Following a brief exchange of artillery fire, the battle began with a Royalist cavalry charge led by Prince Rupert of the Rhine. A second Royalist cavalry charge followed, led by Henry Wilmot, 1st Earl of Rochester. Both the right and left flanks of the Parliamentarian horse were scattered. The Royalist cavalry, with their eye on the baggage train, unwisely chose to pursue the fleeing Parliamentarian horsemen but Essex had kept two cavalry regiments in reserve. As the rival infantry divisions engaged in combat, with Essex fighting alongside his troops with a pike, the two remaining Parliamentarian cavalry regiments made a devastating attack on the exposed Royalist foot soldiers.