The Battle of Roundway Down was fought on 13 July 1643 at Roundway Down near Devizes, in Wiltshire during the First English Civil War. Despite being outnumbered and exhausted after riding overnight from Oxford, a Royalist cavalry force under Lord Wilmot won a crushing victory over the Parliamentarian Army of the West under Sir William Waller.

Sir Arthur Haselrig, 2nd Baronet was a leader of the Parliamentary opposition to Charles I and one of the Five Members whose attempted arrest sparked the 1642–1646 First English Civil War. He held various military and political posts during the 1639–1651 Wars of the Three Kingdoms but became an opponent of Oliver Cromwell during the Protectorate. In 1660, his actions inadvertently helped restore Charles II to the throne; unlike many senior Parliamentary leaders, his life was spared but he was confined to the Tower of London, where he died on 7 January 1661.