Siege of Delhi: The recapture of Delhi from the Mutineers during the Indian Mutiny of 1857/8

The previous battle of the British Battles series is the Siege of Sevastopol

The next battle in the British Battles series is the Battle of Magdala

To the Indian Mutiny index

War: Indian Mutiny.

Date of the Siege of Delhi: 8^th June 1857 to 20^th September 1857

Place of the Siege of Delhi: Delhi, in northern India.

Combatants at the Siege of Delhi: British, Indian and Nepalese troops against the Hindu and Muslim Mutineers and the troops of a number of native rulers. Several other native rulers supported the British and provided them with troops.

Commanders at the Siege of Delhi: A number of British officers commanded the British Delhi Field Force before Delhi, each one dying or becoming incapacitated by disease or wounds and giving way to his successor.

The Commander-in-Chief in India on the outbreak of the Indian Mutiny General George Anson was at the hill station of Simla.

On 26^th May 1857, during the march on Delhi, Anson contracted cholera and died.

Anson was succeeded by General Sir Henry Barnard, a veteran of the Crimean War.

On 5^th July 1857, Barnard also died from cholera and was succeeded by General Reed, who, due to his ill-health, handed the command of the Delhi Field Force to Brigadier-General Archdale Wilson.

Wilson commanded the Delhi Field Force for the rest of the campaign.

The Mutineers looked to the titular Mogul Emperor, Bahadur Shah, resident in Delhi, as their figurehead.

Bahadur Shah appointed various leaders of the Mutiny to high command during the Siege of Delhi, as set out in the text.

Mutineers’ leadership:

The Mutineers were defeated in their defence of Delhi by the British, in spite of fighting tenaciously and with skill and being equipped with the same weapons as their opponents with an apparently limitless supply of ammunition.

The reason for their failure would seem to lie in the lack of effective leadership.

The mutinies in the various Indian regiments were largely instigated and led by sepoys or low-ranking NCOs.

While Indian officers joined the mutinies in most regiments, they were often not the prime movers, leaving their regiments to be led by inexperienced and ill-educated soldiers.

Surendra Nath Sen in his book ‘Eighteen Fifty-Seven’ deals with the workings of the garrison of Delhi.

The residual Moghul Emperor, Bahadur Shah, living in the old fort in Delhi with his family, including his three sons, Mirza Moghul, Mirza Khizr Sultan and Mirza Abu Brka, was elderly and had no experience of rule when the Mutineers arrived in Delhi and made him their titular leader.

Bahadur Shah’s adviser, Hakim Ahsanullah, was convinced that the British would win and was unhappy at the position to which the mutinous sepoys elevated Bahadur Shah.

Sen says the mutineers did not trust Bahadur Shah and he did not trust the mutineers.

Nevertheless, the mutineers looked to Bahadur Shah to pay them and supply them with food.

Bahadur Shah attempted to form a council to administer and rule the city, but many of his appointees refused to act and the council was ineffectual.

The city was subject to significant disorder during the course of the siege.

Bahadur Shah’s oldest son, Mirza Moghul, was initially appointed commander of the Mutineers in the city, but he had no military experience and the Mutineers were not inclined to follow his orders.

An artillery subadar from the mutinous garrison of Bareilly, Bakht Khan, of noble birth, on his arrival in Delhi in early July 1857 was interviewed by Bahadur Shah and as a distant relative of the royal family and a soldier of forty years’ experience with service in the First Afghan War, was appointed commander-in-chief of the Mutineer army in place of Mirza Moghul.

Bakht Khan was unable to exercise proper control.

There was intense dislike and rivalry between the various mutinous regiments that came to Delhi and Sen reports ‘suicidal rivalry between Bakht Khan and Muhammad Ghaus Khan, the commander of the Nimach rebels’ and that Bakht Khan’s orders ceased to be obeyed.

Religious issues surfaced between Hindu and Muslim Mutineers, although these were not as intense as they might have been or that the British hoped for.

In contrast, the Delhi Field Force was officered at the middle level by a number of ruthlessly determined and resourceful officers who led disciplined and hard-fighting regiments, that were in several cases devoted to their British commanders.

Size of the armies at the Siege of Delhi: The size of the Delhi Field Force varied during the course of the siege, as casualties were suffered and reinforcements marched in. The numbers of troops at different stages of the siege are given in the narrative section.

The numbers of Mutineers in Delhi are very much a matter of conjecture and were probably not known to anyone. As native regiments mutinied across Northern India many of them were drawn to Delhi and marched into the city during the siege, increasing the size of the Delhi garrison.

The Mutineers suffered losses from battle casualties, disease and desertion.

At times complete Mutineer regiments left Delhi to return to their homes.

Estimates of the size of the Mutineer garrison in Delhi made by British sources varied from 40,000 to 70,000.

Uniforms, arms and equipment at the Siege of Delhi:

There were cavalry, infantry and artillery on both sides.

The cavalry was armed with lance, sword and muzzle-loading carbines.

The infantry of both sides was armed with the Brown Bess musket, with an effective accurate range of around 100 yards or the more modern Enfield rifled musket, a muzzle loading weapon with an effective accurate range of 300 yards. Both weapons carried a bayonet for close quarter fighting.

It is far from clear the extent to which conversion from the smooth bore musket to the Enfield rifled musket had progressed in either the British or the Indian regiments, both mutinous and loyal, when the Indian Mutiny broke out in early 1857.

However, the immediate trigger for the mutinies in several of the Bengal Native regiments in 1857 was the issue of the Enfield rifled musket and the requirement for the sepoys to bite open the new cartridges, indicating that the issue of the new weapon was under way in the Bengal Native Army in 1856-7.

Probably the Mutinous Indian regiments largely did not use the Enfield in the fighting during the Indian Mutiny, in view of their religious objections to the biting of the cartridges greased with animal fat.

Although the British troops in the Crimean War, 1853-6, were widely re-equipped with rifled muskets, either the Enfield or the French Minié, it would seem that this was not the case for the whole British Army, particularly where regiments were serving overseas; these regiments continuing to carry their Brown Bess smooth-bore muskets well past the general issue of Enfields in 1853.

British regiments are reported as being re-equipped with the Enfield rifled musket on arrival at Calcutta from Britain in 1857-8, in place of the Brown Bess.

Reports of battles in the Indian Mutiny describe British infantry as having an advantage over their Indian adversaries through being armed with the Enfield rifle, suggesting that the Mutineer infantry was armed almost entirely with the old smooth bore short range muskets.

It would seem however that not all British or loyal native Indian regiments were equipped with the Enfield even when in the front line.

Reports of the Relief of Lucknow describe certain British regiments as being given specific duties because they were armed with the more accurate and longer-ranged Enfield, suggesting that other British regiments retained the old Brown Bess smooth bored musket.

Large numbers of field guns were deployed by both sides in the Indian Mutiny with a wide range of sizes up to 24 pounder siege guns and some howitzers.

Guns were still almost entirely muzzle-loaded, firing either solid ball, grape-shot, case-shot or exploding shells.

Guns were horse-drawn or in the case of the larger guns drawn by slow-moving oxen. Many of the largest guns were drawn by elephant.

During the course of the siege, the Delhi Field Force was particularly reliant on the Bengal Horse Artillery armed with small calibre muzzle-loading guns.

A novel feature of the Indian Mutiny was the use of the Telegraph.

Lord Dalhousie, the Governor-General of India, caused the Telegraph to be introduced into India in the mid-1850s.

On the outbreak of the Indian Mutiny a Telegraph line was in operation between Calcutta, Delhi and the North-West of India.

News of the Mutiny in Delhi was transmitted to the British at both ends of the Telegraph line on the day of the outbreak enabling counter-measures to be put in place without delay.

Winner of the Siege of Delhi: The British recaptured Delhi in September 1857 after several months of heavy fighting.

Events leading to the Siege of Delhi:

On 29^th March 1857, at Barrackpore, a garrison town immediately north of Calcutta, the British administrative capital of India, in the eastern state of Bengal, a sepoy of the 34^th Native Infantry Regiment of the East India Company’s Bengal army turned his musket on the adjutant of his regiment, a British officer named Lieutenant Baugh.

This is the incident that is said to have started the Indian Mutiny.

The issues leading to the Mutiny were complex.

The British directly ruled the Bombay Presidency on the west coast of India, the Madras Presidency on the east coast, Bengal in the north-east of India, the Central Provinces and the area around Delhi in the north.

Native principalities of India covered as much land as the British areas, subject to varying degrees of British influence and control.

The British sovereign entity in India was the East India Company, a commercial organisation administered from London, not the British Crown.

Over the years the British Government increased its control over the East India Company and exercised a significant influence in the appointment of the Governor and other officials.

Senior military officers were seconded from the British army and a significant part of the garrison in India comprised regiments of the British army.

There was increasing interference by the British in Indian land administration and practices and the growth of evangelical religion in Britain led to an influx into India of Christian missionaries, leading to a fear that the British intended to replace the indigenous religions of Hinduism and Islam with Christianity.

The British continued to widen the area of India that they controlled.

It is considered that a major cause for the Mutiny was the final annexation of Oudh by the British.

The principality of Oudh covered much of northern Central India with its capital in the ancient city of Lucknow.

The British East India Company increased its control of Oudh incrementally, effectively deposing the rulers, the last of whom was removed to Calcutta under effective house arrest and replaced by a British Chief Commissioner, Sir Henry Lawrence.

The East India Company annexed Oudh in 1856, ending the fiction that it was still an independent state.

Many of the Bengal Army sepoys were from Oudh and bitterly resented the annexation of their homeland by the British.

Native Indian regiments in the service of the British East India Company, particularly in the Bengal army, tended to recruit high caste Hindu sepoys. For these sepoys the integrity of their Hindu faith was paramount.

One issue for the native sepoys was a change in the terms of service enabling regiments to be shipped overseas to fight wars in Persia and Burma: travel by sea causing a Hindu sepoy to lose his caste.

Another was the arming of the sepoys with the new 1853 Enfield rifled musket. In order to load this weapon a soldier was required to bite off the end of the cartridge before pouring the gun powder charge into the barrel of the firearm.

Cartridges for the Enfield were greased with fat, rumoured to be either cow or pig fat, taking of which into the mouth being major breaches of the Hindu and Muslim religions.

These two issues arose against a background of deteriorating morale and discipline in the Indian regiments over a period of years.

In addition, the British reputation for invincibility took a severe knock from the incompetence and defeats of the war in Afghanistan (First Afghan War 1839 to 1842).

The East India Company’s army comprised some 250,000 sepoys and around 5,000 British troops.

The two British Army cavalry regiments and twenty British infantry regiments posted to India to support the East India Company government were spread across the country with the strongest contingent in the Punjab and others in Persia and Burma.

The British Governor of India, Lord Dalhousie, repeatedly requested reinforcement by more British regiments, but this was not forthcoming from the British Government against a background of demand for troops created by the losses in the Crimean War.

Following the incident in Barrackpore, several Indian soldiers were tried for mutiny and some executed. The 19^th Sepoy Infantry was disbanded.

At Ambala, near Delhi, the sepoy troops, in view of the rumours over the new rifles and cartridges, burnt down several buildings, including the British officers’ bungalows.

Word of the mutiny in these regiments spread quickly through the garrisons of northern India and several regiments, where they were not disbanded by British troops, mutinied.

In Delhi, Bahadur Shah, the titular head of the old Mogul dynasty held his court under sufferance from the British.

Bahadur Shah became the rallying point for many of the Mutineers, who marched to Delhi.

Several of the Indian native rulers took the opportunity to revolt against the British.

Significant among these Indian rulers were Nana Sahib and the Rani of Jhansi, causing a block of territory 100 miles on each side of the River Ganges from Allahabad to Delhi to be in revolt against the British.

The 34^th Bengal Native Infantry was disbanded after a significant delay, while further acts of mutiny took place in the Calcutta area.

On 10^th May 1857, at Meerut, the 3^rd Bengal Light Cavalry and the 11^th and 20^th Native Infantry Regiments mutinied and attempted to massacre their officers at church parade.

The massacre was largely prevented but, due to the failure of senior British officers to act decisively, the Mutineers were enabled to march away, heading for Delhi.

Mounted Mutineers reached Delhi on 11^th May 1857 and entered the city without being halted by the troops of the Indian garrison, the 38^th, 54^th and 74^th regiments of Native Infantry.

The few British officials and officers in the garrison went on the alert.

The Mutineers released the prisoners from the gaol, entered the palace of the aged Moghul ruler, Bahadur Shah and called on him to lead them in the fight against the British.

The British men, women and children found in the palace were killed.

Parties of Mutineers searched out the European and Eurasian residents of the European Quarter of Delhi and killed them.

Lieutenant Willoughby, in charge of the Delhi magazine, where a substantial quantity of ammunition was stored, prepared the magazine for defence with his staff of 8 British soldiers.

From the cantonment to the north of Delhi, Brigadier-General Graves sent the 54^th and other native infantry regiments to restore order in the city.

These troops joined the Mutineers at the city gate and fired on their British officers. the British survivors escaped into the countryside and made their way to various places thought to be safe havens, leaving Bahadur Shah as the restored ruler in the old Mogul Capital City of Delhi with a rapidly growing army of Mutineers.

One of the last acts of the British in Delhi was to blow up the Armoury in what is described as a ‘terrific explosion’, killing three of the seven British soldiers defending the Armoury; the others, including Lieutenant Willoughby who fired the charge, escaping into the countryside. Around 100 mutineers were also killed in the explosion.

Willoughby with some of his soldiers was murdered by the inhabitants in the village where they took refuge.

In Calcutta, due to the lack of reliable information, it was difficult For Lord Canning and the East India Company administration to assess the full implications of what was occurring.

On 12^th May 1857, the news of what had taken place at Meerut and Delhi reached the British commander-in-chief, General George Anson at Simla in the north-west of India.

Such troops as were available were assembled for an attack to recover Delhi.

HM 75^th Foot and the East India Company 1^st Bengal (European) Fusilier and the 2^nd Bengal (European) Fusilier regiments were ordered to march to Ambala, to the north of Delhi.

The Sirmoor Gurkha battalion moved to Meerut and a siege train with the Nasiri Gurkha battalion marched to Phillaur.

The garrison in Ambala comprised HM 9^th Lancers, two batteries of horse artillery and three untrustworthy native regiments.

The primary target for General Anson was to recover Delhi from the Mutineers, an aim urged on him by John Lawrence the British Chief Commissioner in the Punjab.

Due to Dalhousie’s repeated reductions in military spending over the previous years, there was no transport for the various regiments’ baggage and they arrived in Ambala without tents, supplies or medical provision or sufficient ammunition for a prolonged military operation, imposing a significant delay on any advance to Delhi.

At Ferozepore three native regiments mutinied and although dispersed and partially disarmed many Mutineers made their way to join the Mutineers in Delhi.

A native regiment mutinied at Agra and escaped to Delhi, with further mutinies at Shahjahanpur, Bareilly, Budaon, Moadabad and Farakhabad.

On 4^th June 1857 two native regiments mutinied at Jhansi and massacred the English population, with the connivance of the Rani of Jhansi.

On 6^th June 1857 the garrison of a native regiment and an artillery battery in Allahabad mutinied.

The British Advance on Delhi:

John Lawrence, the Chief Commissioner in the Punjab repeatedly urged General Anson to advance on Delhi.

Anson’s inclination was to wait until he had organised a siege train from the guns held at Agra and ensured that his army was better equipped.

Canning, the Governor-General in Calcutta, equally required Anson to re-capture Delhi, a course of action Anson now felt bound to adopt, although against his better judgement.

Anson ordered the troops at Meerut and the siege train at Ludhiana to join him at Baghpat on the road to Delhi.

Anson himself marched out of Ambala on 25^th May 1857 with HM 9^th Lancers, two troops of Bengal Horse Artillery, HM 75^th Foot, 1^st Bengal (European) Fusiliers, 4 companies of the 2^nd Bengal (European) Fusiliers and the 60^th Native Infantry.

The 60^th Native Infantry was suspect and was sent away soon afterwards, shortly before it mutinied.

On 26^th May 1857, Anson’s column reached Karnal, where Anson died of cholera and was succeeded in command by General Sir Henry Barnard, a British army officer who had been chief-of-staff of the British army in the Crimea.

On 27^th May 1857, Brigadier General Archdale Wilson marched out of Meerut with two squadrons of the Carabiniers (6^th Dragoon Guards), a wing of the 60^th Rifles, Tombs Bengal Horse Artillery troop, Scott’s field battery and some native sappers and irregular cavalry.

The Battle at Ghazi-ud-din Nagar:

On 30^th May 1857, Wilson’s column reached Ghazi-ud-din Nagar, approaching the suspension bridge across the River Hindan, now dry.

A large force of Mutineers with guns was in a defensive position behind and in the dry river bed.

The odds against Wilson were said to have been 7 to 1.

At 4pm, Wilson’s column attacked the Mutineers’ positions along the river and drove them back, capturing five of the Mutineers’ guns.

The next day the Mutineers returned. After an artillery engagement lasting two hours the Mutineers fell back before an advance by the 60^th Rifles.

On 1^st June 1857, the Sirmoor Gurkha Battalion joined Wilson’s column and on 7^th June 1857 Wilson reached Alipur and joined Barnard’s force.

The advance down the Grand Trunk Road to Delhi by the whole force began at midnight.

Lieutenant William Hodson, an officer of irregular horse, conducting a reconnaissance along the road to Delhi, found a powerful force of Mutineers in position halfway to Delhi, at the village of Badli-ki-Serai.

Battle of Badli-ki-Serai 8^th June 1857:

The Mutineers, outnumbering the British force by 4 or 5 to 1, occupied a strong position across the Grand Trunk Road.

On the right of the Mutineers’ position was a serai or way-side inn and a walled village with two substantial stone gates.

In front of the village was an expanse of impassable swampy ground.

On the left of their position the Mutineers had constructed a sand-bagged battery with four heavy guns and an 8-inch mortar.

On either side of the road was a network of ditches through swampy ground.

At a mile distance to the west ran the Western Jumna Canal.

