Scotland, East Anglia and the North, late 1644
The Scottish Theatre
July 20th: The Battle of Warwick Bridge
Responding to scout reports of a small Royalist force near Carlisle, a detachment of 3000 Covenanters were defeated by a similarly sized Royalist force commanded by the Marquise of Montrose. Though the battle was little more than a skirmish, the Covenanter troops were shocked to find such a large group had escaped their notice until that point. Unable to force a crossing without a numerical advantage, they retreated in good order.
When the Scots still besieging York got word of this defeat, they withdrew all but 6000 foot and 3000 horse to Newcastle, where a siege was ongoing, in case the troops would be required to defend Scotland.
July 28th: Montrose's force of English and Scottish royalists met up with the predominantly Gaelic forces under Alisdair MacColla. Most of these soldiers were Kilkenny Confederation Irish, sent as a part of truce negotiations with the the Earl of Ormond, though Gaelic scots from the Highlands and Hebrides were represented too.
September 2nd: The Battle of Perth.
The battle of Perth began after the Royalist besiegers, who lacked artillery, achieved several breaches in the walls of Perth with mines. The storming of the breaches was left to the Irish brigades, who achieved a lasting breakthrough on their second attempt that won them control of the walls. As the gates of the city were opened and Irishmen rushed off into undefended sections of town, Montrose proposed the city of Perth a deal: they would surrender control of the city to him as representative of the king, and would agree to pay a "contribution to the Restoration of His Majesty King Charles of Scotland, England and Ireland". In exchange, he would prevent the sack of the city by his Gaelic troops. What resulted was a series of Royalist cavalry patrols through the streets, in which a few dozen Irish soldiers were hanged before discipline was reasserted.
The mood in the aftermath was highly polarised. From the perspective of Montrose and his English and Scottish Royalists, they had successfully negotiated the surrender of the town in a manner which recognised King Charles' authority in Scotland without any casualties. Their army had even grown, with a number of surrendered militiamen opting to join the Royalist cause. By contrast, the Irish brigade under MacColla were mutionous - of their dead, nearly half were hung by their allies. Writing of the Royalist's treatment of his Gaelic forces, Alasdair MacColla wrote "We have no allies on the battlefield - there are only those that seek to kill us, and those who seek to have us killed." The Gaelic forces were only quietened when eventually granted a portion of Perth's 'contribution.'
September 4th: Following a Royalist sally at York that left many Scots dead, David Leslie marched north to Newcastle to regroup and make his manpower available in Scotland.
September 13th: The surrender of Aberdeen.
The Early of Huntly, head of the Gordon clan, held extensive properties in and around Aberdeen. He had started a Royalist rebellion as recently as March, only to be disarmed again by the Covenanter government by May. This hadn't been Huntly's first attempt either, with an earlier attempted Royalist rising by Huntly had been negotiated down by the Marquis of Montrose, back before Argyll's dominance had pushed Montrose out of the Covenanter regime.
The Earl of Huntly therefore met Montrose's inducement to join him warmly, glad to finally be a part of a Royalist faction within Scotland. Not only was the city of Aberdeen handed to Montrose without a fight, George Gordon, Huntly's son, and 800 Gordon troops would join Montrose's growing army, bringing his force to around 5500 men.
September 17th: The Aberdeen Campaign
With Covenanter army of unknown size marching north to defeat him, Montrose had a decision to make. On the one hand, if he wanted to inspire a general Royalist rebellion within Scotland, it was necessary that he prove he could defend his allies. Defending Gordon territory around Aberdeen would help to convince others who resented Argyll or the Covenant that the traitorous regime's hold on power was not absolute. On the other hand, Montrose's army was likely smaller than the force coming to meet him. Whilst defending Gordon territory was important, keeping the Royalist cause in Scotland alive was his actual remit from King Charles.
