Royalist and Parliamentarian armies clashed across Britain in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms.
The Wars of the Three Kingdoms — known in England as the Civil War — pitted Royalist forces against Parliamentarians from 1642 to 1651. Major set-piece battles at Edgehill, Marston Moor, Naseby, and Worcester were accompanied by hundreds of sieges and skirmishes across every county in Britain. The conflict ended with the execution of Charles I in 1649 and the establishment of the Commonwealth.
363 battles and skirmishes are recorded in this period. A selection of the most significant are shown below — use the full battlefield directory to search and filter all of them.
Key Civil War battles include Edgehill (1642, the first major battle), Marston Moor (1644, the largest battle fought on British soil), Naseby (1645, which decided the war in Parliament's favour), and Worcester (1651, the final major engagement).
Over 1,600 military engagements are recorded during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms (1638–1651), including major pitched battles, lengthy sieges, and countless skirmishes across England, Scotland and Wales.
The Battle of Marston Moor (2 July 1644) was the largest battle fought on British soil during the Civil War, involving around 45,000 men. A Parliamentarian and Scottish Covenanter army defeated the Royalists of Prince Rupert, ending Royalist dominance in northern England.
Parliament won the First Civil War (1642–46) and executed Charles I in 1649. A Second Civil War (1648) and a Scottish intervention (1651) followed before Cromwell's victory at Worcester ended armed Royalist resistance. England was governed as a Commonwealth and then a Protectorate until the Restoration of 1660.
Pick any location and Aubrey pulls together 15 strands of its history, each drawn from the record:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.