Meeting on Heworth Moor
The great meeting on Heworth Moor outside York took place on 3 June 1642. Hopper (2007:1-4) ("'Black Tom': Sir Thomas Fairfax and the English Revolution") provides a vivid account of the meeting and its important role in the period leading up to the civil war. The Lords and gentry of Yorkshire were summoned there by King Charles I to garner support from the county in his struggle with Parliament. At the meeting, at the request of Parliament, Lord Fairfax petitioned Charles to listen to Parliament and to discontinue the raising of troops.
Prelude
During the summer of 1642 both the Parliamentary party and King Charles I negotiated with each other while preparing for war.
Previously to the commencement of the
Meeting
On 27 May 1642, the king issued a proclamation from his court at York, appointing a public meeting of the nobility and gentry of the neighbourhood to be held at
However, not all those who attended were sympathetic to the King's cause.
Aftermath
It became clear after the meeting on Heworth Moor that opinion in the county of Yorkshire was divided, so a local peace treaty was negotiated for the county of Yorkshire, known as the Treaty of Neutrality, it was signed by Lord Fairfax for Parliament and Henry Belasyse for the Royalists, on 29 September 1642, but was within days repudiated by Parliament in London and both in Yorkshire duly took up arms.
Charles returned from the meeting to York, where, after keeping his court for more than five months, during which time every attempt at negotiation had failed, he advanced to Nottingham, and there erected his standard on 22 August 1642.[1] From there by an indirect route his army advanced on London, to be met by a Parliamentary army at the Battle of Edgehill on 23 October 1642, the first pitched battle of the First English Civil War.
Notes
- ^ a b c Lewis 1831, p. 601.
- ^ Chisholm 1911, p. 131.
References
- Attribution
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Fairfax of Cameron, Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Baron". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 10 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 130. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
- This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain: Lewis, Samuel (1831). A topographical dictionary of England: comprising the several counties, cities, boroughs, corporate and market towns, parishes, chapelries, and townships, and the islands of Guernsey, Jersey, and Man, with historical and statistical descriptions; illustrated by maps of the different ... Vol. 4. p. 601.