Barnard launched his attack on the Mutineers’ positions at daybreak on 8^th June 1857.

Brigadier Hope-Grant with ten horse artillery guns, the Carabiniers (6^th Dragoon Guards), three squadrons of 9^th Lancers and fifty of Hodson’s Jhind Horse, commanded by Lieutenant William Hodson advanced around the Mutineers’ left flank.

This move was followed by an advance of the main body of the British force up the road towards the Mutineers’ position.

Once the lights from the Mutineers’ camp could be seen, Brigadier Showers with his First Brigade of the 75^th Foot and the 1^st Bengal (European) Fusiliers moved off to the right of the Mutineers’ position, while Colonel Graves led the 2^nd Brigade of 1^st Battalion 60^th Rifles, 2^nd Bengal (European) Fusiliers and the Sirmoor Gurkha battalion to the Mutineers’ left.

The British heavy guns remained on the road with a battery of field artillery on each flank.

Before the British guns could come into action they were subjected to a heavy fire by the Mutineers’ artillery, in place across the road.

The British guns were of a smaller calibre and unable to respond adequately to this bombardment, which inflicted many casualties on the British force and caused the native drivers to abandon the column with their bullocks, leaving the guns immobile, until they were rounded up and forced to return.

Barnard ordered Showers to charge the Mutineers’ guns, an assault carried out with considerable success by the 75^th Foot, supported by the 1^st Bengal Fusiliers, carrying the gun battery at the point of the bayonet, before crossing the road, bursting through the stone gatehouse and charging into Badli-ki-Serai, where a desperate fight took place leading to the destruction of the Mutineers holding the village.

Graves’ brigade appeared on the extreme right of the Mutineers’ position, after marching around the swampy ground, while the British cavalry and horse artillery advanced around the Mutineers’ left flank.

The Mutineers abandoned their positions in the village and Serai and retreated precipitately to Delhi, leaving their guns on the field to be taken by the British.

Under a hot sun, Barnard marched on to Delhi, reaching the parade ground of the abandoned British cantonments to the north-west of Delhi and to the north of the northern end of Delhi Ridge.

The Mutineers opened fire from the ridge, causing Barnard to divide his force in two and conduct sweeps from the northern and southern ends of the ridge, clearing it of the Mutineers.

The days casualties saw the Mutineers lose around a thousand men with the British column suffering 182 casualties, 60 of whom were taken by the 75^th Foot.

The British captured thirteen of the Mutineers’ guns, two being 24 pounders.

Barnard’s column, now referred to as the ‘Delhi Field Force’ took up positions on Delhi Ridge and the Siege of Delhi was under way.

In reality, for some time it was the Delhi Field Force that was besieged rather than the city.

The Siege of Delhi:

Delhi Ridge, on which the British force was now positioned, lay along the northern side of Delhi, slanting from the west to the north-east of the city. 

Delhi Ridge is around two miles in length, two hundred yards wide at the northern end to eight hundred yards wide at its southern end.

Delhi Ridge is around sixty feet in elevation, its northern end resting on the Jumna River, flowing down the eastern side of the city and unfordable from the rainy season, when the snow begins to melt in the Himalayan Mountains.

Immediately adjacent to the southern end of Delhi Ridge lay the Grand Trunk Road, the route from Delhi to the north-west of India and the Punjab, the main sources of supply and troop reinforcement for the Delhi Field Force.

The northern end of Delhi Ridge lay beyond the range of the many guns positioned by the Mutineers along the ramparts of the city.

For these various reasons the Delhi Field Force positioned its main camp to the rear of the northern end of Delhi Ridge in the old wrecked army cantonment and took up positions along the Ridge.

Behind the southern end of the Ridge lay the extensive suburb of Sabzi Mandi, its buildings a succession of houses and walled gardens, providing extensive cover for the Mutineers’ raids onto the south-western end of the Ridge during the course of the siege.

Approximately halfway along the Ridge stood a large house, the country residence of a Mahrattha chief, Hindu Rao’s House. The British occupied this building as their main piquet.

Two hundred yards along the Ridge, to the left of Hindu Rao’s House, a battery of heavy guns was positioned, with five hundred yards further along, in an old mosque, an infantry piquet with two guns and half a mile yet further, in the Flagstaff Tower, another infantry piquet with two guns.

On the right of the British position was an infantry piquet with three heavy guns fronted by a cavalry piquet with two horse artillery guns, overlooking the Grand Trunk Road.

The length of the British line was 2,600 yards, or around one yard per man of the British force, with odds against them of between twenty and forty to one.

General Barnard received pressing instructions from both Lord Canning, the Governor-General in Calcutta and Sir John Lawrence, the Chief Commissioner of the Punjab, to storm and take Delhi and, in addition, to despatch troops to relieve Lucknow and Cawnpore.

These were tall orders as Barnard barely had enough troops and guns to keep the Mutineers from overwhelming his defensive position on Delhi Ridge.

In addition to the casualties inflicted on his troops during the fighting on Delhi Ridge, the heat and demands on an undermanned force caused a great many additional casualties from exhaustion and disease, particularly cholera.

Mutineers’ attacks on 8^th 9^th 10^th and 12^th June 1857:

 On 8^th June 1857, the day the British occupied Delhi Ridge, the Mutineers sallied out of the city and attacked the British garrison in Hindu Rao’s House, but were driven off by the Sirmoor Gurkha battalion, two companies of the 60^th Rifles and two of Scott’s guns.

On 9^th June 1857, the Corps of Guides marched into the British camp after a march from the Punjab of six hundred miles, achieved in twenty-two days.

The Guides, after being inspected by General Barnard, helped repel an assault by the Mutineers on the Hindu Rao House that same afternoon.

The Guides pursued the Mutineers back to the walls of Delhi, where one of their officers, Lieutenant Quintin Battye, was mortally wounded.

The Mutineers began a cannonade using the heavy guns positioned on the north wall of the Delhi fortifications.

The British guns put in place on the Ridge were found to be inadequate to counter the bombardment by the heavier guns of the Mutineers.

The Mutineers launched further attacks on the Hindu Rao position on 9^th and 10^th June 1857, all of which were repelled by Major Reid and his Sirmoor Battalion of Gurkhas, with support from the 60^th Rifles and the Guides.

On 12^th June 1857, a body of Mutineers crept up on the Flagstaff Tower by way of a network of ravines at the base of the Ridge and launched an attack. The piquet, comprising two Horse Artillery guns and two companies of the 75^th Foot, was about to be relieved by companies from the 2^nd Bengal Fusiliers.

A thick fog descended on the Ridge, concealing the Mutineers as they rushed the Flagstaff Tower.

The Mutineers’ attack was repelled with difficulty, after two companies of the 60^th Rifles came up to support the troops of the piquet.

Captain Knox of the 75^th Foot was killed among the several British casualties in the fight.

Hard on the heels of this assault, the Mutineers launched a further attack on the Hindu Rao house, this time from the Sabzi Mandi suburb in the rear of the Ridge.

The Mutineers were only with difficulty repelled, causing the British to strengthen the defences on the north side of the Ridge facing Sabzi Mandi and on the south side with an additional advanced piquet in a building known as Metcalfe’s House, twelve hundred yards in advance of the Flagstaff Tower.

The small number of British troops in the Delhi Field Force meant that in each of these attacks virtually the whole British manpower was deployed, leaving little opportunity for rest and recovery.

In addition, the heat and the glaring sun were a substantial burden, with growing incidents of disease among the troops.

The aborted assault on the Delhi defences of 13^th June 1857:

In accordance with the directions he was receiving from Lord Canning in Calcutta and Sir John Lawrence in the Punjab, General Barnard prepared an assault on Delhi.

Three junior British engineer officers were assigned to plan the assault in the utmost secrecy, under the directions of the commanding general.

The whole force was to be deployed in three columns.

One column was to enter Delhi by the Kashmir Gate, the main entrance in the north wall of the city.

The second column was to enter by the Lahore Gate, situated in the western side of the city.

The third column was to make an assault over the city wall.

The three columns would move off from the British camp so as to arrive at the walls at daybreak.

No notice of the intended attack was given to the soldiers of the Delhi Field Force, even to the commanding engineer, whose officers were planning the operation.

At 1am on 13^th June 1857, the day of the attack, the whole Delhi Field Force was suddenly paraded and ammunition given out.

At this point, the various senior officers commanding the columns were given their instructions.

It was then found that the 75^th Foot, after pursuing the Mutineers from the attack on the Flagstaff Tower into the grounds of Metcalfe House had not been recalled and were still there, about a mile in front of the Tower.

By the time the 75^th Foot returned to camp and been issued with ammunition it was dawn and too late to attempt the attack on the city. The operation was cancelled.

The general view seems to have been that the cancellation was a fortunate outcome as the attack had little chance of success and would have led to substantial British casualties.

Not until the Delhi Field Force received further reinforcements from the Punjab could an attack on Delhi succeed.

The Mutineers’ attacks of 15^th 17^th and 18^th June 1857:

On 15^th June 1857, a strong force of Mutineers attacked the Metcalfe House piquet but was driven back with considerable loss.

On 17^th June 1857, the Mutineers launched attacks on Delhi Ridge from every direction.

It appeared that the assaults were to mask the building of a battery by the Mutineers at an Idgah, a large walled rectangular open-air place of muslim worship, on a hill a quarter of a mile in front of the southern limit of the Delhi Ridge, from where enfilading fire could be directed against the positions of the Delhi Field Force along the Ridge.

Barnard directed that the battery be attacked by two columns, one led by Major Tombs of the Bengal Horse Artillery with 400 men of the 60^th Rifles and the 1^st Bengal Fusiliers, 30 Guides Cavalry, his own battery and a party of Sappers and Miners.

the other column, led by Major, Reid comprising four companies of the 60^th Rifles and some Gurkhas was to attack through Kishenganj on the left flank of the battery at the Idgah.

The two British columns converged on the Idgah, driving the Mutineers before them, blew open the gates and destroyed the battery, inflicting heavy casualties on the Mutineers.

On 18^th June 1857, the Mutineers issued in great strength from Delhi and attacked all along the line of the British positions.

One force of Mutineers infiltrated through the suburbs on the British right and appeared in their rear.

The only troops available to repel this attack were some cavalry and light guns of Tombs Horse Artillery battery. The Mutineers were repelled with difficulty, following a further attack by a party of the 60^th Rifles.

Mutineers’ attack of 23^rd June 1857:

It seems to have been reported in the British camp that the Mutineers believed that the British Raj was destined only to last for 100 years and that period was to be computed from the date of Clive’s great victory at the Battle of Plassey on 23^rd June 1757.

An attack on the Delhi Field Force on the anniversary of Plassey was consequently destined to succeed and would lead to the eviction of the British from India.

Further supporting this belief was the knowledge that it was a propitious date for both Hindus and Muslims.

Surendra Nath Sen queries whether this was in fact the Mutineer’s reasoning, pointing out that natives of India did not use the western calendar.

At 5am on 23^rd June 1857, the Mutineers began a determined attack on the Delhi Ridge with some six thousand men.

The Mutineers’ heavy guns on the Delhi walls bombarded Hindu Rao’s House and the Ridge, while other guns in the western suburbs fired into the right flank of the British positions on the Delhi Ridge.

 A series of determined attacks were then launched against the right flank and rear of the British line.

A small force of eight hundred British and Sikh troops arrived from the north-west of India and was thrown into the fighting, in spite of being exhausted from their hurried march in the heat.

After twelve hours fighting, the Mutineers were finally repelled, leaving the British, Gurkhas and Sikhs exhausted in the terrific heat, but elated by their success.

Virtually every soldier in the Delhi Field Force was drawn into the battle.

The Mutineers casualties are said to have been around 1,000 killed and wounded, while the Delhi Field Force loss was 160.

Casualty figures for the Mutineers during the Siege of Delhi are highly problematic.

The Mutineers kept no record of their casualties and some British authorities consider that figures given in British accounts after the various engagements exaggerated the number of Mutineer casualties by a significant margin.

The decision was then taken for the Delhi Field Force to occupy the Sabzi Mandi suburb.

A piquet of 180 men was established in Sabzi Mandi, occupying a serai on one side of the Grand Trunk Road and a Hindu temple on the other side, connected by a line of breastworks to the Hindu Rao piquets.

Mutineers’ attack of 27^th June 1857:

On 27^th June 1857, the Mutineers attacked the Metcalfe House in front of Delhi Ridge, the new Sabzi Mandi piquets and the batteries on Delhi Ridge.

The attack was repelled with British casualties of 62.

Mutineers’ attack of 30^th June 1857:

On 30^th June 1857, an attack was made on the Hindu Rao House.

Two British officers of the 4^th Sikhs, Yorke and Packe, were wounded. The circumstances and nature of their wounds showed that they had been shot by their own men.

All the Hindustanis in the 4^th Sikhs were disarmed and expelled from the British camp.

In that week the Monsoon burst, with rains flooding the area and causing severe outbreaks of disease.

At the beginning of July 1857, reinforcements arrived of guns, infantry and cavalry, bringing the strength of the Delhi Field Force  to nearly 6,000 men.

Additional Mutineers arrived in Delhi from a number of towns across northern India, far outnumbering the modest addition to the British force.

The Mutineers from Rohikund could be seen marching over the Jumna River into Delhi by the Bridge of Boats, with their bands playing and colours flying.

Proposed assault on Delhi:

Due to the fears that there might be a rising against the British in the Punjab, the capture Delhi was being urgently pressed.

General Barnard reluctantly agreed to the assault and Lieutenant Alex Taylor, the acting commanding engineer, was given the task of planning the operation.

In the event, a conspiracy was discovered among the native troops and the assault abandoned.

On the day of the intended assault, Lieutenant-Colonel Baird-Smith of the Bengal Engineers joined the Delhi Field Force as its new chief engineer.

Mutineers’ attack of 3^rd July 1857:

On 3^rd July 1857, a force of Mutineers, around 5,500 strong, with several guns, occupied the suburbs to the right of the British position.

The Delhi Field Force turned out in strength in expectation of an attack on the British line.

Instead, once darkness fell, the Mutineer force marched off to the north towards Alipur, some twenty miles away.

Alipur was garrisoned by a squadron of the 5^th Punjab Cavalry, commanded by Lieutenant Younghusband, with a few guns.

The Mutineers reached Alipur around midnight and instead of attacking immediately, opened a gun barrage, enabling the Punjabi sowars to mount and escape to Rhai, ten miles to the north.

Hearing the gunfire, a relief column under Major Coke was sent from the British camp.

Coke’s column intercepted the Mutineer force as it returned to Delhi with loot from Alipur and attacked them.

The Mutineers got away with their guns but abandoned a great deal of loot and ammunition.

Death of General Barnard on 5^th July 1857:

On 5^th July 1857, General Barnard succumbed to cholera and died within a few hours, much lamented by the Delhi Field Force.

Barnard was replaced as commander of the force by General Reed.

Mutineers’ attack of 9^th July 1857:

On 9^th July 1857, the Mound Piquet, a position behind the British right flank overlooking the Grand Trunk Road, was held by two guns of Tomb’s troop of Indian horse artillery and a troop of Carabiniers/6^th Dragoon Guards commanded by 2^nd Lieutenant Hills and Lieutenant Stillman.

A piquet of the 9^th Irregular Cavalry commanded by an Indian officer was further forward observing the Grand Trunk Road.

A sowar from the piquet informed the two British officers that a party of Mutineer cavalry was approaching. The sowar was sent on to warn the British camp. The main piquet mounted up and the gunners prepared their guns.

The British troops were surprised by the arrival of the Mutineer cavalry, the gunners still loading.

Hills ordered his guns to fire when ready and himself charged the head of the Mutineer column, cutting down the two leading Mutineers, before being ridden down.

Hills was further attacked by a group of Mutineers and only rescued by the arrival of Tombs who cut down his assailants.

The Mutineer cavalry attempted to persuade the native gunners of Tombs’ troop to join them. The gunners answered by firing at them, before escaping across the canal.

Hills and Tombs were awarded the Victoria Cross for their conduct in this action.

Mutineer infantry and guns were now in the suburbs beneath the Ridge, from where they were evicted by a column of 800 infantry and six guns commanded by General Chamberlain.

British casualties were 1 officer and 40 men killed, 8 officers and 163 men wounded with 11 men missing and likely to have been killed by the Mutineers, as neither side took prisoners.

It was clear that the piquet of 9^th Irregular Cavalry had acted in concert with the Mutineers, as insufficient warning was given of the approach of the Mutineer cavalry. The sowars and NCOs of the piquet were not seen again and were assumed to have ridden off with the escaping Mutineers.

General Reed took the opportunity to disarm and discharge all the remaining Hindustanis in the force, to the relief of the remaining troops, both European and Native.

There was now a short lull indicating that the Mutineers had suffered significant casualties on 9^th July 1857.

The established pattern was that the Mutineers would await the arrival of reinforcements before launching another attack, using the newly joined regiments.

Mutineers’ attack of 14^th July 1857:

On 14^th July 1857, the Mutineers emerged from Delhi in substantial numbers and attacked the Hindu Rao House and the Sabzi Mandi piquets.

A column, commanded by Brigadier Showers, was formed of what Roberts calls ‘the usual strength’, 800 infantry with six horse artillery guns and cavalry from the Guides and Hodson’s Horse. Brigadier-General Chamberlain accompanied the column.

Chamberlain leapt his horse into the first substantial compound held by the Mutineers, receiving a ball in the shoulder.

The troops followed Chamberlain and drove the Mutineers from the compound.

The Mutineers were driven with considerable difficulty out of a number of building and compounds, finally reaching the Lahore Gate, where the pursuing column met a heavy gun and musketry fire from the walls of the city.

The column was forced to withdraw to the lines on the Ridge, now pursued by the Mutineers, who continued to attack until the lines were reached.

The losses of the Delhi Field Force were 15 killed, 16 officers and 177 men wounded with 2 missing.

Mutineer losses were estimated at 1,000 killed.

Roberts describes how the Mutineers spent hours carrying their dead back to Delhi in carts after this engagement.

