On this day 370 years ago, the royalists fought the parliamentarians at the battle of Marston Moor, the largest and bloodiest battle of the Civil War. The royalist commander Prince Rupert had lifted a siege of the royalist garrison at York and now hoped to catch the parliamentarians off-guard.
The sides met on July 2, 1644, at Marston Moor. Rupert lost valuable time gathering his forces, though, while the parliamentarians urgently rallied their forces.
As the opposing sides organised themselves, it rained on and off, and infighting between the royalist commanders put back the standoff even further. Eventually Rupert reluctantly