Battle of Preston

In war, alliances often dissolve in the wake of victory. One such case occurred two years after the end of the English civil war, when the victorious Parliamentary army took on its former allies, the Scots, at Preston. This battle, fought August 17–19, 1648, was to become yet another famous victory for Parliamentary commander Oliver Cromwell.

After the Battle of Naseby in June 1645 and subsequent Parliamentary victories, Charles I surrendered to the Scots on May 5, 1646. He hoped to negotiate with them alone, splitting them from their Parliamentary allies. His plans did not succeed, however, and in January 1647 the Scots handed over the king to Parliament in return for £400,000. Oliver Cromwell and the army offered the king a peace deal if he surrendered some of his powers, but he refused it, escaping to the Isle of Wight in November. There he concluded a deal with the Scots that would put him back on his throne, committing an act of treason by doing so.

The following July a Scottish army, composed mostly of Presbyterian soldiers who called themselves the Engagers, invaded England in the king’s support. Led by the Duke of Hamilton, it moved south through Lancashire. A small Parliamentary cavalry force harassed the Scottish column, which changed direction and moved west toward Wales, where Cromwell’s army was waiting. The two sides were ill-matched, the Scots having an estimated 18,000 men (though many historians believe the force was much smaller) to Cromwell’s 8,600, but neither side could field artillery—Cromwell had marched too fast for his guns to keep up with his army. Crucially, the Scots were poorly equipped and not well trained, commandeering horses en route to carry their ammunition, and their units straggled over more than 50 miles (80 km). On August 17 Cromwell’s well disciplined army pounced on the Scottish advance guard on the road into Preston and seized the town. The next day he attacked the rest of the Scottish army in hand-to-hand fighting, both sides relying on the skills of their pikemen. Totally outmaneuvered, the Scots fled, surrendering to Cromwell at Warrington on August 19; thousands of them were then enslaved and sent to work in the plantations of Barbados and Virginia. King Charles was beheaded at the end of January, 1649, and Hamilton would meet the same fate six weeks later. The second civil war was now over.

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Losses: Parliamentary, 100 of 8,600; Scottish, 2,000 dead, 9,000 captured of 18,000.