Deciding not to risk a direct confrontation, Montrose and his forces garrisoned Aberdeen. Yet when Argyll arrived a week later at the head of 8000 men, he had a problem on his hands. The year's campaign season was almost over, with insufficient time to properly establish a siege of Aberdeen before the winter set in. An assault didn't seem likely to succeed, yet he couldn't afford for Montrose to maintain Aberdeen throughout the winter, as it would doubtless prove a base of reinforcement and resupply for a campaign the following year.
Fortunately Argyll, the Covenanter regime had seen fit to confiscate most of Aberdeen's food supplies following the town's previous rebellion, meaning the Royalists would need to ration their food. Intending to exacerbate the problem, Argyll ordered many of his men to fan out throughout Aberdeenshire, intercepting recently reaped harvests before they could make their way to Gordon foodstores.
On the 28th of September, perceiving an opportunity to defeat his enemy whilst their forces were divided, Montrose set out to attack. Leaving Aberdeen under the cover of night, Montrose's army attacked Argyll's Covenanter force in a dawn raid where they made camp near a bend in the river Dee, 10km south-west of Aberdeen. In the early fighting it seemed Montrose's men had established a decisive advantage, with many Covenanters being cut down or fleeing before they could find their arms and make ranks.
Yet enough veterans came together to form a block in the middle of their camp that bought panicked men time to recover, even beginning to push Montrose's forces back. The decisive moment of the battle came with the late arrival of MacColla's gaels, who set about burning and looting undefended sections of the camp. This prompted many of the greener Covenanters to break and flee, leaving the veteran core exposed. Rather than risk being butchered, these Scots surrendered.
The result was a disaster for the Covenanters, their army completely eliminated as a fighting force. Of their original 8000 men, some 300 were killed, and 2000 more were taken prisoners. Whilst survivors would gradually regather under the Covenanter banner, they would not do so quickly enough to make a showing in 1644; Montrose's pocket of Royalist support was safe for now. And with that safety began a slow trickle of supporters, as those alienated by the Covenanter regime or who feared Charles' retribution began to declare openly for the king. The first of these was the Earl of Atholl, whose episcopalian leanings had lead to his political alienation from the Covenanter regime, though more would join them before the campaign season of 1645 began.
Although Montrose was quick to paint his victory at the River Dee as a victory over all Scotland, he was not in quite so dominant a position as his boasts. By mid October, Argyll had successfully rallied many of the troops who had fled at the River Dee and was garrisoned in Stirling Castle. By virtue of their strict adherence to Presbyterianism, most of the Scottish Lowlands still supported the Covenanter government, and that was unlikely to change with winter fast approaching. Yet in late October, Montrose could be forgiven for his optimism - in the four months since Marston Moor, he had seemingly restablished Royalism as a serious force in Scottish politics. So, how had he done it?
The first major consideration in Montrose's success was in the unpopularity of Archibald Campbell, the Marquiss of Argyll, who was the de facto head of Scottish government. Owing his political power to Campbell dominance in the Scottish highlands and his work with the English Parliament during the Bishops Wars and the forming of the Solemn League and Covenant, Argyll had accrued a reputation for corruption and general self-interest that left many wondering that he might have aspirations of claiming the throne for himself. For those who were on the out with Argyll, Montrose presented a much more appealing alternative than ongoing Campbell dominance. Perhaps equally importantly, he had totally failed in his remit to defend Scotland - what was the point of accepting Argyll's protection, if enemy armies were able to operate unchecked in Scotland anyway?
A second consideration was the war with King Charles, and the alliance with Parliament. Although Scotland had seemed poised to make a decisive contribution to the English Civil War at Marston Moor, by the end of 1644 King Charles appeared to be in a dominant position, with Essex's army bottled up in Taunton and a strong Royalist army just outside London. With the imposition of a Presbyterian settlement on the king appearing unlikely, many Scots hoped that a repositioning of Scotland as a loyal realm would win them concessions from the King once peace was finally secured.
