Relief of Montgomery Castle

Battle of Montgomery

View north from Montgomery Castle, towards the battlefield (in the level ground)

Date	18 September 1644
Location	Montgomery, Powys
Result	Parliamentarian victory

Belligerents

Parliamentarians

Royalists

Commanders and leaders

Sir John Meldrum,
Colonel Thomas Mytton

Lord Byron

Strength

2,500 infantry,
1,500 cavalry

2,800 infantry,
1,400 cavalry,
300 dragoons

Casualties and losses

500 killed,
1,500 prisoners

The Battle of Montgomery took place during the First English Civil War of 1642–1646. On 17 September 1644, a Parliamentarian force commanded by Sir John Meldrum advanced to engage a Royalist army led by Lord Byron which was besieging Montgomery Castle in mid Wales. The battle was fought the next day. After the Royalists gained an initial advantage, the Parliamentarians counter-attacked and destroyed Byron's army.

The Royalists retained a presence in North and Mid Wales after their defeat, but could not again gather a field army in the region until the end of the civil war.

The Royalists enjoyed local support in much of Wales. During much of 1643, local Royalist commanders skirmished in the Welsh Marches with Parliamentarian forces based in the Midlands and commanded by Sir Thomas Myddelton and Colonel Thomas Mytton among others. Late in 1643, King Charles attempted to create a field army in North Wales and Cheshire under Lord Byron, using English regiments returned from Ireland following a negotiated armistice with Confederate Ireland, but Byron suffered a setback at the Battle of Nantwich in January 1644.

In the spring of 1644, Prince Rupert, the King's nephew and most popular field commander, established himself at Shrewsbury. In May, he led his own and Byron's armies into Lancashire, on his way to relieve the Siege of York. Myddelton and other Parliamentarians under the Earl of Denbigh took advantage of Rupert's and Byron's absence to capture Oswestry on 22 June.

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