The king received Harry with great condescension and favor, and heard with satisfaction of the preparations which Montrose was making for an invasion of the Lowlands of Scotland, and promised Sir Henry to bestow the rank of knighthood upon his son as soon as he attained the age of twenty-one.

For some weeks Harry resided with his father at Furness Hall.  He then fell back into Oxford upon the advance of an army from London destined to besiege that town.  This force was far greater than any that the king could raise.  It consisted of two separate forces, under the command of Essex and Waller.  Presently the town was besieged, and although the walls were very strong, the attacking force was so numerous that resistance appeared to be hopeless.  On the night of the 3d of June the king left the city secretly, attended only by two or three personal friends, and passed safely between the two armies.  These, instead of acting in unison, in which case the besieging lines would have been complete, and the king unable to leave the place, were kept apart by the dissensions of their generals.  A council of war took place, and Essex determined to march to the west.  The committee in London ordered him to retrace his steps, and go in pursuit of the king, who had made for Worcester.  But Essex replied to the committee that he could not carry on war in pursuance of directions from London, and that all military discipline would be subverted if they took upon themselves to direct his plans.

In the meantime, Waller, raising the siege of Oxford, tad gone in pursuit of the king.  Charles, seeing that his enemies were separated, returned to Oxford, where he was received with great enthusiasm, and the whole force there, marching out, fell upon Waller at Cropredy Bridge, near Banbury, and defeated him.  Having scattered the rebels here, he turned his course west in pursuit of Essex, for his force was sufficient to cope with either of the armies separately, although he had been unable to meet them when united.

Harry and his father were not present at the battle of Cropredy Bridge, having with their troops left Oxford on the approach of the Roundheads, together with many other bodies of cavalry, as they could do no good in the case of a siege, and were wanted in the north, where Rupert was on his way to take the command.  Joining his force, amounting in all to twenty thousand men, they advanced toward York.  Leaving the greater portion of his army at a short distance away, Rupert entered York with two thousand men.  Newcastle was in favor of prudent steps, knowing that dissensions existed in the Parliamentary army between the Scots and their English allies.  Prince Rupert, however, insisted that he had the command of the king to fight at once, and so, with all the force he could collect, advanced against the Scots.  Newcastle was much offended at the domineering manner and headstrong course of the prince and took no part in the forthcoming battle, in which his military genius and caution would have been of vast service to the royal cause.