Oliver Cromwell with Sir Thomas Fairfax in command and Cromwell as Lieutenant-General of cavalry and second-in-command. At the critical Battle of Naseby in June 1645, the New Model Army smashed the King's major army. Cromwell led his wing with great success at Naseby, again routing the Royalist cavalry. At the Battle of Langport on 10 July, Cromwell participated in the defeat of the last sizeable Royalist field army. Naseby and Langport effectively ended the King's hopes of victory, and the subsequent Parliamentarian campaigns involved taking the remaining fortified Royalist positions in the west of England. In October 1645, Cromwell besieged and took
Francis Windebank (Royalist soldier) forces in April 1645, Walters speculates that this was done to protect the lives of his wife and friends even though the Parliamentarian forces had little chance of taking the house by force. Returning to Oxford he was consequently tried by a Royalist court-martial which took just three hours to sentence him to death by firing squad. According to Walters the execution took place against the length of town wall abutting Merton College, where Windebank bared his chest to the muskets and exclaimed "God Save the King." He was survived by his wife and a daughter, Frances. Windebank's ghost was