ABSTRACT
On 2 July 1644, on a stormy evening at Marston Moor, Prince Rupert fought the combined armies of the Scots, Fairfax and Parliament’s Eastern Association and almost won the Civil War for the King. Instead, by midnight, his army lay in heaps upon the moor, or fled terrified through the lanes beyond. With it perished the Royalist army of the North. The Royalist northern commander, Newcastle, fled overseas, York surrendered, and the Royalist presence in Yorkshire, Durham and Northumberland was reduced to a few beleaguered garrisons. For Rupert’s own command the consequences were potentially as serious. To construct his army the Prince had drained Wales and the Marches of seasoned troops, new levies and money. If it had won the war this fact would not have mattered. With its defeat, the consequences became disastrous.
