Since the Royalists were unable to feed so many, they were given a pass back to their own territory, arriving in Southampton a month later having lost nearly half their number to disease and desertion.

[3] Considered one of the worst defeats suffered by Parliament over the course of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, it secured South West England for the Royalists until early 1646.

[1] During April and May 1644, Parliamentarian commanders Sir William Waller and the Earl of Essex combined their armies and carried out a campaign against King Charles and the Royalist garrisons surrounding Oxford.

Trusting Waller to deal with the King in Oxfordshire, Essex divided the Parliamentarian army on 6 June and headed southwest to relieve the Royalist siege of Lyme in Dorset.

Essex had been told by Lord Robartes, a wealthy politician and merchant from Cornwall, that the Parliamentarians would gain considerable military support if he moved against Grenville and freed Plymouth.

On 12 July after a Royalist council of war recommended that Essex be dealt with before he could be reinforced, King Charles and his Oxford army departed Evesham.

King Charles accepted the council's advice, not solely because it was good strategy, but more so because his Queen was in Exeter, where she had recently given birth to the Princess Henrietta and had been denied safe conduct to Bath by Essex.

At that time, Essex understood that he and his army were trapped in Cornwall and his only salvation would be reinforcements or an escape through the port of Fowey by means of the Parliamentarian fleet.

Essex also sent a small contingent of foot south to secure the port of Fowey aiming to eventually evacuate his infantry by sea.

[2][6] Aided through intelligence provided by the people of Cornwall [citation needed], King Charles followed westward, slowly and deliberately cutting off the potential escape routes that Essex might attempt to utilize.

Finally the Royalists sent 200 foot with artillery south to garrison the fort at Polruan, effectively blocking the entrance to the harbour of Fowey.

[2] From the north, Grenville and the Cornish Royalists attacked Restormel Castle and easily dislodged the Parliamentarians who fell back quickly.

Casualties were fairly low and by nightfall the fighting ended and the Royalists held the high ground on the north and east sides of Lostwithiel.

On 24 August, King Charles further tightened the noose encircling the Parliamentarians when he sent Lord Goring and Sir Thomas Bassett to secure the town of St Blazey and the area to the southwest of Lostwithiel.

[11] Essex and the Parliamentarians were now totally surrounded and boxed into a two-mile by five-mile area spanning from Lostwithiel in the north to the port of Fowey in the south.

At 03:00 hours on 31 August, Balfour and 2,000 members of his cavalry executed the first step of Essex's plan when they successfully crossed the River Fowey and escaped intact without engaging the Royalist defenders.