Naseby 1645: Rupert's Runaway Cavalry and the King's Cabinet Opened

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After the Self-Denying Ordinance pushed aristocratic generals like the Earl of Essex and the Earl of Manchester out of command, Parliament built the New Model Army under Sir Thomas Fairfax, with Philip Skippon over the infantry and Oliver Cromwell's temporary cavalry command renewed again and again. After the royalist sack of Leicester in May 1645, Fairfax left the siege of Oxford to hunt the king. On June 14, 1645, near Naseby in Northamptonshire, roughly 14,000 parliamentarians faced about 7,400 royalists under Charles I, who with Lord Digby dismissed the new army. On Cromwell's advice Fairfax pulled back behind the ridge crest, and about 676 dragoons under Colonel John Okey hid in the Sulby Hedges.

Skippon was shot under the ribs but stayed in the field as the royalist foot pushed his center back. Prince Rupert's horse broke Henry Ireton's wing, then galloped some 15 miles toward Northampton and the baggage train. Cromwell routed Sir Marmaduke Langdale, kept half his cavalry in reserve, and wheeled it into the royalist flank while Okey's dragoons hit the other side. The Earl of Carnwath grabbed the king's bridle and turned him from a charge, and the royal lifeguard broke. Parliament captured the king's letters seeking Irish Catholic troops and printed them as The King's Cabinet Opened.

• Langdale's men had to charge uphill over ground broken by bushes and rabbit warrens.
• Ireton was unhorsed, wounded in the leg and face, and briefly taken prisoner.
• The royalist Bluecoats stood like a wall of brass until Fairfax broke them, reportedly taking their standard himself.
• At Marston Trussell, parliamentarian troops killed at least 100 camp women, likely Welsh speakers mistaken for Irish.
• More than 4,500 royalist infantry were captured along with all of the king's artillery.