The First Book 27 



General of the Horse, Mr. Charles Cavendish, second brother 

 to the now Earl of Devonshire, though they had timely notice, 

 and orders from my Lord to make their retreat to the Lieu- 

 tenant-General of the Army, and not to fight the enemy ; 

 yet the said Lieutenant-General of the Horse being transported 

 by his courage (he being a person of great valour and conduct) 

 and having charged the enemy, unfortunately lost the field, 

 and himself was slain in the charge, his horse lighting in a 

 bog 1 ; which news being brought to my Lord when he was 

 on his march, he made all the haste he could, and was no 

 sooner joined with his Lieutenant-General, but fell upon the 

 enemy, and put them to flight. 



The first garrison my Lord took in Lincolnshire was Gains- 

 borough, a town standing upon the river Trent, wherein 

 (not long before) had been a garrison of soldiers for his Majesty 

 under the command of the then Earl of Kingston, but sur- 

 prised, and the town taken by the enemy's forces, who having 

 an intention to convey the said Earl of Kingston from thence 

 to Hull, in a little pinnace met with some of my Lord's forces 

 by the way, commanded by the Lieutenant of the Army, 

 who being desirous to rescue the Earl of Kingston, and making 

 some shots with their regiment pieces, to stop the pinnace, 

 unfortunately slew him and one of his servants 2 . 



1 The Queen, in her letter to the King from Newark on 27th June, writes that she 

 leaves behind her, for the protection of Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire, 2000 foot 

 and twenty companies of horse ; ' all this to be under Charles Cavendish, whom the 

 gentlemen of the county have desired me not to carry with me — against his will, for 

 he desired extremely to go.' Cavendish, on the petition of the King's Commissioners 

 for those two counties, had been appointed Commander-in-Chief of their forces, with 

 the rank of Colonel-General. On April 11, he had defeated young Hotham and the 

 Lincolnshire Parliamentarians at Ancaster, and on July 2, whilst convoying the Queen 

 to Oxford, took Burton. Now, whilst attempting to prevent the raising of the siege 

 of Gainsborough, he was defeated by Cromwell, and slain on July 28, 1643. The cava- 

 liers were at one moment of the fight nearly gaining the victory. The main body of 

 the Parliamentarians charged and routed the main body of the Royalists. Charles 

 Cavendish, with their reserve, almost changed the fortune of the day; but Cromwell, 

 with three troops he had kept in hand, retrieved the battle. ' Whilst the enemy was 

 following our flying troops, I charged him on the rear with my three troops ; drove 

 him down the hill, brake him all to pieces : forced Lieutenant-General Cavendish into 

 a bog, who fought in this reserve : one officer cut him on the head, and as he lay, my 

 Captain-Lieutenant Berry thrust him into the short ribs, of which he died about two 

 hours after in Gainsborough.' — Carlyle's Cromwell, Appendix 5, and also Letter xii. 

 Mercurius Aulicus of August 1 contains the Royalist account of the battle. It is stated 

 there that Cavendish, ' being cut most dangerously on the head, was struck off his horse, 

 and so, unfortunately, shot with a trace of bullets after he was on the ground.' Lloyd, 

 in his Memoirs of Excellent Personages, says ' He died magnanimously, refusing quarter 

 and throwing the blood that ran from his wounds in their faces that shed it ' (p. 673). 



2 Gainsborough was taken by Lord Willoughby on the 16th of July. — Ri craft's Cham- 

 pions, p. 35. See also The Kingdom's Weekly Intelligence, 18-25 Julv; Rushworth 

 III, ii, 278. 



4 Lord Willoughby having sent away many of his carriages towards Lincoln, and 



