Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 13.djvu/165

 the earl himself besieged Lynn with the foot, Cromwell and the cavalry were despatched into Lincolnshire to assist Lord Willoughby in the defence of the small portion of that county still under the rule of the parliament. The victory of Winceby on 11 Oct. 1643, gained by the combined forces of Lord Willoughby, Sir Thomas Fairfax, and the Earl of Manchester, was followed by the reconquest of the entire county. In the battle Cromwell led the van in person, and narrowly escaped with his life. ‘Colonel Cromwell,’ says a contemporary narrative, ‘charged at some distance before his regiment, when his horse was killed under him. He recovered himself, however, from under his horse, but afterwards was again knocked down, yet by God’s good providence he got up again’ (Fairfax Correspondence, iii. 64). Lincolnshire was won, but Cromwell saw clearly that it could not be held unless a change took place in the conduct of the local forces and the character of the local commander. From his fellow-officers as from his subordinates he exacted efficiency and devotion to the cause. He had not hesitated to accuse Hotham of treachery, and he did not shrink now from charging Lord Willoughby with misconduct, and brought forward in parliament a series of complaints against him which led to his resignation of his post (22 Jan. 1644;, 580). About the same time, though the exact date is not known, Cromwell received his formal commission as lieutenant-general in the Earl of Manchester’s army, and he was also appointed one of the committee of both kingdoms (9 Feb. 1644). The former appointment obliged him to register his acceptance of the ‘solemn league and covenant’ (5 Feb.), which he appears to have delayed as long as possible (, History of the Great Civil War, i. 305). The spring of 1644 was as full of action as that of 1643. On 4 March Cromwell captured Hilsden House in Buckinghamshire (, app. B). At the beginning of May he took part in the siege of Lincoln, and while Manchester’s foot stormed the walls of the city Cromwell and the horse repulsed Goring’s attempt to come to its relief (6 May 1644;, v. 621). The army of the eastern association then proceeded to join the two armies under Fairfax and Leven, which were besieging York. Cromwells only account of Marston Moor is contained in a letter which he wrote to Valentine Walton to condole with him on the death of young Walton in that battle (, Letter xxi.) Cromwell was in command of the left wing of the parliamentary army, consisting of his own troopers from the eastern association and three regiments of Scotch horse under David Leslie, who numbered twenty-two out of the seventy troops of which his force consisted. These he mentions somewhat contemptuously as ‘a few Scots in our rear,’ and makes no mention of their share in securing the victory ; but it should be remembered that he expressly says he does not undertake to relate the particulars of the battle, and sums up the whole in four sentences. Scout-master Watson, who terms Cromwell ‘the chief agent in the victory,’ thus describes the beginning of the fight: ‘Lieutenant-general Cromwell’s division of three hundred horse, in which himself wus in person, charged the front division of Prince Rupert’s, in which himself was in person. Cromwell’s own division had a hard pull of it ; for they were charged by Rupert’s bravest men both in front and flank. They stood at the sword’s point a pretty while, hacking one another, out at last he brake through them, scattering them like a little dust’ (A more exact Relation of the late Battle near York, 1644). In this struggle Cromwell received a slight wound in the neck, and his onset was for a moment checked; but the charge was admirably supported by David Leslie, and Rupert’s men made no second stand. Leaving Leslie to attack the infantry of the royalist centre, Cromwell pressed behind them, and, pushing to the extreme east of the royalist position, occupied the ground originally held by Goring. As Goring’s cavalry returned from the pursuit of Sir Thomas Fairfax’s division, they were charged and routed by Cromwell, and the victory was completed by the destruction of the royalist foot. How much of the merit of the success was due to Cromwell was a question that was violently disputed. ‘The independents,’ complained Baillie, ‘sent up Major Harrison to trumpet over all the city their own praises, making believe that Cromwell alone, with his unspeakably valorous regiments, had done all that service.’ He asserted that, on the contrary, David Leslie was throughout the real leader, and even repeated a story that Cromwell was not so much as present at the decisive charge (Letters, ii. 203, 201), 218). Denzil Holies, writing in 1648, went still further, and, on the authority only of Major-general Crawford, charged Cromwell with personal cowardice during the battle {Memoirs, 15), Soldiers like David Leslie and Rupert, however, recognised him as the best leader of cavalry in the parliamentary army. When Leslie and Cromwell’s forces joined at the end of May 1644, Leslie waived in his favour the command to which he was entitled, and ‘would have Lieutenant-general Cromwell chief’ (Parliament Scout, 30 May–6 June). ‘Is Cromwell there?'