x Editor's Preface 



with the attack on Tadcaster (December 7, 1642) ; was 

 followed by the repulse of Sir William Savile from Bradford 

 (December 18, 1642) ; and was brought to an end by the 

 brilliant recapture of Leeds by Sir Thomas Fairfax (January 

 23, 1643). The second began in April with an unsuccessful 

 attack on Leeds, and was marked by the capture of Rotherham 

 (May 4) and Sheffield (May 9). Again Sir Thomas Fairfax, 

 by the surprise of Wakefield on May 21, 1643, forced the 

 royalists to retreat. The third and successful attack began 

 with the capture of Howley Hall and the battle of Adwalton 

 Moor (June 30), and ended with the capture of Bradford and 

 Leeds, and the flight of the Fairfaxes to Hull. 



In the interval between the first and second of these attacks 

 occurred the controversy between Newcastle and Lord Fairfax, 

 recorded in the opposing proclamations printed by Rushworth. 

 Newcastle sent Fairfax a characteristic challenge to come 

 out and fight, to follow ' the exampes of our heroic ancestors, 

 who used not to spend their time in scratching one another 

 out of holes, but in pitched fields determined their doubts.' 

 Lord Fairfax replied by a refusal ' to follow the rules of Amadis 

 de Gaule, or the Knight of the Sun, which the language of the 

 declaration seems to affect in offering pitched battles ' ; but 

 withal protested his willingness to offer battle wheresoever 

 he found an opportunity. With these taunts were combined 

 legal arguments on the rights of kings and subjects, discus- 

 sions on the lawfulness of employing Catholics and sectaries, 

 and accusations of plunder and indiscipline against each other's 

 armies. 



The conquest of the West Riding left Hull the only impor- 

 tant place in Yorkshire in the hands of the Parliament. Charles 

 summoned Newcastle to move southwards, and ordered him 

 to march through the eastern association on London 1 . He 

 obeyed so far as to march into Lincolnshire, where he recap- 

 tured Gainsborough (July 30) and garrisoned Lincoln, but 

 at the end of August he returned into Yorkshire to besiege 

 Hull. The combined movement on London planned by the 

 King might have changed the fortune of the war, for at the 

 end of July the Parliament had no army capable of keeping 



1 ' He had orders to march into the associated counties, when, upon the taking of 

 Bristol, his Majesty had a purpose to have marched towards London on the other side.' 

 — Clarendcn, Rebellion, viii, 86. See also vii, 177. Other statements are quoted in 

 the note to p. 29. 



