Battle of St Neots | |||||||
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Part of the Second English Civil War | |||||||
Colonel Adrian Scrope, Parliamentarian commander | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Royalists | Parliamentarians | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Earl of Holland (POW) Colonel John Dalbier † | Colonel Adrian Scrope | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
100 to 200 (estimate) | 100 | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
12 killed or wounded | minimal |
The Battle of St Neots on 10 July 1648 was a skirmish during the Second English Civil War at St Neots in Cambridgeshire. A Royalist force led by the Earl of Holland and Colonel John Dalbier was defeated by 100 veteran troops from the New Model Army, commanded by Colonel Adrian Scrope.
Taken by surprise in the early hours, the Royalists were quickly overpowered; Dalbier and several others were killed, while Holland was taken prisoner and executed for treason on 9 March 1649. Although a relatively minor action, Parliamentarian troops were struggling to deal with a series of local risings and victory ensured there was no central focus for Royalist groups in the East Midlands.
When the First English Civil War ended with Royalist defeat in May 1646, most Parliamentarians assumed Charles I would be forced to agree significant political concessions. This proved a fundamental misunderstanding of his character and for the next two years he refused to comply. [1] Parliament went to war in 1642 to curb the power of the monarchy, not remove it, and despite their religious differences, the vast majority of Puritans viewed monarchy as divinely ordered. [2]
This made Charles essential to a settlement, while his opponents were deeply divided between moderates who dominated Parliament and radicals within the New Model Army. [3] In April 1648, his Scottish supporters gained a majority in the Parliament of Scotland and agreed to restore him to the English throne. This put the pieces in place for a rising by Scots and English Royalists, supported by some English Presbyterians, and Scots Covenanters. [4]
When the Second English Civil War began in April 1648, the plan was to tie down the New Model with co-ordinated risings in South Wales and England, allowing time for the Scottish army to invade. By the end of June, the revolts in Wales and Kent had been suppressed, while a Royalist garrison in Colchester was besieged by the New Model under Sir Thomas Fairfax. On 4 July, a petition was presented to Parliament demanding the resumption of negotiations with Charles; on the same day, 400 cavalry were raised by the Earl of Holland and George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham in an attempt to seize London. [5]
This was insufficient for the task and when the Royalists retreated through Surrey towards Reigate, they were scattered outside Surbiton by Sir Michael Livesey, Buckingham's younger brother Francis being one of the few casualties. [6] Most of the Royalists deserted but Holland reached St Neots on Sunday 9 July, along with 100 to 200 men and Colonel John Dalbier, an experienced German mercenary who fought for Parliament during the First Civil War. At the same time, Fairfax detached 100 veteran cavalry under Colonel Adrian Scrope to prevent them establishing a hub for attracting Royalist supporters in the East Midlands. [7]
The Royalists were weary, hungry and demoralised; a few men under Dalbier guarded the bridge into the town while their comrades rested. At 2.00 am on 10 July, they were assaulted by Scrope's men and Dalbier was killed in the early stages, although some reports suggest he died of wounds later in the day. [8]
The skirmish was fiercely fought but the Royalists were taken by surprise and quickly overwhelmed. Holland was captured at an inn in the centre of town, while Buckingham managed to escape and eventually made his way to France; in addition to Dalbier, five others were killed including the eldest son of Kenelm Digby, a senior advisor to Charles I, who drowned with two others trying to swim across the River Great Ouse. [6]
Holland was taken to Windsor Castle, where he was held for the next six months; the Second Civil War ended after the Scots were defeated at Battle of Preston in August. Although Scrope had promised to spare his life, Holland had already narrowly escaped being tried for treason by Parliament after defecting to the Royalists in 1643, then returning. [9]
Attitudes had hardened, particularly towards those previously pardoned; in December, moderates were removed from Parliament by Pride's Purge, leading to the Execution of Charles I on 30 January 1649. Holland was tried for treason on 27 February and was executed on 9 March along with Lord Capell and the Duke of Hamilton, captured at Preston. [10]
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians ("Roundheads") and Royalists ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of religious freedom. It was part of the wider Wars of the Three Kingdoms. The first (1642–1646) and second (1648–1649) wars pitted the supporters of King Charles I against the supporters of the Long Parliament, while the third (1649–1651) saw fighting between supporters of King Charles II and supporters of the Rump Parliament. The wars also involved the Scottish Covenanters and Irish Confederates. The war ended with Parliamentarian victory at the Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651.
The Long Parliament was an English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened for only three weeks during the spring of 1640 after an 11-year parliamentary absence. In September 1640, King Charles I issued writs summoning a parliament to convene on 3 November 1640. He intended it to pass financial bills, a step made necessary by the costs of the Bishops' Wars in Scotland. The Long Parliament received its name from the fact that, by Act of Parliament, it stipulated it could be dissolved only with agreement of the members; and those members did not agree to its dissolution until 16 March 1660, after the English Civil War and near the close of the Interregnum.
