acclamations, bonfires, the streets strewed with flowers, &c.," as Lord Strange entered Manchester in his coach with his ordinary attendants only; the other side represent him as coming in a warlike manner attended by many horsemen, "with cocked pistols and shouts that the town was their own." The local militia under Captain Birch and Captain Holcroft was, however, in Manchester, and the surprising thing is not that an affray occurred, but that it was not a great deal more serious than it turned out to be. Hardly had the Royalists sat down to dinner when word was brought that Birch and Holcroft accompanied by Sir Thomas Stanley of Bickerstaffe[19] were marching their men about the streets. The Sheriff immediately ran downstairs, mounted Lord Strange's horse, and near the Cross met Holcroft, whose men he endeavoured unsuccessfully to disperse. Alarmed at Girlington's non-return Strange himself followed him, and missing his horse pushed his way on foot through the crowd to the end of the street. The attitude of the townspeople was very threatening and Lord Strange was several times fired at from houses. As he and the Sheriff were returning they met Birch who ordered his men to fire, but the rain put out their matches. To avoid a general skirmish the royalists decided to leave the town. In the melée, however, a royalist gentleman was knocked off his horse and the assailant was shot; this was Richard Perceval, a linen weaver of Kirkmanshulme; he was buried at the Parish Church on July 18. Lord Strange proceeded for the night to Sir Alexander Radcliffe's house at Ordsall Hall;[20] and he never entered Manchester again. Next morning, twenty-five gentlemen of the town, including Green and Nicholas Mosley, the Boroughreeve, waited on him at Ordsall to apologize for what had taken place, and declared Stanley, Holcroft and Birch to be disturbers of the peace; but that they did not speak for a majority of the townsmen subsequent events were to show.[21]

It has been very commonly stated that this July 15th skirmish was the first bloodshed of the whole Civil War; the statement is made by Mr. Gardiner and is repeated in so recent a work as the "Cambridge Modern History," but is almost certainly incorrect. It is not of course the fact that Lancashire was before any other county in hostile preparations. In the months of June and July 1642, the two factions in arms were facing each other all over England and it was really an accident rather than otherwise in which county the first blow was struck. On June 4, the King wrote to Lord Willoughby of Parham forbidding him to raise the trained bands of Lincolnshire, and in the same week the Earl of Warwick put the Militia Ordinance into force in Essex. In Leicestershire a fortnight later bloodshed was narrowly averted. On June 21, Mr. Hastings, son of the Earl of Huntingdon, who was a royalist, arrived at Loughborough and marched on Leicester; but finding a superior force under the Earl of Stamford in possession, he retreated and most of his men were disarmed. There was an affray in Dorsetshire in August at which some lives were lost. It would seem, however, that actually the first blood of the war was shed at Hull. The King in person was present at the siege of that town which began on July 4. His troops were not close to the walls but in the following week there had been three or four skirmishes, one of which lasted for several hours and some lives must have been lost.[22] It is fitting that the war should begin at Hull, for that was the city which was first seized for the Parliament and which first offered defiance to Charles.

It might have been expected that the affray in Manchester would be followed by further hostilities; but this was not the case, and two months elapsed before fighting really began in Lancashire. The intervening time was spent in active preparations by both sides; of the two the royalists at first appeared to have the advantage. Manchester had declared for the Parliament, but there was not much of the county which that party could rely upon, and even Manchester was not unanimous. Perhaps the majority of the crowd in the streets on July 15 were not anti-royalists.[23] The immediate outcome of the affray was that proceedings were begun against Mr. Tyldesley, who was reported to have killed Perceval, and by the other side against Stanley, Birch and Holcroft. Parliament stopped both actions. It was Birch who reported the affair to the House of Commons, and the committee named to deal with Commissions of Array was asked to consider it.[24]

In the following month there was a prospect of Lancashire being made the centre of the Royalist operations. Several places were considered for the raising of the royal standard, and the Earl of Derby suggested Warrington as suitable. He promised to raise at once 3000 foot and 500 horse, and within three days to make up their number to 10,000 men. After a few days' consideration Strange was sent back to Lancashire to make preparations, but in his absence the place was altered to Nottingham. It is suggested that court jealousy of Strange was responsible for the alteration.[25] Whatever the reason, however, Strange's loyalty was unwavering. He returned to Lancashire, and on August 17 dated from Lathom a warrant to all knights, freeholders and others able to bear arms (popish recusants excepted) to assemble at Preston on August 23. A week later Lady Strange wrote to her cousin, Prince Rupert, on his arrival in England, asking him to send a few troops of horse into Lancashire for a few weeks to assist in raising foot. Clarendon says that Strange was looked upon 'as of absolute power over that people,' and as yet there seems to have been no doubt at Lathom that this was the case.[26] Strange joined the King at Shrewsbury with three troops of horse and three regiments of foot. Lord Molyneux raised two regiments, one of horse and one of foot, and other Lancashire royalists contributed to the main royal army in a lesser degree. This draining of Lancashire of royalist troops, a process which was continued later, was to have a disastrous effect on their cause within the county.

A week after the raising of the royal standard at Nottingham (August 22, 1642), the Commons set about the impeachment of Lord Strange. The energetic Rigby was one of the five members appointed to prepare the accusation, but it