Worcestershire in the English Civil War Gloucestershire, made the county vulnerable to raiding and requisitions. Nevertheless, the county was strategically vital to the Royalists, as a bridge from their mostly Western territories including Wales and Ireland back to their headquarters in Oxford. Worcestershire also provided the Royalists with industrial capacity to produce armaments and munitions. In June 1644, General William Waller's force of around 10,000 men pursued the King's army into Worcestershire as it retreated from Oxford. Waller was supported by the residents of Evesham, who repaired their bridge which had been broken to slow his passage into Worcestershire; the town was heavily fined and the
Second English Civil War Second English Civil War The Second English Civil War (1648–1649) was the second of three wars known collectively as the English Civil War (or "Wars"), which refers to the series of armed conflicts and political machinations which took place between Parliamentarians and Royalists from 1642 until 1651 and also include the First English Civil War (1642–1646) and the Third English Civil War (1649–1651), all of which were part of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. The end of the First Civil War, in 1646, left a partial power vacuum in which any combination of the three English factions, Royalists, Independents