Battle of Dunbar (1650)

Battle of Dunbar

Part of: Wars of the Three Kingdoms

"Cromwell at Dunbar", Andrew Carrick Gow (1848-1920)

date	September 3, 1650
place	Dunbar , Scotland
output	decisive victory for Cromwell

Parties to the conflict
Scottish covenanters	Commonwealth of England
Commander
David Leslie	Oliver Cromwell
Troop strength
16,500 infantry, 5,500 cavalry, 9 cannons	7500 infantry, 3500 cavalry
losses
800-300 dead, 10,000 prisoners	28 killed, 58 wounded

The Battle of Dunbar ( English Battle of Dunbar ) took place on September 3, 1650 and is traditionally considered one of the great battles of the third English Civil War , part of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms in the competing claims of the new Commonwealth of England and Charles II. For the English throne.

Charles II had been proclaimed King of Great Britain, France and Ireland by the Scottish Parliament on February 5, 1649, six days after the execution of his father Charles I. On September 3, 1650, the armed forces of the English Parliament, the Roundheads , under Oliver Cromwell defeated the Scottish army under David Leslie decisively. Despite this defeat, the Anglo-Scottish conflict lasted until 1651. During this time Charles II came. To Scotland and was in Scone to King of Scotland crowned.

The Dunbar Battlefield was added to Historic Scotland's list of Historic Battlefields in 2011.

background

During the First English Civil War (1642-1646) with its effects on Scotland, the English and Scottish Parliament were allied against the "Cavaliers" called supporters of Charles I. After the defeat of the Royalists and the capture of Charles, however, the different religious approaches occurred Foreground. Some of the Covenanters sought an agreement with the King to achieve the implementation of Presbyterianism across Britain. The so-called Engager among them invaded England in 1648 with the consent of the Scottish Parliament and against the will of the Church of Scotland and were defeated by Cromwell's New Model Army at the Battle of Preston . After the defeat of the Engagers, the opposing Kirk Party seized control of the government in Scotland, realizing that the English Parliament would never enforce the Westminster Confession and that the only chance to enforce Presbyterianism across Britain would be its adoption by the King exist.

Charles II landed in Garmouth in Moray on June 23, 1650, and on his arrival - despite his Anglican and Roman Catholic sympathies - signed the National Covenant of 1638 and the Solemn League and Covenant of 1643 before he was proclaimed King of Scotland has been. This enraged the Council of State of the English Parliament so much that it decided a preventive invasion of Scotland. Thomas Fairfax , the army commander, contradicted this strategy against the Scottish allies, whom he viewed as Protestant brothers, and resigned. His generals were taken over by Oliver Cromwell. John Lambert was promoted to Sergeant General Major and named Deputy Commander in Chief of the Army.

When Cromwell led his army across the border at Berwick-upon-Tweed in July 1650 , the Scottish general Sir David Leslie continued his deliberate strategy of avoiding any direct confrontation with the enemy. His army was no longer made up of seasoned Thirty Years War veterans who had taken the field at the Battle of Newburn and the Battle of Marston Moor . Many of them had perished in the Civil War or the unfortunate invasion of England in 1648. Even more had quit active service afterwards, some had joined the Swedish or French army. This meant that a new army had to be raised and trained by the remaining veterans. It finally consisted of about 12,000 soldiers, outnumbered the English army of 11,000 men. Although the Scots were well equipped, the time pressure meant they were poorly trained compared to their English opponents who had been with Oliver Cromwell for years. Leslie therefore decided to barricade his troops behind strong defenses in the Edinburgh area and avoided facing the English for battle. In addition, Leslie pursued a scorched earth policy between Edinburgh and the border with England, forcing Cromwell to source all of its supplies from England, with most arriving by sea via Dunbar Harbor.

Cromwell tried to persuade the Scots to accept the English position, whether with the aim of avoiding the expansion of the conflict or because of the difficult circumstances they found themselves in: he claimed that it was the King and the Scottish clergy, who were his enemies rather than the Scottish people, and wrote on August 3rd to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, whom he famously implored: "I beg you, by the bowels of Christ, consider it possible that you are mistaken." However, this complaint fell on deaf ears.

