The leaders of the English Commonwealth felt threatened by the Scots reassembling an army. They pressed
Thomas Fairfax, lord general of the New Model Army, to launch a
pre-emptive attack. Fairfax accepted the commission to lead the army north to defend against the possibility of a Scottish invasion, but was unwilling to strike the first blow against his former allies, believing England and Scotland were still bound by the Solemn League and Covenant. When a formal order to attack came on 20 June 1650, Fairfax resigned his commission. A parliamentary committee which included Cromwell, his close friend, attempted to dissuade him, pleading with him over the course of a whole night to change his mind, but Fairfax remained resolute, and retired from public life. Cromwell succeeded to his office as lord general, becoming commander-in-chief of the New Model Army. He received his commission on 28 June, and set out for Scotland the same day, crossing the
Tweed at the head of 16,000 men on 22 July. Once the Treaty of Breda had been signed, the Scottish Parliament started levying men to form a new army, under the command of the experienced general
David Leslie. Their aim was to increase their forces to more than 36,000 men, but that number was never achieved; by the time Cromwell entered Scotland, Leslie had fewer than 10,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry, although these numbers fluctuated during the course of the campaign. The government instituted a commission to purge the army of anyone suspected of having supported the Engagement, as well as men considered sinful or undesirable. This was opposed, unsuccessfully, by much of the Scottish nobility and most of the experienced military leaders, including Leslie. The purge removed many experienced men and officers, and the bulk of the army was composed of raw recruits with little training or experience. Leslie prepared a defensive line of earthworks between
Edinburgh and
Leith, and employed a
scorched earth policy between this line and the
English border. He then allowed Cromwell to advance unopposed. Lack of supplies, and the hostility of the local people towards the English invaders forced Cromwell to rely on a seaborne supply chain, and he captured the ports of
Dunbar and
Musselburgh to facilitate this. Operations were hampered by persistent bad weather. These adverse conditions caused a shortage of food and much sickness in the English army, substantially reducing its strength. Cromwell attempted to bring the Scots to battle at Edinburgh. He advanced on Leslie's lines on 29 July, capturing
Arthur's Seat and bombarding Leith from
Salisbury Crags. Cromwell was not able to draw Leslie out, and the English retired to their camp at Musselburgh, where they were subjected to a night raid by a party of Scottish cavalry. Cromwell's attack coincided with a visit by Charles II to the Scottish army, where he was warmly received. Members of the Covenanter government, concerned that their godly war would be corrupted by feelings of personal loyalty to the King, asked Charles II to leave. They then ordered a new purge, which was quickly enacted in early August, removing 80 officers and 4,000 of Leslie's men. This damaged morale as well as weakening the army's strength. Throughout August Cromwell continued to try and draw the Scots out from their defences to enable a
set piece battle. Leslie resisted, ignoring pressure from the secular and religious Scottish hierarchy to attack Cromwell's weakened army. He reasoned that the persistent bad weather, the difficult English supply situation, and the
dysentery and fever that had broken out in the English camp would force Cromwell to withdraw back into England before winter set in. On 31 August Cromwell did withdraw; the English army reached Dunbar on 1 September, having taken two days to march the from Musselburgh, harassed day and night by the pursuing Scots. The road was left littered with abandoned equipment and the men arrived hungry and demoralised. The Scottish army
outflanked the English, blocking the road to
Berwick and England at the easily defended
Cockburnspath Defile. Their main force encamped on the
Doon Hill, south of Dunbar, where it overlooked the town and the coastal road running south west from the town. The hill was all but invulnerable to direct assault. The English army had lost its freedom of manoeuvre, although they could supply themselves by sea and, if need be, evacuate the army the same way. On 2 September Cromwell surveyed the situation, and wrote to the governor of Newcastle warning him to prepare for a possible Scottish invasion.
Battle of Dunbar Believing the English army was in a hopeless situation and under pressure to finish it off rapidly, Leslie moved his army off the hill and into a position to attack Dunbar. On the night of 2-3 September Cromwell manoeuvred his army so as to be able to launch a concentrated pre-dawn attack against the Scots' right wing. Whether this was part of a plan to decisively defeat them, or part of an attempt to break through and escape back to England is debated by historians. The Scots were caught by surprise, but put up a stout resistance. Their cavalry were pushed back by the English, and Leslie was unable to deploy most of his infantry into the battle because of the terrain. The battle was undecided when Cromwell personally led his cavalry reserve in a flank attack on the two Scottish infantry brigades that had managed to come to grips with the English and rolled up the Scottish line. Leslie executed a fighting withdrawal, but some 6,000 Scots, from his army of 12,000, were taken prisoner, and approximately 1,500 killed or wounded. The prisoners were taken to England; many died on the march south, or in captivity. At least some of those who survived were deported to become
indentured workers on English possessions in North America.
Scottish retreat When the news of the defeat reached Edinburgh, many people fled the city in panic, but Leslie sought to rally what remained of his army, and established a new defensive line at the strategic
choke point of
Stirling. There he was joined by the bulk of the government, clergy, and Edinburgh's mercantile elite.
Major-general John Lambert was sent to capture Edinburgh, which fell on 7 September, while Cromwell marched on the port of Leith, which offered much better facilities for landing supplies and reinforcements than Dunbar. Without Leslie's army to defend them, both were captured with little difficulty. Cromwell took pains to persuade the citizens of Edinburgh that his war was not with them; he promised their property would be respected, and allowed them to come and go freely, hold markets, and observe their usual religious services, although the latter were restricted as most of the clergy had removed to Stirling. He also took steps to secure food for the city, which by this point was short on supplies.