Termination of General Reed’s command:

On 17^th July 1857, the health of Major-General Reed had deteriorated to such an extent that he was forced to give up command of the Delhi Field Force, being replaced by Brigadier Archdale Wilson.

Roberts describes how Wilson’s introduction of a more systematic organisation for the relief of piquets provided a considerable relief to the troops and improved their overall morale and health.

Mutineers’ attack of 18^th July 1857:

On 18^th July 1857, the Mutineers mounted a general attack on the batteries along the Delhi Ridge and the Sabzi Mandi piquets.

By this time considerable work had been carried out by the Delhi Field Force in clearing way the old serais and walled gardens of the Sabzi Mandi, depriving the Mutineers of the cover they had used to such effect on several occasions and giving the Sabzi Mandi piquets clear fields of fire.

In the afternoon a column set out to drive the Mutineers away, consisting of four horse artillery guns, 750 infantry and the Guides Cavalry, commanded by Colonel Jones of the 60^th Rifles.

Jones forced the Mutineers back, but did not make the mistake of approaching the city walls, remaining in a position before Sabzi Mandi.

Of the Delhi Field Force, 1 officer and 12 men were killed, 3 officers and 66 men wounded with 2 men missing.

Mutineers’ attack of 23rd July 1857:

The Mutineers did not make a further attack on the positions of the Delhi Field Force for some five days and then the assault was on its left flank, at the far end of the Delhi Ridge from the suburbs.

On 23^rd July 1857 the Mutineers emerged from the Kashmir Gate and occupied Ludlow Castle.

From there the Mutineers’ artillery opened a barrage on Metcalfe House and the Stable Piquet and the Mosque Piquet on the Ridge.

A counter-barrage by the British guns was unable to silence the Mutineers’ guns and a column was sent to push the Mutineers out of Ludlow Castle, in case they intended to set up a permanent battery.

The column comprised six horse artillery guns, 400 British infantry, 360 men of the 1^st Punjab Infantry and a troop of Guides Cavalry. They were joined by 250 men from the Metcalfe House piquet.

The column approached Ludlow Castle, initially apparently unnoticed, but was then subjected to a heavy fire of grapeshot.

The column swept the Mutineers out of the position and pursued them to the walls of the city, where as so often happened in these pursuits, the pursuers were subjected to a damaging fire from the city walls, forcing a precipitous retreat, during which Brigadier Showers was wounded.

Mutineers’ attack of 23^rd July 1857:

On 23^rd July 1857 a strong force of Mutineers marched to Alipur with the purpose of establishing a bridge over the cut to intercept the Delhi Field Force’s communications with Meerut and the Punjab.

A column followed from the Dehi Field Force and waited to repel the crossing over the bridge.

In the event, monsoon raid caused heavy flooding and the half-finished bridge was washed away.

The Mutineers marched back to Delhi and, being joined by a strong force from the city, began a night-long attack on the right flank of the Delhi Field Force at Sabzi-Manji.

Mutineers’ attack of 1^st August 1857:

This period was a Mohammedan festival at which it was the custom for the King of Delhi to pray at the Idgah.

The festival was replaced by a particularly determined attack by both Hindu and Muslim Mutineers.

After lengthy prayers by each denomination during the morning of 1^st August 1857, the Mutineers, shouting religious battle cries, marched out of every city gate and attacked the British positions on the Ridge.

The attacks were repeatedly made and thrown back throughout the night and the next day, until the Mutineers finally gave up and returned to the city.

British casualties were 1 officer and 9 men killed with 36 men wounded, the troops being well protected by the breastworks along the Ridge.

The Mutineers’ casualties were reported to have been heavy.

News was reaching Delhi of the approach of Nicholson’s ‘Movable Column’ from the Punjab, as a reinforcement for the Delhi Field Force.

Many of the Mutineers despaired of winning the fight against the British at Delhi and left the city for their homes.

There was increasing disorder in the city, with the absence of any strong leadership either military or civil, the only authority being the elderly king.

The Mutineers still outnumbered the Delhi Field Force by eight or nine to one.

During this period, information was arriving at the Delhi Field Force from the Punjab and elsewhere across India, usually written in Greek characters on scraps of paper sewn into a native’s shoe or clothing.

The Delhi Field Force learned that Lucknow held out against the Mutineers and that British troops were being sent to India.

In particular the British governor at the South African Cape was ordering all the troop ships stopping in Capetown on their way to China to take their regiments to Calcutta.

Mutineers’ attack of 11^th August 1857:

On 11^th August 1857, the Mutineers made a further attempt to overwhelm the Metcalfe House piquet.

Guns were brought out of the Kashmir gate and positioned at Ludlow Castle and the Kudsiabagh.

The Mutineers began a bombardment, with heavy musketry, from the jungle at the foot of Delhi Ridge.

While casualties to the Delhi Field Force were not high it was considered dangerous to leave the Mutineers unchallenged so far forward.

Brigadier Showers led a force to drive the Mutineers back into the city, comprising British, Sikh and Gurkha infantry, a troop of Horse Artillery, a squadron of the 9^th Lancers and the Guides cavalry.

Showers’ orders were to ‘move up silently and take the guns at Ludlow Castle’.

Showers’ column approached the Mutineers’ position at dawn on 12^th August 1857.

A Mutineer sentry called ‘Ho come dar?’ and was promptly shot down.

After an exchange of musketry, the Mutineers were overwhelmed. 250 Mutineers were killed and four of their guns captured.

Casualties in Showers’ column were 1 officer and 19 men killed, 7 officers and 85 men wounded, with 5 men missing.

Showers himself was wounded with Major Coke, the commandant of the 1^st Punjab Infantry (Coke’s Rifles).

The captured Mutineer guns were pushed back to the British lines by cheering soldiers.

The next day the Punjab Movable Column, commanded by Brigadier-General John Nicholson, marched into the Delhi Field Force camp.

Nicholson was a legendary character among the Punjabi and Sikh troops referred to as ‘Nickal Seyn’.

His force comprised the British 52^nd Light Infantry, a wing of the 1^st Baluch regiment and the 2^nd Punjab Infantry, with 200 Multani Cavalry and 500 Military Police.

The strength of the Delhi Field Force was now 8,000 troops of all arms.

Hodson at Rohtak:

On 14^th August 1857, the day of Nicholson’s column’s arrival, a body of Mutineer cavalry was seen to leave Delhi on the Grand Trunk Road heading north-west.

The Delhi Field Force was now strong enough for a pursuit to be mounted and Captain William Hodson followed the Mutineers with a body of Guides Cavalry and his own Hodson’s Horse.

Hodson’s column came up with a group of irregular horse who had failed to return to duty, although not obviously active Mutineers. They were wiped out.

Hodson continued to the town of Rohtak. The town and its neighbouring fort were occupied by the Mutineers.

After venturing into Rohtak, Hodson withdrew and made as if to return to Delhi Ridge.

The Mutineer cavalry pursued Hodson’s column, which suddenly turned and launched a charge, entirely overwhelming the pursuing Mutineers.

On his return to camp Hodson was highly commended for his success.

Battle of Najafgarh:

A British siege-train with powerful guns was on its way from Ferozepore and other parties of troops were known to be marching to join the Delhi Field Force.

On 24^th August 1857, a formidable contingent of Mutineers marched west from Delhi, intent on intercepting the siege train.

On 25^th August 1857, Nicholson left camp with sixteen horse artillery guns, 1,600 infantry and 450 cavalry with orders to overtake the Mutineers and bring them to action.

Nicholson caught up with the Mutineers at 4pm outside the town of Najafgarh, after marching for twenty miles in pouring rain along roads turned to quagmires. Two swamps had to be crossed.

The Mutineers were occupying a position a mile and three-quarters long in front of a wide and deep drainage ditch.

A Serai or large country inn stood in front of this position, held by four guns.

On each flank the Mutineers occupied a village, strongly held.

A branch of the drainage ditch ran along the Mutineers’ right flank.

A bridge in the rear of the Mutineers’ position carried the road in from Delhi.

Nicholson approached by a side road that came in on the right of the Mutineers’ position.

The branch of the drainage ditch ran between Nicholson’s advance and the Mutineers’ position, crossed by a ford.

The heavy rain had made the drainage ditch a dangerous obstacle, chest-high even at the ford.

Nicholson’s men crossed the ditch with some difficulty, subjected to a heavy fire from the Serai.

Nicholson carried out a short reconnaissance of the Mutineers’ position before launching his attack on the Serai.

Nicholson addressed the soldiers of HM 61^st Regiment and the 1^st Bengal (European) Fusiliers, urging them to hold their fire until the last moment in the charge.

Under cover of a barrage from the horse artillery guns, the British infantry took the Serai and swept up the Mutineers’ line behind the Serai, driving them over the bridge towards Delhi.

The battle was over by the evening, leaving thirteen guns to be captured by the British, with a large quantity of ammunition, camels, horses and other supplies.

The Mutineers gave their casualties as 800 men killed and wounded.

British losses were 2 officers and 23 men killed, with 3 officers and 68 men wounded. 2 of the wounded British officers died.

The Mutineers left in Delhi assumed that the preponderance of the Delhi Field Force must have marched to Najafgarh. The city Mutineers launched an attack on the Ridge the next day, 26^th August 1857, but were beaten off, with small loss.

The storming of Delhi by the Delhi Field Force:

By 6^th September 1857, the Siege Train reached the camp of the Delhi Field Force on Delhi Ridge.

A contingent sent by the Maharajah of Kashmir of 2,200 men and four guns joined the force.

The Raja of Jhind arrived in the camp with several hundred of his troops, to take part in the capture of Delhi.

No further assistance could be expected.

It was felt by the Delhi Field Force that the attack on the city must now be made, while the army was at its strongest and before it was again whittled away by the casualties caused in holding the positions on Delhi Ridge and by disease.

By that date 2,977 men were in the hospital.

In the course of three weeks, HM 52^nd Light infantry had dwindled from 600 healthy men to 242 men fit for duty due in part to battle casualties, but primarily to disease.

Brigadier-General Archdale Wilson, the Commander of the Delhi Field Force was not confident that he could take the City of Delhi, held by the Mutineers with an army numbering in excess of 40,000 men and equipped with many more guns than he commanded, but the pressure on Wilson to mount the assault was now irresistible.

Lawrence in the Punjab and Canning, the British Governor-General in Calcutta, had been clamouring for some time for Wilson to assault Delhi.

It was becoming increasingly clear that the prospects for the British of winning the war against the Mutineers and the various rebelling princes depended on the re-capture of Delhi.

Wilson was under daily pressure from his own senior subordinates to mount the assault.

Nicholson was threatening to remove Wilson as the commander of the Delhi Field Force by force if he prevaricated any longer.

Wilson turned to his senior military engineer Lieutenant-Colonel Baird-Smith for his advice.

Baird-Smith, supported by all the influential subordinate officers in the Force, strongly advised Wilson to storm the city without delay.

At a Council of War held on 6^th September 1857, Wilson announced that an attack on Delhi would be made.

Preparations were already under way; a trench had been dug with a battery of two 9-pounders and two 24-pounders at the right of the British line, to prevent the Mutineers from intervening in the preparation of batteries further along the British line with sorties from the Lahore and Kabul gates.

This field work had the unlooked-for effect of causing the Mutineers to believe that the assault on Delhi was to be launched from that end of the British line, the right, when the reverse was the case.

Wilson issued an order on 7^th September 1857, directing that preparations for the assault on Delhi be commenced immediately.

‘Ground was broken’ that evening, commencing the building of the gun batteries that would lay the ground for the assault.

Battery No. 1 was begun 700 yards from the Mori Bastion at the north-west corner of the city walls. The right half of the battery, with five 18-pounders and one 8-inch mortar, was to silence the Mutineers’ guns in the Mori Bastion, while the left end of Battery No. 1, with four 24-pounders was to engage the Kashmir Bastion.

Battery No. 1, commanded by Major James Brind of the Bengal Artillery, was completed and opened fire at sunrise the next day, having endured several hours of heavy bombardment by the Mutineers’ guns during the early hours of daylight.

By the afternoon, the Mori Bastion was a heap of rubble from the British bombardment, with its guns silenced.

No 2 Battery was constructed at Ludlow Castle, 500 yards from the Kashmir Gate, one of the key points for the planned assault on Delhi.

While the battery was built in two parts, with seven heavy howitzers and two 18-pounders on the right and nine 24-pounders on the left, the whole battery on the morning of 11^th September 1857 opened fire on the Kashmir gate.

Nos 3 and 4 Batteries were situated in the Kudsiabagh and fired on the Kashmir bastion.

Baird-Smith’s plan selected the left flank as the point of attack, the River Jumna acting as a barrier to prevent a flanking counter-attack by the Mutineers.

Throughout the barrage on the city walls, the Mutineers’ guns on the walls returned a heavy fire and attempted unsuccessfully to silence the batteries of the Delhi Field Force.

By the evening of the 13^th September 1857, the guns in the British batteries had completed their task of breaching key sections of the city’s northern defences.

Nicholson, with the engineer Taylor and four junior engineer officers, inspected the defences and reported at midnight that the breaches were practicable for the assault. Colonel Baird-Smith passed this report to General Wilson, who issued orders for the storming of the Delhi walls to take place at daybreak the following morning.

There were to be four attacking columns. No 1 column, commanded by Brigadier-General Nicholson, comprising HM 75^th Foot, 1^st Bengal Fusiliers and 2^nd Punjab Infantry, was to storm the breach in the Kashmir Bastion.

No 2 column, commanded by Brigadier Jones, comprising HM 8^th Foot, 2^nd Bengal Fusiliers and 4^th Sikhs, was to storm the breach in the Water bastion.

No 3 column, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Campbell, comprising HM 52^nd Light Infantry, the Kumaon Gurkha battalion and 1^st Punjab Infantry, was to storm the Kashmir Gate, once it was blown.

No 4 column, commanded by Major Reid, comprised the Sirmoor Gurkha Battalion, the Guides Infantry and detachments from the piquets. With the Kashmir Contingent, this column was to attack the suburbs of Kisenganj and Paharibur and storm the Kabul gate.

A reserve column was formed under Brigadier-General Longfield, comprising HM 61^st Foot, 4^th Punjab Infantry and a wing of the Baluch Battalion with some of the Jhind contingent. This column would provide support where needed.

200 men of the 60^th Rifles would cover Nicholson’s advance and then join the reserve.

The strength of the attacking force was 5,000 men and took up a significant part of the Delhi Field Force.

The Attack on Delhi on 14^th September 1857:

It took time for many of the men allocated to the attacking columns to find their way back from duty on the piquet lines.

In addition, it was necessary to mount a brief additional bombardment to remove repairs to the defences installed over night by the Mutineers.

The British breaching batteries suddenly ceased firing and the column commanders gave the signal for the attack.

The 60^th Rifles gave a loud cheer echoed by the other troops.

As the front of each column rose to its feet and rushed forward, they were met by a storm of gunfire and musketry from the Mutineers on the walls of Delhi.

Most of the men carrying the storming ladders were shot down, but were quickly replaced and the ladders planted against the walls.

The Kashmir bastion was soon taken by No 1 column, as was the Water bastion by No 2 column.

No 3 column advanced towards the Kashmir gate and halted while the two engineer officers went forward with the explosive charges to blow the gate, reaching the gatehouse by crossing a plank over the ditch, all that remained of the bridge.

Under a heavy fire, Lieutenant Home and his men attached the explosive charges to the gate.

Lieutenant Salkeld came up with his firing party. Salkeld was shot in the leg and handed the slow-match to Corporal Burgess.

Burgess lit the fuse and fell mortally wounded.

The explosion blew the gate in and Bugler Hawthorne sounded the regimental call of the 52^nd.

Colonel Campbell did not hear the call or the explosion, so great was the noise of the assault, but was already bringing his column forward.

The troops crossed the ditch by the single plank and rushed through the gate.

Inside was an 18-pounder gun with its Mutineer crew scorched and killed by the explosion.

No 3 column poured through the Kashmir gate to meet up with the No 1 and No 2 columns which had surged through their respective breaches and joined up in the area between the Kashmir gate and the Church.

To the west of the city, the No 4 column advanced from Sabzi Mandi towards Kisenganj and Paharipur.

It would seem that the Mutineers were expecting the weight of the British attack to be made here with an attack on the Kabul gate at the north-western point of the Delhi city walls.

The Mutineers were in great strength here and moved forward to line the bank of the Jumna canal.

The commander of No 4 column, Major Reid, was wounded early in the fighting and there was confusion as to who was now in command.

The column was pushed back and it seemed for a time that the Mutineers might break through to the British camp.

Seeing how the battle was developing, Brigadier Hope-Grant brought up the British cavalry brigade.

The horse artillery opened a destructive fire on the Mutineers and the appearance of the cavalry held the Mutineers back, enabling the Kashmir contingent to withdrew from the Idgah and the rest of No 4 column to retire to the Hindu Rao House.

The three storming columns were reforming inside the walls and the guns in the captured Water and Kashmir bastions were being turned on the Mutineers inside the city.

The orders were for Nicholson’s 1^st column to attack along the inside of the city wall towards the Ajmir gate in the south-west of the city.

Jones’ 2^nd column was to take the Kabul gate at the head of the Grand Trunk Road in the north-west corner of the city.

Campbell’s 3^rd column was to head for the Jama Masjid, the large mosque in the centre of Delhi.

The 1^st and 2^nd columns became intermingled and advanced along the wall past the Kabul gate, capturing all the guns positioned on the rampart.

Nicholson became separated from his men and joined Campbell’s push towards the Jama Masjid, until they were halted by the Mutineers’ resistance at the Burn bastion, just short of the Lahore gate.

The Mutineers brought up a gun and subjected Campbell’s men to such a heavy fire that they were forced to withdraw to the Kabul gate.

Nicholson here re-joined his men and ordered a further attack on the Burn bastion.

The column made its attack down the lane that ran parallel to the wall.

In this lane Major Jacob, commanding the 1^st Bengal Fusiliers, was mortally wounded. He ordered his men to leave him and press the attack. Nicholson rushed to the front of the column, where he too was mortally wounded.

