A few months later he led a charge during the Battle of Hopton Heath after the death of the Earl of Northampton, which helped the Royalists capture enemy artillery pieces.

[3] On the outbreak of the First English Civil War in 1642, Byron and his brothers were "all passionately the King's", according to the writer Lucy Hutchinson, a family friend.

In the same month, during the Royalist campaign in the Thames Valley, Byron and his older brother John occupied Fawley Court, the home of Bulstrode Whitelocke.

[6] In March 1643, at the Battle of Hopton Heath, the Royalists' commanding officer, the Earl of Northampton, was killed leading a cavalry attack.

[1] After recovering, Byron was given orders to provide support to Lord Hopton, who after his campaign in the south-west, was preparing to assault Surrey and Sussex.

[10] On 7 December 1643, Byron was attacked in Oxford as he left his lodgings by one of his own soldiers, Captain Hurst, over a pay dispute.