Script for voice over, client project

On July 10 1642 a Royalist raiding party tires to burn down buildings at Hull, however they were repulsed by gun fire from the walls and parliament decided to raise and army under the command of the Earl of Essex on July 12. On August 12 King Charles and parliament officially go to war after Prince Rupert and Prince Maurice join the King and he raises the Royal Standard at Nottingham Castle. On October 24th the Royalists defeat the Earl of Essex at the battle of Edgevile as he tries to halt their advance.
On February 1st 1643 peace negotiations were set up in Oxford where the King had set up the Royalist head quarters, these continued for two and a half months before the finally broke down on April 14th. However even during negotiations Newark was under it’s first siege.
Newark became one of the most important towns in the civil war, both for the King and for the Parliamentarians, for both sides these two roads, the Great North way and the Fosse way, were important but more so for the King as Newark connected the Royalist head quarters in Oxford to other Royalist towns and garrisons in the northeast.
The first siege of Newark was only two days long as Major-General Thomas Ballard tried to take the fortified town with the help of other loyal Parliamentarians on February 27th 1643, however he quit the field the following day when it appeared he would not be able to take the town.
By 1644 Parliament had a strong control over most of the Midlands, however the Royalists had eight major garrisons each one undermining Parliament to the point of stopping tax collections in those areas and even in some they thought they controlled. Among these garrisons was Newark until the end of February 1644 when the Scottish joined forces with Parliament, as troops were sent from Newark to repel the invading force, Parliament took their chance and laid siege to Newark once more. Sir John Meldrum led parliaments troops to siege Newark calling on 6,000 men to help him while the royalists could only field 3,000 at a time with 5,000 in the keep.
Prince Rupert was sent to aid Lord Loughborough as he held Meldrum at bay with small but fast attacks. He arrived at the battle site on March 21st in the dead of night and took Medldrum by surprise forcing him back onto an island in the River Trent, cutting of all escape as the held every bridge. Meldrum and his men were given safe passage off the island and allowed to leave while the Royalist cause gained extra supplies from the enemy camp.
Newark was soon trapped as the Royalists were defeated both north and south of Newark. In November 1645 Newark was attacked from the north of Scotland and the south my Parliament and Newark was forced to defend on both fronts. During the winter Scotland built up siege works manned by 16,000 men and started to starve Newark as they flooded the river Deven and laid siege to a town suffering from the plague, money became scarce and tokens were made in it’s place. The town suffered as many people were forced to eat horses and dogs when food grew scarce, but it still stood against the siege until Charles the first was captured and forced to surrender. One of the terms of his surrender was that he must order Newark to surrender which it did on May 8th 1646.
One of the storied regarding Newark and the civil war tells of how the spire of the church was hit by a cannon ball, this hole in the spire can still be seen to this day, however closer examination shows us that the hole looks to be too small to have been made by a cannon ball.
Where the bakers oven now stands used to be the site of the Mayor of Newark’s house during the war, the plaque outside tells of how the Mayor dreamt of his house being hit by cannon fire on more than one occasion, so, fearing for his life, he moved out f the house which was struck by a cannon ball the following day.