Hiding In Plain Sight – Possible Unconsidered Evidence As To What Happened At Marston Moor?

One of the books on the shelf above where I work at home is called “Fuller’s Worthies”. This is subset of a larger work called “Worthies Of England” by Thomas Fuller. Published in 1662, this is subtitled “The history of the worthies of England who for parts and learning have been eminent in the several counties: together with an historical narrative of the native commodities and rarities in each county”. In modern terms it is a combination of a dictionary of biography and a gazetteer with chapters for different counties. There is even an addendum in Volume 3 for the counties of Wales.

It was only recently that I picked this up and looked more closely I realised that there are sections on the battles that were fought in some counties. For Yorkshire only one battle is described: Marston Moor. The entry is a quite an extended one, running to two pages in my copy. Most relevant to us, it contains specific references to Newcastle’s infantry.

The first of these reads:                                                                                    

“Some causelessly complain of the marquis of Newcastle, that he drew not his men soon enough (according to his orders) out of York, to the prince’s seasonable succour. Such consider not that soldiers newly relieved from a nine weeks siege will a little indulge themselves. Nor is it in the power of a general to make them at such times to march at a minute’s warning, but that such a minute will be more than an hour in the length thereof.”

As we know from other sources that Newcastle’s infantry did not appear on the Moor until well into the afternoon. This was in part due to the ‘indulgence’ being looting the abandoned siege lines. There is even a reference to them appearing in new footwear acquired in the process. The quotation also shows the realities of military manoeuvring: things take time!

The next quotation is much more specific:

“The marquis of Newcastle’s Whitecoats (who were said to bring their winding sheet about them into the field), after thrice firing, fell to it with the but ends of their muskets, and were invincible ; till mowed down by Cromwell s cuirassiers, with Job’s servants, they were all almost slain, few escaping to bring the tidings of their overthrow.”

This clearly ties in with Newcastle’s infantry launching a counterattack, particularly when David Blackmore’s conclusions in ‘Destructive and Formidable’ (Frontline Books, 2014) are taken into account. These are that volley firing was a sign of intent to attack, normally two firings, where as firing by files is primarily a defensive act.

Back to the account, it indicates a number of possibilities:

  • at least for their part of the Royalist line the surprise at the assault by the Allies was not as complete as some would have us believe.
  • Unlike others the Royalist Army, Newcastle’s were not unloaded even if they were stood down.
  • They had sufficient time to fall in and load. In turn this may be a result of the ditch and hedge line which the Royalists were using as their front was sufficient enough an obstacle to give them time to do so. Certainly contemporary accounts indicate it was much stronger in front of the Whitecoats than at the other end of the line where Cromwell’s cavalry swept forward almost unhindered by the terrain.

Despite having read many books, articles and accounts of Marston Moor, I cannot recollect any of them using Fuller as a source. So this begs the question: just how accurate is his account particularly as he refers to Cromwell’s cavalry as being cuirassiers?

To deal with the last first, Fuller was published in 1662. By the 18th Century a cuirassier simply wore a back and breast plate for armour. It may be that this is simply an early use of the term to describe such a cavalryman. It may also be down to hyperbole on Fuller’s part to help explain the Allied victory, bearing in mind Thomas Fuller himself was a Royalist, serving in the Civil Wars as a chaplain to Sir Ralph Hopton and actively fighting in the defence of Basing House. Consequently, he was not a mere commentator but was inured in things military.

Further indication as to his reliability comes in his preamble to his account of the Battle Of Edgehill. This reads:

“and I confess myself not to have received any particular intelligence thereof. I will therefore crave leave to transcribe what followeth out of a short but worthy work of my honoured friend, confident of the authentical truth thereof.”

There is no such statement made about Marston Moor which indicates to me that he had received specific information which he believed was reliable. Moreover, the lack of a disclaimer lime the above could well indicate that he had access to more than one source.

Anyone for three volleys?

Fuller’s Worthies can be found online at: https://archive.org/details/worthiesengland01fulluoft, https://archive.org/details/worthiesengland02fulluoft, and https://archive.org/details/worthiesengland03fulluoft

Queen Elizabeth II (1926 – 2022)

The Sealed Knot and Newcastles Regiment of Foote would like to express our deep condolences to His Majesty the King and the Royal Family at the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

She embodied the concepts of duty, constancy and tradition. Yet she recognised that without change there can be no movement forwards.

Her impact on the lives of many people around the globe cannot be understated. Her majesty was an example and inspiration, she will be missed by many.

Our thoughts are with the Royal Family, the people of the United Kingdom and our wider Commonwealth following the sad news of her passing.

God save the King!

The 380th Anniversary of Edgehill – August Bank Holiday 2022 – Compton Verney

It looks like the global pandemic is slowly starting to fall behind us and the Sealed Knot was back all guns blazing (quite literally!)

Our regiment (Newcastle’s Regiment of Foote) have attended various events over the last few years but nothing on the scale of a full size August Bank Holiday Muster and we were excited.

We packed up our cars, tents, caravans, campervans and minivans, sallied forth to Compton Verney, and arrived at a masterfully organised event by Skippon’s Regiment.

