20 March 1644

News is filtering through of momentous events across the land. The Scots have seized Newcastle after the captain defending the city accepted terms allowing his men to march out bearing arms- and so avoid unnecessary bloodshed. About the same time further north, Montrose was accepting the surrender of Glasgow as the merchants in the lightly defended city prevailed on him and his mainly English army to avoid spilling Scots blood. In Shrewsbury the undefended Royalist town was seized in a daring raid by Brereton. His next move in the largely quiet areas of the west midlands and cheshire or gloucestershire are awaited with interest