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The Parliamentary army was formed up with Cromwell and his cavalry on the left, Fairfax and the Northern horse on the right, and Fairfax and Leven in the centre with the Scottish and English infantry, on higher ground than their opponents, but on worse ground. Rupert had formed up his forces very carefully, probably with the intention of provoking an attack. Facing Cromwell was his own cavalry, intermingled with musketeers in the newly developed Swedish manner of Gustavus Adolphus, which was intended to break up any cavalry charge, with Goring facing Fairfax. The two sides were formed up by 4.30 pm, and Rupert wanted to begin, but Newcastle opposed the idea, and once again Rupert gave in. After three hours of this stalemate, Rupert decided the chance of battle had ended for the day, and gave orders for his men to break ranks for the night. Seeing this, Cromwell ordered his cavalry to attack, and while the Royalist right quickly responded, the musketeers were immediately neutralised. Rupert, returning from his own camp, took the second line of his cavalry into the action, but now the Scottish cavalry under David Leslie outflanked him, and hit him from the side. Rupert's cavalry broke, and large elements fled the field. Parliament was doing just as well in the centre. Their infantry had quickly dealt with the bulk of the Royalist infantry, who surrendered in droves, with only the garrison of York fighting on, now greatly outnumbered. Only on the right were things going badly. Goring's charge had smashed the badly positioned cavalry commanded by Fairfax, who after a brief attempt at a rally fled the battlefield to Hull, while Leven headed for Leeds, while their fleeing troops spread the news of the Royalist victory. Meanwhile on the field the Eastern Association troops had circled the battlefield and were now on the ground Goring had started on. This time, Goring and his men were on the same bad ground that had defeated Fairfax, and suffered the same fate when the Eastern Association charged them. This only left the Yorkshire infantry, some of whom struggled on until midnight, but the battle was lost. Rupert and Newcastle managed to escape to York, but 4,000 of their men were lost, including many of the most experienced officers, and soon after Newcastle fled to the continent, after which a great number of Yorkshire Royalists gave up. The Scots expected to gain greatly in prestige from the part they had played in the victory, but it was Cromwell and his Ironsides who took most of the glory.
The English Civil War , Richard Holmes & Peter Young, an early work by one of the country's best known military historians, this is a superb single volume history of the war, from its causes to the last campaigns of the war and on to the end of the protectorate.