The battle

The lineup at the Battle of Dunbar

At the beginning of September, the British army, weakened by illness and demoralized by lack of success, withdrew to its supply base in Dunbar. Leslie believed the English army was withdrawing altogether and ordered his army to pursue them. The Scots reached Dunbar first and Leslie raised his troops on Doon Hill on the eastern edge of the Lammermuir Hills, from where he could see the town and the road to Berwick, Cromwell's way back to England. Cromwell wrote to the Governor of Newcastle : “We are facing a very difficult battle. The enemy blocked our way at the Copperspath pass , through which we cannot get without almost a miracle. It is so on the hills that we do not know how to go this way without much difficulty; and our encampment consumes our men daily who get unimaginably sick - Cromwell ”

The Scottish Army, mandated and funded by the Committee of Estate and Kirk, which represented the Scottish Parliament and the Church of Scotland, maneuvered itself into a new position, a move that proved to be a major tactical mistake. In an effort to reduce the rising costs of the campaign, ministers present are said to have put pressure on Leslie to continue an attack. On September 2, 1650, he led his army down Doon Hill and approached the town in hopes of securing the road south across the Mock Burn in preparation for an attack on Cromwell's camp. When Cromwell saw Leslie men walk behind them between the deep moat of Mock Burn and the slopes of Lammermuirs, he quickly realized that this was an opportunity to turn the tide. He knew that an attack on the Scottish right flank would negate the left flank and that a successful strike against the right would throw it back. While observing the Scottish maneuver to their positions, he is reported to have exclaimed, perhaps referring to Joshua 10: 8: "The Lord has given them into our hands!"

“When Major General [Lambert] and I came to the house of the Earl of Roxburgh [Brocksmouth House] and observed the position, I told him that I thought it was an opportunity and an advantage for us to attack the enemy. To which he immediately replied that he thought he was saying the same thing to me. So that it pleased the Lord to put this conception on our hearts at the same time. We called for Colonel Monk and showed him the matter: and when we came to our quarters at night and some of the colonels demonstrated our point of view, they happily agreed. - Cromwell "

That night, under cover of darkness, Cromwell secretly led a large part of his troops into a position opposite the Scottish right flank. Shortly before sunrise on September 3rd, the English troops started with their battle cry "The Lord of Hosts!" a surprise head-on attack on the Scots while Cromwell deployed the right flank. Soldiers in the English center and on the right took Leslie's men by surprise but were held in check by the long pikes of their Scottish opponents. The right flank of the Scots was pushed back - with less freedom of movement - under the weight of the superior English number until their lines began to disintegrate. Cromwell's riders then clashed violently with the Scottish cavalry and managed to disperse them. The rest of the Scottish Army, hopelessly winding its way between Taunt or Brox Burn and Doon Hill, lost heart, broke through the ranks and fled. Cromwell's secretary, Rushworth, wrote, “I have never seen an infantry attack more terrible than that given by our army. Our infantry alone made the Scottish foot soldiers retreat for three-quarters of a mile. - Rushworth "

In the ensuing escape, the English cavalry drove the Scottish army off the battlefield in chaos. Cromwell reported to Parliament that the pursuit and killing of the fleeing Scotsman went over eight miles.

Cromwell claimed that 3,000 Scots were killed; on the other hand, Sir James Balfour , a senior officer in the Scottish Army, noted in his diary the loss of 800 or 900. The same applies to the number of Scottish prisoners: Cromwell claims 10,000 (Cromwell writes in his letter to Parliament that he had lost 5,000 men because they were starved, sick or wounded, while the English royalist leader Sir Edward Walker mentions 6,000, of which 1,000 sick or wounded men recovered quickly). More conservative estimates of Scottish casualties are based on the fact that the day after the battle, Leslie withdrew to Stirling with about 4-5,000 of his remaining men .

aftermath

In his report on the battle to the Speaker of the English Parliament, Cromwell describes the victory as "... one of the greatest mercies that God has done for England and His people ..." As a result of the destruction of the Scottish army, he was able to move to Edinburgh unchallenged and occupy it quickly, although Edinburgh Castle refused until the end of December. After officially accepting the Solemn League and Covenant, Charles II was crowned King in Scotland on January 1, 1651.

