The Second Battle of Newbury, fought on 27 October 1644, marked the climax of a dramatic summer of fighting during the English Civil War. Although by no means the largest battle of the war, it was nevertheless highly significant. On no other occasion, except for the climactic encounter at Naseby in 1645, was King Charles closer to death and total defeat, or the Royalist Oxford army nearer to complete destruction. Yet, in some of the fiercest fighting of the war, the Cavaliers not only withstood the onslaught of a numerically superior enemy but successfully extricated themselves from a nearly fatal trap, and in the closing stages of the campaign regained the initiative, humiliating their opponents. The outcome would be the formation of the New Model Army, whose victories finally shattered the Royalist cause and changed the political and religious future of the British Isles forever.