ay be
fairly set aside on the ground of malice, his enmity being openly shown,
and moreover it meets contradiction in Cromwell's own statement:[Q249] "At
my first going out into this engagement, I saw our men were beaten at
every hand. I did indeed." Neither can Dugdale's[C] account of Cromwell's
hurried descent from a church steeple by means of the bell rope, when he
saw the Parliamentarian disaster, be received in the face of the letter
written by Captain Nathaniel Fiennes,[PB] which ends thus: "These persons
underwritten were all of the Right wing and never stirred from their
Troops, but they and their Troops fought till the last minute. The Lord
Generall's Regiment--Sir Philip Stapleton, Captain Draper, Serjeant Major
Gunter, Lord Brookes, Captain Sheffield, Captain Temple, Captain Cromwell;
Sir William Belfore's Regiment--Sir William Belfore, Serjeant Major
Hurrey, Lord Grey, Captain Nathaniell Fiennes, Sir Arthur Hasilrigge,
Captain Longe." It is equally curious that Captain Oliver Cromwell, of
Troop Sixty-Seven,[q100] was at Edge Hill in the place he invariably
occupied during the civil war, viz., with the victorious wing, and that
the history of the fluctuations of the fight should be repeated in so many
of the great battles, Naseby and Marston Moor to wit.

A most true and Exact
RELATION
OF
BOTH THE BATTELS FOUGHT BY
HIS EXCELLENCY
and his Forces against the bloudy Cavelliers.
The one on the 23 of _October_ last near _Keynton_
below _Edge_-Hill in _Warwickshire_,
the other at _Worcester_ by
Colonell _Brown_, Captain _Nathaniel_, and
_John Fiennes_, and
Colonell _Sands_ and some others.

Wherein the particulars of each Battel is punctually set
down at large for the full satisfaction of all people, with
the Names of the Commanders and Regiments that valiently
stood it out.

Also the number and Names of the Chief Commanders that were
slain on both sides: All which is here faithfully set down
without favour or partiality to either Army.

Written by a worthy Captain Master _Nathaniel Fiennes_, And
commanded to be Printed.

London, Printed for Joseph Hunscott
Novem. 9. 1642.

Mr. _Nathaniel Fiennes_ his Letter to his Father.

MY LORD,

I have sent to your Lordship a Relation of the last Battell fought in
_Keynton_ Field, which I shewed to the Generall and Lievtenant Generall of
the Horse, and divers Colonels and Officers, and they conceive it