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Battle of Dunbar (1650)
Encyclopedia
The Battle of Dunbar (3 September 1650) was a battle of the Third English Civil War
. The English Parliamentarian
forces under Oliver Cromwell
defeated a Scottish army commanded by David Leslie which was loyal to King Charles II
, who had been proclaimed King of Scots on 5 February 1649.
invaded England in 1648, however the Duke of Hamilton
was proved to be a poor commander and was easily defeated at the Battle of Preston
. On 23 June 1650 Charles II
landed in Scotland at Garmouth
in Moray
. On his arrival he signed the 1638 Covenant and the 1643 Solemn League and Covenant
and was proclaimed King of Scots. This infuriated the English authorities
and they decided to invade Scotland. Sir Thomas Fairfax
, the Army's commander, disagreed with this strategy and resigned. Oliver Cromwell
was made General in his place. John Lambert
was appointed Sergeant Major General and the Army's second-in-command.
As Cromwell led his army over the border at Berwick-upon-Tweed
in July 1650, the Scottish general, Sir David Leslie, decided that his best strategy was to avoid a direct conflict with the enemy. His army were not the battle hardend veterans of The Thirty Years War who had taken the field for the Scots at Newburn
and Marston Moor
. Many of them had perished during the Civil War
and the ill fated 1648 invasion of England
. Far more had left active service after the former event. This meant that a new army had to be raised and trained by the remaining veteran soldiers. Eventually the army comprised some 12,000 soldiers outnumbering the English army of 11,000 men. Though the Scots soldiers were well armed, the lack of time meant they were poorly trained compared to their English counterparts all of whom had served with Oliver Cromwell
for years. Leslie chose therefore to shelter his troops behind strong fortifications around Edinburgh and refused to be drawn out to meet the English in battle. Furthermore, between Edinburgh and the border, Leslie adopted a scorched earth
policy thus forcing Cromwell to obtain all of his supplies from England, most arriving by sea through the port at Dunbar
.
Whether in a genuine attempt to avoid prolonging the conflict or whether because of the difficult circumstances he found himself in, Cromwell sought to persuade the Scots to accept the English point of view. Claiming that it was the King who was his enemy rather than the Scottish people, he wrote to his opponents on 3 August famously stating I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken. This plea, however, was unsuccessful.
. Leslie, believing that the English army was retreating, ordered his army to advance in pursuit. The Scots army reached Dunbar first and Leslie positioned his troops on Doon Hill, overlooking the town and the Berwick Road, which was Cromwell's land route back to England. However, the Scots army was funded by the Church of Scotland
. Eager not to waste funds, the church officials put Leslie under great pressure to finish the battle quickly. On 2 September 1650, Leslie brought his army down from Doon Hill and approached the town. Witnessing this manoeuvre, Cromwell quickly realised that here was an opportunity for him to turn the tables on the Scots.
That night, under cover of darkness, Cromwell secretly redeployed a large number of his troops to a position opposite the Scottish right flank. Just before dawn on 3 September, shouting their battle cry 'The Lord of Hosts!', the English launched a surprise attack. Soldiers in the centre and on the left flank caught Leslie's men unawares but were held by the greater number of Scottish opponents. On the right flank, however, the Scots soldiers were pushed back under the weight of superior English numbers until their lines started to disintegrate. Observing this disaster, the rest of the Scottish army lost heart, broke ranks and fled. In the rout that followed, the English cavalry drove the Scots army from the field in disorder.
Cromwell claimed that 3,000 Scots were killed. On the other hand, Sir James Balfour, a senior officer with the Scottish army, noted in his journal that there were "8 or 900 killed". There is similar disagreement about the number of Scottish prisoners taken: Cromwell claimed that there were 10,000, while the English Royalist leader, Sir Edward Walker
put the number at 6,000, of which 1,000 sick and wounded men were quickly released. The more conservative estimates of the Scottish casualties are borne out by the fact that, the day after the battle, Leslie retreated to Stirling
with some 4,000-5,000 of his remaining troops.
As a result of the destruction of the Scottish army, Cromwell was able to march unopposed to Edinburgh
. He quickly captured the Scottish capital, although Edinburgh Castle
held out until the end of December. The prisoners were then force-marched south towards England in order to prevent any attempt to rescue them. The conditions on the march were so appalling that many of the prisoners died of starvation, illness or exhaustion. By 11 September, when the remnants arrived at Durham Cathedral
where they were to be imprisoned, only 3,000 Scottish soldiers were still alive. If Sir Edward Walker's statement that 6,000 prisoners were taken and 5,000 of them were marched south was correct, then 2,000 captives perished on the way to Durham.
