ABSTRACT
Having failed to prevent Prince Rupert reaching York, the allied generals decided to retreat to the line of the River Wharfe, assuming that his next destination would be Newark. The armies were strung out along the road to Cawood and Tadcaster when the lieutenant-generals of horse, Oliver Cromwell, David Leslie and Sir Thomas Fairfax, commanding the rearguard reported signs that the Royalist armies, instead of taking time to rest and reprovision the city, were in full pursuit. They therefore recommended that the generals should stop the retreat and lead the armies back to the only place of advantage on the plain between the Ouse, the Nidd and the Wharfe, a shallow ridge between Tockwith and Long Marston. Leven, Lord Fairfax and Manchester agreed. 1 During the afternoon and early evening, the two army groups slowly took up positions facing one another, with the allies on the ridge and the regiments of Newcastle and Rupert to their north on Marston Moor between the ridge and the River Nidd. Separating the moor from cultivated ground were a number of obstacles: in the west a marsh and a rabbit warren; in the east a hedge; and across much of the front a ditch, which varied in depth. During the afternoon, both sides drew up their troops in the conventional manner for a battle fought in open country with the infantry in the centre and cavalry on the wings. The allied armies were half as large again as the Royalists, about 28,000 as opposed to 18,000 men, but the imbalance was mainly in infantry. Possibly to compensate for this, Rupert placed a brigade of Northern Horse under Sir William Blakiston behind the Royalist infantry brigades to act as a reserve. 2
