First English Civil War, 1644 First English Civil War, 1644 1644 was the third year of the First English Civil War. The King's position continued to decline and the Long Parliament sent the Propositions of Uxbridge, an attempt to end the war, to the king at Oxford Hopton had to retire from the area around Arundel, and on 6 January 1644, Waller recaptured the town. Byron's Cheshire army was in no better case. Newcastle's retreat from Hull and the loss of Gainsborough had completely changed the situation in the Midlands. Brereton was joined by the younger Fairfax from Lincolnshire, and the Royalists were severely defeated
Sherburn-in-Elmet and a later-built large tower housing a ring of eight bells. It was built on the site of an earlier Anglo-Saxon church. The Battle of Towton was fought nearby in 1461 and local legend tells that King Edward IV, who won the battle, used the church tower as a point for surveying the battle lines. During the English Civil War, the village was garrisoned by the Royalists for King Charles I; it was close to their stronghold at Selby and the northern capital of York, and commanded the approaches from both the south and the west. In 1645, the Parliamentarians