History of Reading, Berkshire earlier folk, or tribal, name. Anglo-Saxon names ending in "-ingas" originally referred not to a place but to a people, in this case specifically the descendants or followers of a man named "Reada", literally "The Red One." In late 870 an army of Danes invaded the then kingdom of Wessex and set up camp at Reading. On 4 January 871, the first Battle of Reading took place, when an army led by King Ethelred and his brother Alfred the Great attempted unsuccessfully to breach the Danes' defences. The battle is described in the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle", and this account provides the
Battle of Leeds and Sir Thomas recaptured Wakefield. This was, however, almost immediately followed by another Royalist advance into the West Riding, this time under Newcastle himself. The Battle of Adwalton Moor saw the Parliamentarians narrowly defeated by Newcastle’s forces, with Bradford falling shortly afterwards. Fairfax escaped and spent the rest of 1643 besieged in the Parliamentarian stronghold of Hull. The Royalists only withdrew to York when the Scottish Covenanter army marched south in support of Parliament. In July 1644, the Royalists were comprehensively defeated at the Battle of Marston Moor, which lost the north of England for King Charles I. Battle of