When Rupert went into York, on Monday, 1 July, he took about 2000 horse with him; but he left his foot, his ordnance, and the remainder of his cavalry in camp about five miles to the north of the town.
Newcastle, a dignified man of middle-age, accustomed to respect and deference, had now to receive as his superior officer that impetuous sprig of royalty, Prince Rupert, a youth of 22; and, glad as he was that Rupert had come to his relief, he can scarcely have got rid of all his previous feelings of jealousy. He told Rupert that the enemy had already raised the siege, that the Parliamentary Generals were quarrelling, that there was intense jealousy between the Scotch and the English troops, and that, in all probability, the army from Scotland would separate itself from its English allies, when, if left to themselves, the enemy would disperse in various directions, and would make no further attempts upon York.
Rupert, on the contrary, wanted to attack, stating that he had a letter in his pocket from the King commanding him to give battle to the Parliamentary army and crush it, once for all.[101] Newcastle urged that it would at least be wiser to await the arrival of Colonel Clavering, whom he was momentarily expecting with more than 3000 men, as well as that of 2000 men from the Northern garrisons. With this addition of 5000 men, the Royalist army would have considerably outnumbered that of the Parliament. Besides the reinforcements definitely expected, Newcastle had great hopes of the arrival of Montrose with some troops from Scotland. Rupert replied to Newcastle’s arguments by saying: “Nothing venture, nothing win,” and then he returned to his camp and spent the night there.
[101] Sir Philip Warwick (p. 278), who was present at the battle which followed, wrote: “Had not the Lord Digby, this year, given a fatal direction to that excellent Prince Rupert to fight the Scottish Army, surely that great Prince and soldier had never so precipitately fought them”.
Digby was supposed to have inspired the King to write the letter to Rupert here mentioned. The letter said: “If York be lost, I shall esteem my crown little less.... But if York be relieved, and you beat the rebels of both Kingdoms which are before it, then, but not otherwise, I may possibly make a shift.” Lord Culpepper, when the King told him that this letter had been sent, exclaimed: “Why, then, before God you are undone; for upon this peremptory order he will fight, whatever comes of it” (Warburton’s Prince Rupert, vol. II, p. 438).
Early on the Tuesday morning Rupert was again in York and with Newcastle. Meanwhile there had been as much diversity of opinion between the Parliamentary Generals on the question of fighting or not fighting, as between the Royalist. The English Generals were all for action, the Scotch for a withdrawal to seek some more favourable battle-field, and finally the latter over-persuaded the former.
In the Royalist council of war, Rupert was able to reply to Newcastle’s continued desire for delay until the arrival of the shortly expected reinforcements, by stating that his scouts reported the enemy to be already on the move and that, unless they were attacked that day, they would probably altogether escape a battle.
Newcastle persisted in his objections to an immediate engagement, while Rupert’s persistence in favour of it never wavered. Heated, if courteous, words are said to have passed between the two Generals—the story that they even came to blows may be safely dismissed as fiction—but finally Newcastle yielded although under strong protest, to the royal authority, saying: “I am ready and willing, on my part, to obey Your Highness, no otherwise than if His Majesty were here in person. Happen what may, I will not shun to fight: for I have no other ambition than to live and die a loyal subject of His Majesty.”