The column fell back again to the Kabul gate where the 1^st and 2^nd columns spent the night.

Campbell’s 3^rd column was guided by Sir Theophilus Metcalfe, who from his pre-Mutiny office of Magistrate and Collector of Delhi knew the city well.

Metcalfe led the column by roads that avoided the worst of the Mutineers’ fire to the Jama Masjid.

The column had no guns or explosives to blow in the gate and after half an hour fell back to the Church in the north-east corner of Delhi, where the 3^rd column was joined by the 4^th Punjab Infantry from the Reserve column.

General Wilson having watched the successful entry of his troops into Delhi, rode into the city to the Church.

Information reached him that the cavalry had suffered heavy losses and that Hope-Grant and Tombs were both dead.

Captain Frederick Roberts was sent to discover the truth and returned with the news that both these officers were unwounded and that the Mutineers had been repelled in their attack on the right wing of the Delhi Field Force.

Wilson was ill and greatly depressed by the heavy casualties and the apparent failure of the various columns to gain their objectives.

He was inclined to call off the attack and withdraw his forces to the Ridge.

Before giving the order Wilson referred to Baird-Smith for his opinion.

Baird-Smith’s reply was an uncompromising ‘We must hold on’. Similar urgings came from Neville Chamberlain commanding the Hindu Rao House piquet and from the mortally wounded Nicholson.

Wilson resolved to continue the attack on the city.

At the end of 14^th September 1857, the Delhi Field Force had a tenuous hold on a small section of the city walls.

Three of the four column commanders had been wounded and 66 officers and 1,104 soldiers had been killed or wounded.

The night was spent resting the troops and re-organising the columns.

The Mutineers failed to take advantage of the exhausted condition and disorder in the British ranks, other than a movement early in the evening which caused the band of the 4^th Punjab Infantry to strike up with the song ‘Cheer, Boys, Cheer!’

Cheering broke out in the ranks of the Punjabis and spread to neighbouring regiments.

Any intended move by the Mutineers was abandoned.

Attack on the city on 15^th September 1857:

One of the hazards in the attack was the amount of alcohol found.

It was believed that quantities of drink had been left in the streets by the Mutineers to hamper the attacking columns. On the previous day many British soldiers had become intoxicated.

A determined effort was now made to destroy all the alcohol found in the city.

Guns were brought up and a bombardment attempted of the Mutineers’ positions across the city. This was found to be of little impact.

On 16^th September 1857 Wilson, completely exhausted, handed over command of the attack on the city to Brigadier-General Sir Neville Chamberlain.

The Mutineers withdrew from their positions in the suburbs into the city.

Here the troops of the Delhi Field Force steadily pushed them back.

The magazine, near to the church in the north-east corner of the city, was taken by the British.

On 17^th September 1857, the Bank, a building south of the church, was taken by the British.

After several days of sapping through the walls of houses to enable the advance to be made without the troops being exposed in the streets, on 20^th September 1857, the British advance was resumed.

The Burn bastion was taken, followed by the capture of the Lahore gate.

The 1^st and 2^nd columns pushed into the centre of Delhi, towards the Jama Masjid Mosque.

Here they found that Campbell’s 3^rd column had made its way through the streets from the north-east of the city to the Jama Masjid, which had been taken by 4^th Punjab Infantry.

The columns pushed on to the Moghul Red Fort, the palace occupied by the Ex-Emperor Bahadur Shah and the headquarters of the Mutineers’ resistance.

The 60^th Rifles was given the honour of storming the Red Fort, as a mark of respect for the prominent part the regiment had played in the Siege.

Lieutenant Home, one of the team that blew the Kashmir gate, blew in the outer gate of the fort.

A second gate was forced and the 60^th Rifles and the 4^th Punjab Infantry rushed into the fort.

Delhi had been re-taken by the British.

Casualties at the Siege of Delhi:

Casualties are set out in the text of the siege as they occurred and where known.

Overall the British Delhi Field Force suffered 3,854 officers and men killed and wounded.

In the final 6 days of the storming of Delhi, the Delhi Field Force suffered 1,347 officers and men killed and wounded.

Follow-up to the Siege of Delhi:

The Delhi Field Force, after capturing Delhi, pillaged the city and committed extensive atrocities on the civil population, which fled into the surrounding countryside and lived in poverty until it was deemed safe to return.

In due course the British administration imposed fines on every household in Delhi, regardless of whether it had supported the Mutineers.

Bahadur Shah initially fled to the Qutb, a complex south of Delhi.

With the imminent collapse of the defence of Delhi, Bakht Khan advised Bahadur Shah to follow the main body of the Mutineers to Oudh.

The King’s courtier Mirza Ilahi Baksh advised Bahadur Shah to negotiate his surrender to the British to secure the future of the Queen, her son and her father.

Ilahi Baksh urged Bahadur Shah to move to Humayun’s Tomb, the imposing resting place of the Moghul Emperors south of Delhi.

Ilahi Baksh was providing information to Hodson and informed Hodson of the King’s whereabouts.

Hodson was authorised by General Wilson to negotiate the King’s surrender against a guarantee of his life.

On 21^st September 1857, Hodson went to Humayun’s Tomb and took Bahadur Shah, his youngest son and his father-in-law into custody.

On 22^nd September 1857, Hodson returned to Humayun’s Tomb and demanded the surrender of the three princes, Mirza Moghul, Mirza Khizr Sultan and Mirza Abu Bakr.

Hodson specifically refused to extend the amnesty to guarantee the lives of the three princes.

On the way back to Delhi, Hodson himself shot the three princes dead.

Bahadur Shah was, after a considerable delay, subjected to a form of trial and banished to Rangoon where he died on 7^th November 1862.

British and Indian regiments in the Delhi Field Force awarded the Battle Honour ‘Delhi 1857’:

Her Majesty’s Regiments

6^th Dragoon Guards, Carabiniers

9^th Lancers

8^th King’s Regiment of Foot

52^nd Light Infantry

60^th Rifles

61^st Regiment of Foot

75^th Regiment of Foot

East India Company Regiments

1^st Bengal (European) Fusiliers

2^nd Bengal (European) Fusiliers

1^st Regiment Hodson’s Horse

2^nd Regiment Hodson’s Horse

1^st Punjab Irregular Cavalry

2^nd Punjab Irregular Cavalry

5^th Punjab Irregular Cavalry

Corps of Guides

Corps of Bengal Sappers and Miners

Punjab Pioneers

4^th Sikh Infantry

1^st Punjab Infantry

2^nd Punjab Infantry

4^th Punjab Infantry

1^st Baloch Battalion

Sirmoor Battalion (Gurkhas)

Kumaon Battalion (Gurkhas)

Anecdotes and traditions from the Siege of Delhi:

• 35 Victoria Crosses were awarded for valorous conduct by British soldiers during the operations around Delhi. Native soldiers were not at that time eligible for the award nor could it be awarded posthumously.
• In the early days of the Siege, the British became so short of ammunition for the guns that General Barnard offered a reward for every 24-pounder round shot recovered from the battlefield.
• During the desperate fighting on the Delhi Ridge in the first half of June 1857, Major Tombs of the Bengal Horse Artillery was wounded in the shoulder and had five horses killed under him.
• Field-Marshal Roberts, in his book ‘Forty-one years in India’ comments wryly on how well served the Mutineers’ guns were by their British-trained gunners.
• Lieutenant Quintin Battye is reported by Lord Roberts to have intoned the Latin motto ‘dulce et decorum est pro patria more’ on his deathbed. Battye was a member of a renowned British family with strong links to India. Battye’s brother Major Wigram Battye died leading the Guides Cavalry at the Battle of Futtehabad on 2^nd April 1879 in the Second Afghan War. A memorial to the two brothers is in St Paul’s Cathedral.
• In the attack on the Hindu Rao House on 10^th June 1857, the Mutineers crept up to the Ridge and called out to the Gurkhas that they wanted them to join the Mutiny. The Gurkhas replied that they were coming, before discharging a volley at close range hitting some thirty Mutineers.
• The British Crown took over the rule of India from the East India Company after the Indian Mutiny.
• The European regiments in the East India Company service were incorporated into the British army. The 1^st and 2^nd Bengal Fusiliers became the 101^st and 104^th HM regiments from 1862.
• After the Indian Mutiny, the Sirmoor Battalion of Gurkhas became the 2^nd Gurkha Regiment in the Bengal Army. In 1901 the Regiment became King Edward VII’s Own Gurkha Rifle. In 1947 the Regiment transferred from the Indian Army to the British Army, subsequently becoming part of the Royal Gurkha Rifles. The Sirmoor Battalion was awarded a silver Queen’s Truncheon for its conduct during the Siege of Delhi, which the regiment carried in place of colours.
• Due to the close association of the Sirmoor Battalion and HM 60^th Rifles during the Siege of Delhi, at the request of the 60^th, the Sirmoor Battalion, or 2^nd Gurkha Regiment, became a Rifle Regiment. A change adopted by all ten Gurkha regiments in the Indian Army.
• The 9^th Queen’s Royal Lancers became known as the ‘Delhi Spearmen’ for their conduct in the Indian Mutiny.

References for the Siege of Delhi:

The Indian Mutiny by Julian Spilsbury

For Valour: The Complete History of the Victoria Cross Volume 2 the Indian Mutiny (1857-1859) by Michael Charles Robson

History of the British Army Volume XIII by Fortescue

Forty-one years in India by Field-Marshal Lord Roberts

Eighteen Fifty-Seven by Surendra Nath Sen

British Battles by Grant.

The previous battle of the British Battles series is the Siege of Sevastopol

The next battle in the British Battles series is the Battle of Magdala

To the Indian Mutiny index

The previous battle of the English Civil War is the Battle of Dunbar

The next battle in the British Battles series is the Battle of Blenheim

To the English Civil War index

War: English Civil War.

Date of the Battle of Worcester: 3^rd September 1651

Place of the Battle of Worcester: At and around the City of Worcester in the West of England.

Combatants at the Battle of Worcester: An English Royalist and Scottish Covenanter army against the English Parliamentary army.

Commanders at the Battle of Worcester: King Charles II commanded the Royalist army with Sir David Leslie commanding the Scottish contingent. Oliver Cromwell commanded the Parliamentary army.

Size of the armies at the Battle of Worcester: King Charles II’s army numbered around 16,000 men while the Parliamentary army numbered around 28,000 men.

Uniforms, arms and equipment at the Battle of Worcester: See this section in the Battle of Edgehill.

Winner of the Battle of Worcester: The Royalist and Covenanter army was resoundingly defeated by Cromwell’s Parliamentary army, being nearly annihilated, bringing the English Civil War to a close, with King Charles II’s memorable flight from the battlefield to France.

Events leading to the Battle of Worcester:

Following the Parliamentary victory over the Scottish Covenanter army of Sir David Leslie at the Battle of Dunbar on 3^rd June 1650, Leslie withdrew his surviving troops, around 5,000 men, to Stirling while Cromwell occupied Edinburgh and began a siege of Edinburgh Castle.

While his troops assaulted Edinburgh Castle, Cromwell followed Leslie to Stirling, intending to bring him to battle, but found the Scottish position impregnable.

Cromwell withdrew to Edinburgh and completed the subjugation of Edinburgh Castle.

In the meantime, King Charles II assembled a new royalist army, intending to combine it with the reinforced Covenanter army under Leslie.

Cromwell returned to Stirling, manoeuvred around Leslie’s position and began to reduce the country to the north.

By 2^nd August 1651 Cromwell was taking the surrender of Perth when he heard that the Royalist/Covenanter army was marching south to invade England.

Cromwell marched out of Edinburgh in pursuit of Charles II’s army on 4^th August 1651.

Charles II marched down the west side of England, hoping to attract Royalist recruits. While there was some enthusiasm expressed as he journeyed south, few were prepared to commit themselves by taking up arms.

Generals Lambert and Harrison with a Parliamentary force fought a brief skirmish at Warrington in trying, unsuccessfully, to prevent the Royalist/Covenanter army from crossing the River Mersey.

The Royalist Earl of Derby with a force of some 1,500 men raised in Lancashire and Cheshire was marching to join King Charles II when he was engaged by Colonel Lilburn with 10 troops of horse. Derby was resoundingly defeated, escaping wounded to join the Royalist army with only 30 exhausted horsemen, the survivors of his force.

On 22^nd August 1651 Charles II’s army reached Worcester, where it halted, after the gruelling march of some 300 miles from Scotland. Charles prepared to give battle to the pursuing Cromwell.

While the young king had been greeted with enthusiasm by Royalist sympathisers during his march south, few had enlisted in his army, leaving it heavily outnumbered by the gathering forces of Parliament,

Charles hoped during his stay in the city to attract recruits from the approaches to Wales and from the south-west of England.

Royalist parties set to work repairing Worcester’s delipidated fortifications and building new defences against the expected attack by Cromwell’s pursuing army, in particular the substantial fieldwork in the north-east of the city known as ‘Fort Royal’.

Cromwell’s marched with his main army into Evesham, some 15 miles from Worcester, on 27^th August 1651, where he was joined by several junior commanders, General Fleetwood, Lord Grey of Groby and General Desborough from Reading, giving Cromwell an army of 28,000 men, nearly twice the size of Charles II’s army of 16,000 men.

Charles II conducted a council of war in the afternoon of 29^th August 1651 with his subordinate commanders, Sir David Leslie commanding the large Scottish contingent, the Duke of Buckingham and General Middleton among them.

Account of the Battle of Worcester:

The Battle of Worcester began with a Royalist attack on the battery mounted by Cromwell on Red Hill to the east of Worcester which had begun a bombardment of the city and another attack on a fortification being built on the bank of the River Severn.

These attacks were betrayed by a Puritan tailor from Worcester and the 1,500-man Royalist force led by General Middleton and Colonel Keith was repelled with heavy losses.

The tailor was identified and hanged the next day.

The Royalist General Massey was sent with a force of 300 men to defend the crossing of the River Severn at Upton-on-Severn, 9 miles south of Worcester.

The bridge across the River Severn at Upton was destroyed with a single plank left to provide a crossing for the locals.

During the night of 29^th August 1651, the Parliamentary commander, General Lambert, arrived with a force that heavily outnumbered Massey’s, on the east bank of the River Severn opposite Upton with the duty of forcing a crossing. Lambert sent 18 dragoon volunteers to cross the river by the plank.

Massey’s men were unaware of the arrival of the Parliamentary troops and the dragoons were able to cross the broken bridge to the west bank unseen.

The 18 dragoons were identified and attacked, but took shelter in the neighbouring church, where they held out until a large force of Parliamentary dragoons crossed by a ford further down the river and came to their relief.

Massey fought to hold back Lambert’s incursion, but was heavily outnumbered and forced to retreat north towards Worcester, leaving Upton and the crossing point over the River Severn in Lambert’s hands.

The bridge was quickly repaired, enabling the whole of General Fleetwood’s Parliamentary army to cross to the west bank.

As a preliminary to advancing to attack the Royalist army in Worcester, Fleetwood’s army collected sufficient boats to build two floating bridges for the crossing over the Rivers Teme and Severn immediately outside Worcester.

The various elements of the Parliamentary army were ready for the attack on the Royalists in Worcester by 2^nd September 1652, but Cromwell directed that the attack be on the following day, 3^rd September 1652, the first anniversary of his victory at the Battle of Dunbar.

 In the early hours of 3^rd September 1652, the Parliamentary troops of Generals Fleetwood and Lambert began their advance north towards Worcester, up the western bank of the River Severn.

The advance was slowed by the need to tow the twenty large boats making up the two bridges of boats to be used in the attack across the River Teme.

Major-General Robert Montgomery commanded the Royalist troops holding the two-mile line of the River Teme between Powick and the River Severn, comprising the brigades of Colonel Keith, Pitscottie and Major-General Dalziel.

Keith held the bridge across the River Teme at Powick which had been partially destroyed, leaving enough fabric for the locals to cross.

Fleetwood’s and Lambert’s force reached the River Teme in the loop just west of the River Severn and the bridges of boats were put in place in a very short time, one across the River Teme near to its confluence with the River Severn and the other across the River Severn itself just north of the junction of the two rivers.

The Parliamentary guns on Red Hill and in Perry Wood to the east of Worcester on the far side of the River Severn maintained a heavy barrage on the Royalists in the city to divert them from the attack on the far side of the River Severn.

General Deane led the Parliamentary assault on Powick Bridge, but was unable to force his way across.

Lambert’s men crossed the bridge of boats but were driven back by Pitscottie’s highlanders.

King Charles II, at the beginning of the battle watched the fighting along the River Teme, which was described as ‘extremely bitter’, from the tower of Worcester Cathedral.

The King soon took to his horse and rode to the bank of the River Teme to give his personal encouragement to his troops.

Cromwell was also watching the struggle along the River Teme from the high ground on the east bank of the River Severn.

Seeing the difficulties the Parliamentary troops were having in crossing the River Teme and how little progress they were making, Cromwell led three brigades across the second bridge of boats that had, with considerable foresight, been laid across the River Severn with exactly this scenario in mind: the Parliamentary troops on the west bank of the River Severn suddenly requiring urgent reinforcement from Cromwell’s more powerful force on the east bank.

As the second bridge of boats had been moored to the north of the River Teme junction, Cromwell’s three brigades crossed straight onto the ground north of that river, immediately outflanking the Royalists resisting Fleetwood’s troops.

Pitscottie’s Highlanders, fighting Lambert’s men coming over the bridge of boats to their front, were now attacked by Cromwell’s brigades over the River Severn by the other bridge of boats on their left flank.

Facing overwhelming numbers, the Highlanders fell back leaving Keith’s men at Powick Bridge exposed. They retreated in considerable confusion, leaving Keith to be captured.

All the Royalist contingents along the River Teme fell back in disorder, in some cases amounting to rout, to the City of Worcester, crossing by the main city bridge.

While the battle to the west of the River Severn raged for some two hours, King Charles II rode back through Worcester and launched an attack by two columns of Royalist infantry on the Parliamentary right wing.

