

On 3 June, Charles made a feint towards Abingdon to induce Waller to draw back, and then marched westward at night towards Worcester with a force mainly composed of cavalry.

[2] This allowed the King to make another feint, which convinced Waller he was about to march northward, and then move back south by carrying his foot soldiers down the Avon in commandeered boats, so as to return to Oxford and collect reinforcements.

Waller's forces proceeded to shadow the King's movements on the other side of the river, the two armies little more than a mile apart and in sight of each other, but neither prepared to cross under the fire of enemy guns.

Waller's remaining artillery continued to fire from their vantage point on Bourton Hill, forcing the Cavaliers to fall back from the river.

Charles took opportunity in the lull to dispatch his secretary of war, Sir Edward Walker, to parley with Waller with a message of grace and pardon, but the Parliamentarian replied that he had no power to treat.

At length, after receiving further intelligence of additional Parliamentarians nearby, and as the king's train was low in food and supplies, the Royalists slipped away under the cover of night, taking the guns captured from Waller with them.

Waller's army shortly became demoralised, and immobilised by desertions and mutinies by men unwilling to serve far from their homes, chiefly those drawn from London.

The song Red and Gold by (written by Ralph McTell for Fairport Convention, whose annual music festival is held on the outskirts of Cropredy) relates the story of the battle as told by a non-combatant.