On June 13, 1645, the king heard that General Fairfax was advanced to Northampton with a strong army, much superior to the numbers he had formerly been advised of.  The battle began at ten the next morning on a high ground about Naseby.  The first charge was given by Prince Rupert, with his usual vigour, so that he bore down all before him, and was soon master of six pieces of cannon.  But though the king’s troops prevailed in the charge they never rallied again in order, nor could they be brought to make a second charge.  But the enemy, disciplined under such generals as Fairfax and Cromwell, though routed at first, always formed again.  This was why the king’s forces failed to win a decisive victory at Edghill, and now at Naseby, after Prince Rupert’s charge, Cromwell brought up his troops with such effect that in the end the king was compelled to quit the field, leaving Fairfax, who was commander-in-chief of the Parliamentary army, master of his foot, cannon, and baggage.

It will not be seasonable in this place to mention the names of those noble persons who were lost in this battle, when the king and the kingdom were lost in it; though there were above one hundred and fifty officers, and gentlemen of prime quality, whose memories ought to be preserved, who were dead on the spot.  The enemy left no manner of barbarous cruelty unexercised that day; and in the pursuit thereof killed above one hundred women, whereof some were officers’ wives of quality.  The king and Prince Rupert with the broken troops marched by stages to Hereford, where Prince Rupert left the king to hasten to Bristol, that he might put that place in a state of defence.

Nothing can here be more wondered at than that the king should amuse himself about forming a new army in counties that had been vexed and worn out with the oppressions of his own troops, and not have immediately repaired into the west, where he had an army already formed.  Cromwell having taken Winchester and Basing, the king sent some messages to Parliament for peace, which were not regarded.  A treaty between the king and the Scots was set on foot by the interposition of the French, but the parties disagreed about church government.  To his son Charles, Prince of Wales, who had retired to Scilly, the king wrote enjoining him never to surrender on dishonourable terms.

Having now no other resource, the king placed himself under the protection of the Scots army at Newark.  But at the desire of the Scots he ordered the surrender of Oxford and all his other garrisons.  Also the Parliament, at the Scots’ request, sent propositions of peace to him, and these proposals were promptly enforced by the Scots.  The Chancellor of Scotland told him that the Parliament, after the battles that had been fought, had got the strongholds and forts of the kingdom into their hands, that they had gained a victory over all, and had a strong army to maintain it, so that they might do what they would with church and state, that they desired neither him nor any of his race to reign any longer over them, and that if he declined to yield to the propositions made to him, all England would join against him to depose him.