Yorkshire's Naseby

The Battle of Sherburn in Elmet is perhaps a more crucial turning point in the Civil War than Naseby, so argues Mark Turnbull.

George Digby, 2nd Earl of Bristol, by Anthony Van Dyck

Ask people about the most decisive battle of the English Civil War and most will likely answer Naseby, which took place in Northamptonshire on 14th June 1645. This is where King Charles I’s veteran infantrymen were obliterated. His cabinet of letters was captured, and the private correspondence published to the world by Parliament. With the royalist cause billed as being irretrievably lost, victory for Parliament became a matter of when, not if. However - the King still had thousands of elite cavalrymen at his disposal. His Lieutenant-General in Scotland, the Marquis of Montrose, had just taken that entire kingdom. New infantry recruits were due from Wales and more reinforcements expected from Ireland. Yes, Naseby was a decisive turning point, but another less well-known battle dealt a killer blow to the royalist cause. It is an action that is not usually covered in civil war histories: Sherburn-in-Elmet, Yorkshire, 15th October 1645.