Charles led the right-hand column against the Parliamentary troops on Red Hill, while the Duke of Hamilton attacked into Perry Wood, the two forces marching out through the Sudbury Gate, covered by the fire from the guns in Fort Royal.

The Parliamentary troops in these positions comprised inexperienced militia and fell back all along the line, under the pressure of the Royalist assault.

The few Parliamentary cavalry still on the east bank of the River Severn hurried to support the line of militia, but they few in number and were pushed back by the Royalist attack.

In considerable haste, Cromwell recrossed the River Severn to the east bank, by way of the bridge of boats, with his three brigades and hurried to the relief of the recoiling militia, turning the tide against the now heavily outnumbered Royalists of King Charles II’s two columns.

The Royalists were driven back through the Sudbury Gate in increasing confusion, all order lost, the soldiers anxious to escape the pursuing Parliamentarians.

King Charles II had fought with considerable courage. He now found his escape blocked by an ammunition waggon, immobilised in the Sudbury Gate. Charles abandoned his armour and squeezed through, finding another horse and joining the Earl of Cleveland, Sir James Hamilton, Colonel Wogan and others in attempting to rally the Royalist troops.

However, the battle was lost. Cromwell’s men were pressing into the city from the east while Fleetwood’s troops crossed the bridge into the city from the south.

Leslie’s Scottish cavalry, supine throughout the battle on Pitchcroft to the north of the city, continued to refuse to take part in the battle.

The Royalist officer, Sir Alexander Forbes, refused to surrender Fort Royal which was stormed and captured by the Essex Militia, who then turned the fort’s guns on the melee in the city.

All the gates of Worcester were now taken by Parliamentary troops, other than St Martin’s Gate leading to the north, where a dreadful slaughter took place of the Royalist soldiers attempting to escape into the countryside.

Lord Rothes, Sir William Hammond and Colonel Drummond continued to resist on Castle Mound in the middle of Worcester until persuaded to surrender on terms by Cromwell himself.

Cleveland and Hammond with a party of Royalist troopers escorted King Charles II out of the city and enabled him to escape the collapse of his army.

Casualties at the Battle of Worcester:

A large proportion of the Royalist army that fought at the Battle of Worcester were Scotsmen from the Covenanting army of Sir David Leslie. 2,000 to 3,000 of them were killed in the battle. 10,000 were captured on the battlefield or as they attempted to escape to Scotland, travelling up through the north of England.

Many of the captured Scottish soldiers died in makeshift prison camps in London, while several hundred were transported to the American colonies to become indentured servants to the colonists, an early form of slavery.

Some 640 Royalist officers became prisoners.

The Duke of Hamilton died of his wounds after the attack on the Red Hill.

The Earl of Derby was captured in Cheshire. He was tried by Parliamentary court-martial and sentenced to death for treason. In spite of a request for clemency lodged by Cromwell himself the Earl was beheaded in Bolton.

General Massey, General Montgomerie and the wounded Sir Alexander Forbes were taken prisoner with the Scottish officers Pitscottie and Keith and the English Lord Grandison.

The Parliamentarians used Worcester Cathedral as a temporary prison for the captured Royalists.

The Parliamentary army is said to have suffered a few hundred casualties.

The senior Scottish generals Leslie and Lauderdale were captured and held prisoner until the Restoration in 1660.

Follow-up to the Battle of Worcester:

After the Battle of Worcester, King Charles II escaped with a small party of senior Royalist officers. After a detour across Worcestershire the King turned west and finally headed for the south coast.

During a stay at Boscobel House King Charles II hid in an oak tree as Parliamentary troops searched the surrounding woods.

The King eventually reached Shoreham on the south coast in Sussex and took ship to France.

The King remained on the Continent until the Restoration in 1660.

The Battle of Worcester ended the Civil War.

After the Battle of Worcester Cromwell sheathed his sword and did not fight again.

Anecdotes and traditions from the Battle of Worcester:

• The day after the Battle of Worcester, Cromwell wrote to the Speaker of the House of Commons saying: ‘The dimensions of this mercy are above my thoughts. It is, for aught I know, a crowning mercy.’

References for the Battle of Worcester:

British Battles by Grant.

History of the British Army by Fortescue Volume 1

Battles in Britain by William Seymour

British Battles by Grant.

The previous battle of the English Civil War is the Battle of Dunbar

The next battle in the British Battles series is the Battle of Blenheim

To the English Civil War index

The previous battle in the English Civil War is the Siege of Basing House

The next battle in the English Civil War is the Battle of Worcester

To the English Civil War index

War: English Civil War.

Date of the Battle of Dunbar: 3^rd September 1650

Place of the Battle of Dunbar: On the south-east coast of Scotland.

Combatants at the Battle of Dunbar: English Parliamentary Army against the Scottish Covenanting Army

Commanders at the Battle of Dunbar: Captain-General Oliver Cromwell against Lieutenant-General Sir David Leslie.

Size of the armies at the Battle of Dunbar: The English army numbered around 11,000 men.

The Scottish army numbered around 23,000 men.

Uniforms, arms and equipment at the Battle of Dunbar: See this section in the Battle of Edgehill.

The Scottish regiments at the Battle of Dunbar were:

Horse: Lord Levens’, Major-General Sir Robert Montgomerie’s, Colonel Sir John Browne’s Midlothian, Charles Arnot’s of Fernie, Colonel Craige’s, Colonel Archibald Strachan’s, the Master of Forbes’s, Colonel Scott’s, Sir James Halkett’s, James Campbell, Lord Mauchline’s, George Lord Brechin’s, Arthur Erskine’s of Scotscraig, Sir Robert Adair’s of Balamena, John Earl of Cassilis’s, Robert Halkett’s, Gilbert Kerr’s, Adjutant-General Bickerton’s.

Foot: Life Guards, Foot Guards, Towers’, Duffus’s, Kirkness’s, Lieutenant-General Lumsden’s of Menstrie, Lindsay’s of Pitscottie, Campbell’s of Lawers, Innes’s, Sir John Haldane’s of Gleneagles, Tallifield’s, John Maclellan, Lord Kirkcudbright’s, Lindsay’s of Edzell, Hugh Master of Lovat’s, George Buchanan’s of that Ilk, Sir Alexander Stuart’s, General Wemyss’s, the general of the artillery, Louis Home’s of Wedderburn, Freeland’s.

The English regiments at the Battle of Dunbar were:

Horse: The Lord General’s (Cromwell’s) 663 men, the Major-General’s (Lambert’s) 663 men, Lieutenant-General of the Horse (Colonel Fleetwood) 663 men, Commissary-General’s (Colonel Whalley) 663 men, Colonel Liburn’s 663 men, Colonel Hacker’s 663 men, Colonel O’Key’s dragoons, later horse 663 men. A total of 5,415 men.

Foot: the Lord’s General’s (Lieutenant-Colonel Goffe’s) 1,307 men, Colonel Pride’s 1,307 men, Major-General Bright’s 1,307 men, Maliverer’s 1,307 men, Sir Charles Fairfax’s 1,307 men, Daniel’s 1,307, and Monk’s comprising five companies of Sir Arthur Heselrig’s 550 men and five companies of Fenwick’s 550 men: 10,349 men in all.

The English artillery train comprised 960 men.

Winner of the Battle of Dunbar: Cromwell’s Parliamentary New Model Army resoundingly defeated the Scottish army.

Events leading to the Battle of Dunbar:

Following the initial phase of the English Civil War King Charles I was tried and executed on 30^th January 1649.

King Charles I’s son and heir Charles Stewart was in exile in Holland.

Although it had fought against Kind Charles I in the Civil War, The Scottish Covenanter Government declared Charles Stewart to be king in succession to his father and invited him to Scotland to resume the war against Parliament.

Before Charles was permitted to come to Scotland, he was required by the Scottish Covenanter Government to enter into the Treaty of Breda in Holland by which he bound himself to endorse the Covenant and to enforce it throughout his kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland once he was established on the throne. Charles signed the Treaty of Breda on 1^st May 1649

Probably the Scottish Government knew that King Charles II was most unlikely to comply with the Treaty of Breda as the Covenant represented everything King Charles II found repugnant in Protestantism.

The Parliament in London quickly realised that with Charles’s arrival in Scotland it would be necessary to resume the Civil War with an invasion of Scotland.

Fairfax, Captain-General of the New Model Army, declined to command the invasion, on grounds of age and health.

He was replaced by Oliver Cromwell, recently returned from Ireland, as Captain-General of the New Model Army and commander of the invasion force.

The English army invading Scotland comprised 10,000 foot and 5,000 horse, largely from the New Model Army, supported by a naval fleet carrying supplies.

The English army entered Scotland on 22^nd July 1649 and marched on Edinburgh, devastating the countryside.

Lieutenant-General Sir David Leslie assembled a powerful Scottish army to repel Cromwell.

Leslie’s Scottish army comprised 18,000 foot and 8,000 horse, of which 6,500 were from the Scottish army raised and trained on the lines of the English New Model Army.

Cromwell reached Musselburgh to the east of Edinburgh on 28^th July 1650 and the next day confronted Leslie’s army entrenched outside Edinburgh with an attack on the port of Leith.

Leslie resisted the urgings of many in his army to attack the English and after a couple of days, shortages of supplies compelled Cromwell to withdraw to Musselburgh.

Leslie’s Scottish army pressed the English closely during the retreat.

From Musselburgh, Cromwell’s army retreated to the coast at Dunbar to renew contact with his fleet, arriving on 1^st September 1650.

Dysentry broke out in the English ranks and with severe losses reducing his army to 11,000 men, Cromwell felt bound to withdraw to the border and return to England.

The English army marched out on the east coast road to Berwick on the Border, but Leslie moved quickly, positioning his main force to threaten the coastal road that Cromwell was compelled to use.

To cut off Cromwell’s retreat, Leslie occupied the Cockburnspath defile, some 4 miles from Dunbar on the Berwick road, preventing the English from continuing south along the road.

On 2^nd September 1650, Leslie’s Scottish army, still numbering some 23,000 men, occupied positions on the steep Doon Hill, overlooking the narrow coastal plain through which ran the coastal road to Berwick.

From the Doon Hill the Broxburn flowed in a deep gorge down the hillside to the coastal plain where it emerged from the gorge to be crossed by the coastal road before flowing on to Broxmoth House and into the sea.

With the substantially larger Scottish army on the steep Doon Hill inland of the coastal road and with the road itself blocked to prevent his retreat to the English border, Cromwell found himself in a difficult position, with the only apparent way of extricating his army being to embark it on the English fleet at Dunbar.

The decision-making process of the Scottish Army during the campaign is somewhat opaque.

While Sir David Leslie, an experienced soldier who had fought in the continental campaigns of the Thirty Years War, was the commanding general and enjoyed a considerable reputation, he was subject to the directions of a quixotic Scottish government controlled by the extreme Protestant Covenanters.

Although the Scottish Government acknowledged Charles II as King of England and Scotland, the Scottish authorities required Charles II to leave the army with his force of Royalists, probably militarily the most experienced solders in the Scottish army, so that the army that fought and, as they expected, defeated Cromwell comprised only those with impeccable Protestant credentials.

A powerful religious committee accompanied Leslie’s army to ensure that the conduct of its operations were fully in line with the views and requirements of the Covenanting authorities.

It seems to be the consensus among military commentators that Leslie should have kept his army on the steep-sided Doon Hill, where it was beyond the reach of Cromwell’s much weakened English army until Cromwell was forced to embark his troops on the waiting English ships, enabling an attack to be made when Cromwell was at his most vulnerable during the embarkation.

Rejecting such a course, on the evening of 2^nd September 1650, Leslie ordered the Scottish army down from its positions on the top of Doon Hill into the valley of the Broxburn.

There is a school that maintains the move was directed by the powerful clerical presence in the army and that it was against Leslie’s inclinations and advice.

This is not accepted by the authorities on the battle who have it that it was Leslie’s decision to abandon the Doon Hill position.

There is little doubt that the Scottish army was keen to come down off Doon Hill and give battle to the English. The English were clearly much weakened by disease and shortages of supply. Their numbers were considerably reduced and their morale deteriorating.

Unless they were attacked, the English might escape on their fleet.

In addition, the Scots were far from comfortable in their Doon Hill position. It was cold, windswept and it began to rain heavily.

All the circumstances encouraged the Scottish army to leave Doon Hill for the coastal plain and assault the disadvantaged English army.

The Scottish army began the descent from Doon Hill during the afternoon of 2^nd September 1650 and were in their new positions by 4pm.

The Scottish infantry was positioned along the Broxburn, flowing down from Doon Hill across the coastal plain to the sea.

In its hilly section the Broxburn ran through a deep gorge. As it came into flatter ground on the coastal plain it emerged from the gorge and its banks became shallow and easily negotiated.

In their new positions much of the Scottish infantry was still confronted by the steep gorge which made access to the English army positioned on the far bank extremely difficult.

In addition, the lower section of Doon Hill comprised a spur which hemmed in the right flank of the Scottish infantry severely hindering deployment into the coastal plain.

The Scottish cavalry was positioned for the forthcoming battle in the conventional manner, with part of the force on each flank.

The left wing of the Scottish cavalry was hemmed in by Doon Hill, the steep gully of the Broxburn and the mass of the Scottish infantry to their right and was consequently unable to take any part in the decisive battle which took place in the open plain on the Scottish right.

Cromwell, his major-general, Lambert and General George Monk watched the Scottish deployment down from Doon Hill to the banks of the Broxburn and agreed between them that they now had an opportunity to defeat the Scots in battle. The three generals devised a plan that was put to the other English senior officers that evening in a council of war.

Account of the Battle of Dunbar:

During the night of 2^nd September 1650, the rain fell hard on the two armies sleeping on the battlefield.

At the prospect of battle, the morale of the English Parliamentary army was much restored after the taxing retreat from the lines around Edinburgh.

During the night, Lambert, in his role as sergeant-major-general, moved six of the eight regiments of horse and three regiments of foot to the English left flank.

Lambert was to lead five regiments of horse across the Broxburn by Broxmouth House and charge the horse of the Scottish right wing in their right flank.

Cromwell himself was to lead an assault around the Scottish right wing with one regiment of horse and three regiments of foot.

The rest of the Parliamentary army with the artillery was in position along the right bank of the Broxburn, opposite the lower reaches of Doon Hill, to hold any Scottish attempt to make a frontal assault.

At around 4am, Lambert’s cavalry regiments crossed the Broxburn and attacked the horse regiments of the right wing of the Scottish army.

Although surprised by the sudden assault, the cavalry regiments of the Scottish right wing wheeled and met the English charge full-on.

The Scottish cavalry regiments outnumbered the English and initially pushed them back, assisted by the use of the lance, with which many of the Scottish troopers were armed.

General Monk’s infantry passed the Broxburn to the right of Lambert’s cavalry and launched an assault on the right wing of the Scottish infantry.

Again outnumbered by the Scots, Monk’s attack was repelled.

In the meantime, Cromwell’s flanking force was coming up around the Scottish right wing.

Cromwell’s infantry joined Monk’s attack, one of his regiments moving around the Scottish line and taking the Scots in flank.

Cromwell launched his single regiment of horse into the flank of the Scottish cavalry while Lambert renewed his assault from the front.

Under the pressure of Lambert’s charge combined with Cromwell’s flank attack the Scottish horse began to break and retreat.

As in the cavalry battle, the attack by Cromwell’s three regiments of foot was sufficient to turn the tide against the Scottish foot attacked by Monk. The foot of the Scottish right wing were driven back and broke in confusion.

The main mass of the Scottish army began a headlong retreat across the Broxburn to escape from the pursuing English horse and foot.

Some of the Scottish soldiers ran off up Doon Hill where they were pursued and cut down.

A few of the regiments of the Scottish left wing left the battlefield in good order and crossed the Broxburn, marching off towards Edinburgh,

Cromwell ordered a halt in the pursuit so that his officers might reform their disordered regiments.

The Parliamentary troops are reported as singing the 117^th Psalm.

O praise the LORD, all ye nations:
praise him, all ye people.
For his merciful kindness is great toward us:
and the truth of the LORD endureth for ever.
Praise ye the LORD.

Re-organised the English cavalry pursued the main mass of the fleeing Scots army as far as Haddington.

Casualties at the Battle of Dunbar:

3,000 Scots were killed in the Battle of Dunbar, with 10,000 taken prisoner by the English. The English also captured the whole of the Scottish artillery, their baggage train and 200 colours.

English casualties were around 300 killed.

Follow-up to the Battle of Dunbar:

Following the Battle of Dunbar, Cromwell marched to Edinburgh, capturing the city, other than Edinburgh Castle, before advancing in pursuit of Leslie’s retreating army.

Leslie took up positions around Stirling with some 5,000 men.

Deciding that Leslie’s position was too strong to attack, Cromwell returned to Edinburgh and besieged the castle, while Lambert advanced into the West of Scotland.

Edinburgh Castle surrendered to Cromwell in mid-September 1650, leaving Cromwell’s army in command of Scotland south of the Rivers Clyde and Forth.

General Leslie and King Charles II were gathering the Royalist/Covenanter army at Stirling.

On 31^st July 1651, two days before Cromwell received the surrender of Perth, Charles’s army set off from Stirling for the English border and his incursion into England which would end with the Battle of Worcester.

On 6^th August 1651 Cromwell set off in pursuit with his army.

Anecdotes and traditions from the Battle of Dunbar:

• Following the Battle of Dunbar, the English Parliament issued a commemorative medal, with the effigy of Oliver Cromwell, the victorious general, in spite of his protests. The medal and a financial gratuity were issued to every soldier who fought in the campaign in the English army.
• Of the Scots captured at the Battle of Dunbar, some 5,000 were marched south escorted by a cavalry escort commanded by Sir Arthur Hesilrig. The Scots prisoners were given no food for 5 days, until they reached Morpeth. The English troops beat the prisoners and robbed them of clothing and valuables. Many prisoners died on the march. Of the survivors, 200 were transported to Virginia in America as indentured servants for the colonists, the earliest form of slavery in the American colonies.
• George Monk took a prominent part in the Battle of Dunbar. A royalist officer who changed sides in the Civil War, Cromwell resolved to give him his own regiment in the New Model Army. The regiment selected objected to having an ex-royalist as a colonel, so Cromwell took five companies each from the regiments of Fenwick and Heselrige to form a new regiment for Monk. On the Restoration of King Charles II in 1660, Monk marched his regiment from Scotland to support the new king. He crossed the border at Coldstream and his regiment joined the new royal army as the Coldstream Guards. Monk was appointed Duke of Albemarle.
• Colonel Okey, whose New Model Army regiment of dragoons fought at the Battle of Dunbar, was executed after the Restoration of King Charles II as one of the regicides of King Charles I.

