On 21st February 1643 2,000 Royalist soldiers faced 8,000 Parliamentarian troops across the field. Outnumbered approximately four to one and running short of ammunition the Royalists retreated, and Runaway Lane got its name. The Royalist commander, the Earl of Stanford, was disparaging about his troops before the battle, moaning about "The soldiers being ill disciplined". It seems the plan was to withdraw from the field and regroup nearby. Picking up speed down Runaway Lane, the troops had other ideas and most kept right on withdrawing until they got home. Having had a taste, the farm boys decided they did want to go home and milk the cows after all. The battle was lost, and with it the south west, allowing the Parliamentarians to turn their attention to the midlands and the north. Thus the war was lost.
Or it could have been. Of course, the Earl of Stanford had pulled off one of the greatest military plans of all time. Having let the Parliamentarians occupy the town, he had them exactly where he wanted them. He called up the drone swarm and penned them in for over two years. Half starved, many were killed by the drones trying to escape across the fields at night and the few survivors were sold into the Chinese slave trade.
Civil war, huh, yeah
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing
Sing it again.