And to his credit, Montrose encouraged this belief. At Perth and Aberdeen, Montrose had positioned the King, and himself by proxy, as champions of the constitutional victories enjoyed by Scotland over 1639-1640. According to Montrose, Charles was prepared to offer generous concessions to his loyal subjects, the implication being that even the removal of bishops was on the table. Working in the background here was Henrietta Maria, who had joined her husband in the siege camps of Taunton, and who had quickly reasserted herself as a key figure in the Royalist court . The court's orders to Montrose reflect the queen's belief that promises to heretics meant nothing, and with Charles co-ordinating the Reading campaign he allowed his advisors unusual leeway in acting on his behalf. Montrose was therefore allowed the flexibility to offer concessions that Charles himself might not have approved - indeed, Charles would prove less than enthusiastic about abolishing bishops in the winter's peace talks, allowing Argyll to start the following campaign season in a position that was not entirely hopeless.
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East Anglia, Cambridgeshire and The North
August 12th: The Parliamentarians scored a decisive victory against 3000 troopers serving under George Goring at King's Lynn.
August 21st: John Lilburne is elected MP for Cambridgeshire in a recruiter election for the seat left vacant by Oliver Cromwell's death at Marston Moor. Lilburne owed much of his political capital to his recent victory at King's Lynn, which was seen as justice by many of the electors, whose lands had been ravaged by Rupert's host already.
September 3rd: A Royalist sally lead by Marmaduke Langdale attacked the Scottish camps surrounding York, inflicting high casualties. Coordinating with Langdale from outside was Sir Charles Lucas, who had been recruiting and gathering supplies from Yorkshire and Lancashire. Although the Scots were able to regain control after aid was sent by Lord Fairfax, the Royalists were able to smuggle food and supplies into the city. The next day, perceiving that their numbers were too few to maintain the siege, Lord Fairfax and David Leslie agreed to break off the siege, with Fairfax garissoning Selby, Hull and Leeds, and Leslie marching north to Newcastle.
September 5th: The Battle of Peterborough
Parliamentary troopers caught up to Rupert's cavalry upon the banks of the River Nene in the late afternoon, enabling Lilburne to force a battle. With approximately 5000 cavalry each, it was the largest battle fought exclusively by cavalry of the civil war.
The battle was a stalemate, as though William Packer was triumphant on the Parliamentary left, Henry Ireton was defeated on the Parliamentary right. This meant that Parliament no longer had the Royalists pinned against the river, and with dusk approaching, the Royalists escaped north.
Fewer than 300 troopers died on either side.
September 6th: Newcastle sent several thousand infantry on a lightning march north to intercept the last 3000 Scots to leave the siege at York. The Scots dissolved in their rout, though some 1200 would gather in Hull under Lord Balmerino, and most of the rest to the siege at Newcastle.
September 12th: The Earl of Manchester, commanding the foot of the Eastern Association, received a suggestion from John Lilburne that he funnel Rupert's army towards Manchester, so that they could smash it in a pincer movement.
September 22nd: The Earl of Manchester's infantry contested the crossing of Rupert's cavalry at Spalding. Rupert's third wave established a substantial beachhead, allowing them to force Manchester's army back. Although Manchester was able to avoid a complete disaster through a retreat which made skilled use of the local wetlands, a little over three thousand Parliamentarians were caught on the wrong side of a canal and surrendered. Worse, Rupert's army was able to escape to the west - John Lilburne would not be able to engage it again before the end of the campaign season.
October 5th: John Lilburne is ordered by the Committee of Both Kingdoms to withdraw his forces to London, to defend it from the encroaching army of the King. King Charles' siege of Reading had been established on October 3rd.
October 15th: Rupert begins to besiege a few Midlands settlements, consolidating the Royalist link between Wales in the west, and Oxford in the East. Plans for an army to assemble at Worcester the following Spring are developed, in the event that the peace talks with Parliament fail.
