ABSTRACT
Montrose's spectacular run of victories was almost the only good news to reach royalist headquarters in Oxford during the spring of 1645. The armies of Essex, Manchester and Waller were cannibalized to furnish manpower for the New Model. The diplomatic gifts of Philip Skippon, plus the promise of new clothes and weapons for the common soldiers, helped to make the potentially explosive business of extinguishing Essex's regiments run smoothly. Drawn from the lowest ranks of society, few of the common soldiers knew or cared about the reasons for fighting against the king. In the early morning of 14 June the two armies took up positions facing each other on two low hills just north of Naseby. Both sides adopted a simple order of battle, with cavalry on the wings and infantry in the middle. Nothing had in fact happened to alter the basic fragility of Montrose's position in Scotland.
