Glenn Foard’s study of the English Civil War campaign and battle of Naseby on 14th June 1645 is exhaustive and authoritative, though I wouldn’t call the battle the most important one between the battle of Hastings and the battle of Britain. The head of Charles I wasn’t that important. Neither were Cromwell’s warts. Only a few years later, the English were under a king again.

Foard is correct in assessing that the Royalists mostly lost not due to Rupert’s impetuous charge but to the banal game of numbers. While the new New Model Army concentrated its forces, the King frittered away his declining strength (and alienated the population further by the depredations caused by his troops). Fairfax and Cromwell absorbed the Royalist attack and in the push-back managed to rout and capture a large part of the Royalist forces. ( )