References for the Battle of Dunbar:

British Battles by Grant.

History of the British Army by Fortescue Volume 1

Battles in Britain by William Seymour

The previous battle in the English Civil War is the Siege of Basing House

The next battle in the English Civil War is the Battle of Worcester

To the English Civil War index

The previous battle of the Scottish Wars of Independence is the Battle of Bannockburn

The next battle of the Scottish Wars of Independence is the Battle of Halidon Hill

To the Scottish Wars of Independence

War: Scottish Wars of Independence.

Date of the Battle of Dupplin Moor: 9^th August 1332

Place of the Battle of Dupplin Moor: South of Perth in Scotland.

Combatants at the Battle of Dupplin Moor: An essentially English army led by English noblemen and some Scottish noblemen, known as the ‘Disinherited’, with a small body of European mercenaries, against a much larger Scottish army.

Commanders at the Battle of Dupplin Moor: The army of the ‘Disinherited’ was commanded by Edward Balliol, claimant to the Scottish Throne, with Gilbert Umphraville, Earl of Angus, David, Earl of Athole, Henry de Beaumont and Walter Comyn.

The Scottish army was commanded by the Scottish Regent, Donald, Earl of Mar.

Size of the armies at the Battle of Dupplin Moor: The army of the ‘Disinherited’ numbered around 1,500 men. The Scottish army may have numbered 10,000 to 15,000 men or more.

Uniforms, arms and equipment at the Battle of Dupplin Moor:

The army of the ‘Disinherited’ comprised a core of around 500 fully armed and mounted knights and men at arms, with 1,000 archers armed with the English longbow.

The knights and men-at-arms fought on foot in armour, with spears, swords and shields.

The archers fought with the six-foot English longbow, firing a yard-long arrow over a range of 200 yards.

The Scottish army comprised a small corps of knights and men-at-arms, armed as the ‘Disinherited’, with a large contingent of foot soldiers armed with pikes and other weapons.

The Scottish army did not have a significant body of archers.

Winner of the Battle of Dupplin Moor: The Scottish army was largely annihilated, leaving the army of the ‘Disinherited’ the winners of the battle.

Events leading to the Battle of Dupplin Moor:

After a lifetime of warfare against Kind Edward II and the English, Robert the Bruce, King Robert I of Scotland, died on 7^th June 1329.

King Edward II of England died on 21^st September 1327.

After a final unsuccessful campaign against the Scots, the English entered into the ‘Shameful Peace’ of Northampton on 4^th May 1328, negotiated on behalf of the young King Edward III by his self-appointed regents, Queen Isabella and Mortimer.

One of the significant consequences of Robert the Bruce’s successful campaigns against the English had been the dispossession of many of the English and Scottish nobles with estates in Scotland who fought for the King of England.

The Peace of Northampton purported to permit these nobles to return to their lost estates provided they did homage to the King of Scotland.

Attempts to implement these provisions were ignored by the Scots, largely because the estreated estates and titles had been passed to supporters of Bruce and were no longer available to be returned.

In 1332, a body of the most significant and powerful of the ‘Disinherited’ noblemen, both Scottish and English, gathered an army in England to invade Scotland and redeem their estates by force.

Humiliated by the terms of the ‘Shameful Peace’, the young King Edward III of England probably approved of the planned invasion of Scotland by the ‘Disinherited’, but being bound by the terms of the treaty was unable to give it his formal support. Edward ordered his officials to prevent the invading army from crossing the border into Scotland.

The ’Disinherited’ invaded Scotland by sea, collecting a fleet in the Humber Estuary and landing near Kinghorn in Fife before marching on to Dunfermline.

From Dunfermline, the ‘Disinherited’ marched north towards Perth.

The Scottish regent, Donald, Earl of Mar, lay behind the River Earn, to the south of Perth, with a large army assembled from across the centre of Scotland, comprising 2,000 men-at-arms and up to 15,000 foot soldiers.

Mar moved his army forward and took up position on the north side of the River Earn, blocking the bridge over the river.

Account of the Battle of Dupplin Moor:

It has to be asked why Mar did not cross the River Earn and attack the army of the ‘Disinherited’ with his substantial superiority in numbers.

Mar was a cautious man and perhaps feared treachery in his own ranks through sympathy with the plight of the ‘Disinherited’.

Once night had fallen, the army of the ‘Disinherited’ crossed the River Earn by a ford downstream of the Scottish camp, identified by one their number familiar with the area.

Once across the river the army of the ‘Disinherited’ launched a surprise attack on the rear of the Scottish camp.

There was a substantial slaughter of the Scottish foot soldiers encamped on the northern side of the Scottish camp.

When dawn came the main Scottish contingent could be seen advancing in good order on the army of the ‘Disinherited’, having been in the part of the camp nearest the river, away from the point of the surprise assault.

The Scottish army was headed by the banners of twelve earls and great barons.

In the face of the assault by an army of much greater strength than their own, the army of the ‘Disinherited’ withdrew up the valley, heading north, away from the Scottish camp.

At the head of a narrowing defile, the army of the ‘Disinherited’ halted and prepared for battle.

The English and Scottish knights and men-at-arms dismounted and formed a single formation, the small number of foreign mercenaries remaining mounted in their rear.

The archers formed two clumps, one on each flank of the main force of knights and men-at-arms.

The Scottish army was entirely dismounted, other than a small force of men-at-arms in the rear and advanced in one main column, flanked by two smaller columns.

As the Scottish army forced its way along the narrowing up-hill defile it became increasingly compressed.

The Scots reached the knights and men-at-arms of the ‘Disinherited’ and pressed forward, initially forcing them up the incline.

The ‘Disinherited’ pushed back and with the advantage of the slope brought the Scottish column to a halt.

The many thousands of Scottish infantry advancing from behind pushed forward and a terrible press of men built up at the head of the Scottish army, into which the flanking columns were fed by the angle of the hillsides.

As the struggle took place between the two forces, the archers of the army of the ‘Disinherited’ moved down the hillside on the flanks and fired volleys of arrows into the Scottish ranks.

For the first time an army was subjected in battle to volleys of arrows discharged by English archers.

The Scottish infantrymen on the flanks pushed towards the centre to escape the arrows, building more pressure in the compressed Scottish column.

Finally, the Scottish army broke, fleeing back down the valley, leaving hundreds of casualties on the field, most suffocated by the dreadful press of bodies.

They were pursued by Henry de Beaumont leading the mounted mercenaries of the army of the ‘Disinherited’ with those knights and men-at-arms who managed to retrieve their horses to join the pursuit.

The Scottish army was all but destroyed, only 14 knights being said to have escaped the battlefield.

Casualties at the Battle of Dupplin Moor:

Among the slain were the Regent, Donald Earl of Mar, the Earls of Menteith and Moray, Robert Bruce, Earl of Carrick, the king’s cousin, Alexander Fraser, the High Chamberlain, 18 bannerets, 58 knights, 800 squires, 1,200 men-at-arms and innumerable foot soldiers.

The army of the ‘Disinherited’ lost just 33 knights and men-at-arms, among them John Gordon and Reginald de la Beche.

No archers were lost.

Follow-up to the Battle of Dupplin Moor:

The tactics used at the Battle of Dupplin Moor became the standard battle tactics for the English in the next two centuries, leading to such victories as Creçy, Agincourt and several others.

Baliol, Beaumont, Umfraville and David of Athole all fought in the English army of King Edward III at the Battle of Halidon Hill, where archers were deployed in a similar manner against the Scottish, again to devastating effect.

References for the Battle of Dupplin Moor:

Trial by Battle, Volume I of the four volume record of the Hundred Years War by Jonathan Sumption.

The Art of War in the Middle Ages Volume Two by Sir Charles Oman.

The previous battle of the Scottish Wars of Independence is the Battle of Bannockburn

The next battle of the Scottish Wars of Independence is the Battle of Halidon Hill

To the Scottish Wars of Independence

The previous battle of the Anglo-Scottish Wars is the Battle of Flodden

The next battle in the British Battles series is the Spanish Armada

To the Anglo-Scottish Wars index

War: the period of the extended Anglo-Scottish Wars in Tudor times known as the ‘Eight Years War’ or the ‘War of the Rough Wooing’.

Date of the Battle of Pinkie: 10^th September 1547

Place of the Battle of Pinkie: On the east bank of the estuary of the River Esk at Musselburgh on the east coast of Scotland.

Combatants at the Battle of Pinkie: English against the Scots.

Commanders at the Battle of Pinkie: Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, the Lord Protector of England during the minority of King Edward VI, led the English army. James Hamilton, Earl of Arran, Regent of Scotland, led the Scottish army.

Size of the armies at the Battle of Pinkie: The English army numbered around 14,000 men. The Scottish army numbered around 25,000 men.

Uniforms, arms and equipment at the Battle of Pinkie:

While the Scottish army heavily outnumbered the English, the Scottish cavalry were few, around 1,000 Border horsemen or Reivers, experienced in fighting, but equipped for banditry rather than battle, armed with swords and spears, but wearing rudimentary armour and mounted on poor quality horses or ponies.

The main body of Scottish infantry fought with the 6-yard-long pike introduced into Scotland by the French before the Battle of Flodden and adopted with enthusiasm by the Scots who hoped to emulate the success of the weapon in the hands of the Swiss.

The Scots were by this time experienced in the use of the pike in battle and readily adopted the most appropriate formation, three ranks presenting a hedgehog effect to an attacking enemy.

‘The first rank knelt, the second sloped, the third stood erect; but all three with their weapons pointed at three angles towards the enemy.’

Otherwise, the ordinary soldiers of the Scottish army were armed with whatever weapons they could bring to war, including the agricultural implements from their everyday work.

Patten described the Lowland infantry as being clad ‘all alike in jackes covered with white leather, doublets of the same or white fustian, and most commonly all white hosen.’

There was a sprinkling of archers in the Scottish ranks.

The highland clans fought with target shield and sword, many armed with the heavy two-handed weapon.

Whereas the Scottish army was armed in the style of the Middle Ages, the English army boasted equipment, weapons and tactics from the early Renaissance, particularly firearms.

The English army was described by Patten as the ‘best ordered that had ever entered Scotland’.

Both armies comprised artillery, but the English train was larger in numbers and more sophisticated, with 15 guns.

In the English army were three important bodies of mercenaries: a force of Spanish cavalry, commanded by Pedro de Gamboa, heavily armoured and armed with long wheel-lock pistols.

The second, German infantry, commanded by Peter Mewtas, armed with the arquebus, an early form of musket fired with a bipod support.

Both these bodies of mercenaries wore extensive armour, in the case of the Spanish cavalry the horses being ‘barded’ or protected by horse armour.

An additional corps d-elite was the King’s band of Gentlemen Pensioners commanded by Sir Thomas Darcy.

A further mercenary corps was a body of some 2,000 mounted men-at-arms from Boulogne, captained by Edward Shelley. These well-drilled and disciplined horsemen were English ex-members of the Boulogne garrison, held at this time for the English king, along with the neighbouring port of Calais.

The main cavalry force in the English army was the 4,000 mounted men-at-arms commanded by Lord Grey of Wilton, Lieutenant of Boulogne and Sir Ralph Vane, the High Marshal.

Sir Francis Bryan led the 2,000 English light horse.

The rest of the army was made up of infantry soldiers with a wide variety of weapons and a substantial number of archers armed with the long bow, the most significant weapon for English armies throughout the late Middle Ages.

The English army was supported by a fleet of 30 ships of war and 32 transports, commanded by Lord Clinton, which lurked in the Esk Estuary and fired on the Scots as they crossed the River Esk, moving towards the English at the beginning of the battle and away from them in flight at the end.

Winner of the Battle of Pinkie:

The Scots were heavily defeated.

Events leading to the Battle of Pinkie:

In his later years King Henry VIII of England schemed to arrange the marriage of his infant son Edward to Mary Queen of Scots, also an infant.

Broadly, the Scottish aristocracy, although many entered into a league to work towards the marriage, opposed the match, which was likely to lead to union between England and Scotland, as Henry VIII intended.

The Scots, on the whole, preferred the proposal put forward by the King of France of a marriage between Mary and his son.

Such an arrangement was in keeping with the Auld Alliance between Scotland and France and would leave Scotland independent of England.

In his later years, Henry VIII waged war against France and France needed the assistance of its ally, Scotland, to divert the attention of the English by invasion across the border.

King Henry VIII died in 1547, leaving instructions that the match between the now King Edward VI and Queen Mary be pursued, in spite of the Scottish lack of enthusiasm.

The Duke of Somerset, the Protector of the infant King Edward, resolved to bring matters to a head and force the Scots to accept the match by attacking Scotland.

The Earl of Arran, Regent of Scotland in the light of the Queen’s infancy, worked hard to prepare for the impending invasion.

Somerset marched his army into Scotland along the east coast, shadowed by an English fleet commanded by Lord Clinton, in September 1547, his troops laying waste to the countryside as they passed.

The Earl of Arran assembled the Scottish army at Inveresk on the northern bank of the River Esk on the North Sea coast, covering the city of Edinburgh.

The River Esk was wide and deep with high banks, creating a strong defensive position for the Scots army encamped on its north side.

The Earl of Huntly commanded the Scots left wing.

Next in the Scottish line was the Earl of Argyll with 3,000 Highland bowmen.

Arran commanded the Scottish centre, with the main battle along the Edmonstone Edge.

The Earl of Angus commanded the vanguard, positioned on the right, with the Scottish cavalry on his right, commanded by the Earl of Home, protected by a bog to their front.

The main crossing point over the River Esk was the old Roman bridge near the coast, which the Scots barricaded and covered with cannon and archers, that is other than at low tide when a number of fords across the estuary became usable.

The English encamped on the raised ground to the south-east of the river.

A stream, the Pinkie, meandered across the valley before flowing into the River Esk.

The English Fleet anchored off Musselburgh at the entrance to the Esk Estuary. The commander, Lord Clinton, came ashore to confer with Somerset, providing him with information on the Scottish deployment behind the Esk.

On the morning of 9^th September 1547, the Scottish cavalry under the Earl of Home crossed the River Esk and galloped about in front of the English lines, challenging the English to give battle.

Somerset ordered Lord Grey to attack the Scots with the English heavy cavalry.

A fierce combat took place between the ill-equipped and outnumbered Scottish horsemen and the English men-at-arms, the Scots being overwhelmed and driven back.

The Earl of Home fell wounded from his horse and was taken prisoner with his son and bodyguard, with two other gentlemen and two priests.

Later that day, Somerset conducted a reconnaissance of the ground and saw that there was a small hill near the sea which overlooked the Scottish camp across the river. On this hill was the church of Inveresk.

A lane led to the west roughly following the direction of the River Esk.

This lane led up to another area of raised ground on a feature called the Fawside.

Through the middle of this ground ran the Pinkie stream.

Somerset resolved to position his artillery on these two features to fire on the Scots across the river once the battle was begun.

On his way back to camp, Somerset was overtaken by a mounted Scottish herald with a trumpeter.

The herald informed Somerset that he brought a message from the Earl of Arran.

After proposing an exchange of prisoners, the herald informed Somerset that Arran proposed that the English army be permitted to withdraw across the border to avoid an ‘effusion of Christian blood’.

Somerset rejected this proposal.

The herald said that in that case the Earl of Arran proposed that the issues between the two countries should be settled by a combat between the two commanders with a small group of knights.

Somerset rejected this proposal, pointing out that as the Protector for the infant King of England he could not possibly subject himself to such a risk.

That night the confident Scottish leaders played dice for the disposal and ransom of the senior Englishmen they expected to capture in the battle to come.

Somerset wrote to Arran saying that the English army would withdraw from Scotland if the Scots undertook to keep Mary Queen of Scots in Scotland until she came of age, thereby preventing her from marrying the French prince.

This proposal was rejected.

Account of the Battle of Pinkie:

In the early hours of 10^th September 1547, the English army was on the move, advancing towards the Scottish positions.

The advance was angled towards Inveresk and the coast.

It is said that the Scottish Regent, the Earl of Arran, misread Somerset’s intentions, believing his plan to be to embark his army on the English fleet and escape defeat by the significantly more numerous Scottish army.

Whatever the cause, the Scots left their powerful position behind the Esk and swarmed across the river, many by the Roman bridge, others by fords and other crossing points.

The two armies now confronted each other on the southern bank of the River Esk athwart the Pinkie stream.

Arran commanded the Scottish centre, comprising 18,000 men from the clans of Strathearn, the men of the Lothians, Kinross and Stirlingshire, described as the flower of the Scottish infantry; with them a corps of 800 men from Edinburgh led by their Provost.

The right wing comprised 6,000 West Highlanders and men from the Isles, commanded by the Earl of Argyle and the chiefs of Macleod and Macgregor.

Scottish artillery flanked the right wing.

On the Scottish left wing were 10,000 men of the eastern counties commanded by the Earl of Angus.

This division was supported by more artillery and light horse.

In the ranks of the Scots left wing marched a contingent of 1,500 monks, wearing armour and surcoats marked by a cross, the colours marking them as Black, Grey or Red Friars.

These monks or friars were drawn into battle through fear of the spread of the English Reformation in Scotland.

Once across the Esk, the Scottish infantry converged to form a bristling phalanx of spearmen.

That is other than Argyle’s highlanders, who came under a heavy artillery fire as they crossed the river and left the battlefield.

After a rapid advance the massed Scottish pikemen in their huge schiltron halted.

The English army was in three columns, advancing in parallel.

The Earl of Warwick commanded the first column, the Duke of Somerset the second column and Thomas, Lord Dacres commanded the third.

