The seizure of York by Newcastle had been a step of the greatest importance. Clarendon says of it:[48] “It cannot be denied that the Earl of Newcastle, by the quick march of his troops, as soon as he had received his commission to be General, and in the depth of winter,”—late autumn would have been more accurate—“redeemed, or rescued the city of York from the rebels, when they looked upon it as their own, and had it even within their grasp; and as soon as he was master of it, he raised men apace”. The Duchess says that he raised from first to last 100,000;[49] but this must surely be an exaggeration—“and drew an army together, with which he fought many battles, in which he had always (the last excepted,) success and victory”—another exaggeration.
[Footnote 48: _Hist._, vol. II, part II. book viii.]
[Footnote 49: “And afterwards upon this ground, at several times, and in several places, so many several Troups, Regiments and Armies, that in all from the first to the last, they amounted to above 100,000 men, and those most upon his own Interest, and without any other considerable help or assistance, which was much for a particular Subject, and in such a conjuncture of time.”]
Although Newcastle’s seizure of York was of the utmost importance, the King was somewhat premature in thinking that now “the business in Yorkshire” was “almost done”. On 15 December, 1642, he wrote (see Ellis’s _Letters_, series 3, vol. III, p. 293):—
[Illustration: WILLIAM CAVENDISH, DUKE OF NEWCASTLE.
From an engraving by Wm. Holl, after a painting by Van Dyck.]
“The services I have receaved from you hath beene so eminent, and is lykely to have so great an influence upon all my Affaires, that I need not tell you that I shall never forgett it, but alwais looke upon you as a principall instrument in keeping the Crowne upon my heade. The business of Yorkshire I account almost done, only I put you in mynde to make yourself maister (according as formerly but breefly I have written to you) of all the Armes there, to aske them from the Trained bands by severall divisions, to desyre them from the rest of my well affected subjects, and to take them from the ill affected, espetially Leedes and Halifax....
“Your most asseured constant “Frend, “CHARLES R.”