Battle of Newburn
Who Fought
History & Significance
The Battle of Newburn took place on 28 August 1640, during the Second Bishops' War, near Newburn in northern England. A Scottish Covenanter army of 20,000 under Alexander Leslie defeated an English force of 5,000, led by Viscount Conway.
The only significant military action of the war, victory enabled the Scots to take Newcastle upon Tyne, which provided the bulk of London's coal supplies, and allowed them to put pressure on Charles I of England. The October 1640 Treaty of Ripon required him to recall Parliament to ratify the peace settlement. He did so in November 1640, a key element in the events leading to the outbreak of the First English Civil War in August 1642.
The Protestant Reformation created a Church of Scotland, or 'kirk', Presbyterian in structure, and Calvinist in doctrine. Presbyterian churches were ruled by Elders, nominated by congregations; Episcopalian were governed by bishops, appointed by the monarch. In 1584, bishops were imposed on the kirk against considerable resistance; since they also sat in Parliament and usually supported Royal policies, arguments over their role were as much about politics as religion.
The vast majority of Scots, whether Covenanter or Royalist, believed a 'well-ordered' monarchy was divinely mandated; they disagreed on what 'well-ordered' meant, and who held ultimate authority in clerical affairs. Royalists generally emphasised the role of the monarch more than Covenanters, but there were many factors, including nationalist allegiance to the kirk, and individual motives were very complex. Montrose fought for the Covenant in 1639 and 1640, then became a Royalist, and switching sides was common throughout the period.
When James VI and I succeeded as king of England in 1603, he viewed a unified Church of Scotland and England as the first step in creating a centralised, Unionist state. However, the two churches were very different in doctrine; even Scottish bishops violently opposed many Church of England practices. Widespread hostility to reforms imposed on the kirk by Charles I led to the National Covenant on 28 February 1638. Its signatories vowed to oppose any changes, and included Argyll and six other members of the Scottish Privy Council; in December, bishops were expelled from the kirk.
Charles resorted to military action to assert his authority, resulting in the First Bishops' War in 1639. His chief Scottish advisor James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Hamilton proposed an ambitious three part strategy, in which Scottish Royalists would be supported by additional troops from England and Ireland. However, Charles' suspension of the Parliament of England during the period of Personal Rule from 1629 to 1640 meant there was insufficient support or money to conduct such operations, which largely failed to materialise. This allowed the Covenanters to consolidate their domestic position by defeating Royalist forces in Aberdeenshire, while the chaotic state of the English army left them unable to mount any effective opposition.
The ground they fought on
The site of Battle of Newburn lies on Pennine Lower Coal Measures Formation And South Wales Lower Coal Measures Formation (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Westphalian. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone, sandstone, coal, ironstone and ferricrete.
- Covenanters: 300 killed or wounded
- England: 300 killed or wounded
Frequently Asked Questions
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- Battle of Newburn · Wikidata
- Battle_of_Newburn · Wikipedia