Henry Rich, 1st Earl of Holland, was an English courtier and politician. He was executed by Parliament after being captured fighting for the Royalists during the Second English Civil War.
John Pym was an English politician, who helped establish the foundations of Parliamentary democracy. One of the Five Members whose attempted arrest in January 1642 sparked the First English Civil War, his use of procedure to outmanoeuvre opponents was unusual for the period and he was respected by contemporaries rather than admired. In 1895, the political historian Goldwin Smith described him as "the greatest member of Parliament that ever lived".
George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle JP KG PC was an English soldier, who fought on both sides during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. A prominent military figure under the Commonwealth, his support was crucial to the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, who rewarded him with the title Duke of Albemarle and other senior positions.
Denzil Holles, 1st Baron Holles PC was an English statesman, best remembered as one of the Five Members whose attempted arrest by Charles I in January 1642 sparked the First English Civil War.
Pride's Purge is the name commonly given to an event that took place on 6 December 1648, when soldiers prevented members of Parliament considered hostile to the New Model Army from entering the House of Commons of England.
The 1648 Second English Civil War was part of a series of connected conflicts in the British Isles, incorporating England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. Known collectively as the 1638 to 1651 Wars of the Three Kingdoms, others include the Irish Confederate Wars, the 1638 to 1640 Bishops' Wars, and the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland.
The First English Civil War was fought in England and Wales from approximately August 1642 to June 1646 and forms part of the 1638 to 1651 Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Other related conflicts include the Bishops' Wars, the Irish Confederate Wars, the Second English Civil War, the Anglo-Scottish war (1650–1652) and the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. Based on modern estimates, 15% to 20% of all adult males in England and Wales served in the military between 1638 to 1651 and around 4% of the total population died from war-related causes, compared to 2.23% in World War I. These figures illustrate the impact of the conflict on society in general and the bitterness it engendered.
Colonel Adrian Scrope, also spelt Scroope, 12 January 1601 to 17 October 1660, was a Parliamentarian soldier during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, and one of those who signed the death warrant for Charles I in January 1649. Despite being promised immunity after the Restoration in 1660, he was condemned as a regicide and executed in October.
The Battle of Rathmines was fought on 2 August 1649, near the modern Dublin suburb of Rathmines, during the Irish Confederate Wars, an associated conflict of the 1638 to 1651 Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It has been described as the 'decisive battle of the Engagement in Ireland.'
The Engagers were a faction of the Scottish Covenanters, who made "The Engagement" with King Charles I in December 1647 while he was imprisoned in Carisbrooke Castle by the English Parliamentarians after his defeat in the First Civil War.
Colonel Sir Edward Rossiter, 1 January 1618 to 9 January 1669, was an English landowner, soldier and politician from Lincolnshire. He fought for the Parliamentarians in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms and was an MP at various times between 1646 and 1660.
Sir Michael Livesey, 1st Baronet, also spelt Livesay, was a Puritan activist and Member of Parliament who served in the Parliamentarian army during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. He was one of the regicides who approved the Execution of Charles I in January 1649.
The Committee of Both Kingdoms,, was a committee set up during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms by the Parliamentarian faction in association with representatives from the Scottish Covenanters, after they made an alliance in late 1643.
John Middleton, 1st Earl of Middleton was a professional soldier and mercenary from Kincardineshire in Scotland. Beginning his career in the Thirty Years War, during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms he fought for the Covenanters and Parliamentarians until 1648, when he switched sides to the Royalists.
Sir George Lisle was a professional soldier from London who briefly served in the later stages of the Eighty and Thirty Years War, then fought for the Royalists during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Captured at Colchester in August 1648, he was condemned to death by a Parliamentarian court martial and executed by firing squad along with his colleague Charles Lucas.
Sir Henry Slingsby of Scriven, 1st Baronet, 14 January 1602 – 8 June 1658, was an English landowner, politician and soldier who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1625 and 1642. He supported the Royalist cause during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, and was executed in 1658 for his part in a conspiracy to restore Charles II.
The Battle of Preston, fought largely at Walton-le-Dale near Preston in Lancashire, resulted in a victory for the New Model Army under the command of Oliver Cromwell over the Royalists and Scots commanded by the Duke of Hamilton. The Parliamentarian victory presaged the end of the Second English Civil War.
John Dalbier, also known as Jan Dalbiere, was a professional soldier from the Rhineland who fought in the Thirty Years War and the War of the Three Kingdoms, serving in both the Parliamentarian and Royalist armies. He was killed on 10 July 1648 during the Second English Civil War at St Neots.