Battle of Naseby
The battle of Naseby on 14 June 1645 destroyed the main Royalist field army and decided the English Civil War. Parliament had reorganised its forces that winter into the New Model Army — a single national force of about 22,000 on regular pay, with promotion by merit rather than local standing, under Sir Thomas Fairfax with Oliver Cromwell as lieutenant-general of horse. The Self-Denying Ordinance had removed members of both Houses from command, which was how the aristocratic amateurs were got rid of. Charles I had about 9,000 men and chose to fight anyway, against the advice of several of his officers, partly because he had detached 3,000 cavalry to the west. Prince Rupert's charge on the Royalist right broke the Parliamentarian left as it always did, and then pursued off the field to plunder the baggage train, as it always did. Cromwell's horse on the other wing broke the Royalist cavalry opposite and did not pursue. He reformed and turned inward onto the flank of the Royalist infantry, which was fighting well and winning, and rolled it up. About a thousand Royalists were killed and five thousand taken with all the artillery. The King's private correspondence was captured in the baggage and published, showing that he had been seeking Irish Catholic and continental troops, which destroyed what remained of his credibility in negotiation. Some hundred women in the Royalist camp were killed or mutilated by Parliamentarian soldiers who took them for Irish. Charles surrendered in 1646. The New Model Army became a political force in its own right and put the King on trial four years later.
- Year: 1645 CE