October 17th: The same day that Reading falls and the Scottish Perth Parliament meets, John Lilburne's army arrives to garrison London.
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Parliament's campaigns of The North and East Anglia in the latter half of 1644 are best characterized by their disunity. Despite the stalemate at Marston Moor, the Parliamentarian position in the North had remained strong - they had three armies besieging York with Newcastle bottled up inside. Yet the Royalists were able to save York through attacking the Covenanter and Eastern Association home regions, forcing John Lilburne and Alexander Leslie to respond to Royalist activity rather than preempting it, leaving the Fairfax father-son duo alone to contend with Newcastle.
With the exception of John Lilburne's victory at King's Lynn, the campaign season was a failure on all Parliamentarian fronts. Montrose's Scots had won half of Scotland to the king's banner, Rupert had successfully evaded Lilburne, Newcastle retained York, and King Charles was threatening London. Yet whilst this outwardly looked to be a Parliamentary failure, John Lilburne and the Independents were only too keen to place the blame on the Presbyterians.
According to Lilburne, he and the Independents had won their contributions to the war, successfully holding at Marston Moor and bringing victory at King's Lynn. The Fairfaxes had at least avoided defeat in the North. But everywhere the Presbyterians commanded, Parliament was defeated. Essex's army was starving behind the Walls of Taunton, William Waller's relief army had been crushed, and Manchester had allowed Rupert to slip from his grasp, losing half of his army to boot.
But the problem John Lilburne and the Independents of the army faced in October 1644 was that just as they were popular among the radical Independents of London's outer wards, so too were they feared among the Presbyterian nobility and gentry. It was well understood by the Parliamentary elite that John Lilburne intended to upend the social order - and so they took methods against him.
The first on the 18th of October was Parliament's appointment of Major General Browne to command the London Trained Bands, in Philip Skipon's absence. This was a provocative move as Brown would insist that in the event that Charles marched on the city, they would be commanded independently of Lilburne's troops.
The second, coming on the 27th of October, was the formal announcement of peace talks, to take place at Uxbridge beginning on November 7th. A large peace faction had developed over the latter half of 1644. Some of these men were Presbyterians who believed that they had no way to achieve victory in the war, and would therefore be best served by appealing to the king's mercy. Others believed that it was important that they end the war right away, so that Lilburne's radical troops could be disbanded before they could produce any real harm to the social order.
On the 29th of October, Lilburne summoned a general meeting of officers and friends of the Independent cause at the Whalebone on Lothbury St in central London, to address the impending possibility for peace. It appears that this meeting was something of an attempt at reaching out on the part of John Lilburne, as a greater variety of men were present than usual. Some historians have argued that the mood in London was one that viewed peace as a certainty - Lilburne was therefore desperate, and was eager for a solution that would prevent the war ending, even if the Presbyterians made a deal with Charles. Others have contested that Lilburne had not yet completed his own radicalisation, and so was not yet the First Citizen he would become. In either case, the army would commit to a conservative position that sought the removal of King Charles, rather than an abolition of the monarchy entirely.
Pastor John Goodwin, minister to the haven of Independents that was St Stephens, was credited with mediating disputes between stout Congregationalists such as Hugh Peter, or radical Seperatists like Roger Williams. Hugh Peter and Roger Williams were old rivals, having debated the proper form of the churches of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Hugh Peter's Congregationalist model posited a loose affiliation of independent churches, which would be self governed providing they adhered to a basic set of uniform principles, like Trinitarianism and predestination. Williams' demand meanwhile was for full toleration, arguing that an individual's responsibility to God was too important for any laws of man to ever get in the way, and that the civil authorities therefore had no business intruding on an individual's conscience. Goodwin's compromise was to remind the theologians that both of them would be victim to the same Presbyterian tyranny if they didn't first come together to win the war.
Over the next week, the Independents set about their preparations for the sabotague of the Royalist-Presbyterian peace summit at Uxbridge.
