ABSTRACT
Cromwell’s orders to his commanders were urgent once news of the King’s march south was confirmed. Leaving forces to take Stirling, Cromwell sent Lambert with 4,000 cavalry to move rapidly into England with the object of attacking the royalist army in column of march. In England itself, the New Model was being reinforced by local levies, as the need to prevent the King from reaching London grew more apparent. Charles skirted the government garrison in Carlisle and entered Penrith on 8 August, whilst Edward Massey rode on in advance to try to whip up recruits for the army. The bitterness within the royalist army, between Scots and old cavaliers, was chronic, and Massey, politically and religiously a Presbyterian, was unable to draw in recruits to a King so obviously under the thumb of the Scottish Covenanters. Lancashire was entered, and the earl of Derby forsook his fortified Isle of Man to join the King and begin recruiting, aided by Sir Thomas Tyldesley and Lord Widdrington, prominent former cavaliers. On 15 August Charles entered Wigan and moved on to Warrington, where the lack of recruits and the morale of the Scots decided him to set aside the march on London for the time being. Instead, he began to move down the Welsh borderland, potentially full of recruits, but Shrewsbury held out against him and he entered Worcester with few additions to his army on 22 August. The government garrison had fled.
