ABSTRACT
The counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Hertford-shire and Cambridgeshire, formed into the Eastern Association on 20 December 1642, saw little real fighting, coming early under parliamentarian control. Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire were the battlegrounds, where the southward thrusts of the earl of Newcastle were resisted, although Lincolnshire was a markedly royalist county. In December 1642, Newcastle had garrisoned Pontefract in Yorkshire, and sent forces out to garrison Newark on Trent, a crucially strategic point for north-south communications. On 13 May the royalists destroyed three parliamentarian cavalry troops at Belton, and then turned to face the main army close to Grantham itself. After a brief exchange of fire, Oliver Cromwell charged the royalist horse and seems to have driven them from the field, but his own casualties may well have been heavy, leading to abandonment of Newark march. The risk of a southward march by Newcastle remained unabated and by May 1643 the parliamentary troops began to gather in strength around Nottingham.
