POLITICAL HISTORY 



most of the horse galloped off to safety, but eighty officers, including General Goring himself, and 

 1,400 common soldiers were made prisoners, and a great store of ammunition, constituting New- 

 castle's main magazine,*^ fell into the hands of Fairfax.** This victory, gained over greatly 

 superior numbers with the almost incredibly small loss of only seven men killed, had little real 

 effect on the tide of af&irs in the north. Wakefield had to be abandoned at once, and although 

 Lord Fairfax was now able to exchange the Seacroft prisoners and to replenish his exhausted stores, 

 he recognized his precarious position, and urged the immediate dispatch of reinforcements, particu- 

 larly desiring the assistance of Colonel Cromwell.^^ Local jealousies, however, caused Yorkshire to 

 be left unrelieved,*" and on 20 June Newcastle, who had escorted the queen through Pontefract to 

 Newark, led his whole army into the West Riding and attacked Howley Hall. This strong house 

 had been garrisoned for the Parliament in January 1642, Sir John Savile of Lupset, a cousin of the 

 owner. Lord Savile, being made governor ; he now defended it with great gallantry for two days, 

 but on 22 June the place was stormed, and Sir John, whose life had been spared contrary to 

 Newcastle's orders, taken prisoner." For about a week Newcastle remained near Howley pre- 

 paring for an assault on Bradford. In view of the weakness of that town the Fairfaxes decided 

 that their only chance of success lay in a sudden attack on the Royalist army. Their own forces, 

 even with the addition of some troops recently arrived from Lancashire, amounted to barely 4,000 

 men, their opponents having some 10,000 and a great superiority in horse. The attacking forces 

 were to leave Bradford at 4 o'clock in the morning on 29 June, but owing to the laxity, or worse, 

 of General GiflFbrd they did not start until four hours later, and when they reached Adwalton 

 Moor they found the Royalists drawn up awaiting them. Lord Fairfax was commanding in chief, 

 with Sir Thomas on the right, GifFord on the left, and Colonel Forbes with the reserves. The 

 Parliamentary troops advanced with great dash, drove back the enemy's infantry, and repelled two 

 charges of horse with heavy loss ; Newcastle was on the point of retreating when a brilliant charge 

 by some of his pikemen under Colonel Skirton, ' a wild and desperate man,' turned the fortunes of 

 the battle. The Puritan foot were thrown into confusion and were left unsupported by GifFord, 

 whose wing had just been charged on the flank and rear by a party of Royalist horse. The foot 

 were mostly raw levies, courageous in attack but lacking the discipline for an orderly retirement ; 

 the retreat speedily became a rout, and the greater part of the infantry were killed or captured ; the 

 remnant, with the horse of the left wing, got back to Bradford, followed by Lord Fairfax, who was 

 with difficulty persuaded to leave the stricken field. Sir Thomas with the right wing had held his 

 ground, and, finding that the enemy were between him and Bradford, retired to Halifax. The 

 Lancashire contingent went straight off from Halifax to their own county, but Sir Thomas with 

 such men as he could get together made for Bradford and rejoined his father.** Their position 

 was hazardous ; Bradford was untenable, and there seemed to be no place to which they could 

 turn, as Sir John Hotham, the Governor of Hull, where was the only large Parliamentary garrison 

 in the county, had said that if they came there he would shut the gates against them. But now 

 a messenger arrived with news that the Hothams, whose disaffection had long been suspected, were 

 laid by the heels. The younger Hotham, after exasperating his fellow commanders at Nottingham, 

 had been arrested on 18 June but had escaped, first to Lincoln and then to Hull, where he was 

 plotting with his father to betray the town. Information of the plot reaching the mayor, Thomas 

 Raikes, he and Sir Matthew Boynton acted with great promptitude, and early on the morning of 

 the 29th, by their direction, 1,500 townsmen assembled under arms and seized the magazines, 

 ordnance, and the suspected officers. Sir John Hotham alone escaped, and he was taken at Beverley 

 the same day with Sir Edward Rhodes, Governor of Beverley, who was also plotting treason.*' 

 The two Hothams were sent up to London, and suffered on the scaffold in January 1645. Mean- 

 while Hull was held by the townsmen under Sir Matthew Boynton, and it was now put at 

 the disposal of Lord Fairfax. He moved on first to Leeds, leaving Sir Thomas with 800 foot and 

 60 horse to hold Bradford. This, when Newcastle had planted his batteries on the high ground 

 overlooking the town, soon proved impossible ; and Sir Thomas, sending the foot round one way 

 under Colonel Rogers, led out his little body of horse, with his wife riding pillion behind one of the 

 soldiers, early in the morning. They soon encountered 300 of the enemy's horse, on whom they 

 flung themselves gallantly ; Sir Thomas, General GifFord, Sir Henry Foulis, and a few others, cut 

 their way through ; but all the rest, including Lady Fairfax,'" were taken prisoners. Sir Thomas 

 waited until he saw that he could render no assistance, and then rode off to Leeds. Here he was 



" Life of 'Newcastle (ed. Firth), 43. «* Yorh. Arch. Journ. i, 101-5 ; viii, 21Z. «' Ibid, i, 103. 



"^ Gardiner, Hist, of the Great Civil War, i, 159. ^ Life of Newcastle (ed. Firth), 45. 



^ Hist MSS. Com. Rep. xiii, App. i, 717 ; Yorks. Arch. Journ. viii, 213-14 ; Life of Newcastle (ed. Firth), 

 46-8. 



'' Rushworth, op. cit. ii (3), 276. 



'° She was sent back to her husljand by the courteous Earl of Newcastle in his own coach with an escort 

 of horse. 



423 