Day 1 – Friday Evening

Ellie and I arrived in semi darkness at 9pm (we had decided to book Tuesday off, not the Friday – SMART) Thankfully we have very obliging (retired) parents who arrived earlier in the day and kindly put up our tents and had dinner on the table ready and waiting. The sky was clear, the stars were shining bright and we knew we were in for a treat!

First things first I hit the beer tent – the only place to find the majority of the regiment after 8pm. Having been conspicuous in my absence since August Bank Holiday 2018 due to various commitments, I was slightly apprehensive.

Obviously, being part of Newcastles, it might as well have been yesterday since I saw everyone and the welcome I received was second to none.

I was back with my family and any niggling doubts I may have had were completely gone by the time I had finished my first pint of Bath Gem from the superb Stagger Inn.

This applies not only to our Regiment but the Newcastles Tercio as a whole. In my obviously very unbiased opinion, we are the friendliest bunch around!

Day 2 – Saturday

There was no battle on Saturday due to the Society AGM, we pulled ourselves together at a godforsaken hour to trudge to the Beer Tent and relieve our hangovers with copious amounts of coffee and hash browns, while trying to pay attention to a meeting for an hour.

After a (long) afternoon nap it was drill time.

After a 4 year absence a majority of the commands came back to me, however, even now differentiating between ranks & files and right & left still remain a complete mystery. Thankfully, there were a few fresh recruits and I wasn’t the only rusty one, so after 20 mins of going back to basics we got to the “pack in” stage of pike drill.

For those of you who haven’t experienced a pike push, imagine a rugby scrum with approximately 15/16 people on each side holding 16 foot sticks.

The object is not to protect a ball but to gain ground. This is done by quite literally ramming your opponents with as much strength as you can find!

The ranks are important, the front rank have to be superhumanly strong to hold up the rest of the block and stop the whole thing collapsing before we had even hit our opponents but also agile and flexible to get down low underneath the opposing side to lift them off their feet, making the block weaker and easier for us to move.

The second rank have to be just as strong as they hold up the front rank and push them forwards into the enemy.

The middle ranks add weight and strength, and the back few ranks provide the “drive”.

 It was magical! We finished drill on a real high. We were tight and the drive from behind was of a quality we had hereto only dreamed about!

WE WERE READY!

Now for an early night ready for the big day…………HA IMAGINE.

I definitely contributed a few pounds to the Beer Tent’s profits. Then, after a sing-song in Tig’s awning, I decided it wasn’t bedtime and after Morgaine from Gerard’s provided us with a beautiful song I happily followed her to their campfire to carry on the drinking & singing.

It was well south of 12am when I staggered back to my tent!

Day 3 – Sunday – Battle Day 1

The day dawned and the sun was shining.

The battle times were earlier due to weddings at the big house, musket had to draw powder at 9am, luckily being a pikeman, we had an extra hour in bed.

After a bacon sandwich to try and stave off the dawning hangover, I climbed into my breeches and white coat, found my pike and off we went.

The Newcastles Regiment of Foote had not been formed when the battle of Edgehill occurred, so we didn’t have our blue Scotch Bonnets, but the Musket block made up for it with a wide variety of splendid hats!

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After the naughty Parliamentarian Cavalry had stolen the King’s standard along with his standard bearer’s hand (as happened in the real battle – although it was recovered from the field by the Royalists) we got going.

We were on fire, we won a majority of the pushes and even our block commander didn’t have many comments in the after battle team talk.

The only casualties were my shoe and my pike, and a mild vomit as the hangover crept in on the last few pushes!

After a nap, some camp fun with the younger generation and some chilli, we headed back to the beer tent and we broadly repeated the events of the previous evening although I was in bed by the much more reasonable time of 1am!

Day 4 – Monday – Battle Day 2

I woke up much more refreshed and with even more enthusiasm, still on a high after the successes from the previous day.

I meandered down to watch my dad and Dan practicing their sword fighting skills, and I took in the views of the house and the bridge which were amazing.

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I even caught some of the newer musketeers practicing their live firing.

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Shortly after, armed with a new pair of latchets and some fresh socks, off we marched down the big hill for the second day.

I didn’t think it would be possible, but we outdid ourselves on the second day. Even tired and flagging after 2 days of battle against some very strong blocks (Ballards – we salute you gentlemen!) we kept it together and again came out the victors of many pushes (although we did slightly more ring-a-ring-a-roses than the day before).

Off back up the big hill we dragged ourselves, with the Beer Tent shining its warm beery light from the top to be rewarded by a nice cold ale.

Then all too soon it was over.

We all begrudgingly packed up our cars, tents, caravans, campervans and minivans to begin the journey home.

After allowing 7 million hours to say goodbye to everyone we were finally on our way.

My remaining words are this:

WHAT A BELTING WAY TO END THE SEASON I LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING OLD FACES AND NEW IN THE YEAR AHEAD!

By Alan – Pikeman, His Excellency The Marquess of Newcastle’s Regiment of Foote

(Photos courtesy of Kim Rickard)