The English cavalry charged Huntly’s division on the Scottish right, but were thrown back.

A second cavalry attack was launched against Arran’s troops, but again the horsemen were repelled by the steady ranks of spears.

During this combat the English Royal Standard, carried by Sir Andrew Flammock, was nearly taken. Sir Andrew escaped from the struggle with the Standard less its staff.

The English cavalry attack, while failing to penetrate the ranks of the Scottish spearmen, brought their advance to a halt, enabling Somerset to bring up the slow-moving English artillery train.

The English sakers were brought into action at a range of 350 paces, from where their discharges wrought havoc among the closely packed Scottish spearmen.

Soon after the bombardment by the English cannon began, the Spanish mounted troops rode down the flanks of the Scottish schiltron discharging their pistols into the packed Scottish ranks.

The Spanish horsemen were supported in their attack by the German hackbutiers under Sir Peter Mewtas, who marched forward and fired volleys into the Scottish spearmen.

Somerset continued the assault by bringing forward the English infantry, whose archers began a rain of arrows on the reeling Scots schiltron.

A heavy rainstorm broke over the battlefield, increasing the confusion in the Scottish ranks.

Seeing the Scottish army beginning to disintegrate, Somerset launched the English cavalry in a further attack.

The English cavalry charge was the final blow. The Scots army began to break up and flee the field.

Some Scots fled towards Dalkeith, others across the Esk in the direction of Edinburgh and others along the seashore heading for Leith.

The English broke ranks for the pursuit, slaying the fleeing Scots in their thousands.

Lord Clinton’s English fleet came further into the estuary mouth and opened fire on the Scots fleeing across the Esk, adding to the slaughter.

Casualties at the Battle of Pinkie:

Scottish casualties are said to have been around 10,000 killed and wounded, many in the lengthy pursuit after the Scots army broke up.

Most of the monks were slain and their banner was found on the field of battle.

Among the more prominent Scots dead were Lords Elphinstone, Cathcart and Fleming, Sir James Gordon of Lochinvar, Sir Robert Douglas of Lochleven and many others, including Findlay Mhor Farquharson., of Invercauld, the bearer of the Royal Standard of Scotland.

English casualties are said to have been around 500 men killed, mainly from the heavy cavalry.

Among the more prominent English casualties were Edward Shelley, Lieutenant of the Bulleners, Ratcliff, Preston, Clarence and other veteran English officers of the heavy cavalry, killed during the furious attacks on the Scottish pikemen.

Follow-up to the Battle of Pinkie:

After the battle, Somerset remained in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh for a week before marching his army back to England.

Mary Queen of the Scots married the son of the French king in due course.

The English victory seemed to have achieved little, other than to further inflame the hatred between the two nations.

Anecdotes and traditions from the Battle of Pinkie:

• A detailed account of the English invasion of Scotland was published by Master William Patten, the Judge-Marshal to the invading English army, under the title ‘The Expedition into Scotland of the most worthy fortunate Prince, Edward, Duke of Somerset, made in the First Yere of his Maistie’s Most Prosperous Reign, and set out by waye of Diarie by W. Patten, London. Vivat Victor! Out of the Parsonage of St. Mary Hill, in London, this xxviii of January, 1548.’
• The Battle was called ‘The Battle of Pinkie Cleugh’ by the Scots and remembered as ‘The Black Saturday of Pinkie’. The English called the Battle, Inveresk or Musselburgh.

References for the Battle of Pinkie:

Battles in Britain 1066 to 1547 Volume 2 by William Seymour

British Battles by Grant.

British Battles on Land and Sea

The previous battle of the Anglo-Scottish Wars is the Battle of Flodden

The next battle in the British Battles series is the Spanish Armada

To the Anglo-Scottish War index

The previous battle in the British Battles series is the Battle of Hastings

The next battle in the Barons’ Wars is Lewes

To the Barons’ Wars index

War: The Barons’ War.

Date of the Battle of The Standard: 22^nd August 1138

Place of the Battle of The Standard: Northallerton in North Yorkshire.

Combatants at the Battle of The Standard: A Scottish army with rebel English barons against the feudal levies and fyrd of Yorkshire fighting to repel the Scots invasion.

Commanders at the Battle of The Standard: King David I of Scotland against William, Earl of Albemarle and Walter L’Espec commanding the English army on behalf of King Stephen.

Size of the armies at the Battle of The Standard: The Scottish army is said to have numbered around 10,000 men and the English army around 8,000 men.

Uniforms, arms and equipment at the Battle of The Standard: Knights and mounted men-at-arms wore chain mail reinforced by metal plates at knees and elbows and steel helmets and were armed with lance, Shield and sword.

The men of the English fyrd and the Scottish countrymen were armed with such weapons as each man might own from cutting or pointed agricultural instruments to swords, shields, spears and bows.

The highlanders carried target shields and were armed with two-handed swords or pole-axes.

Winner of the Battle of The Standard: The Scots failed to break up the English line and were forced into a retreat with heavy casualties.

Events leading to the Battle of The Standard:

King Henry I of England died in 1135. Henry’s son Prince William had died in the loss of the White Ship, leaving Matilda as Henry’s sole surviving legitimate child.

Henry compelled the leading barons of England to accept Matilda as their next ruler, but on his death the barons reneged on their agreement, many of the them supporting Henry’s nephew, Stephen of Blois, who became the next monarch of England.

The dispute led to warfare between the supporters of Matilda and Stephen.

King David I of Scotland, whose sister was married to King Henry I, vigorously supported his niece Matilda and embarked on a series of invasions of the north of England.

In March 1137 King David again invaded the north of England with a Scottish army.

After crossing the border, King David despatched his nephew William with a force of Galloway men to despoil the west of England, while King David with the greater part of his army laid siege to the castle of Norham on the River Tweed.

Capturing Norham, King David marched south through Northumberland and Durham into Yorkshire, approaching Alverton, now known as Northallerton, in the north of the county.

King Stephen was hard pressed in the south of England resisting the revolt of many of the barons and left the defence of the north to the local leaders.

The Scots committed extensive atrocities on the English civil population as they advanced, leading the English to look on their resistance as a form of religious crusade.

The defence against the invading Scots was galvanised by the aged Thurstan, Archbishop of York.

Thurstan ordered the clerics of Yorkshire to process with their crosses, banners and relics and to assemble all men capable of bearing arms at Thirsk under the northern English barons.

Archbishop Thurstan presented his banner to the senior barons gathering to lead the army, in particular William, Earl of Albemarle and Walter L’Espec.

Account of the Battle of The Standard:

The English army took up position on Culverton Moor to the north of Alverton, later known as Northallerton.

On the moor, the English soldiers erected a standard, comprising a ship’s mast lashed to a four-wheeled cart with a crucifix at its head and the banners of the three patron saints of Yorkshire attached below, Peter of York, Wilfred of Ripon and John of Beverley.

This device gave the battle its name, the Battle of the Standard.

Walter l’Espec harangued the English troops from the cart and gave his ungauntleted hand to William, Earl of Albermarle, exclaiming, ‘I pledge thee my troth to conquer or to die.’

The representative of Archbishop Thurstan gave an address to the assembled knights at the end of which the lines of the advancing Scots army came into sight.

The English knights dismounted and sent their horses to the rear, forming a long line with the infantrymen, facing the advancing Scots, the chariot containing the Standard in the rear.

Archers from Yorkshire mingled with the other soldiers, rather than forming a distinct block.

A group of senior knights formed a ‘sacred band’ around the Standard.

The advancing Scots army was larger than the English force, although substantially weaker in numbers of knights and archers, the majority being highlanders and Picts of Galloway, armed with target shields and broadswords.

The Scottish King David ordered his knights to take the head of the Scots column with the archers and to spearhead the attack.

At this order a furious row broke out in the Scottish ranks.

The Highlander and Galloway were not prepared to permit the lowland knights and archers to strike the first blow.

When King David persisted in maintaining this formation, the Earl of Strathearn denounced his reliance on ‘Frenchmen’ and insisted that without armour he would force his way into the English ranks.

King David was forced to abandon his plan of attack and permit the Galloway men to lead the assault.

The reformed army advanced in several lines.

The Galloway men led the centre of the first line. The right wing of the first line was commanded by Prince Henry, the king’s son, leading the lowland knights, with a bodyguard of men-at-arms under Eustace Fitzjohn, a Norman baron of Northumberland who had turned against King Stephen after the English king took from him the Castle of Bamborough and the levies of Strathclyde and Teviotdale.

On the left wing of the first Scottish line were the English speakers of Lothian and the Highland clans of Lorn, Argyle and the Hebrides.

The second line of the Scottish army comprised the Highland and Island clans armed with target shields, two-handed claymores and pole-axes.

King David led the reserve of a body of Saxon and Norman knights and men-at-arms with the men from Moray in the rear.

As the Scottish army advanced against the English, Robert Bruce, a baron from Yorkshire also holding land in Annandale in Scotland, with Bernard de Baliol, rode up to King David and attempted to persuade him to enter into a truce with the English, offering to obtain from King Stephen a grant of the earldom of Northumberland for King David’s son Prince Henry.

Bruce was driven away by the Scottish knights who called him a traitor.

The men of Galloway reached the English first and attacked the centre of the English line, shouting their war-cry ‘Albanach, Albanach.’

The English common soldiers in the line were severely shaken by the savage attack of the men of Galloway and began to fall back, but the stiffening of knights was sufficient to hold the attack and restore the English line, driving back the men of Galloway.

The men of Galloway renewed their assault, but were unable to break into the English line for a second time.

The men of Galloway delivered a number of further assaults of diminishing ferocity.

Throughout their onslaught they were severely galled by the continuous discharge of arrows by the English archers.

Some of the Scots are said to have looked like pincushions from the number of arrows stuck in their bodies.

On the Scots right wing, Prince Henry came up with his knights and the men from Strathclyde and Teviot, the knights leading the charge on horseback.

Prince Henry and his men hacked their way through the Yorkshire levies, the survivors emerging on the far side of the English line.

Henry’s men saw the English horses held riderless some distance behind the English line and made for them, in the expectation that the rest of the Scottish first line would follow them through the gap in the English army.

In fact, the English troops closed up behind the Scottish knights and drove back the men of Strathclyde.

In the centre, the impetus of the Scottish attack had been lost and the men of Galloway dispersed and left the battlefield, leaving the bodies of their chiefs, Donald and Ulgerich.

On the left wing the men of Lothian and Lorn made one feeble attack and then turned and left the battlefield.

King David attempted to lead the Highlanders of the reserve in an attack to support his son and the centre and right of the first line, but the Highlanders, seeing the battle going badly for the Scots, melted away, leaving King David with his bodyguard of knights.

King David withdrew to a hill where he assembled the remains of his army that had not fled the field.

Prince Henry, finding himself isolated behind the English line with the few survivors of his body of Scottish knights, joined the advance of the English army, unnoticed until he was able to slip away and join his father’s retreating troops as they withdrew into Scotland.

Casualties at the Battle of The Standard:

Putting a number on the casualties is as difficult as assessing the numbers in each army before the battle.

Of the 200 knights Prince Henry led into the attack only 19 returned, the rest being casualties or prisoners of the English.

Heavy casualties were suffered by the men of Galloway and many of the chiefs in the centre and right of the Scots first line fell in the battle.

Few of the English knights were killed or wounded, but the casualties among the ordinary members of the English Fyrd were heavy, although unrecorded.

Follow-up to the Battle of The Standard:

Following the Battle of the Standard, King David marched to Carlisle where he awaited his son, Prince Henry.

The Scots then attacked and took the Castle of Wark, owned by Walter l’Espec, before withdrawing into Scotland.

In the subsequent settlement, Stephen the English King ceded most of Northumberland to Prince Henry, in effect conceding that the Scots had won the war.

Anecdotes and traditions from the Battle of The Standard:

• The Galloway war cry ‘Albanach, Albanach’ translated as ‘Men of Scotland, Men of Scotland’. It is said that the English called back ‘Men of Ireland, Men of Ireland’, intending a mortal insult.
• An almost certainly apocryphal story claims that the deciding moment in the Battle of the Standard was when an English soldier held up a severed human head on his spear and called ‘Behold the head of the King of the Scots’, causing consternation among the men of Galloway who immediately fell back from their attack and beginning the rout of the Scots army. One of the difficulties with this story is that the men of Galloway did not speak English.

References for the Battle of The Standard:

A History of the Art of War in the Middle Ages Volume One 378-1278AD by Sir Charles Oman

British Battles of Land and Sea

British Battles by Grant.

The previous battle in the British Battles series is the Battle of Hastings

The next battle in the Barons’ Wars is Lewes

To the Barons’ Wars index

The previous battle in the British Battles series is the Battle of Hastings

The next battle in the Barons’ Wars is the Battle of Lewes

To the Barons’ Wars index

War: The Barons’ War.

Date of the Battle of The Standard: 22^nd August 1138

Place of the Battle of The Standard: Northallerton in North Yorkshire.

Combatants at the Battle of The Standard: A Scottish army with rebel English barons against the feudal levies and fyrd of Yorkshire fighting to repel the Scots invasion.

Commanders at the Battle of The Standard: King David I of Scotland against William, Earl of Albemarle and Walter L’Espec commanding the English army on behalf of King Stephen.

Size of the armies at the Battle of The Standard: The Scottish army is said to have numbered around 10,000 men and the English army around 8,000 men.

Uniforms, arms and equipment at the Battle of The Standard: Knights and mounted men-at-arms wore chain mail tunics reinforced with metal plates at knees and elbows and steel helmets and were armed with lance, shield and sword.

The men of the English fyrd and the Scottish soldiers were armed with such weapons as each man might own from cutting or pointed agricultural instruments to swords, shields, spears and bows.

The highlanders carried target shields and were armed with two-handed swords or pole-axes.

Winner of the Battle of The Standard: The Scots failed to break up the English line and were forced to retreat with heavy casualties.

Events leading to the Battle of The Standard:

King Henry I of England died in 1135. Henry’s son Prince William had died in the loss of the White Ship in 1120, leaving Matilda as Henry’s sole surviving legitimate child.

Henry compelled the leading barons of England to accept Matilda as their next ruler, but on Henry’s death the barons reneged on their agreement, many of the them supporting Henry’s nephew, Stephen of Blois, who became monarch of England.

The dispute led to warfare between the supporters of Matilda and Stephen.

King David I of Scotland, whose sister was married to King Henry I, vigorously supported his niece Matilda and embarked on a series of invasions of England.

In March 1137 King David attacked the north of England with a Scottish army.

After crossing the border, King David despatched his nephew William with a force of Galloway men to despoil the west of England, while David with the greater part of his army laid siege to the castle of Norham on the River Tweed.

Capturing Norham, King David marched south through Northumberland and Durham into Yorkshire, approaching Alverton, now known as Northallerton, in the north of the county.

King Stephen was hard pressed in the south of England resisting the revolt of many of the barons and left the defence of the north to the local leaders.

The Scots committed extensive atrocities on the English civil population as they advanced, leading the English to look on their resistance as a form of religious crusade.

The defence against the invading Scots was galvanised by the aged Thurstan, Archbishop of York.

Thurstan ordered the clerics of Yorkshire to process with their crosses, banners and relics and to assemble all men capable of bearing arms at Thirsk under the northern English barons.

Archbishop Thurstan presented his banner to the senior barons gathering to lead the army, in particular William, Earl of Albemarle and Walter L’Espec.

Account of the Battle of The Standard:

The English army took up position on Culverton Moor to the north of Alverton, later known as Northallerton.

On the moor, the English soldiers erected a standard, comprising a ship’s mast lashed to a four-wheeled cart with a crucifix at its head and the banners of the three patron saints of Yorkshire attached below, Peter of York, Wilfred of Ripon and John of Beverley.

This device gave the battle its name, the Battle of the Standard.

Walter l’Espec harangued the English troops from the cart and gave his ungauntleted hand to William, Earl of Albermarle, exclaiming, ‘I pledge thee my troth to conquer or to die.’

The representative of Archbishop Thurstan gave an address to the assembled knights at the end of which the lines of the advancing Scots army came into sight.

The English knights dismounted and sent their horses to the rear, forming a long line with the infantrymen, facing the advancing Scots, the chariot containing the Standard in the rear.

Archers from Yorkshire mingled with the other soldiers, rather than forming a distinct block.

A group of senior knights formed a ‘sacred band’ around the Standard.

The advancing Scots army was larger than the English force, although substantially weaker in numbers of knights and archers, the majority being highlanders and Picts of Galloway, armed with target shields and broadswords.

The Scottish King David ordered his knights to take the head of the Scots column with the archers and to spearhead the attack.

At this order a furious row broke out in the Scottish ranks.

The Highlanders and men of Galloway were not prepared to permit the lowland knights and archers to strike the first blow.

When King David persisted in maintaining this formation, the Earl of Strathearn denounced his reliance on ‘Frenchmen’ and insisted that without armour he would force his way into the English ranks.

King David was forced to abandon his plan of attack and permit the Galloway men to lead the assault.

The reformed army advanced in several lines.

The Galloway men led the centre of the first line. The right wing of the first line was commanded by Prince Henry, the king’s son, leading the lowland knights, with a bodyguard of men-at-arms under Eustace Fitzjohn, a Norman baron of Northumberland, who had turned against King Stephen after forfeiting the Castle of Bamborough and the levies of Strathclyde and Teviotdale.

On the left wing of the first Scottish line were the English speakers of Lothian and the Highland clans of Lorn, Argyle and the Hebrides.

The second line of the Scottish army comprised the Highland and Island clans armed with target shields, two-handed claymores and pole-axes.

King David led the reserve of a body of Saxon and Norman knights and men-at-arms with the men from Moray in the rear.

As the Scottish army advanced against the English, Robert Bruce, a baron from Yorkshire also holding land in Annandale in Scotland, with Bernard de Baliol, rode up to King David and attempted to persuade him to enter into a truce with the English, offering to obtain from King Stephen a grant of the earldom of Northumberland for King David’s son Prince Henry.

Bruce was driven away by the Scottish knights who called him a traitor.

