Description:

During the English Civil War there also raged a vicious war in Scotland between the Royalists and the Covenanters. In 1645 the brilliant royalist general James Graham Monrose was soundly defeated near Selkirk.

Montrose’s royalist army numbered just 2,000 compared with a Covenanters force totalling around 4,000 men.

Although Montrose made the best possible use of the battlefield terrain using the ditches and hedges it was the numerical superiority that eventually won the day for Leslie’s Covenanters.

Montrose managed to flee with some of his cavalry but his infantry and camp followers were less lucky; men, women and children were all put to the sword (See: Newark Castle).

Montrose’s reputation was in tatters and he could only maintain a guerrilla campaign until being ordered to lay down his arms by King Charles, who was himself a prisoner at the time.