Of the estimated 5,000 Scottish soldiers that began the march southwards from Dunbar, over 3,500 died either on the march or during imprisonment in Durham Cathedral, more than the total number killed on the battlefield. Of the 1,400 survivors, the majority were eventually transported as convict labourers to English colonies in the New World and the Caribbean
.
Although Durham Cathedral offered a degree of shelter, the English failed to provide their prisoners with adequate food or fuel. For a time, the prisoners kept warm by burning all of the woodwork in the Cathedral with the notable exception of Prior Castell's Clock in the South Transept. It is thought that they left the clock alone because it carries a thistle, the emblem of Scotland, on it. The prisoners did take the opportunity to revenge themselves on the tombs of the Neville family, however, beheading their effigies and most of the statuary in the Cathedral. Lord Ralph Neville had commanded part of the English army which had defeated the Scots at the Battle of Neville's Cross
in 1346 on the outskirts of Durham City.
By the end of October, cold, malnutrition and disease had resulted in the deaths of another 1,600 of the Scots soldiers. The bodies of many of those who had died were buried in a mass grave in the form of a trench running northwards from the Cathedral. The location of their remains was then forgotten for almost three centuries until rediscovered by workmen in 1946. There is no permanent memorial to these soldiers and it is suggested that they had received neither Christian burial nor blessing, although their story is briefly told in the Cathedral guidebook. In 1993 the Cathedral approved in principle a request by the Scottish Covenanter's Memorials Association to erect a suitable memorial or plaque but progress seems to have stalled at this stage. A campaign properly to respect and remember the "Dunbar Martyrs" was launched at the end of 2007, aiming at least to gain a Christian blessing for the dead and an adequate memorial at the Cathedral burial site or even possible exhumation of the remains and reburial in Scotland(Dunbar Martyrs site).
After formally accepting the Solemn Oath and Covenant, Charles was finally crowned King in Scotland on 1 January 1651.
Third English Civil War
The Third English Civil War was the last of the English Civil Wars , a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists....
. The English Parliamentarian
Roundhead
"Roundhead" was the nickname given to the supporters of the Parliament during the English Civil War. Also known as Parliamentarians, they fought against King Charles I and his supporters, the Cavaliers , who claimed absolute power and the divine right of kings...
forces under Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
defeated a Scottish army commanded by David Leslie which was loyal to King Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
, who had been proclaimed King of Scots on 5 February 1649.
Background
The English Parliament had long suspected the true intentions of the Scots. Their worst fears were realised when the EngagersEngagers
The Engagers were a faction of the Scottish Covenanters, who made "The Engagement" with King Charles I in December 1647 while he was imprisoned in Carisbrooke Castle by the English Parliamenterians after his defeat in the First Civil War....
invaded England in 1648, however the Duke of Hamilton
James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Hamilton
General Sir James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Hamilton KG was a Scottish nobleman and influential Civil war military leader.-Young Arran:...
was proved to be a poor commander and was easily defeated at the Battle of Preston
Battle of Preston (1648)
The Battle of Preston , fought largely at Walton-le-Dale near Preston in Lancashire, resulted in a victory by the troops of Oliver Cromwell over the Royalists and Scots commanded by the Duke of Hamilton...
. On 23 June 1650 Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
landed in Scotland at Garmouth
Garmouth, Moray
Garmouth , spurious ) , is a village in Moray, north east Scotland. It is situated close to the mouth of the River Spey, and the coast of the Moray Firth at nearby Kingston .Garmouth has a claim to fame as the landing point of King Charles II on his return...
in Moray
Moray
Moray is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It lies in the north-east of the country, with coastline on the Moray Firth, and borders the council areas of Aberdeenshire and Highland.- History :...
. On his arrival he signed the 1638 Covenant and the 1643 Solemn League and Covenant
Solemn League and Covenant
The Solemn League and Covenant was an agreement between the Scottish Covenanters and the leaders of the English Parliamentarians. It was agreed to in 1643, during the First English Civil War....
and was proclaimed King of Scots. This infuriated the English authorities
Commonwealth of England
The Commonwealth of England was the republic which ruled first England, and then Ireland and Scotland from 1649 to 1660. Between 1653–1659 it was known as the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland...
and they decided to invade Scotland. Sir Thomas Fairfax
Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron
Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron was a general and parliamentary commander-in-chief during the English Civil War...
, the Army's commander, disagreed with this strategy and resigned. Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
was made General in his place. John Lambert
John Lambert (general)
John Lambert was an English Parliamentary general and politician. He fought during the English Civil War and then in Oliver Cromwell's Scottish campaign , becoming thereafter active in civilian politics until his dismissal by Cromwell in 1657...
was appointed Sergeant Major General and the Army's second-in-command.
