POLITICAL HISTORY 



On the afternoon of 28 August, 1640, the Scots, who lay on the high 

 ground which is, on the north bank, close to the river and commands the 

 low-lying flats on the southern bank, began the action by artillery fire, 

 which soon rendered the English trenches untenable. A body of Scotch 

 cavalry, the tide being low, then dashed across the river. Charged by the 

 English cavalry the Scots were driven back, but being reinforced succeeded 

 in forcing the English to retire. Though the Scots did not pursue, the 

 retirement soon became a flight, and the panic-stricken troops fled, some to 

 Newcastle and others to Durham."* 



Conway immediately vacated Newcastle and retired on Durham, which 

 was in turn abandoned. Meanwhile the advance of the Scots was unchecked. 

 On i September they were at Chester le Street, and the next day Durham 

 almost a deserted city was seized. Thenceforward for nearly a year part of 

 the Scotch force was quartered on the county of Durham, which had to pay 

 350 a day towards its subsistence."' 



Firmly held by the Royalists, Durham escaped scatheless during the first 

 period of the Civil War, the only other fight being a skirmish at Piercebridge 

 in December, 1642, when the earl of Newcastle forced the passage of the 

 Tees on his march to York from Newcastle."* When, however, Lord Leven 

 with a large Scotch force crossed the Tweed in January, 1 644, the earl of 

 Newcastle marched north to oppose him and Durham became the field of 

 operations." 7 Leven's objective was Newcastle, the principal Royalist centre 

 in the north. Failing in his first attempt on Newcastle the Scotch commander 

 determined to march to Sunderland, which was a Parliamentarian borough." 8 



On 22 February, breaking up his camp before Newcastle, Leven marched 

 up the valley of the River Tyne past Newburn, where he found the ford so 

 strongly fortified"' that he made no attempt to force it. The next day he 

 distributed his force along the north bank of the Tyne from Ovingham to 

 Corbridge, a distance of some six miles. Heavy snowstorms had so swollen 

 the river that any attempt to cross was impossible till 28 February, when the 

 whole force crossed without opposition the still swollen river by fords at 

 Ovingham, Bywell, and Eltringham. Resting that night near the river the 

 force advanced to the River Derwent, which was in such high flood that the 

 infantry had to pass in single file over a tree bridge at Ebchester. This 

 tedious operation occupied two days, and the force camped a mile to the west 

 of Chester le Street on i March. Crossing the Wear next day at Lumley they 

 marched to Herrington, and after resting there on Sunday, 3 March, entered 

 Sunderland on the next day. 



"' For the battle of Newburn see Conway's account, printed in Burton, //;'//. of ScotlanJ, vi, 304. Conway 

 was unaware that the Scotch had any artillery, and his dispositions were made accordingly. He refers to his 

 men as ' being the most of them the meanest sort of men about London,' and so but few of the bishopric troops 

 can have been engaged. 



"* Cal. S.P. Dom. 1640-1, p. 75. See also Hutchinson, op. cit. i, 622, where various petitions for relief 

 are set out. 



m Surtees, Hist. Dur. i, xcvii. 



*" Leven'i force consisted of 18,000 foot, 3,000 horse, and 500 or 600 dragoons ; Professor Terry's 

 article in Arch. At liana, xxi, 152. 



"The possession of Sunderland was of great importance to Parliament, as it was the port whence London 

 drew its supplies of coal, which could not be obtained from the Royalist town of Newcastle. It had received 

 Parliamentarian garrisons in the first period of the Civil War ; Surtees, Hilt. Dur. i, 257. 



*" Profiting by their previous experience the English had fortified the hill as well u the low-lying ground. 

 Arch. AeRona, xxi, 1 64. 



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