An Exact and True RELATION OF The DANGEROUS and bloody FIGHT, between His majesty's army, and the Parliaments Forces, near Kyneton in the county of Warwick, the 23 of this instant OCTOBER.  
Sent in a Letter to John PYM Esquire, a Member of the House of COMMONS.  
Which Letter was signed by Denzell Hollis, Ph. Stapleton, Tho. Ballard, William Balfour, Io. Meldrum, Charles Pym. Who were then present.  
ORdered that this Relation be forthwith printed and published.  
H. Elsing, Cler. Parl. D. Dom.  
LONDON, Printed for FRANCIS WRIGHT. 1642.   

SIR,  
WE should do our Army a great deal of wrong, and not discharge our duty of thankfulness towards God, if we took not the first occasion to declare his goodness, in giving so great a blessing as he hath now done to the resolute and unwearied endeavours of our soldiers, fighting for him in the maintenance of his Truth, and for themselves and their country, in defence of their Liberties, and the privileges of ●arliament. This makes us give you now a Narration of a blessed Victory which God hath given us upon the Army of the Cavaliers, and of those evil persons, who upon Sunday, the 23. of this instant, engaged his Majesty in a dangerous and bloody fight against his faithful Subjects, in the Army raised by Authority of Parliament, for the preservation of his crown and kingdom; we marched from Worcester, Wednesday the 19 upon Intelligence that the Army was moved from Shrewesbury, and Bridgenorth, and bending Southward; our Train of Artillery was so unready, through want of draught Horses, and through our omission of Monsieur du Boys, that we were forced to leave it behind to follow us, and with it the Regiments of colonel Hambden, and colonel Grantham; and staying for it, we could advance no further than to a little market-town, called Kyneton in Warwickshire, six miles from Warwick, whither we came the Saturday night, with 11. Regiments of Foot, 42. troops of Horse, and about 700. Dragoons, in all about ten thousand men; there we intended to rest the Sabbath day, and the rather, that our Artillery, and the Forces left with it, might come up to us. In the morning, when we were going to Church, we had news brought us, That the Enemy was two miles from us, upon a high Hill, called Edge-hill; whereupon we presently marched forth into a great broad field under that Hill, called The vale of the red Horse, and made a stand some half a mile from the foot of the Hill, and there drew into Battalia▪ where we saw their Forces come down the Hill, and draw likewise into battle in the bottom a great broad company: Their Forces appeared to be much greater than we could possibly have conceived them to be; by the confession of the prisoners we have taken, they that say least, say fourteen thousand, which is the Earl of Lindsey's Relation, who was their general; but others say, eighteen thousand, and above 4000 horse and dragoons: The wind was much for their advantage, and they endeavoured to get it more, which to prevent, we were enforced to draw out our left Wing to a great breadth, and by that means, before the battle was done, gained it wholly from them: In our right Wing were three Regiments of Horse, 
These two Regiments were led by Sir Io. Meldrum, and were of his Brigado.  the Lord Generals commanded by Sir Philip Stapleto, Sir William Balfore, and the Lord Fieldings, Sir John Meldrums Brigado had the Van, Colonel Essex was in the middle, and colonel Bullard with the Lord general's Regiment, his own, the Lord Brookes, and colonel Hollis in the rear: In the left Wing were 24. troops of Horse, commanded by Sir James Ramsey, their Commissary general. In this posture we stood, when th'other Army advanced towards us, the strength of their horse were on their right Wing, opposite to our left Wing; In their left Wing they had but ten troops, but their Foot which appeared to us, divided into nine great Bodies, came up all in front, and after some playing with the Canon on both sides, that part of it which was on their left, and towards our right Wing, came on very gallantly to the Charge, and were as gallantly received, and charged by Sir Philip Stapletons and Sir William Balfore's Regiments of Horse, assisted with the Lord Roberts and Sir William Constables Regiments of Foot, who did it so home thrice together, that they forced all the Musquetiers of two of their best Regiments to run in and shroud themselves within their Pikes, not daring to shoot a shot, and so stood: When our rear came up, and then charging all together, especially that part of our Rear which was placed upon the right, and so next unto them, which was the Lord general's Regiment, and the Lord Brooks, led on by colonel Ballard, who commanded that Brigado, forced that stand of Pikes, and wholly broke those two Regiments, and slew and took almost every man of them: The Earl of Lindsey, his son the Lord Willoughby, and some other persons of note are prisoners, Sir Edmund Varney, who carried the King's Standard, was slain by a Gentleman of the Lord general's Troop of horse, who did much other good service that day, and the Standard taken, which was afterwards by the Lord general himself delivered unto his Secretary M. Chamber●, with an intention to send it back the next day unto His Majesty; but the Secretary after he had carried it long in his hand, suffered it to be taken away by some of our Troopers, and as yet we cannot learn where it is: The other two Regiments of our Rear▪ Col. Hollis, and Col. Ballard charged those which were before them, and then the whole Body of the King's Foot, except two other Regiments ran away▪ by this time it grew so late and dark, and to say the truth, our Ammunition at this present was all spent, that we contented ourselves to make good the field, and gave them leave to retire up the hill in the night: But before we come to this, we will give you an account of what passed in the other parts of our Army, before our rear came up to charge. Our battle at the very first wholly disbanded and ran away, without ever striking stroke or so much as being charged by the Enemy, though Col. Essex