2 July 1644. The largest battle of the English Civil Wars, fought on open ground west of York. A combined Parliamentarian and Scottish Covenanter army under Fairfax, Cromwell, and Leven defeated Prince Rupert's Royalist forces. James Stanley, 7th Earl of Derby, fought there. The defeat ended Royalist control of northern England and left the Stanley cause in Lancashire fatally exposed. Within a year, Knowsley was lost and Lathom House was besieged for a second time.