As Cromwell led his army over the border at Berwick-upon-Tweed
Berwick-upon-Tweed
Berwick-upon-Tweed or simply Berwick is a town in the county of Northumberland and is the northernmost town in England, on the east coast at the mouth of the River Tweed. It is situated 2.5 miles south of the Scottish border....
in July 1650, the Scottish general, Sir David Leslie, decided that his best strategy was to avoid a direct conflict with the enemy. His army were not the battle hardend veterans of The Thirty Years War who had taken the field for the Scots at Newburn
Battle of Newburn
The Battle of Newburn was fought on 28 August 1640 during the Second Bishops' War between a Scottish Covenanter army led by General Alexander Leslie and English royalist forces commanded by Edward, Lord Conway. Conway, heavily outnumbered, was defeated, and the Scots went on to occupy the town of...
and Marston Moor
Battle of Marston Moor
The Battle of Marston Moor was fought on 2 July 1644, during the First English Civil War of 1642–1646. The combined forces of the Scottish Covenanters under the Earl of Leven and the English Parliamentarians under Lord Fairfax and the Earl of Manchester defeated the Royalists commanded by Prince...
. Many of them had perished during the Civil War
First English Civil War
The First English Civil War began the series of three wars known as the English Civil War . "The English Civil War" was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations that took place between Parliamentarians and Royalists from 1642 until 1651, and includes the Second English Civil War and...
and the ill fated 1648 invasion of England
Second English Civil War
The Second English Civil War was the second of three wars known as the English Civil War which refers to the series of armed conflicts and political machinations which took place between Parliamentarians and Royalists from 1642 until 1652 and also include the First English Civil War and the...
. Far more had left active service after the former event. This meant that a new army had to be raised and trained by the remaining veteran soldiers. Eventually the army comprised some 12,000 soldiers outnumbering the English army of 11,000 men. Though the Scots soldiers were well armed, the lack of time meant they were poorly trained compared to their English counterparts all of whom had served with Oliver Cromwell
Cromwell
- People :* Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex , English statesman in the reign of Henry VIII of England* Gregory Cromwell, 1st Baron Cromwell - People :* Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex (c.1485–1540), English statesman in the reign of Henry VIII of England* Gregory Cromwell, 1st Baron Cromwell...
for years. Leslie chose therefore to shelter his troops behind strong fortifications around Edinburgh and refused to be drawn out to meet the English in battle. Furthermore, between Edinburgh and the border, Leslie adopted a scorched earth
Scorched earth
A scorched earth policy is a military strategy or operational method which involves destroying anything that might be useful to the enemy while advancing through or withdrawing from an area...
policy thus forcing Cromwell to obtain all of his supplies from England, most arriving by sea through the port at Dunbar
Dunbar
Dunbar is a town in East Lothian on the southeast coast of Scotland, approximately 28 miles east of Edinburgh and 28 miles from the English Border at Berwick-upon-Tweed....
.
Whether in a genuine attempt to avoid prolonging the conflict or whether because of the difficult circumstances he found himself in, Cromwell sought to persuade the Scots to accept the English point of view. Claiming that it was the King who was his enemy rather than the Scottish people, he wrote to his opponents on 3 August famously stating I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken. This plea, however, was unsuccessful.
The battle
By early September, the English army, weakened by illness and demoralised by lack of success, began to withdraw towards its supply base at DunbarDunbar
Dunbar is a town in East Lothian on the southeast coast of Scotland, approximately 28 miles east of Edinburgh and 28 miles from the English Border at Berwick-upon-Tweed....
. Leslie, believing that the English army was retreating, ordered his army to advance in pursuit. The Scots army reached Dunbar first and Leslie positioned his troops on Doon Hill, overlooking the town and the Berwick Road, which was Cromwell's land route back to England. However, the Scots army was funded by the Church of Scotland
Church of Scotland
The Church of Scotland, known informally by its Scots language name, the Kirk, is a Presbyterian church, decisively shaped by the Scottish Reformation....
. Eager not to waste funds, the church officials put Leslie under great pressure to finish the battle quickly. On 2 September 1650, Leslie brought his army down from Doon Hill and approached the town. Witnessing this manoeuvre, Cromwell quickly realised that here was an opportunity for him to turn the tables on the Scots.
