Charles I's army defeated part of Sir William Waller's Parliamentarian force near Cropredy Bridge in Oxfordshire on 29 June 1644. The king preserved his army and captured artillery, although the result did not fundamentally alter the war. Waller's demoralised troops subsequently suffered from desertion and indiscipline.

The battle intensified parliamentary criticism of divided commands and unreliable regional armies. Such failures encouraged arguments for the New Model Army, whose disciplined identity would be reinforced through sermons and print.