“Henrietta Maria R.” [118]
[118] Letters of Queen Henrietta Maria, p. 261.
Of what happened to the remains of Newcastle’s army at York, Heath tells us:—[119]
“The victor enemy being come again before York, summoned the city again: they had used before their utmost endeavours, by mines and assaults, (in one whereof they lost nearly one thousand men, and were beaten off) to have entered; to which the Governor returned answer, that he was no whit dismayed with their present success; yet nevertheless on equal conditions he would come to a treaty and surrender; which in nineteen days after the battle was concluded on.” The garrison was allowed to “march out according to the honourable custom of war”.
[119] P. 61.
If there was still a sufficient garrison at York to hold out for nineteen days—and there is nothing to show that it could not have held out longer—was Newcastle justified in deserting it? True, there was no prospect of any adequate force coming to his relief; and, in any terms of surrender, he, as a proclaimed traitor, might not have been allowed to march out, a free man, either with or without the honours of war. On the other hand, if he had held York, what honour would have been his in the case of the success of the King’s army in the South and the total defeat of the army of the Parliament, a contingency which, at that time, was still apparently possible, and would have been rendered more probable if a large portion of the army of the Parliament had been occupied in the siege of York.
To sympathisers with Newcastle, it may be consoling to reflect that recriminations and reproaches for neglect of duty or courage, at or after the battle of Marston Moor, were not confined to the Royalist side, as both Rushworth and Clarendon bear witness. Manchester and Cromwell disliked each other; and another General, Crawford, a bitter enemy of Cromwell, pretended that Cromwell, after receiving a very slight wound in the neck given accidentally by one of his own men, at the beginning of the battle of Marston Moor, had made it an excuse to escape from the field until the fighting was practically over.[120] Cromwell seized opportunities of bringing counter-charges against both Crawford and Manchester, accusing the latter of disaffection to the Parliamentary cause.
[120] “Lieutenant-General Cromwell had the impudence and boldness to assume much of the honour of that victory to himself.... My friend Cromwell had neither part nor lot in the business. For I have several times heard it from Crawford,” [Crawford was Major-General to the Earl of Manchester’s Brigade] “that, when the whole army at Marston Moor was in a fair possibility to be utterly routed, and a great part of it was still running, he saw the body of horse of that brigade standing still, and to his seeming doubtful which way to charge, backward or forward, when he came up to them in a great passion, reviling them with the names of poltroons and cowards, and asked them if they would stand still and see the day lost? Whereupon Cromwell showed himself, and said in a pitiful voice: ‘Major-General, what shall I do?’ Crawford replied: ‘Sir, if you charge not, all is lost’. Cromwell answered that he was wounded and was not able to charge (his great wound being a little burn in the neck by the accidental going-off behind him of one of the soldier’s pistols), then Crawford desired him to go off the field, and sending one away with him ... led them on himself, which was not the duty of his place and as little for Cromwell’s honour.”—Memoirs of Denzil Lord Hollis.