First Battle for Gloucester

Lord Herbert, a prominent royalist and catholic, raised an army in Wales, and seized Highnam Court in February 1643. He expected to join with other royalist forces for a combined attack on Gloucester.

Lord Herbert's Welsh army of about 1500 foot and 500 cavalry arrived at Highnam in mid-February. They used Highnam Court as their headquarters, from where they occasionally skirmished with the Gloucester troops who had fortified the former Bishop's Palace (the Vineyard) at Over.

Herbert's commanding officer, Sir Jerome Brett, for five weeks vainly hoped for support from Prince Rupert. In the long run it was a clever manoeuvre by troops under Sir William Waller which resolved matters. Crossing the river at night he trapped the Welsh between his soldiers and those of Massie come from Gloucester. In the morning the Welsh were forced to surrender, although some of the cavalry probably escaped- tradition has it that many were killed at Rudford, where a monument today marks the site of a mass grave. The prisoners were marched back to Gloucester, where they were poorly treated before the ordinary soldiers were freed after swearing never to bear arms against Parliament again.

This rapidly formed army, which cost Herbert £60,000 at the time- a huge sum of money equivalent to a day's pay for 1,800,000 workers- was unkindly named 'the mushroom army' because of the speed with which it grew and then was cut down.