Page 45 - History of War - Issue 18-15

BATTLE OF NASEBY

“THOUGH THE EXECUTION OF A MONARCH
APPALLED MANY PARLIAMENTARIANS, THE KING

WAS EVENTUALLY SENTENCED TO DEATH”

The battle site at Naseby is marked
by small hills and vales and was
largely unenclosed at the time

This painting by Charles Landseer depicts
Cromwell reading a letter found in
Charles’s cabinet after the battle

bloody encounter took place two miles north, quite lightly, with relatively few fatalities on the scatteredacrosstheBritishIsles,whilea
atop and around Wadborough Hill, where metal battlefield. The battle was over not long past pro-Royalist army held the upper hand in
detectors have found a sizeable concentration noon, and the Parliamentarian commissioners Scotland. He hoped for further support from
of musket shot. Some historians have argued in attendance with the New Model Army acrosstheIrishSea,yetnothingcameofthe
that the Royalist infantry posted to guard the reported that about 600 Royalists perished negotiations with the Irish and his supporters
baggage train and ammunition might have that day and 200 Roundheads, though modern north of the border were soon heavily
fallen back to this position during the closing estimates put the Royalist loss somewhere in defeated in September.
stages of combat, but others point out that the vicinity of 1,000. In England, the king found recruitment
the vast concentration of metallic objects difficult in the aftermath of Naseby. The New
suggests a fray involving far greater numbers. The aftermath Model Army mopped up pockets of resistance,
Whatever the case, the Royalist forces Somewhere in the region of 5,000 Royalist andOxfordandBristolfell.InMayofthe
were now on the run and their baggage train prisoners were taken, maybe more, mostly from following year, the king surrendered to the
and camp followers were left exposed. The the infantry units. This was an almighty blow Scots, who handed him over to Parliament.
Parliamentarian troops set about slaying or to the king’s cause, as was the loss of arms He briefly escaped, but was swiftly recaptured
mutilating a number of women, which included and, vitally, ammunition. The manufacture of andsenttoLondontobetriedas“atyrant,
soldiers’ wives as well as prostitutes. “The gunpowder required saltpetre and sulphur, both traitor, murderer and public enemy to the
Irish women that Prince Rupert brought upon of which were mostly imported from overseas, commonwealth of England.”
the field,” wrote Fairfax’s secretary, “our and the Roundheads controlled the majority Though the execution of a monarch
soldiers would grant no quarter to, about 100 of important port towns along England’s appalled many of Parliament’s supporters,
slain of them, and most of the rest of the eastern seaboard. Charles also lost a cabinet the king was eventually sentenced to death.
whores that attended that wicked army are containing his personal correspondence, The conflict between Parliament and the
marked in the face or nose, with a slash or including letters communicating with crownhadescalatedintowarwhentheKing
cut.” It has been pointed out that many of the supporters on thecontinent.Thoughhemade raised his standard at Nottingham, followed
‘Irish’ women were most likely Welsh. It was light of the loss, the wily Parliamentarians shortly with the battle at Edgehill in October Images:Alamy,EdCrooks,Getty
with this murderous conclusion that the New employed the letters for propaganda, publishing 1642. In January 1649, on a scaffold outside
Model Army claimed its greatest victory, and their content in a bid to showcase the king’s Whitehall, Charles I lost his head to the
took the field at Naseby. Catholic sympathies. executioner’s axe. The Commonwealth of
Though the camp followers were treated The king retained some troops, and had England was declared and Parliament’s victory
horribly, the Royalist army itself suffered a number of smaller armies and garrisons was complete.

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