Battle of Naseby 1645
Outline: officially registered battlefield boundary. Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 14 June 1645 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1645 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | Early modern (1500–1799) | derived from year |
| Location | England | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | English Civil War | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | Cavalier, Roundhead | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 52.4156, -0.9953 | Wikidata P625 |
| Official record | Historic England list entry 1000023 | OGL v3 |
| Registered area | 452.3 ha | OGL v3 |
About the battle
The Battle of Naseby took place on 14 June 1645 during the First English Civil War, near the village of Naseby in Northamptonshire. The Parliamentarian New Model Army, commanded by Sir Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell, destroyed the main Royalist army under Charles I and Prince Rupert. The defeat ended any real hope of Royalist victory, although Charles did not finally surrender until May 1646.
The 1645 campaign began in April when the newly formed New Model Army marched west to relieve Taunton, before being ordered back to lay siege to Oxford, the Royalist wartime capital. On 31 May, the Royalists stormed Leicester and Fairfax was instructed to abandon the siege and engage them. Although heavily outnumbered, Charles decided to stand and fight and after several hours of combat, his force was effectively destroyed. The Royalists suffered over 1,000 casualties, with over 4,500 of their infantry captured and paraded through the streets of London; they would never again field an army of comparable quality.
They also lost all their artillery and stores, along with Charles' personal baggage and private papers, which revealed his attempts to bring the Irish Catholic Confederation and foreign mercenaries into the war.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Naseby (revision 1379912421), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Battlefield boundary © Historic England 2026. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. See also this battlefield on Battlefields of Britain.
Nearby battles
- Battle of Northampton (1264) 1264 · 21 km
- Battle of Northampton (1460) 1460 · 23 km
- Battle of Bosworth Field 1485 · 34 km
- Battle of Olney Bridge 1643 · 36 km
- Battle of Edgcote 1469 · 38 km
- Battle of Edgcote 1469 · 38 km
Other battles of the English Civil War
- Battle of Cropredy Bridge 1644
- Battle of Marston Moor 1644
- Battle of Ormskirk 1644
- Siege of York 1644
- Storming of Bolton 1644
- Battle of Rowton Heath 1645
- Battle of Weymouth 1645
- Siege of Bristol (1645) 1645
- Battle of Stow-on-the-Wold 1646
- Battle of Worcester 1651
All 22 battles of the English Civil War →
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