That night, under cover of darkness, Cromwell secretly redeployed a large number of his troops to a position opposite the Scottish right flank. Just before dawn on 3 September, shouting their battle cry 'The Lord of Hosts!', the English launched a surprise attack. Soldiers in the centre and on the left flank caught Leslie's men unawares but were held by the greater number of Scottish opponents. On the right flank, however, the Scots soldiers were pushed back under the weight of superior English numbers until their lines started to disintegrate. Observing this disaster, the rest of the Scottish army lost heart, broke ranks and fled. In the rout that followed, the English cavalry drove the Scots army from the field in disorder.
Cromwell claimed that 3,000 Scots were killed. On the other hand, Sir James Balfour, a senior officer with the Scottish army, noted in his journal that there were "8 or 900 killed". There is similar disagreement about the number of Scottish prisoners taken: Cromwell claimed that there were 10,000, while the English Royalist leader, Sir Edward Walker
Edward Walker (officer of arms)
Sir Edward Walker was an officer of arms and antiquarian who served as Garter King of Arms.-Early life:Walker was born in 1611 at Roobers in Nether Stowey, Somerset, and entered the household of the great Earl Marshal Thomas Howard in 1633.-Charles I:Walker was in almost constant attendance on...
put the number at 6,000, of which 1,000 sick and wounded men were quickly released. The more conservative estimates of the Scottish casualties are borne out by the fact that, the day after the battle, Leslie retreated to Stirling
Stirling
Stirling is a city and former ancient burgh in Scotland, and is at the heart of the wider Stirling council area. The city is clustered around a large fortress and medieval old-town beside the River Forth...
with some 4,000-5,000 of his remaining troops.
The aftermath
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
. He quickly captured the Scottish capital, although Edinburgh Castle
Edinburgh Castle
Edinburgh Castle is a fortress which dominates the skyline of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, from its position atop the volcanic Castle Rock. Human habitation of the site is dated back as far as the 9th century BC, although the nature of early settlement is unclear...
held out until the end of December. The prisoners were then force-marched south towards England in order to prevent any attempt to rescue them. The conditions on the march were so appalling that many of the prisoners died of starvation, illness or exhaustion. By 11 September, when the remnants arrived at Durham Cathedral
Durham Cathedral
The Cathedral Church of Christ, Blessed Mary the Virgin and St Cuthbert of Durham is a cathedral in the city of Durham, England, the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Durham. The Bishopric dates from 995, with the present cathedral being founded in AD 1093...
where they were to be imprisoned, only 3,000 Scottish soldiers were still alive. If Sir Edward Walker's statement that 6,000 prisoners were taken and 5,000 of them were marched south was correct, then 2,000 captives perished on the way to Durham.
Of the estimated 5,000 Scottish soldiers that began the march southwards from Dunbar, over 3,500 died either on the march or during imprisonment in Durham Cathedral, more than the total number killed on the battlefield. Of the 1,400 survivors, the majority were eventually transported as convict labourers to English colonies in the New World and the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
.
Although Durham Cathedral offered a degree of shelter, the English failed to provide their prisoners with adequate food or fuel. For a time, the prisoners kept warm by burning all of the woodwork in the Cathedral with the notable exception of Prior Castell's Clock in the South Transept. It is thought that they left the clock alone because it carries a thistle, the emblem of Scotland, on it. The prisoners did take the opportunity to revenge themselves on the tombs of the Neville family, however, beheading their effigies and most of the statuary in the Cathedral. Lord Ralph Neville had commanded part of the English army which had defeated the Scots at the Battle of Neville's Cross
Battle of Neville's Cross
The Battle of Neville's Cross took place to the west of Durham, England on 17 October 1346.-Background:In 1346, England was embroiled in the Hundred Years' War with France. In order to divert his enemy Philip VI of France appealed to David II of Scotland to attack the English from the north in...
in 1346 on the outskirts of Durham City.
By the end of October, cold, malnutrition and disease had resulted in the deaths of another 1,600 of the Scots soldiers. The bodies of many of those who had died were buried in a mass grave in the form of a trench running northwards from the Cathedral. The location of their remains was then forgotten for almost three centuries until rediscovered by workmen in 1946. There is no permanent memorial to these soldiers and it is suggested that they had received neither Christian burial nor blessing, although their story is briefly told in the Cathedral guidebook. In 1993 the Cathedral approved in principle a request by the Scottish Covenanter's Memorials Association to erect a suitable memorial or plaque but progress seems to have stalled at this stage. A campaign properly to respect and remember the "Dunbar Martyrs" was launched at the end of 2007, aiming at least to gain a Christian blessing for the dead and an adequate memorial at the Cathedral burial site or even possible exhumation of the remains and reburial in Scotland(Dunbar Martyrs site).
After formally accepting the Solemn Oath and Covenant, Charles was finally crowned King in Scotland on 1 January 1651.