Royalist Attack on Market Rasen, 1643
Who Fought
Royalist forces operating from Gainsborough under the overall charge of the Earl of Kingston; Parliamentary forces were not engaged in this specific raid.
History & Significance
The Battle of Gainsborough took place during the First English Civil War on 28 July 1643. The strategically important town of Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, was a Royalist base used for harassing the Parliamentarians who were generally dominant in Lincolnshire, but it was taken by Parliamentarians in July 1643. An attempt to recapture Gainsborough by Charles Cavendish and the Royalists was foiled in a battle in which Colonel Oliver Cromwell distinguished himself as a cavalry leader.
When the English Civil War was declared, Gainsborough in Lincolnshire lay in an area which supported Parliament, but the town itself had Royalist sympathies. The town was of strategic importance to both sides, sited as it was on a crossing of the River Trent and lying on important roads leading north and south. In March 1643, Sir John Henderson sent a raiding party from the Royalist base at Newark to capture Gainsborough for King Charles. The town was surrounded and quickly surrendered without any resistance.
The town was put into the charge of the Earl of Kingston and was used as a base to harass the Parliamentarians in Lincolnshire. Royalist attacks at Louth and Market Rasen, together with the capture of gunpowder intended for Rotherham, provoked Parliament into action. Lord Willoughby of Parham launched a surprise night attack on Gainsborough on 16 July 1643 and captured the town. The Earl of Kingston was later killed by a round shot from his own men as he was being taken as a prisoner down the river to Hull.
It seemed, however, that Willoughby's triumph might be short-lived. The Royalists immediately sent Charles Cavendish with a force to siege and retake Gainsborough. The Parliamentarians responded by sending relieving forces to Gainsborough from Nottingham under Sir John Meldrum and from Cambridgeshire under Colonel Oliver Cromwell. The two forces met on 27 July at North Scarle, ten miles south of Gainsborough, and were joined by a detachment from Lincoln.
The next day, 28 July 1643, the 1,200 strong Parliamentarian force marched north. At the village of Lea, just south of Gainsborough, the Parliamentarians met a Royalist advanced guard of 100 horse, part of Cavendish's army. After a short skirmish, the Royalists were driven back to Cavendish's main body of horse which was drawn up on top of Foxby Hill to the east of Gainsborough. The Parliamentarian troops pressed on, advanced up Foxby Hill, and came face-to-face with Cavendish's main force. After a period of fierce fighting, the Royalists began to fall back, eventually fleeing from the battlefield pursued by the Parliamentary cavalry.
The ground they fought on
The site of Royalist Attack on Market Rasen, 1643 lies on West Walton Formation, Ampthill Clay Formation And Kimmeridge Clay Formation (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Kimmeridgian. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone and sandstone.
The Royalist attack on Market Rasen formed part of a deliberate strategy of harassment conducted from Gainsborough, which the source describes as a base used for raiding the surrounding Parliamentarian-held countryside in Lincolnshire; together with an attack on Louth and the capture of gunpowder intended for Rotherham, these raids were directly cited as provoking Parliament into action against the Royalist garrison.
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- Battle of Gainsborough · Wikipedia
- Gainsborough, Lincolnshire · Wikipedia