Parliamentarian forces defeated Royalist cavalry at Rowton Heath outside Chester on 24 September 1645. Charles I reportedly watched part of the disaster from the city's defences. The defeat prevented the king from joining remaining Royalist forces and accelerated the collapse of his western position.

The image of Charles witnessing defeat from Chester's walls carried obvious dramatic and elegiac power. Royalist narratives used such scenes to represent the king as a suffering observer of his kingdom's destruction.