A series in which a historian and a professor of the history of war visit the scenes of five battles and a siege to describe the events of three centuries ago.
Speakers:
C. V. Wedgwood and N. H. Gibbs with, this week,
Austin Woolrych
Lecturer in Modern History in the University of Leeds
5-Marston Moor: July, 1644
Marston Moor, the biggest battle to have been fought on English soil, led to the downfall of the King's cause in the North. It was stubbornly contested by both armies : by the Scots, by Cromwell's cavalry , and on the Royalist side by Newcastle's Whitecoats who, though the battle was lost, refused to surrender.
Today's speakers, standing on a hill above the battlefield, trace the complicated movements of the armies and consider the reasons for the Royalist defeat.