Moor ran with blood

The Battle of Marston Moor was a key confrontation of the English Civil War.

On one side were the Royalists, on the other the Parliamentarians, better known as Cavaliers and Roundheads.

The Royalists supported the king, Charles I, who believed that he ruled by the divine right of God, and answered to no one. The Parliamentarians believed they should have a say in the running of our nation and should represent the people - the rich people of that time, that is.

Other issues which fuelled the conflict included religious freedom and taxes levied by the king to support his lifestyle.

From August 1642 the country had been in the grip of civil war. Father fought son and brother fought brother. Battles raged up and down the country as both sides tried to conquer the other.

The north of England had been a smoking bomb. All over Yorkshire there had been small engagements: Hull, Wetherby, Tadcaster and Leeds.

King Charles sent his nephew north to hold York. The city was besieged by Parliamentarian forces trying to starve the Royalists out.

The Battle of Marston Moor was inevitable once Prince Rupert reached Skipton on June 26, 1644. He stayed there for three days getting his men ready before setting out for York.

This left the Parliamentarians with a dilemma. Should they stay at York and risk being caught between the walls and Rupert, or should they send an army to meet Rupert and hope he did not beat them and again trap them?

By this time Rupert was at Knaresborough, so Parliament lifted the siege and deployed its 27,000-strong army on Marston Moor. Once deployed Parliament sat and waited for battle. However, the only thing the army saw was what Rupert wanted them to see, the movement of his vanguard, a clever ruse to trick Parliament into thinking Rupert was closer than he was.

Rupert then relieved York and joined up with the Marquess of Newcastle's 5,000 men, but he was still 9,000 men below Parliament's strength.

The Parliamentarians now expected Rupert to hold York and use it as a base to cut off their supply lines and harass them.

Parliament decided to use its army to cut off Rupert's lines of support and so moved off the moor and made for Tadcaster.

No sooner had they got there than they received news that Rupert was coming out of York to fight their superior force. Parliament did a U-turn and headed back to Marston Moor.

The moor has not changed very much since 1644. The ditch that ran the length of the battlefield has narrowed and there is more hedgerow than Sir Thomas Fairfax would have found when he took up his position on the right wing.

Who was in charge? Leven and Crawford were in the centre and the Earl of Manchester was left of centre. Oliver Cromwell was on the left wing: at this time he was not the man that history would remember.

On the hill behind Fairfax was a raised patch of land that was covered in trees. Today it's known as Cromwell Plump, but it was Lord Levin's headquarters. He controlled the Scots in Parliament's centre.

The ground ran away from the Parliamentarian line in a gentle slope which levelled out before the Royalist line.

On the Royalist line Byron commanded the right wing and stood opposite Cromwell, Ethan and Newcastle stood in the centre while Goring commanded the left wing and Rupert commanded the reserve.

Before the fight, the force of soldiers stretched from Tockwith to Long Marston. Both armies were anxious to get on with it, but wasted the best part of July 2 trying to out-manoeuvre each other. Had Rupert attacked Parliament as it came back on to the field, history may have told a different story.

However, both sides were not without their problems. The Scots had made such good time on the march to Tadcaster that they were not present when Parliament reformed for the second time. Parliament was let off the hook by Rupert's men who had stopped to loot the stuff Parliament had left behind when they broke off the siege of York.

Once they were formed up they refused to march until they got their pay. Often soldiers went weeks without getting any money. If you died in battle it was one less to pay. Back on the battlefield Rupert had placed 500 musketeers and some small cannon in the ditch. This was meant to disrupt Parliament's formation.

By late afternoon both sides seemed happy with their positions and Parliament set about waiting for the Royalists to attack. The attack did not come, in fact quite the opposite, Parliament could see that the Royalists were lighting fires and having an evening meal.

Parliament fired a single cannon shot and the whole army marched forward. As it did so the sky turned black.

There was a streak of lightening and a clap of thunder followed by a torrential downpour.

Rupert's musketeers in the ditch were swept away by Parliament's advance. Sir Thomas Fairfax routed Goring's left wing. But it was in the centre that fighting was at its bloodiest. The Royalists set to and the Scots reeled and staggered but they held out and were joined by the Scots' second line and the Royalists fell back.

Cromwell smashed Byron's wing but Byron's muskets disrupted Cromwell's formation - at the cost of heavy losses - and Parliament got the better of them. Cromwell himself was wounded in the engagement but not too seriously, because he fought on to victory.

Rupert, having seen his wing collapse, threw himself and his reserve into the thick of it. He cut his way through Parliament's line, only to be surrounded by the Scots. Rupert had to hide in a cornfield to avoid capture.

Parliament won the day, but such was the confusion neither side was quite sure who had won. Once, both sides' men were fleeing the battlefield.

Sir Thomas Fairfax found himself behind the Royalist line, so he took off all insignia and rode through their lines until he could reach safety. Back on his own line he found Cromwell, they discussed the battle and decided on one last chance, this time into the rear of Goring's men, who were scattered and beaten.

After his success over Goring, Cromwell attacked Newcastle's Whitecoats in their left flank while Manchester's infantry attacked the Whitecoats in their right. It proved too much for Newcastle's forces and they withdrew in good order to a large enclosure, where they refused to surrender.

Time after time Cromwell's men charged the Whitecoats, so much so they became exhilarated and went berserk. Newcastle's Whitecoats were decimated and only 40 survived the attacks.

All was lost and the battle of Marston Moor was over. The Royalist army had lost 4,000 killed and another 1,500 taken prisoner. Parliament did much better, with only 300 killed. In a battle lasting little more than two hours the Royalist cause in the North was lost for good.

Within five years the king would be beheaded and we would become a republic for the first and only time.

The Living History Camp, which will show how soldiers of the time lived, will be set up on the B1224 between Long Marston and Tockwith from 10.30am to 5pm on Saturday.

Updated: 10:07 Monday, June 21, 2004