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Naseby, Northamptonshire Memorial to the battle of Naseby. This image is copyright free
Naseby in Northamptonshire is a small village of about five hundred inhabitants in rolling hills seven miles from Market Harborough. Until the thirteenth century Naseby was a thriving market town, but the Black Death took a terrible toll. In nearby fields the remains of buildings abandoned in this period can still be seen. In Church Street there are remnants of a thirteenth century market cross.
It was near Naseby on June 14th 1645 that one of the most important battles of the English Civil War was fought. King Charles I had been moving his army north, but on 13th June 1485 word came that parliamentary commander Henry Ireton had captured royalist troops left at Naseby as a rear guard. Charles had a choice between retreating north, towards threatening Scottish enemies, or with an inferior force turning to face the pursuing parliamentary army. The royalists' best commander Prince Rupert advised against attacking, but he was overruled. The battlefield lay between two ridges in countryside south of Market Harborough, near the present Naseby-Clipston-Harborough road. Rupert tried to charge the parliamentary ranks before they were ready. Rupert had 9000 men compared to Parliament's 14000. (Figures quoted in Cromwell, Our Chief Of Men by Antonia Frazer P162.) Charging down on Parliament's left wing he found Ireton's men dismounted and unprepared. Ireton was injured and captured, while Rupert charged on and engaged in raiding the parliamentary army's baggage train at Naseby, two miles away. Meanwhile on the other side of the battlefield, Oliver Cromwell attacked decisively with his parliamentarian troops. By the time Rupert returned the battle was lost. "Naseby was the last major battle of the Civil War in which the king had at least some chance of ultimate victory" (Frazer P162). This victory effectively ended the Civil War.
Directions: Approaching via the Sibbercroft Road there is a Battlefield Monument at the spot where Cromwell's cavalry began the engagement, and a number of information panels. A second monument stands on the Clipston Road on the northern outskirts of the village. There is another information panel here. Click here for an interactive map centred on Naseby.
Other attractions in Naseby include two outstanding Georgian buildings, Manor Farm and the Old Vicarage. Althorp, home of the Spencer family is only ten miles away.
Contact: www.northamptonshire.gov.uk/tourism/