July 20th: The Battle of Warwick Bridge
Responding to scout reports of a small Royalist force near Carlisle, a detachment of 3000 Covenanters were defeated by a similarly sized Royalist force commanded by the Marquise of Montrose. Though the battle was little more than a skirmish, the Covenanter troops were shocked to find such a large group had escaped their notice until that point. Unable to force a crossing without a numerical advantage, they retreated in good order.
When the Scots still besieging York got word of this defeat, they withdrew all but 6000 foot and 3000 horse to Newcastle, where a siege was ongoing, in case the troops would be required to defend Scotland.
July 28th: Montrose's force of English and Scottish royalists met up with the predominantly Gaelic forces under Alisdair MacColla. Most of these soldiers were Kilkenny Confederation Irish, sent as a part of truce negotiations with the the Earl of Ormond, though Gaelic scots from the Highlands and Hebrides were represented too.
September 2nd: The Battle of Perth.
The battle of Perth began after the Royalist besiegers, who lacked artillery, achieved several breaches in the walls of Perth with mines. The storming of the breaches was left to the Irish brigades, who achieved a lasting breakthrough on their second attempt that won them control of the walls. As the gates of the city were opened and Irishmen rushed off into undefended sections of town, Montrose proposed the city of Perth a deal: they would surrender control of the city to him as representative of the king, and would agree to pay a "contribution to the Restoration of His Majesty King Charles of Scotland, England and Ireland". In exchange, he would prevent the sack of the city by his Gaelic troops. What resulted was a series of Royalist cavalry patrols through the streets, in which a few dozen Irish soldiers were hanged before discipline was reasserted.
The mood in the aftermath was highly polarised. From the perspective of Montrose and his English and Scottish Royalists, they had successfully negotiated the surrender of the town in a manner which recognised King Charles' authority in Scotland without any casualties. Their army had even grown, with a number of surrendered militiamen opting to join the Royalist cause. By contrast, the Irish brigade under MacColla were mutionous - of their dead, nearly half were hung by their allies. Writing of the Royalist's treatment of his Gaelic forces, Alasdair MacColla wrote "We have no allies on the battlefield - there are only those that seek to kill us, and those who seek to have us killed." The Gaelic forces were only quietened when eventually granted a portion of Perth's 'contribution.'
September 4th: Following a Royalist sally at York that left many Scots dead, David Leslie marched north to Newcastle to regroup and make his manpower available in Scotland.
September 13th: The surrender of Aberdeen.
The Early of Huntly, head of the Gordon clan, held extensive properties in and around Aberdeen. He had started a Royalist rebellion as recently as March, only to be disarmed again by the Covenanter government by May. This hadn't been Huntly's first attempt either, with an earlier attempted Royalist rising by Huntly had been negotiated down by the Marquis of Montrose, back before Argyll's dominance had pushed Montrose out of the Covenanter regime.
The Earl of Huntly therefore met Montrose's inducement to join him warmly, glad to finally be a part of a Royalist faction within Scotland. Not only was the city of Aberdeen handed to Montrose without a fight, George Gordon, Huntly's son, and 800 Gordon troops would join Montrose's growing army, bringing his force to around 5500 men.
September 17th: The Aberdeen Campaign
With Covenanter army of unknown size marching north to defeat him, Montrose had a decision to make. On the one hand, if he wanted to inspire a general Royalist rebellion within Scotland, it was necessary that he prove he could defend his allies. Defending Gordon territory around Aberdeen would help to convince others who resented Argyll or the Covenant that the traitorous regime's hold on power was not absolute. On the other hand, Montrose's army was likely smaller than the force coming to meet him. Whilst defending Gordon territory was important, keeping the Royalist cause in Scotland alive was his actual remit from King Charles.
