Battle of Gainsborough

Battle of Gainsborough
Part of the First English Civil War
Date 28 July 1643 Location Gainsborough, Lincolnshire Result Parliamentarian victory
Belligerents
Royalists	Parliamentarians
Commanders and leaders
Charles Cavendish †	Sir John Meldrum Oliver Cromwell

The Battle of Gainsborough was a battle in the English Civil War, fought on 28 July 1643.

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, lying on important roads leading south and north. In March 1643 Sir John Henderson sent a raiding party from the Royalist base at Newark to capture Gainsborough for the King. 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 it. The Earl of Kingston was later killed by a cannonball from his own men as he was being taken as prisoner down the river to Hull.

Willoughby's triumph was short-lived. The Royalists immediately sent Charles Cavendish with a force to retake Gainsborough. Parliament sent forces from Nottingham under Sir John Meldrum and Colonel Oliver Cromwell from Cambridgeshire to relieve and reinforce the town. The two forces met on 27 July at North Scarle, ten miles south of Gainsborough, where they were joined by a detachment from Lincoln.

...
Wikipedia