Edinburgh Castle held out until December, but since it was cut off from reinforcement and supplies and offered no threat, Cromwell did not assault it, and treated its commander with courtesy. Austin Woolrych described the behaviour of the occupying troops as "exemplary", and observed that after a short time many fugitives returned to the city, and its economic life returned to something akin to normality. The defeat at Dunbar caused great damage to Leslie's reputation and authority. He attempted to resign as head of the army, but the Scottish government would not permit it, largely because of a lack of any plausible replacement. Several of his officers refused to take orders from him, and left Leslie's forces to join a new army being raised by the
Western Association. Divisions already present in the Scottish government were widened by the new situation. The more practical blamed the purges for Leslie's defeat, and looked to bring the Engagers back into the fold; the more dogmatic thought God had deserted them because the purges had not gone far enough, and argued that too much faith had been put in a worldly prince who was not sufficiently committed to the cause of the Covenant. These more radical elements issued the divisive
Western Remonstrance, which castigated the government for its failure to properly purge the army, and further widened the rifts between the Scots. The Remonstrants, as this group became known, took command of the Western Association army, and attempted to negotiate with Cromwell, urging him to depart Scotland and leave them in control; Cromwell rejected their advances and comprehensively destroyed their army at the
Battle of Hieton (near the centre of modern
Hamilton) on 1 December.
Battle of Inverkeithing During December 1650 Charles II and the Scottish government reconciled with the Engagers and those Highland chiefs who had been excluded due to their refusal to sign the Covenant. These competing factions were poorly coordinated and it was not until the late spring of 1651 that they were fully integrated into the Scottish army. In January 1651 the English attempted to outflank Stirling by shipping a force across the
Firth of Forth, but this was unsuccessful. In early February the English army advanced against Stirling, then retreated in dreadful weather, Cromwell falling ill. In late June the Scottish army advanced south. The English moved north from Edinburgh to meet them, but Leslie positioned his army north of
Falkirk, behind the
River Carron. This position was too strong for Cromwell to assault; Leslie resisted every provocation to fight another open battle and eventually withdrew. Cromwell followed and attempted to bypass Stirling, but was unable to. He then marched to
Glasgow and sent raiding parties into Scottish-held territory. The Scottish army shadowed the English, moving south west to
Kilsyth on 13 July. Early on 17 July, an English force of 1,600 men under
Colonel Robert Overton crossed the Firth of Forth at its narrowest point in 50 specially constructed flat-bottomed boats, landing at
North Queensferry on the isthmus leading from the port to the mainland. The Scottish garrison at
Burntisland moved towards the English landing place and sent for reinforcements from Stirling and
Dunfermline. The Scots dug in and awaited their reinforcements, and for four days the English shipped the balance of their own force across the Forth and Lambert took command. On 20 July the Scots, more than 4,000 strong and commanded by Major-general
James Holborne advanced against the English force of approximately 4,000 men. After a ninety-minute hiatus the cavalry of both forces engaged on each flank. In both cases the Scots initially had the better of it, but failed to exploit their advantage, were counter-charged by the English reserves, and routed. The previously unengaged Scottish infantry attempted to retreat, but suffered heavy casualties in the running battle that ensued, losing many men killed or captured. After the battle, Lambert marched east and captured the deep-water port of Burntisland. Cromwell shipped most of the English army there, assembling 13,000 to 14,000 men by 26 July. He then ignored the Scottish army at Stirling and on 31 July marched on the seat of the Scottish government at
Perth, which he besieged. Perth surrendered after two days, cutting off the Scottish army from reinforcements, provisions and
materiel. Cromwell deliberately left the route south clear, reckoning that if the Scots abandoned their defensive positions, then once in the open they could be destroyed. Charles II and Leslie, seeing no hope of victory if they stayed to face Cromwell, marched south on 31 July in a desperate bid to raise Royalist support in England. By this time they had only around 12,000 men, who were very short of firearms. Cromwell and Lambert followed, shadowing the Scottish army while leaving Lieutenant-general
George Monck with 5,000 men in Scotland to mop up what resistance remained.
Mopping up By the end of August, Monck had captured Stirling, Alyth, and St Andrews. Dundee and Aberdeen were the last major towns not under English control. The strength of Dundee's fortifications meant many Scots had deposited money and valuables there, to keep them safe from the English. Monck drew up his full army outside the town on 26 August and demanded its surrender. The governor, believing the town walls and the local militia strong enough to withstand the English, refused. Infuriated at having to risk his men's lives with an assault when the war was all but over, Monck gave permission for the town to be
sacked once it was captured. After a three-day
bombardment the English stormed the west and east ports on 1 September. They broke into the town and thoroughly sacked it; several hundred civilians, including women and children, were killed. Monck admitted to 500, but the total may have been as high as 1,000. Monck allowed the army 24 hours to pillage and a large amount of booty was seized. Subsequently, strict military discipline was enforced. Shortly afterwards Aberdeen, whose council saw no benefit in resisting an inevitable and costly defeat, surrendered promptly when a party of Monck's cavalry arrived. The English army campaigned in the western
Highlands to subdue the
clans through early 1652, and three significant but isolated fortresses held out for a time.
Brodick Castle surrendered on 6 April, and the
Bass Rock fell a few days later.
Dunnottar Castle, where the
Honours of Scotland were being held, was the last major Scottish stronghold to surrender, on 24 May 1652, after the Honours had been smuggled out of the castle. == Scottish invasion of England (1651) ==