On the 2d of July, having rested two days, the Royalist army marched out against the Roundheads.  The contending parties met on Marston Moor, and it was late in the evening when the battle began.  It was short but desperate, and when it ended four thousand one hundred and fifty men had been killed.  Here, as in every other fight in which he was engaged, the impetuosity of Prince Rupert proved the ruin of the Royalists.  With his cavaliers upon the right of the Royalist army, he charged the Scotch horse, scattered them in every direction and rode after them, chasing and slaying.  The center of each army, composed of infantry, fought desperately, and without much advantage to either side.  But upon the Royalist left the fate of the day was decided.  There a new element was introduced into the struggle, for the right of the Roundhead force was commanded by Cromwell, who had raised and disciplined a body of cavalry called the Ironsides.  These men were all fanatics in religion and fought with a sternness and vigor which carried all before them.  In the eastern counties they had already done great service; but this was the first pitched battle at which they had been present.  Their onslaught proved irresistible.  The Royalist cavalry upon the left were completely broken, and the Roundhead horse then charged down upon the rear of the king’s infantry.  Had Rupert rallied his men and performed the same service upon the Parliament infantry, the battle might have been a drawn one; but, intoxicated with victory, he was chasing the Scottish horse far away, while Cromwell’s Ironsides were deciding the fate of the battle.  When he returned to the field all was over.  Fifteen hundred prisoners, all the artillery, and more than a hundred banners had fallen into the hands of the cavalry; and with the remnants of his army Prince Rupert retired with all haste toward Chester, while Newcastle left York and embarked at Scarborough for the Continent.

Colonel Furness’ troop had been with the wing under Prince Rupert, and deep indeed was their mortification when, upon returning to the field of battle, they found that all was lost.

“Unless a very different discipline is introduced upon our side,” Colonel Furness said to his son that night in York, “it is clear that the king’s cause is ruined.  The Ironsides fight in a solid mass, and, after having given a charge, they are ready at order to wheel about and to deliver their attack wheresoever their general commands them.  With us, no sooner do we defeat the enemy than we break into confusion, each man scatters in pursuit as if we were hunting a fox, and when at last we draw rein, miles away from the battle, we ever find that upon our return our footmen have been defeated.  I fear much that Prince Rupert, with all his bravery, is a hindrance rather than an aid to the Royal cause.  His counsels have always been on the side of resistance.  He has supported the king in his too obstinate insistance upon what he deems his rights, while in the field his command is fatal to us.  I fear, my boy, that the struggle will end badly, and I foresee bad times for England, and for all of us who have supported the cause of the king.”