A Parliamentarian force under Sir Thomas Fairfax captured Wakefield despite being outnumbered two-to-one, securing prisoners for exchange after the defeat at Seacroft Moor.
Key Facts
- Parliamentarian strength
- approximately 1,500 men
- Royalist strength
- approximately 3,000 men
- Prisoners taken
- roughly 1,400 Royalist prisoners
- Duration of fighting
- around two hours
- Parliamentarian losses
- no more than seven men (by Fairfax's account)
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Following the Parliamentarian defeat at Seacroft Moor, around 800 of Fairfax's men were taken prisoner. Fairfax planned an attack on the Royalist-held town of Wakefield specifically to capture prisoners he could exchange for his own captured soldiers, providing a direct strategic motive for the assault.
On 21 May 1643, Fairfax marched his force of roughly 1,500 men from Leeds and split it into two columns to attack Wakefield from different directions. After approximately two hours of early-morning fighting, the Parliamentarians broke through into the town. The Royalist commander George Goring, reportedly ill or suffering a hangover, rose and led a counterattack in his nightshirt, but the effort failed.
The Parliamentarians captured approximately 1,400 Royalist prisoners along with substantial quantities of ammunition. Fairfax secured the captives he needed to negotiate the release of his own men taken at Seacroft Moor, and the action demonstrated that a determined, smaller force could successfully storm a defended town in the First English Civil War.
Belligerents & Mobilization Analysis
Side A
1 belligerent
Sir Thomas Fairfax.
Side B
1 belligerent
George Goring.