Marston Moor, battle of

Marston Moor, battle of, 1644. In the early summer of 1644 Charles I's forces in the north were pressed between the Scots under Alexander Leslie, Lord Leven, and parliamentary armies under Fairfax and Manchester, moving into south Yorkshire. The marquis of Newcastle fell back upon York, heavily fortified. In June Rupert set out from Lancashire to relieve the city. On 1 July, crossing the Ure at Boroughbridge, he outflanked his opponents massed west of York to intercept him, and made contact with the defenders. The following day he gave battle at Marston Moor, in flat pasture land 7 miles west of the city, with roughly 18,000 men against 27,000. Cromwell, with his first major command, was in charge of the cavalry on Fairfax's left wing. Rupert's defeat was severe and he was said to have been forced to hide in a bean-field. Though the full significance was masked by Charles I's success at Lostwithiel two months later, the north was lost to the royalist cause and Newcastle fled at once to the continent.

J. A. Cannon