Battle of Langport and four infantry regiments from their New Model Army, to relieve Taunton. They raised the siege on 11 May 1645, but were themselves besieged by Goring's returning army (although there was no longer any danger of the Royalists storming the town). On 14 June 1645, the main body of the New Model Army under Sir Thomas Fairfax, with Oliver Cromwell as Lieutenant General of Horse, won the decisive Battle of Naseby, destroying Charles's main army. After the Royalist garrison of Leicester surrendered four days later, the New Model Army was free to march to the relief of Taunton. The army
John Gerard (Royalist) in 1654 Gerard went over to France, where he was presented to Charles II by his cousin, Charles Gerard, Lord Brandon. Soon after his return to England in May 1654 he was arrested, with two others, on a charge of conspiring against the government in what became known as Gerard's conspiracy. It was alleged that in company with a Royalist major, one Henshaw, whom he had met in France, Gerard with 30 other mounted men were to attack the Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell as he rode to Hampton Court, and, after overwhelming his body guard and killing him, to besiege