himself, and others that commanded those Regiments, in chief did as much as men could do to stay them; but Col. Essex being forsaken by his whole Brigado, went himself into the Van, where both by his direction and his own execution he did most gallant service, till he received a shot in the thigh, of which he is since dead: Now for our Rear, thus it was, before it▪ towards the out side of it stood our left wing of Horse, advanced a little forward to the top of a hill, where they stood in a Battalia lined with commanded musketeers, 400 out of Col. Hollis Regiment, and 200 out of Col. Ballard's; but upon the first charge of the Enemy they wheeled about▪ abandoned their musketeers, and came running down with the enemy's horse at their heels, and amongst them pell-mell, just upon Col. Hollis his Regiment, and broke through it, though Col. Hollis himself, when he saw them come running towards him, went and planted himself just in the way, and did what possibly he could do to make them stand, and at last prevailed with 3 Troops to wheel a little about and rally; but the rest of our horse of that wing, and the enemy's horse with them, broke through, and ran to Kineton, where most of the Enemy left pursuing them, and fell to plundering of our wagons, by which many of us have received very great loss, and by name, your servants that now write to you: Notwithstanding their breaking through Col. Hollis his Regiment, it was not dismayed, but together with the other Regiments of that Brigado marched up the hill, and so made all the haste they could to come up to fight, & got the wind of the Enemy, and came on (if we may say it ourselves, but we must do the soldiers right) most gallantly, and charged the enemy, who were then in fight with our Van, and the right wing of our Horse; and as was said before, helped to defeat the two Regiments forementioned, and made all the rest run, but two other Regiments which retired orderly, and at last made a stand, and having the assistance of Canon, and a ditch before them, held us play very handsomely: And by this time it grew so dark, and our Powder and Bullet so spent, that it was not held fit we should advance upon them; but there we stood in very good order, drew up all our Forces both Horse and Foot, and so stood all the night upon that place where the Enemy before the fight had drawn into Battalia, till toward Morning that the enemy was gone, and retired up the hill: And then we returned also to a warmer place near Kineton, where we had quartered the night before, for we were almost starved with cold in that bitter night, our Army being in extreme want of victuals. And about 9 or 10 of the clock drew out again into Battalia, and so stood 3 or 4 hours, till the Enemy was clean gone from the hill, and then we drew again into our quarter, and there have lain this night, and purpose this day, God willing, after we have buried our dead, to march to Warwick to refresh our army, which is exceedingly wearied with so many nights watching, & so long a fight which held from noon till dark night: Two particulars must not be omitted, one of Sir Wi. Balfore, who in the beginning of the day broke a Regiment of Foot which had green colours, beat them to their Canon, where they threw down their arms and ran away, he laid his hand upon the Canon, and called for nails to nail them up, especially the two biggest which were demi-canon, but finding none, he cut the Ropes belonging to them, and his Troopers killed the cannoneers: Then he pursued the flyers' half a mile upon execution, and after returned to Sir Philip Stapleton, who in the mean time was charging of the red Regiment, where the King's Standard was, and had charged it home to push of Pike with his single troop; and they then, together with the help of some of the Foot of our Rear, utterly broke it, as you had it before: The other particular was of Sir Phil. Stapleton, who, when five Troops of the enemy's horse returned from pursuit of our left wing, and from plundering some of our wagons and passed by the out side of our Rear upon the left hand, went and charged them with his Troop and made them run; but they finding a gap in the hedge got away, and returned to the rest of their broken Troops, where they fallyed and made up a kind of Body again▪ If we had time we could relate unto you many more observable passages, but what you have here shall serve you till we meet▪ This only will we say, some of both sides did extremely well, & others did as ill, and deserve to be hanged for deserting & betraying as much as lay in them their party, but God alone is to be praised who fought with us, & for us, & made it his own work to give the victory unto his Servants: We have lost of note▪ only colonel Essex, and we fear the Lord Saint-john wha● was dangerously wounded; We here send you a George, found in the field by a common soldier, and bought of him for twenty shillings by one Captane Ski●●er; We have promised him he shall have it again; we only send it you as one of our trophies that you may see it: we believe you will hear of very many of great quality slain on the other side; The King's foot are either slain, or most of them run away, and are now very weak, and should have been pursued by us, but that we must of pure necessity refresh our men for three or four days, and then we shall, God willing, address ourselves to finish the work. In the mean time 'tis very requisite, Letters from the Committee should be writ into the countries, which are Southern, to stir them up that they may rise and cut them off, or assist us at least against them; which hoping you will forthwith do;  
We rest, Your faithful and humble Servants. 

Denzell Hollis:  
Ph. Stapleton:  
Tho. Ballard:  
William Balfore:  
Io: Meldrum:  
Charles Pym.    
Our Lord general went last night to Warwick, and is there very well, and had he been with us, we should not have presumed to have given you the first Advertisement. His Excellence did gallantly adventure himself that day in the From against the Enemy, exposing himself to more danger than we could have wished.  
FINIS.