Horace, Campaigning With Grant (New York: Century,
1897); Lanning, Michael Lee, “Lee, Robert E.,” in The
Military 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Military
Leaders of All Time (New York: Barnes and Noble Books,
1996), 226.
Leicester, earl of See montfort, simon de,
earl of leicester.
Leslie, Alexander, first earl of Leven (ca.
1580–1661) Scottish military leader
Alexander Leslie was born about 1580 (although one
source of his life reports 1582), the illegitimate son of
George Leslie, a captain of Blair Castle in Athol. Little
is known of his early life, but in 1605 he was in Sweden,
serving in the army of Swedish king gustaV ii (Gusta-
vus Adolphus). He went on to see extensive action in the
Thirty Years’ War (1618–48), forcing Albrecht von Wal-
lenstein to raise the siege of Stralsund, Prussia (1628),
and he was present at the battle of Lützen (6 November
1632) when Adolphus was killed in action. In 1634,
Leslie besieged and took the city of Brandenburg; he was
made a field marshal in 1636.
Leslie left Sweden when he was asked to assume
command of Scottish forces against King Charles I in
the First Bishops’ War (1639), and he served in the
same capacity in the Second Bishops’ War (1640–41).
As the Scottish commander, he participated in numer-
ous battles, including the capture of Edinburgh (March
1639), and in 1640 he marched south and invaded En-
gland, defeating Charles’s forces at Newburn upon Tyne
(28 August 1640). Because of this, Charles asked the
Scots for peace, and Leslie met the king at Ripon, where
a treaty of peace was signed in 1641. In October that
same year, Charles made Leslie earl of Leven and Lord
Balgonie in an effort to gain support for his side in his
growing argument with Parliament. In 1642, the year
the English Civil War broke out, Charles sent Leslie
into Ireland as commander of Scottish forces, but he
gave this up in 1643 when Scotland sided with Charles’s
opponents.
Lord Leven’s command of Scottish forces led to one
of the most important battles of the Civil War. In his
work on Leslie’s life, historian Charles Stanford Terry
reproduced a contemporary source note on the battle of
Marston Moor, 2 July 1644:
Upon Mundy, July 1 we marched with all our
Forces unto Hessammoore (on the South-side of
the River Owse) with hope there to meet with
Prince ruPert on his way towards York.... But
Prince Rupert fax [and] 3 thousand horse fled
at once, our horsemen upon that hand stood till
they were disordered.... [At Marston Moor]
God gave a great victorie, more nor we knew
there were, by the accounts of these that buried
the dead being about 4000 there was of them,
many private men; above 1500 prisoners....
God did preserve those that stayed marvellouslie;
of all our armie there were not ane [one] hundred
killed; the most part of them killed running, few
of them killed standing; there were 800 hurt,
many in running; of the others not so many ei-
ther hurt or killed.A description of the battle’s consequences was given in a
“Letter from Generall Leven,” printed in 1644:The issue was the totall Routing of the Enemies
Army, the losse of all their Ordnance, to the
number of 20 their Ammunition and Baggage,
about 100 Colours, and ten thousand Armes.
There were killed upon the place about 3000 of
them, whereof many are chief Officers, and 1500
prisoners taken, amongst whom there are above
100.... Our losse, God be praised, is not very
great, being onely of one Lieutenant Colonell,
some few Captains, and about two or three hun-
dred common Souldiers. The Prince in a great
distraction, with a few Horsemen, and almost
no Foot [soldiers], marched the next morning
from York Northwards. Wee are now lying down
again in our old Leaguer before York, which we
in hopes in a few dayes to gain, and are resolved
to send a great part of our Calvarie after Prince
Rupert.
Marston Moor’s importance in the English Civil War
has been repeatedly debated by historians.
In May 1646, Leslie surrounded Charles’s force at
Newark and personally supervised the king’s surrender
before taking him to Newcastle. Despite his opposition
to Charles, Leslie tried to reason with him to accept the
role of Parliament in the affairs of the English govern- leiceSteR, eARl oF