Deciding not to risk a direct confrontation, Montrose and his forces garrisoned Aberdeen. Yet when Argyll arrived a week later at the head of 8000 men, he had a problem on his hands. The year's campaign season was almost over, with insufficient time to properly establish a siege of Aberdeen before the winter set in. An assault didn't seem likely to succeed, yet he couldn't afford for Montrose to maintain Aberdeen throughout the winter, as it would doubtless prove a base of reinforcement and resupply for a campaign the following year.
Fortunately Argyll, the Covenanter regime had seen fit to confiscate most of Aberdeen's food supplies following the town's previous rebellion, meaning the Royalists would need to ration their food. Intending to exacerbate the problem, Argyll ordered many of his men to fan out throughout Aberdeenshire, intercepting recently reaped harvests before they could make their way to Gordon foodstores.
On the 28th of September, perceiving an opportunity to defeat his enemy whilst their forces were divided, Montrose set out to attack. Leaving Aberdeen under the cover of night, Montrose's army attacked Argyll's Covenanter force in a dawn raid where they made camp near a bend in the river Dee, 10km south-west of Aberdeen. In the early fighting it seemed Montrose's men had established a decisive advantage, with many Covenanters being cut down or fleeing before they could find their arms and make ranks.
Yet enough veterans came together to form a block in the middle of their camp that bought panicked men time to recover, even beginning to push Montrose's forces back. The decisive moment of the battle came with the late arrival of MacColla's gaels, who set about burning and looting undefended sections of the camp. This prompted many of the greener Covenanters to break and flee, leaving the veteran core exposed. Rather than risk being butchered, these Scots surrendered.
The result was a disaster for the Covenanters, their army completely eliminated as a fighting force. Of their original 8000 men, some 300 were killed, and 2000 more were taken prisoners. Whilst survivors would gradually regather under the Covenanter banner, they would not do so quickly enough to make a showing in 1644; Montrose's pocket of Royalist support was safe for now. And with that safety began a slow trickle of supporters, as those alienated by the Covenanter regime or who feared Charles' retribution began to declare openly for the king. The first of these was the Earl of Atholl, whose episcopalian leanings had lead to his political alienation from the Covenanter regime, though more would join them before the campaign season of 1645 began.
Although Montrose was quick to paint his victory at the River Dee as a victory over all Scotland, he was not in quite so dominant a position as his boasts. By mid October, Argyll had successfully rallied many of the troops who had fled at the River Dee and was garrisoned in Stirling Castle. By virtue of their strict adherence to Presbyterianism, most of the Scottish Lowlands still supported the Covenanter government, and that was unlikely to change with winter fast approaching. Yet in late October, Montrose could be forgiven for his optimism - in the four months since Marston Moor, he had seemingly restablished Royalism as a serious force in Scottish politics. So, how had he done it?
The first major consideration in Montrose's success was in the unpopularity of Archibald Campbell, the Marquiss of Argyll, who was the de facto head of Scottish government. Owing his political power to Campbell dominance in the Scottish highlands and his work with the English Parliament during the Bishops Wars and the forming of the Solemn League and Covenant, Argyll had accrued a reputation for corruption and general self-interest that left many wondering that he might have aspirations of claiming the throne for himself. For those who were on the out with Argyll, Montrose presented a much more appealing alternative than ongoing Campbell dominance. Perhaps equally importantly, he had totally failed in his remit to defend Scotland - what was the point of accepting Argyll's protection, if enemy armies were able to operate unchecked in Scotland anyway?
A second consideration was the war with King Charles, and the alliance with Parliament. Although Scotland had seemed poised to make a decisive contribution to the English Civil War at Marston Moor, by the end of 1644 King Charles appeared to be in a dominant position, with Essex's army bottled up in Taunton and a strong Royalist army just outside London. With the imposition of a Presbyterian settlement on the king appearing unlikely, many Scots hoped that a repositioning of Scotland as a loyal realm would win them concessions from the King once peace was finally secured.
