Naseby

Two miles south of Market Harborough, among the ridges, streams and small hills which surround the village of Naseby, the Cavaliers were finally vanquished as a fighting force.

Rupert never wanted this battle and advised Charles against it. Despite being outnumbered two to one, Charles would brook no opposition to fighting it out. By early morning on 14th June, 1645 both the Royalist force led by Rupert and the Parliamentary army led by Fairfax and Cromwell had positioned themselves on high ground above a shallow dip between them. Fairfax rallied his men with the cry, 'God is our strength', Charles progressed up and down the Cavalier lines looking resplendent in full armour with his sword drawn.

Cromwell offered up a prayer: 'When I saw the enemy draw up and march in towards us', he later wrote, 'and we a company of poor ignorant men…I could not…but smile out to God in praises of assurance of victory.'

At 10am the Royalist infantry fired a volley and marched forward to meet the Roundheads; simultaneously, Rupert's cavalry charged down the hill and up again to meet Henry Ireton's horsemen head on. Carnage.

Rupert and Ireton's men stood still on their horses as they fought it out sword to sword. In the middle of the battle, the Royalists made steady progress against the Parliamentary infantry. Ireton, seeing the foot soldiers in trouble, turned his cavalry to help.

His horse was shot from under him and he was captured. Rupert broke the Roundhead cavalry and his horsemen ploughed through the Parliamentary lines. But, as at Edgehill, they went too far making for the Parliamentary baggage train located far behind enemy lines.

It was the discipline of the New Model Army which won the day at Naseby. With the infantry giving ground and Ireton's cavalry in trouble, it was left to Cromwell to deliver the day. From the right of the Parliamentary army, his cavalry poured down upon the Royalist left-wing. Charging and re-charging, he pounded the Royalist cavalry into submission.

Creative Commons Image traed mawr under CC-BY-NC-SA licence
Memorial to the Battle Of Naseby

Charles, seeing this from afar, was determined to help. As he advanced towards his troops, one of his aides grabbed his horse and demanded, 'Would you go upon your death, my Lord?'

The movement of Charles's horse looked like the mark of retreat; at the same time, someone gave an order to march to the right. At a crucial moment, the Royalist army fell into chaos and wheeled away carrying the King with them. A number of Royalist regiments fought on, but by the time Rupert had managed to bring his cavalry back to order, the battlefield was a scene of desertion and Royalist retreat.

It was too much for the Royalist cavalry who turned and fled, leaving the infantry to surrender. The fleeing Royalists were given no chance to regroup. The Parliamentary Horse, forbidden, on pain of death, to dismount for plunder, pushed on in a merciless pursuit cutting them down on the road to Leicester. It was a turkey shoot; the Civil War's road to Basra.

But the professionalism and discipline of the New Model Army did not prevent the usual barbarity of war. As they searched their way through the Royalist baggage train, they discovered hundreds of cowering women, wives and mistresses. While the rich ladies of Royalist generals bought their way out, those remaining suffered brutally at Roundhead hands. Over a hundred Welsh women were slaughtered outright - because the Roundhead troops thought they were Irish. The remaining unfortunates had their noses slit or faces slashed to mark them out as whores. It was one of the worst atrocities of all the years of conflict.

Naseby was a catastrophe for the Royalists. Charles lost all his infantry, his guns and most of his baggage train. Crucially, copies of his secret correspondence were also captured exposing Charles as a monarch willing to make deals with Irish papists and even French mercenaries to defend his crown. Over one thousand Royalist soldiers were slain and between 4,000 and 6,000 taken prisoner.

According to one contemporary account, 'the crying there was for surgeons as never the like was heard.' It was the end of the road for Charles' military strategy.