ABSTRACT
The marquess of Newcastle entered York in the wake of the battle of Selby on 11 April, and at once sent away his cavalry to be of use elsewhere. The royalists in Yorkshire and the North-East were on the defensive and in desperate need of relief, although it was unlikely that York itself would fall to the army of the Scots and their Fairfax allies. On 16 May Buttercrambe Castle fell to the allies, and on the 19th Cawood was finally taken by Sir John Meldrum. Crayke surrendered shortly afterwards, but royalists raiding from Pontefract repeatedly threatened the security of the area south of York. The earl of Manchester and the Eastern Association army had been ordered to join the siege before York to encompass the city tightly conscious of the threat to the eastern counties from the Oxford army, and only reached the siege lines around York on 27 May which remained at Selby until 1 June.
