ABSTRACT
The counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire, formed into the Eastern Association on 20 December 1642, saw little real fighting, coming early and easily under parliamentarian control. Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire were the battlegrounds, where the southward thrusts of the earl of Newcastle were resisted, although Lincolnshire was a markedly royalist county. In early December 1642, Newcastle had garrisoned Pontefract in Yorkshire, and sent forces out to garrison Newark on Trent, a crucially strategic point for north-south communications. In January, the earl depleted the Newark garrison, now reliant on local forces under Sir John Henderson. An attack on the town by Thomas Ballard on 27 February with substantial forces was decisively beaten off, and Newark remained henceforth almost unassailable. From Newark on 23 March royalists under Henderson and Sir Charles Cavendish took Grantham, and on 11 April won the battle of Ancaster Heath against Lord Willoughby of Parham. Alarmed by these successes, the Eastern Association had to react, in fear of Newcastle making a march south with a huge army, reported to be at least 15,000 strong. Oliver Cromwell occupied Peterborough on 22 April and on the 28th stormed Crowland, a minor royalist garrison. On 9 May, in response to alarmed orders from London, Cromwell and forces from Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire, rendezvoused at Sleaford preparatory to an attack on Newark. They proved somewhat dilatory, however, enabling Cavendish and Henderson to meet secretly with their forces near Grantham for an intended pre-emptive action.