The men of Galloway reached the English first and attacked the centre of the English line, shouting their war-cry ‘Albanach, Albanach.’

The English common soldiers in the line were severely shaken by the savage attack of the men of Galloway and began to fall back, but the stiffening of knights was sufficient to hold the attack and restore the English line, driving back the men of Galloway.

The men of Galloway renewed their assault, but were unable to break into the English line for a second time.

The men of Galloway delivered a number of further assaults of diminishing ferocity.

Throughout their onslaught they were severely galled by the continuous discharge of arrows by the English archers.

Some of the Scots are said to have looked like pincushions from the number of arrows stuck in their bodies.

On the Scots right wing, Prince Henry came up with his knights and the men from Strathclyde and Teviot, the knights leading the charge on horseback.

Prince Henry and his men hacked their way through the Yorkshire levies, the survivors emerging on the far side of the English line.

Henry’s men saw the English horses held riderless some distance behind the English line and made for them, in the expectation that the rest of the Scottish first line would follow them through the gap in the English army.

In fact, the English troops closed up behind the Scottish knights and drove back the men of Strathclyde.

In the centre, the impetus of the Scottish attack had been lost. The men of Galloway dispersed and left the battlefield, leaving the bodies of their chiefs, Donald and Ulgerich on the field.

On the left wing the men of Lothian and Lorn made one feeble attack, turned and left the battlefield.

King David attempted to lead the Highlanders of the reserve in an attack to support his son and the centre and right of the first line, but the Highlanders, seeing the battle going badly for the Scots, melted away, leaving David with his bodyguard of knights.

King David withdrew to a hill where he assembled the remains of his army that had not fled the field.

Prince Henry, finding himself isolated behind the English line with the few survivors of his body of Scottish knights, joined the advance of the English army, unnoticed until he was able to slip away and join his father’s retreating troops as they withdrew into Scotland.

Casualties at the Battle of The Standard:

Putting a number on the casualties is as difficult as assessing the numbers in each army before the battle.

Of the 200 knights Prince Henry led into the attack only 19 returned, the rest being casualties or prisoners of the English.

Heavy casualties were suffered by the men of Galloway and many of the chiefs in the centre and right of the Scots first line fell in the battle.

Few of the English knights were killed or wounded, but the casualties among the ordinary members of the English Fyrd were heavy, although unrecorded.

Follow-up to the Battle of The Standard:

Following the Battle of the Standard, King David marched to Carlisle where he awaited his son, Prince Henry.

The Scots then attacked and took the Castle of Wark, owned by Walter l’Espec, before withdrawing into Scotland.

In the subsequent settlement, Stephen the English King ceded most of Northumberland to Prince Henry, in effect conceding that the Scots had won the war.

Anecdotes and traditions from the Battle of The Standard:

• The Galloway war cry ‘Albanach, Albanach’ translated as ‘Men of Scotland, Men of Scotland’. It is said that the English called back ‘Men of Ireland, Men of Ireland’, intending a mortal insult.
• An almost certainly apocryphal story claims that the deciding moment in the Battle of the Standard was when an English soldier held up a severed human head on his spear and called ‘Behold the head of the King of the Scots’, causing consternation among the men of Galloway who immediately fell back from their attack, beginning the rout of the Scots army. One of the difficulties with this story is that the men of Galloway did not speak English.

References for the Battle of The Standard:

A History of the Art of War in the Middle Ages Volume One 378-1278AD by Sir Charles Oman

British Battles of Land and Sea

British Battles by Grant.

The previous battle in the British Battles series is the Battle of Hastings

The next battle in the Barons’ Wars is the Battle of Lewes

To the Barons’ Wars index

The previous battle in the British Battles series is the Battle of Ashdown

The next battle in the Norman Conquest is the Battle of Hastings

To the Norman Conquest index

War: Norman Conquest

Date of the Battle of Stamford Bridge: 25^th September 1066

Place of the Battle of Stamford Bridge: 8 miles to the east of York in Northern England

Combatants at the Battle of Stamford Bridge: An Anglo-Saxon army against an army of Vikings, Scots, Flemings and English.

Commanders at the Battle of Stamford Bridge: Harold, King of England commanded the Anglo-Saxon army against Harold Hardrada, King of Norway and Earl Tostig, King Harold’s renegade brother.

Size of the armies at the Battle of Stamford Bridge: The kernel of King Harold’s army was his body of house-carls, numbering around 2,000 men. The main part of his army comprised the ‘fyrd’ levied in each district of the kingdom.

King Harold gathered the fyrd as he marched north to meet the Viking incursion, until they numbered around 8,000 men.

Harold Hardrada arrived in the north of England with a fleet of 200 Viking longships.

This fleet probably brought around 8,000 fighting men.

After leaving a guard for the ships at Riccall, Harold Hardrada marched with an army that probably numbered around 6,000 men.

Uniforms, arms and equipment at the Battle of Stamford Bridge:

Both armies were infantry forces, fighting on foot.

Such armour as was worn comprised shirts or long tunics of chain mail.

Those soldiers that could afford them wore pot helmets, some with a nose piece.

Long shields were carried.

Weapons were spears, swords and axes with sharpened agricultural tools for the peasant soldiers.

Some soldiers were armed with short bows, but they were not of decisive significance on the battlefield as the English archers were to become with the devastating longbow of the 100 Years War.

Winner of the Battle of Stamford Bridge: King Harold won the battle, Harold Hardrada and Tostig being killed with much of the Viking army.

Events leading to the Battle of Stamford Bridge:

Edward the Confessor, King of England, died on 5^th January 1066.

The Witan, the Great Council of England, elected Harold Godwinsson, Earl of Wessex, his successor as king.

These were times of peril for England. Two other powerful rulers considered themselves the rightful King of England: William, Duke of Normandy, who prepared an invasion across the English Channel and Harold Hardrada, King of Norway.

The first rebellion against the new King Harold was launched by his brother Tostig.

The rebellion failed and Tostig took refuge in Scotland, from where he encouraged Harold Hardrada to invade England.

King Harold was in London in September 1066 when he heard that the Viking army of Harold Hardrada had crossed the North Sea and entered the Humber estuary, sailing up the River Ouse and landing at Riccall, south of the City of York.

At some point the Vikings were joined by Tostig.

Leaving a body of his 8,000 strong Viking army at Riccall to guard the long ships, Harold Hardrada advanced on York, 10 miles to the north, across a marshy landscape.

Harold Hardrada’s invasion was opposed by the Earls of Northumbria and Mercia, Edwin and Morcar and an army raised from their earldoms.

Edwin and Morcar advanced out of York to meet the approaching Vikings.

The opposing armies met at Fulford on 20^th September 1066.

After a hard-fought battle Harold Hardrada drove the earls’ army off the field with great slaughter, many of the Anglo-Saxons being drowned in a ditch that ran alongside the road to York.

Instead of marching on York which was now largely defenceless, Harold Hardrada’s army fell back to Riccall.

Negotiations took place with the City of York for its surrender.

The terms of the agreement reached required the city to deliver hostages to Harold Hardrada.

Under the agreement these hostages were to be handed over at Stamford Bridge, a point between the city and Riccall, where a number of roads met at a bridge over the River Derwent.

Harold Hardrada’s Viking army marched to Stamford Bridge, where he encamped, leaving the army’s long ships at Riccall.

Account of the Battle of Stamford Bridge:

On 25^th September 1066, soon after his arrival at the rendezvous, Harold Hardrada was surprised by the appearance on the far bank of the River Derwent of King Harold with his house carls and the English troops he had assembled during his four-day march from London to Stamford Bridge.

In the course of his rapid journey north, King Harold had sent messengers in advance, warning the local magnates of his arrival and the need for a substantial force of troops to meet Harold Hardrada’s Vikings.

Harold Hardrada’s army, in camp on the eastern bank of the River Derwent, was taken by surprise, unprepared for battle, many without their armour or weapons.

There were outposts from the Viking army on the west bank of the river and they hurried to stop King Harold’s men from crossing the bridge, while Harold Hardrada sent messengers to his subordinate, Eyestein Orre to bring up the reserve guarding the ships at Riccall, as quickly as possible.

The Saxons swept aside the Viking outposts on the west bank of the River Derwent, before advancing on the bridge, which they needed to cross to attack the main Viking army, hurriedly assembling on the far bank.

King Harold’s passage across the bridge was held up for some time by a single Viking ‘berserker’ who struck down every Saxon trying to pass him.

The ‘berserker’ was finally neutralised by a Saxon manoeuvring a swill-tub under the bridge and spearing the Viking through a gap in the walkway, allowing the Saxon army to pour across the bridge and attack Harold Hardrada’s unprepared army.

The Vikings formed a shield wall, which after some hours of hard fighting the Saxons penetrated.

Harold Hardrada was killed by an arrow or slingshot, leaving Tostig to take command.

Eventually Eyestein Orre arrived with the rear-guard, but it was too late. The Viking army, now leaderless, was beaten and slaughtered by the victorious Saxons.

Eyestein Orre and Tostig died as their soldiers were overcome.

Casualties at the Battle of Stamford Bridge:

Most of the army of Harold Hardrada and Tostig became casualties.

King Harold’s losses were heavy, particularly among his housecarls, leaving him to recruit a further army to confront Duke William of Normandy at the Battle of Hastings.

Follow-up to the Battle of Stamford Bridge:

Following the Battle of Stamford Bridge, King Harold was compelled to march south to meet the invasion of Duke William of Normandy with his army of Normans, Bretons and Frenchmen landing on the southern coast in Sussex.

The diversion of King Harold with his army to the north of England and his losses at Stamford Bridge at the very time when Duke William was crossing the Channel and landing on the Sussex coast was a major element in Harold’s defeat at the Battle of Hastings and the success of the Norman invasion.

References for the Battle of Stamford Bridge:

Battles in Britain 1066 to 1547 by William Seymour

A History of the Art of War in the Middle Ages Volume One: 378-1278 by Sir Charles Oman.

British Battles by Grant.

The previous battle in the British Battles series is the Battle of Ashdown

The next battle in the Norman Conquestis the Battle of Hastings

To the Norman Conquest index

The previous battle in the Second Barons’ War is the Battle of Lewes

The next battle in the British Battles series is the Battle of Stirling Bridge

To the Barons’ War index

War: Second Barons’ War.

Date of the Battle of Evesham: 4^th August 1265

Place of the Battle of Evesham: In Worcestershire in the West of England

Combatants at the Battle of Evesham: The army of the rebellious barons against the royal army.

Commanders at the Battle of Evesham: Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester against Prince Edward, King Henry III’s eldest son.

Size of the armies at the Battle of Evesham: Simon de Montfort led into battle 25 barons, 200 knights and some 6,000 foot soldiers, comprising 1,000 English and 5,000 Welsh.

Prince Edward’s royal army probably numbered around 10,000 knights and foot soldiers.

Uniforms, arms and equipment at the Battle of Evesham: Each army comprised a mounted contingent of knights, squires and men-at-arms and infantry who were either archers armed with the long bow or ordinary soldiers carrying spears, clubs, swords or any other weapon available to them.

At this time armour worn by those able to afford it comprised chain mail suits with steel helmets and shoulder and knee pieces.  

A few of the infantrymen were armed with crossbows.

Winner of the Battle of Evesham: The royal army led by Prince Edward overwhelmed the barons’ army, releasing King Henry III from his captivity and bringing the Second Barons’ War towards its close. Simon de Montfort and many of the leaders of the barons’ revolt were killed.

Events leading to the Battle of Evesham:

Following the Battle of Lewes Simon de Montfort and the rebel barons held King Henry III and his son Prince Edward in captivity. Although nominally permitting the king to continue in government de Montfort was for a time the de facto ruler of England.

In the spring of 1265, de Montfort moved to Hereford intending to overawe those marcher barons on the Welsh border who were inclined to support the king.

De Montfort took the king and Prince Edward with him, effectively as his captives.

On 28^th May 1265 Prince Edward escaped from his escort at Hereford while exercising horses and rode to join the king’s supporter Roger Mortimore at Wigmore Castle in Herefordshire.

Prince Edward raised the royal standard and was soon joined by several of the marcher lords including the Earl of Gloucester, William de Valence and John de Warenne.

The counties of Cheshire and Herefordshire declared for the king.

Prince Edward quickly secured all the crossing places over the River Severn, preventing de Montfort from crossing the river into central England the principal areas of his support.

De Montfort marched his army to Newport, where he expected ships from Bristol to transport his men over the Severn estuary.

These ships were sunk by a royal flotilla sent from Gloucester, leaving de Montfort’s army marooned in Wales.

De Montfort turned north and marched to Hereford, arriving at the end of July 1265.

In the meantime, de Montfort’s eldest son, also called Simon, had been raising his supporters across southern and central England, before advancing to Kenilworth, near Warwick.

Receiving information that the army led by the younger de Montfort had reached Kenilworth, Prince Edward marched out of Worcester and arrived at Kenilworth in the early hours of 1^st August 1265.

De Montfort the younger’s army was taken by surprise and dispersed by Prince Edward’s men, many of the leading barons being killed or captured.

The royal troops secured the banners of the principal rebel leaders and captured a complete supply train that had just arrived for the rebel troops in Kenilworth

Simon de Montfort himself escaped into Kenilworth Castle, where he and a few others were beyond Prince Edward’s reach.

Prince Edward’s army returned promptly to Worcester with its prisoners.

While Prince Edward’s army was marching to Kenilworth and returning to Worcester, de Montfort, realising the royal piquets were no longer in place guarding the river crossings, crossed the River Severn at Kempsey, four miles south of Worcester, intent on joining the army assembled by his son at Kenilworth.

On 3^rd August 1265 de Montfort’s army marched to Evesham.

De Montfort was unaware that that his son’s army had been surprised and dispersed by Prince Edward two days before.

On the evening of the same day, having arrived in Worcester to the news that de Montfort had crossed the River Severn and marched for Evesham, Prince Edward promptly set off and marched through the night to cut de Montfort’s route from Evesham to Kenilworth.

Having marched east to the River Avon near Dunnington, Prince Edward turned south towards Evesham.

The Earl of Gloucester was detached from the main army and marched parallel to the Prince to his west.

Mortimer marched on to the River Avon and continued down the east bank of the river to cross directly into Evesham from the south-east, in de Montfort’s rear.

De Montfort’s army would be surrounded by the three columns of the significantly stronger royal force.

Account of the Battle of Evesham:

De Montfort awoke on the morning of 4^th August 1265 to the news that a powerful force was advancing on Evesham from the north by the Dunington-Norton road, Prince Edward’s main section of the royal army.

De Montfort and his men turned out to observe the approaching troops, not immediately correctly identifying them.

De Montfort believed that he was observing his son’s army arriving from Kenilworth, particularly as the standards of several prominent rebel barons could be seen among the leading ranks, the white lion of Montfort, the silver star of de Vere and the three escutcheons of Montchensy.

With such a powerful reinforcement de Montfort anticipated inflicting an overwhelming defeat on Prince Edward’s royal army.

Quickly de Montfort was disabused. Further back in the column the royal standard came into view flying over the advancing troops.

Prince Edward had arranged for the captured banners to be displayed as a ‘ruse de guerre’.

A second column, Gloucester’s force, came into sight to the west of the first and marching parallel to it.

News reached de Montfort of the third royal force approaching Evesham from the south-east. He realised that his army was surrounded by an overwhelmingly stronger royal army and faced complete destruction.

De Montfort is reported as crying out ‘Now may God have mercy on our souls, for our bodies are in the power of our enemies.’

Henry de Montfort urged his father to flee the battlefield, but he rejected the idea, instead pressing Despenser, Basset and other rebel barons to save themselves, an offer they rejected.

De Montfort formed his men into a column and began to march up Green Hill towards the Prince’s advancing royal army.

At the rear of de Montfort’s column the Welsh infantry began to slip away into the neighbouring houses and gardens, before swimming across the River Avon to escape.

De Montfort led an attack on the Prince’s army that was so desperate and determined that the royal army recoiled and had to be rallied by Warren of Bassingbourn, while Gloucester’s men came up and launched an assault on de Montfort’s flank and rear.

It is said that no quarter was asked for or given in the battle.

After an hour’s struggle Henry de Montfort fell mortally wounded and Simon de Montfort’s horse was killed under him.

Assailing his opponents on foot de Montfort was attacked by a number of knights eager for the honour of killing the rebel leader.

De Montfort fell dead surrounded by the bodies of his most devoted companions, Peter de Montfort, Despenser the Justiciar, Ralph Basset, John de Beauchamp, William de Mandeville, Guy Baliol, Robert de Tregoz and Roger de Rivle.

Others were wounded and became prisoners, Humphrey de Bohun, John Fitz-John, Henry of Hastings and Guy de Montfort, Simon’s third son.

The barons’ army was wiped out in what the chronicler Robert of Gloucester described as ‘murder not a battle’.

The escaping Welsh foot soldiers were hunted through Evesham and along the river banks and cut down.

Casualties at the Battle of Evesham:

A chronicle gives the casualties in the rebel army as 160 knights, 220 squires, 2,000 English foot soldiers and 5,000 Welsh foot soldiers killed, while the royal army lost only 2 knights, although nearly 2,000 royal foot soldiers were killed or wounded.

Follow-up to the Battle of Evesham:

The Second Barons’ War smouldered on until mid-1267 when the King and Prince Edward made peace with Earl Gilbert.

Simon the younger and Guy de Montfort left England.

Anecdotes and traditions from the Battle of Evesham:

• As De Montfort intended to fight his way out of Evesham and march to join the remnants of his son’s army he had the king with him, clad in armour, concealing his identity. Throughout the battle the king called out to the attacking royalist knights and foot soldiers ‘I am Henry of Winchester, your King. Do not harm me.’

References for the Battle of Evesham:

The Art of War in the Middle Ages Volume One by Sir Charles Oman

Battles in Britain 1066 – 1517 by William Seymour

British Battles by Grant.

The previous battle in the Second Barons’ War is the Battle of Lewes

The next battle in the British Battles series is the Battle of Stirling Bridge

To the Barons’ War index