And to his credit, Montrose encouraged this belief. At Perth and Aberdeen, Montrose had positioned the King, and himself by proxy, as champions of the constitutional victories enjoyed by Scotland over 1639-1640. According to Montrose, Charles was prepared to offer generous concessions to his loyal subjects, the implication being that even the removal of bishops was on the table. Working in the background here was Henrietta Maria, who had joined her husband in the siege camps of Taunton, and who had quickly reasserted herself as a key figure in the Royalist court . The court's orders to Montrose reflect the queen's belief that promises to heretics meant nothing, and with Charles co-ordinating the Reading campaign he allowed his advisors unusual leeway in acting on his behalf. Montrose was therefore allowed the flexibility to offer concessions that Charles himself might not have approved - indeed, Charles would prove less than enthusiastic about abolishing bishops in the winter's peace talks, allowing Argyll to start the following campaign season in a position that was not entirely hopeless.
___
East Anglia, Cambridgeshire and The North
August 12th: The Parliamentarians scored a decisive victory against 3000 troopers serving under George Goring at King's Lynn.
August 21st: John Lilburne is elected MP for Cambridgeshire in a recruiter election for the seat left vacant by Oliver Cromwell's death at Marston Moor. Lilburne owed much of his political capital to his recent victory at King's Lynn, which was seen as justice by many of the electors, whose lands had been ravaged by Rupert's host already.
September 3rd: A Royalist sally lead by Marmaduke Langdale attacked the Scottish camps surrounding York, inflicting high casualties. Coordinating with Langdale from outside was Sir Charles Lucas, who had been recruiting and gathering supplies from Yorkshire and Lancashire. Although the Scots were able to regain control after aid was sent by Lord Fairfax, the Royalists were able to smuggle food and supplies into the city. The next day, perceiving that their numbers were too few to maintain the siege, Lord Fairfax and David Leslie agreed to break off the siege, with Fairfax garissoning Selby, Hull and Leeds, and Leslie marching north to Newcastle.
September 5th: The Battle of Peterborough
Parliamentary troopers caught up to Rupert's cavalry upon the banks of the River Nene in the late afternoon, enabling Lilburne to force a battle. With approximately 5000 cavalry each, it was the largest battle fought exclusively by cavalry of the civil war.
The battle was a stalemate, as though William Packer was triumphant on the Parliamentary left, Henry Ireton was defeated on the Parliamentary right. This meant that Parliament no longer had the Royalists pinned against the river, and with dusk approaching, the Royalists escaped north.
Fewer than 300 troopers died on either side.
September 6th: Newcastle sent several thousand infantry on a lightning march north to intercept the last 3000 Scots to leave the siege at York. The Scots dissolved in their rout, though some 1200 would gather in Hull under Lord Balmerino, and most of the rest to the siege at Newcastle.
September 12th: The Earl of Manchester, commanding the foot of the Eastern Association, received a suggestion from John Lilburne that he funnel Rupert's army towards Manchester, so that they could smash it in a pincer movement.
September 22nd: The Earl of Manchester's infantry contested the crossing of Rupert's cavalry at Spalding. Rupert's third wave established a substantial beachhead, allowing them to force Manchester's army back. Although Manchester was able to avoid a complete disaster through a retreat which made skilled use of the local wetlands, a little over three thousand Parliamentarians were caught on the wrong side of a canal and surrendered. Worse, Rupert's army was able to escape to the west - John Lilburne would not be able to engage it again before the end of the campaign season.
October 5th: John Lilburne is ordered by the Committee of Both Kingdoms to withdraw his forces to London, to defend it from the encroaching army of the King. King Charles' siege of Reading had been established on October 3rd.
October 15th: Rupert begins to besiege a few Midlands settlements, consolidating the Royalist link between Wales in the west, and Oxford in the East. Plans for an army to assemble at Worcester the following Spring are developed, in the event that the peace talks with Parliament fail.
