20 The Life of William, Duke of Newcastle 



diced at sea, and a great part in the East Riding of Yorkshire 

 kept in due obedience. 1 



After this, my Lord having received intelligence that the 

 enemy's General of the Horse 2 had designed to march with 

 a party from Cawood Castle, whither they were fled from 

 Tadcaster, as before is mentioned, to some garrisons which 

 they had in the west of Yorkshire, presently ordered a party 

 of horse, commanded by the General of the Horse, the Lord 

 George Goring, to attend the enemy in their march, who 

 overtook them on a moor, called Seacroft Moor, and fell upon 

 their rear, which caused the enemy to draw up their forces 

 into a body ; to whom they gave a total route (although 

 their number was much greater), and took about 800 prisoners, 

 and 10 or 12 colours of horse, besides many that were slain 

 in the charge ; which prisoners were brought to York, about 

 10 or 12 miles distant from that same place 3 . 



Immediately after, in pursuit of that victory, my Lord 

 sent a considerable party into the west of Yorkshire, where 

 they met with about 2000 of the enemy's forces, taken out 

 of their several garrisons in those parts, to execute some 

 design upon a moor called Tankerly Moor, and there fought 

 them, and routed them ; many were slain, and some taken 

 prisoners. 



Not long after, the remainder of the army that were left 

 at York marched to Leeds 4 , in the west of Yorkshire, and 

 from thence to Wakefield, being both the enemies' quarters, 



1 This governor was Sir Hugh Cholmley, who declared for the King on March 25. — 

 Rushworth, III, ii, 264. See also Clarendon Rebellion, vi, 268. 



2 Sir Thomas Fairfax. 



3 The best account of the battle at Seacroft Moor is given in Sir Thomas Fairfax's 

 Short Memorial, Maseres' Tracts, vol. i, p. 422 ; Markham's Life of the Great Lord Fair- 

 ax, p. 95. The battle took place on March 30, 1643 (see Mercurius Aulicus, April 4). 



4 The Queen's Letters give an account of this second -advance into the West Riding. 

 Newcastle's army numbered, according to her, 7000 foot and 3500 horse. The Par- 

 liamentarians quitted Pontefract at their approach, and retired to Leeds, where they 

 were besieged by Newcastle. General King and the officers of experience were against 

 an assault, and thought an effectual siege impossible. Newcastle, after two or three 

 days' ineffectual cannonading, thought best to follow their advice and raise the siege. 

 This was done under colour of a cessation of arms for four days for the purpose of treat- 

 ing, and the army retired to Wakefield (see also Mercurius Aulicus, April 25). There 

 Newcastle left them for a few days. ' I am still waiting the return of the Earl of New- 

 castle ' writes the Queen on April 23 ; 'he is gone to bury his wife, who has died, and 

 is not yet returned. . . He is staying ', she adds, ' to treat with Hotham's son ; if he 

 succeeds, our affairs will go well ' (Letters, p. 188). According to Dugdale's Diary, 

 the Earl of Newcastle came privately to Welbeck on April 13. Four letters from young 

 Hotham to Newcastle, written between April 20 and May 1, are printed by Sanford 

 (Studies and Illustrations of the Great Rebellion, p. 553). Twelve are printed in Portland 

 MSS., vol. i, which give a full historv of this intrigue (pp. 81, 83, 87, 89, 99, 105, 109, 

 699, 7oi, 702, 704, 707). 



