Great Siege of Scarborough Castle/Timelines

Click on dates for sections of the main article

Date	Event
1642-1651	English Civil War: Scarborough sides with the Royalists
March 1643	Castle garrison led by Sir Hugh Cholmley; briefly loses the Castle to his cousin, Captain Browne Bushell
August 1644	Parliamentary forces reach Scarborough following Royalist defeat at Marston Moor and the fall of York; Cholmley stalls with surrender negotiations
18th February 1645	Capture of Scarborough's port; first siege of the Castle by Parliamentary forces begins
24th　March 1645	Sir John Meldrum, leader of the Parliamentary forces, badly injured in clifftop fall; allows Royalist surprise attack and delays siege by six weeks
1st May 1645	Parliamentarians' Committee of Both Kingdoms orders that the Castle be taken at all costs
10th　May 1645	Royalist counter-attack leads to Parlimentary retreat after three-day bombardment and collapse of the keep's west wall
11th May 1645	Heavy hand-to-hand fighting around the barbican; Parliamentarians take heavier casualties, Meldrum killed
25th July 1645	Castle garrison surrenders following five-month siege
27th July 1648	New castle garrison goes over to the Royalist side
19th December 1648	Second siege brings Castle back under Parliamentary control; later used as a prison