Lord Astley

Serving as a soldier in the armies of Denmark and the Low Countries, Astley served in the Bishops’ Wars against Scotland. He fought at many of the major battles of the King’s Oxford Army, including Edgehill and the First and Second battles of Newbury and commanded the Royalist infantry at Naseby. He also led the last Royalist field army which fought at Stowon- the-Wold in March 1646, the last battle of the war. After surrendering the army, he sat upon a drum at the market cross in Stow and said to his captors, “You have now done your work and may go and play unless you fall out amongst yourselves.”