Qualla: Battle of Sherburn in Elmet

Battle of Sherburn in Elmet: Introduction

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The cruellest defeats in war are the self-inflicted ones. At Sherburn in Elmet on 15 October 1645, a Royalist cavalry force had just won the opening clash - prisoners taken, a Parliamentarian infantry regiment surrendered, the road north to Scotland apparently open. Then, in the confusion of a second engagement at twilight, fleeing Parliamentarian troopers galloped through the village, and someone in the Royalist line mistook them for fleeing comrades. The shout went up. Lord Digby's column panicked and ran. By morning, three hundred to four hundred Royalists were prisoners, the Secretary of State's coach was in Parliamentarian hands, and the King's last serious attempt to reach the Marquess of Montrose was finished.

Battle of Sherburn in Elmet: A Year of Disasters

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

1645 had unmade the King's cause. On 14 June the New Model Army destroyed the Oxford Army at Naseby. Goring's Western Army was beaten at Langport in July. Bristol fell on 10 September. Then on 13 September, the Marquess of Montrose - whose run of Highland victories had briefly lo...

Battle of Sherburn in Elmet: The Night Attack

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Sydnam Poyntz, the Parliamentary commander in the north, was tracking the King's movements but had little useful intelligence. As he probed northwards he stumbled into Digby's column near Sherburn in Elmet. Almost a thousand Parliamentarian infantry under Colonel Wren were in the...

Battle of Sherburn in Elmet: Friendly Fire of the Mind

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Then everything came apart. Some of Copley's troopers broke and rode straight through the village of Sherburn in Elmet. To the Royalists watching from the high ground, in the gathering dusk, those horsemen looked like their own men in flight. The cry of "They run!" - whether from...

Battle of Sherburn in Elmet: The Coach and the Letters

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The numbers tell the story bluntly. Parliament admitted to ten men killed. They claimed to have killed forty Royalists and taken three to four hundred prisoners, along with six hundred horses. Of the 1,600 Northern Horse who had set out from Newark, only about 600 reached the Roy...

Battle of Sherburn in Elmet: Across the Pennines

Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The survivors fled west to Skipton, then over the Pennines into Cumberland, then north into Scotland. They were beaten again at Annan Moor. On 24 October the remnants were finally broken at Carlisle Sands by Sir John Browne. Digby and Langdale, the two architects of the disaster,...