Newcastle let his army rest at Howly House for five or six days. He then marched towards Bradford, “a little, but a strong town”.
Very unexpectedly, Newcastle “met with a strong interruption” on his march to the “little” town of Bradford; for the enemy had “very privately gotten out of Lancashire” “a vast number of Musquetiers,” and, as all the country about Bradford sympathized with the Parliament, Newcastle was unable to obtain intelligence of the movements of his foes. Newcastle’s greatest victory was to be won in the battle which followed and the Duchess shall act as our War Correspondent—by no means an inefficient one on this occasion.
Although written of as Alderton and Atherton and Adderton, the name of the scene of this battle is now spelt Adwalton Moor. It is immediately to the right of Drighlinton Station, on the branch line from Ardsley Junction to Bradford.
The Duchess begins by saying that in Fairfax’s “Army there were near 5000 Musquetiers, and 18 Troops of Horse, drawn up in a place full of hedges, called Atherton-moor, near to their Garison at Bradford, ready to encounter my Lord’s Forces, which then contained not above half so many Musquetiers as the Enemy had; their chiefest strength consisting in Horse, and these made useless for a long time together by the Enemies Horse possessing all the plain ground upon that Field; so that no place was left to draw up my Lords Horse, but amongst old Coalpits; Neither could they charge the Enemy, by reason of a great ditch and high bank betwixt my Lord’s and the Enemies Troops, but by two on a breast, and that within Musquet shot; the Enemy being drawn up in hedges, and continually playing upon them, which rendered the service exceeding difficult and hazardous.
“In the mean while the Foot of both sides on the right and left Wings encounter’d each other, who fought from Hedg to Hedg, and for a long time together overpower’d and got ground of my Lords Foot, almost to the invironing of his Cannon; my Lords Horse (wherein consisted his greatest strength) all this while being made, by reason of the ground, incapable of charging; at last the Pikes of my Lords Army having had no employment all the day, were drawn against the Enemies left wing, and particularly those of my Lords own Regiment, which were all stout and valiant men, who fell so furiously upon the Enemy, that they forsook their hedges, and fell to their heels: At which very instant my Lord caused a shot or two to be made by his Cannon against the Body of the Enemies Horse, drawn up within Cannon shot, which took so good effect, that it disordered the Enemies Troops.
“Hereupon my Lord’s Horse got over the Hedg, not in a body (for that they could not), but dispersedly two on a breast; and as soon as some considerable number was gotten over, and drawn up, they charged the Enemy, and routed them; so that in an instant there was a strange change of Fortune, and the Field totally won by my Lord, notwithstanding he had quitted 7000 Men, to conduct Her Majesty, besides a good Train of Artillery, which in such a Conjuncture would have weakned Caesars Army. In this Victory the Enemy lost most of their Foot, about 3000 were taken Prisoners, and 700 Horse and Foot slain, and those that escaped fled into their Garison at Bradford, amongst whom was also their General of the Horse, Sir Thos. Fairfax.”
Fairfax, after stating that the Royalist troops had been on the very point of retreating, goes on to say:[71] “Whilst they were in this wavering condition, one Colonel Skirton”—a Colonel in Newcastle’s army—“desired his General to let him charge with a stand of Pikes, with which he broke in upon our men; and, they not being relieved by our reserves (which were commanded by some ill-affected officers, chiefly Major General Gifford, who did not his part as he ought to do), our men lost ground which the enemy seeing, pursued this advantage, by bringing up fresh troops; ours being discouraged, began to fly and were soon routed.”
[71] Masère’s Select Tracts, p. 426.
Heath says:[72] “The Marquess of Newcastle ... routed the Parliamentarians, gained their five pieces of cannon, and so amazed them, that they fled to Leeds, which way was precluded and obstructed; then to Bradford, in their flight whither, he took and killed two thousand, while Fairfax hardly escaped to Leeds with the convoy of one troop of horse. The next day the said Earl came before Bradford, which after the battering of forty great shot, he took, with two thousand more of the same party the next morning, with all their arms and ammunition.”