Siege of Newcastle

The Siege of Newcastle occurred in 1644, during the English Civil War. A Scottish army under the command of Lord Leven otherwise known as General Leslie laid siege to the city of Newcastle-on-Tyne from 3 February (when the town was formally asked to surrender) until 19 October the same year when the Scots took the city by storm. There had been an earlier occupation during the Civil War when the Scots had occupied the city following the Battle of Newburn in 1640.

The city was not continually invested in this time. In a complicated situation, the first Scottish army left for the south, the royalist governor having re-inforced his position then committed forces south to the Battle of Marston Moor.

However, it was the defeat of the Royalist field army at the pitched battle of Marston Moor on 2 July 1644 by the combined English Parliamentary and the Scottish armies that decided the fate of Newcastle and all the other Royalist strongholds in the North East of England, because without the means of relief from an army in the field the capitulation of all such strongholds was only a matter of time.

After Marston Moor a second Scottish army entered Northumberland and from the 15th August 1644 both Newcastle and Tynemouth were again invested. Bombardment and mines were necessary to breach the walls. The western half fell on 19 October 1644. Those remaining loyal to the Royalist cause retreated into the Castle Keep. Finding the situation hopeless surrender was negotiated with General Leslie on 21 October 1644.

The Scots were delighted at the result, more so it is thought than the English Parliament. Tynemouth had fallen on 27 October 1644 and the Scots were now able to control the Tyneside coal trade for a second time which they did until they were persuaded to leave on 30 January 1647. A further consequence of the situation was a deepening of the rivalry between Sunderland and Newcastle. Sunderland had stood throughout with the Parliamentarian forces which served its economy well, protecting the shipping of coal.