Battle of Boldon Hill
History & Significance
The Battle of Boldon Hill was a day-long engagement that took place in modern-day Tyne and Wear between English Royalists and an army made up of Scottish Covenanters in alliance with Parliamentarians from nearby Sunderland on 24 March 1644 during the First English Civil War.
In 1643, the Parliamentarians made an overture to the Covenanters of Scotland for military assistance in the First English Civil War. On 29 November, the Covenanters and the Parliamentarians signed a military treaty in which the Scots would enter the war as an ally of the Parliamentarians and attack Royalist positions in northern England.
In January 1644, the Covenanters entered Northumberland with an army of 18,000 foot and 3,000 horse commanded by Alexander Leslie, 1st Earl of Leven. The immediate expectation on the part of the Parliamentarians was that the Covenanters would capture the strategic Royalist stronghold of Newcastle upon Tyne.
The town of Newcastle, however, was a medieval walled fortress complete with a “High Castle.” The Royalist garrison was only 500 men but the town had access to the North Sea and international trade including guns, ammunition, and grains. The Royalist forces in northern England and Newcastle were commanded by the Marquess of Newcastle and before the Scots approached he took refuge in Newcastle and reinforced the garrison with the addition of a Royalist force of 5,000 commanded by Colonel Sir Thomas Glemham.
The Covenanter army began arriving in the vicinity of Newcastle on 2 February. Covenanter musketeers fired on the city forts from open fields and the Royalists responded with musket and cannon shots from inside the fortification. Nothing came of the initial exchange and the Covenanters backed away and retired for the night a mile from Newcastle.
On 3 February, Lord Leven attacked an outlying fort in Shieldfield and summoned Newcastle to surrender. Glemham, now serving as the governor of Newcastle, requested five days to consider the proposition and respond. Lord Leven granted the request as it would give him the time that he needed to bring up the siege guns and prepare for an assault.
As the full Covenanter army reached the vicinity of Newcastle over the next couple of days it had to be quartered all across the surrounding countryside. Time passed. Newcastle did not surrender and Lord Leven did not attack. Unwilling to simply sit in Newcastle and wait for an attack, the Royalists on 19 February sent thirty-five troops of horse out in an attempt to spring a surprise attack on their besiegers. The attack took place west of Newcastle at Corbridge. Although the attack was not a complete surprise, the Royals killed or captured over one hundred of the Scots.
The ground they fought on
The site of Battle of Boldon Hill lies on Zechstein Group, bedrock that formed in the Late Permian. The rock here is dolomitised limestone and dolomite.
Frequently Asked Questions
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- Battle of Boldon Hill · Wikidata
- Battle_of_Boldon_Hill · Wikipedia