THE BATTLE OF MARSTON MOOR
Just after 7.00pm on 2 July 1644 a huge clap of thunder rolled across Marston Moor, seven miles west of York. The moor was crammed with soldiers – perhaps as many as 28,000 on the Parliamentary side, and some 18,000 Royalists. No less than five armies were on the field. Parliament had gathered the Yorkshire forces of Lord Ferdinando Fairfax and his son Sir Thomas, Scottish Covenanters under Alexander Leslie, Earl of Leven and the army of the Eastern Association, commanded by the Earl of Manchester and his Master of