October 17th: The same day that Reading falls and the Scottish Perth Parliament meets, John Lilburne's army arrives to garrison London.
___
Parliament's campaigns of The North and East Anglia in the latter half of 1644 are best characterized by their disunity. Despite the stalemate at Marston Moor, the Parliamentarian position in the North had remained strong - they had three armies besieging York with Newcastle bottled up inside. Yet the Royalists were able to save York through attacking the Covenanter and Eastern Association home regions, forcing John Lilburne and Alexander Leslie to respond to Royalist activity rather than preempting it, leaving the Fairfax father-son duo alone to contend with Newcastle.
With the exception of John Lilburne's victory at King's Lynn, the campaign season was a failure on all Parliamentarian fronts. Montrose's Scots had won half of Scotland to the king's banner, Rupert had successfully evaded Lilburne, Newcastle retained York, and King Charles was threatening London. Yet whilst this outwardly looked to be a Parliamentary failure, John Lilburne and the Independents were only too keen to place the blame on the Presbyterians.
According to Lilburne, he and the Independents had won their contributions to the war, successfully holding at Marston Moor and bringing victory at King's Lynn. The Fairfaxes had at least avoided defeat in the North. But everywhere the Presbyterians commanded, Parliament was defeated. Essex's army was starving behind the Walls of Taunton, William Waller's relief army had been crushed, and Manchester had allowed Rupert to slip from his grasp, losing half of his army to boot.
But the problem John Lilburne and the Independents of the army faced in October 1644 was that just as they were popular among the radical Independents of London's outer wards, so too were they feared among the Presbyterian nobility and gentry. It was well understood by the Parliamentary elite that John Lilburne intended to upend the social order - and so they took methods against him.
The first on the 18th of October was Parliament's appointment of Major General Browne to command the London Trained Bands, in Philip Skipon's absence. This was a provocative move as Brown would insist that in the event that Charles marched on the city, they would be commanded independently of Lilburne's troops.
The second, coming on the 27th of October, was the formal announcement of peace talks, to take place at Uxbridge beginning on November 7th. A large peace faction had developed over the latter half of 1644. Some of these men were Presbyterians who believed that they had no way to achieve victory in the war, and would therefore be best served by appealing to the king's mercy. Others believed that it was important that they end the war right away, so that Lilburne's radical troops could be disbanded before they could produce any real harm to the social order.
On the 29th of October, Lilburne summoned a general meeting of officers and friends of the Independent cause at the Whalebone on Lothbury St in central London, to address the impending possibility for peace. It appears that this meeting was something of an attempt at reaching out on the part of John Lilburne, as a greater variety of men were present than usual. Some historians have argued that the mood in London was one that viewed peace as a certainty - Lilburne was therefore desperate, and was eager for a solution that would prevent the war ending, even if the Presbyterians made a deal with Charles. Others have contested that Lilburne had not yet completed his own radicalisation, and so was not yet the First Citizen he would become. In either case, the army would commit to a conservative position that sought the removal of King Charles, rather than an abolition of the monarchy entirely.
Pastor John Goodwin, minister to the haven of Independents that was St Stephens, was credited with mediating disputes between stout Congregationalists such as Hugh Peter, or radical Seperatists like Roger Williams. Hugh Peter and Roger Williams were old rivals, having debated the proper form of the churches of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Hugh Peter's Congregationalist model posited a loose affiliation of independent churches, which would be self governed providing they adhered to a basic set of uniform principles, like Trinitarianism and predestination. Williams' demand meanwhile was for full toleration, arguing that an individual's responsibility to God was too important for any laws of man to ever get in the way, and that the civil authorities therefore had no business intruding on an individual's conscience. Goodwin's compromise was to remind the theologians that both of them would be victim to the same Presbyterian tyranny if they didn't first come together to win the war.
Over the next week, the Independents set about their preparations for the sabotague of the Royalist-Presbyterian peace summit at Uxbridge.
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