BATTLE OF NASEBY

The 'Battle of Naseby' was the key battle of the first English Civil War. On June 14 1645, the main army of King Charles I was destroyed by the Parliamentarian New Model Army under Sir Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell.

Contents

The Campaign

The battle

Aftermath

Images of the Battlefield

See also

References

Notes

The Campaign

At the beginning of 1645, King Charles's advisors urged him to attack the New Model Army while it was still forming. However Prince Rupert of the Rhine, recently appointed General of the Army and therefore the King's chief military adviser, proposed instead to march north to recover the north of England and join forces with the Royalists in Scotland under Montrose. This course was adopted, even though the King's army had to be weakened by leaving a detachment (including 3000 cavalry) under Lord Goring, the Lieutenant General of Horse, to hold the west country and maintain the Siege of Taunton.
At the same time, after an aborted attempt to relieve Taunton, Parliament's Committee of Both Kingdoms had directed Fairfax to besiege Oxford, the King's wartime capital. Initially, Charles welcomed this move, as Fairfax would be unable to interfere with his move north. Then at the end of May he was told that Oxford was short of provisions and could not hold out long. To distract Fairfax, the Royalists stormed the Parliamentarian garrison at Leicester on May 31. Having done so, Prince Rupert and the King's council reversed their former decision and decided to march south to relieve Oxford.
Parliament had indeed been alarmed by the loss of Leicester, and Fairfax was now instructed to engage the King's main army. He accordingly marched north from Oxford on June 5. His leading detachments of horse clashed with Royalist outposts near Daventry on June 12, alerting the King to his presence. On June 13, the Royalists, who were now making for Newark so as to receive reinforcements, were at Market Harborough.
Fairfax was eager to engage them, and held a council of war, during which Oliver Cromwell, recently re-appointed Lieutenant General, arrived with some cavalry reinforcements. The New Model Army moved in pursuit of the Royalist army, and late in the day Henry Ireton attacked a Royalist outpost at Naseby, six miles (10 km) to the south of the royalist army. The King now had to accept battle, or retreat with Fairfax at his heels. On June 14, urged on by Rupert, he took the former course.

The battle

Fairfax had drawn up his army on a ridge a mile north of Naseby, with Ireton's wing of cavalry (five and a half regiments) on the left, Cromwell's cavalry (six and a half regiments) on the right and the infantry (five large regiments in the front line and three in reserve) under Sir Philip Skippon in the centre. A Parliamentarian engraving of the battle^[2] (which is accurate in most respects) shows 11 pieces of artillery, in the intervals between the infantry regiments. They apparently played little part in the battle; their first salvos went high, and Royalist and Parliamentarian infantry were subsequently too closely engaged for the guns to be used.
2500 Royalist horse under Rupert and his brother Prince Maurice faced Ireton, while 1500 truculent "Northern Horse" under Sir Marmaduke Langdale faced Cromwell. In the centre, the Royalist foot were organised as three "tertias" commanded by Lord Astley. The King commanded a small reserve of infantry (his own and Prince Rupert's regiments of foot) and his Lifeguard of Horse.
Battle began when Parliamentarian dragoons under Colonel Okey occupied hedges on the Royalist right flank. They opened fire and goaded Rupert into a charge. After fierce fighting, most of Ireton's regiments were broken and put to flight, some not stopping until they reached Northampton. Rupert (or it may have actually been his brother Maurice) led his men in all-out pursuit, leaving some of Ireton's men behind them, only temporarily disordered.
There followed a general advance of the Royalist infantry. Initially, the Royalist centre and left advanced while the right wing appeared to hesitate due to the Parliamentarian infantry being out of sight behind the crest of the ridge. Suddenly the roundhead infantry moved to the crest of the ridge and both sides fired a volley. With no time to reload, both sides closed with each other and after a short time the Parliamentarian centre started to strain under the pressure from the veteran Royalist foot.
Ireton led the remnants of his horse to their support, and was unhorsed, wounded and captured: at this point the whole line of Parliamentary Foot might have crumbled and fled if not for the leadership of Philip Skippon, their Sergeant Major General of Foot. Skippon was badly wounded by a musket ball to the chest during this fighting.
Meanwhile, on the Parliamentarian right, possibly commanded by Thomas Fairfax , The Parliamentarian Horse faced the Royalist Northern horse, neither willing to charge to the aid of their infantry while the other could threaten their flank. Eventually after an hour, the Royalist cavalry began to charge and Cromwell's troops moved to meet them. Langdale's men were not only outflanked and outnumbered two to one, but forced to charge up a slope broken up by bushes and a rabbit warren. After a brief contest they were routed.
Unlike Rupert, Cromwell sent only two regiments after them, and turned his reserves against the Royalist centre. Okey's dragoons and some of Ireton's horse also attacked on the other flank. Outnumbered and surrounded, the Royalist foot were killed or forced to retreat after a desperate resistance. One regiment, Prince Rupert's Bluecoats, stood their ground and resisted the victorious Parliamentarian forces in a desperate last stand, but they too eventually succumbed to the sheer weight of numbers. Fairfax was at the centre of this meléê, and is said to have killed the Bluecoats' Ensign. The King attempted to lead his Lifeguard of Horse to their rescue, but was prevented from doing so by the Scottish Earl of Carnwath, who seized his bridle crying, "Would you go on your death so easily?", and forced him to halt.
Rupert's cavalry had galloped two miles and reached the Parliamentarian baggage train, defended only by a small guard. They refused his summons to surrender, and Rupert belatedly led his cavalry back to the battlefield, where they were too late to save the Royalist infantry. They reformed a mile north of their original positions, but would not make another attack. When Fairfax regrouped and advanced, they rode off the field.
Fairfax's forces pursued Royalist survivors fleeing north to Leicester in an attempt to destroy their army as a fighting force. Many Royalists were butchered when they mistakenly followed what they thought was the main road to Leicester into a church yard, and were unable to escape their pursuers. Parliamentarian troops also hacked to death at least 100 women camp-followers in the apparent belief they were Irish, though they were probably Welsh whose language was mistaken for Irish. This massacre was widely celebrated by the Parliamentarians.^[3].

Aftermath

Fairfax recovered Leicester on June 18. He immediately led his army southwest to relieve Taunton and capture the Royalist-held West Country.
Royalist military force had been shattered at Naseby. The King had lost his veteran infantry (including 500 officers), all his artillery, and many arms. He was unable to take the field again until they had been replaced, and he could never again raise an army of similar quality.
The Parliamentarians had also captured the King's personal baggage, with correspondence which showed he intended to seek support from the Irish Catholic Confederation, and Catholic nations in Europe. By publishing this correspondence, Parliament gained much support in favour of fighting the war to a finish. Within a year, the First Civil War ended in a Parliamentarian military victory.

Images of the Battlefield

See also

★ The ship ''Naseby'' of the Commonwealth of England was named after the battle.

★ English Civil War

★ Wars of the Three Kingdoms

★ Naseby Field

References

★ ''Naseby 1645: The Campaign and the Battle'' by Peter Young ISBN 0-7126-0489-8

★ Mark Stoyle, ''Soldiers and Strangers. An Ethnic History of the English Civil War'', Yale: Yale University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-300-10700-5

Notes

1. (100 Decisive Battles, Davis)
2. J. Streeter in ''"Anglia Rediviva"'', displayed in the frontispiece of "Battles and Generals of the Civil War", H.C.B. Rogers
3. Ireland.com