the battle to be a victory, but the outcome was inconclusive and it would take a further three years of civil war before the Royalists lost to the Parliamentarians. Astley was loyal supporter of the Crown throughout the First Civil War, while his own region of East Anglia was strongly Parliamentarian. His opposite number in the Parliamentarians was Philip Skippon, another Norfolkman. At Gloucester Astley commanded a division, and at the First Battle of Newbury he led the infantry of the royal army. With Ralph Hopton, in 1644, he served at Arundel and Cheriton. He was not present at Cheriton, although his son, Bernard, probably was, as his regiment of foot was certainly there. At the second Battle of Newbury he made a gallant and memorable defence of Shaw House. He was made a baron by King Charles, and at the Battle of Naseby he once more commanded the main body of the infantry. He afterwards served in the west, and with 3,000 men fought stubbornly but vainly at the Battle of Stow-on-the-Wold (March 1646), the last pitched battle of the First Civil War. He surrendered to the Parliamentarians with the words "Well, boys, you have done your work, now you may go and play—if you don't fall out among yourselves". His scrupulous sense of honour forbade him to take any part in the Second Civil War, as he had given his parole at Stow-on-the-Wold; but he had to undergo his share of the discomforts that were the lot of the vanquished royalists. He was imprisoned initially but able to retire to Maidstone. He died in February 1652. The barony became extinct in 1688. Notes References Anglian Annals 87: Jacob Astley, Peter Sargent Eastern Daily Press Saturday 31 December 2005. Emma Elizabeth Thoyts, History of the Royal Berkshire Militia (Now 3rd Battalion Royal Berks Regiment), Sulhamstead, Berks, 1897/Scholar Select, ISBN 978-1-37645405-5. Attribution External links Astley, Jacob Astley, Jacob 16th-century English soldiers English army officers Royal Berkshire Militia officers People from North Norfolk (district) Cavaliers English people of the Thirty Years' War 1 English military personnel of the Eighty Years' War Royalist military personnel of the English Civil War 17th-century English nobility Military personnel from Norfolk People of the Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604)