The March of the Prisoners

The prisoners made in Dunbar had to march south towards England in order to avoid any attempt at liberation. Conditions on the march were so dire that many died of starvation, illness, or exhaustion. When the remnant arrived at Durham Cathedral on September 11, where they were to be locked up, only 3,000 Scottish soldiers were still alive. Sir Edward Walker's statement is correct that 6,000 prisoners were taken and 5,000 marched south., 2,000 perished on the way to Durham. Of the estimated 5,000 Scottish soldiers who left Dunbar, 3,500 died either on the march or while in captivity in the cathedral; H. more than in the battle itself. Arthur Heslerig writes in his letter of October 2 that he had taken 300 prisoners in Durham who had not been counted in Berwick en route. Of the 1,400 survivors, the majority were eventually taken to English colonies in New England , Virginia or the Caribbean as wage laborers .

In September 2015, archaeologists from the University of Durham announced that after 18 months of work, they had concluded that the skeletons found in mass graves near Durham Cathedral were the remains of Scottish soldiers captured after the battle. The bodies were first discovered in 2013 when a new café was being built for the University's Palace Green Library. The archaeological evidence suggests that the bodies were thrown into a mass grave with no burial ceremony.

literature

• James Davie Butler, British Convicts Shipped to American Colonies . American Historical Review. 2, October 1896, pp. 12-33. doi: 10.2307 / 1833611 . JSTOR 1833611 .
• Thomas Carlyle, SC Lomas (Ed.), The Letters And Speeches of Oliver Cromwell , Volume 2, London 1904, p. 102.
• John Buchan, Oliver Cromwell , London 1934, pp. 371-2, 378.
• HCB Rogers, Battles and Generals of the Civil Wars , London 1968
• Christopher Falkus, The life and times of Charles II. , London 1972
• William Seymour, Battles In Britain, 1066-1746 , London 1979, p. 145. ISBN 9780283985348 .
• Stuart Reid (2004), Dunbar 1650: Cromwell's Most Famous Victory , Oxford 2004, ISBN 1-84176-774-3 .

Web links

• Historic Scotland Staff "Inventory battlefields". Historic Scotland. (August 6, 2007), accessed April 2012
• David Plant (February 25, 2007), The Committee of Estates, British Civil Wars and Commonwealth website. Retrieved July 2012
• The Chapter of Durham, ( "Durham Cathedral History" , accessed December 2008)
• Bruce Unwin, ( "Dunbar cathedral tribute to Dunbar Martyrs" , The Northern Echo, December 1, 2011)
• Battlefield entry . In: Historic Scotland .

Remarks

1. ↑ Official name: Battle of Dunbar II
2. ^ Historic Environment (Amendmend) Act, Historic Scotland staff
3. ↑ Daniel Weiss, After the battle, in: Archeology, Volume 70.3 May / June 2017, pp. 50–53 (ISSN 0003-8113)
4. ↑ Reid 2004, pp. 64 and 68
5. ↑ Reid 2004, p. 58
6. ↑ Buchan 1934, pp. 371-372
7. ↑ Plant 2007, The Committee of Estates
8. ↑ Carlyle 1904, p. 183
9. ↑ Carlyle 1904, p. 191
10. ↑ Buchan 1934, p. 378
11. ↑ Seymour 1979, p. 102
12. ↑ Carlyle 1904, p. 192
13. ↑ Reid 2004, p. 81
14. ↑ Thomas Carlyle, Letters and Speeches; Reid 2004, p. 81
15. ↑ Reid 2004, p. 51
16. ↑ Reid 2004, p. 81
17. ↑ Carlyle 1904, p. 193
18. ^ The Chapter of Durham, History
19. ↑ Reid 2004, p. 81
20. ^ "Mass grave skeletons are 17th century soldiers from Battle of Dunbar" ( Past Horizons, accessed July 15, 2016 )
21. ^ Butler 1896
22. ^ Durham University (September 2, 2015). "Skeletons found in mass graves are 17th Century Scottish soldiers". Durham University News. Durham University. Retrieved July 18, 2016
23. ^ Durham University. "The Identification". Durham University Department of Archeology. Durham University. Retrieved July 18, 2016
24. ↑ BBC News (September 2, 2015). "Durham Palace Green remains were Scottish prisoners". BBC News. BBC. Retrieved July 18, 2016

Coordinates: 56 ° 0 ′ 0 ″  N , 2 ° 30 ′ 50 ″  W.