Bygone Northamptonshire Author:William Andrews Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Battle of By Edward Lamplough. AFTER the defeat of Prince Rupert's gallant army at Marston Moor, on the 2nd of July, 1664, the cause of King Charles gradua... more »lly but surely declined. His Majesty had rightly estimated the crisis of the war, when he demanded of Prince Rupert the relief of York, and the defeat of Manchester's army. Rupert's disaster lost the loyal North to the king. York surrendered ; and, one by one, the loyal fortresses fell into the hands of the Parliamentarian captains. When at the height of his prosperity, Newcastle failed to make the most effective use of the splendid material at his disposal, and in the hour of defeat he lost heart, and withdrew from the conflict. With tireless devotion and gallantry the Cavaliers maintained the conflict, unfortunately, however, tarnishing their military fame by manyacts of license, and especially by the plundering of the country through which they marched. The royal commanders—Goring, Wilmot, and Greenvil—rendered themselves especially obnoxious to the country people, who began to assemble in arms for the protection of their property from the depredations of both armies. The members of this defensive association were styled " Clubmen," and necessarily suffered from the jealousy and resentment of both Parliamentarians and Cavaliers. On the resumption of active hostilities, in 1645, the Parliamentarians brought their famous newly- modelled army into the field, under the command of that brilliant soldier, Sir Thomas Fairfax. To King Charles there remained barely a third of his kingdom in loyal obedience, and his widely-dispersed forces, although, perhaps, more numerous than the Parliamentarians, were not kept so well in hand, nor subjected to such perfect discipline. At first, success attended the royal plan...« less