Jacob Astley, 1st Baron Astley of Reading (1579February 1652) was a Royalist commander in the English Civil War and most famously served during the Battle of Newbury and Naseby. He also was involved in the Dutch Revolt and the Thirty Years War. After the second phase of the Civil War, he was imprisoned and then retired in Maidstone. He died shortly after in 1652. Life He came from an established Norfolk family, and was born at Melton Constable Hall. His first experiences of war were at the age of 18 when he joined the Islands Voyage expedition in 1597 under the Earl of Essex and Sir Walter Raleigh to the Azores. In 1598 he joined Maurice of Nassau and Henry of Orange in the Netherlands, where he served with distinction in the Dutch Revolt. Afterwards he fought under Frederick V, Elector Palatine and Gustavus Adolphus in the Thirty Years' War. He was evidently thought highly of by the States-General, for when he was absent, serving under Christian IV of Denmark, his position in the Dutch army was kept open for him. In 1622 Astley joined the household of Elizabeth, daughter of James I of England and her husband Frederick, King of Bohemia serving as military tutor to Frederick's son Prince Rupert. Returning to England with a well-deserved reputation, he was in the employment of Charles I in various military capacities. As "Sergeant-Major-General" of the infantry, he went north in 1639 to organize the defence against the expected Scottish invasion. Here his duties were as much diplomatic as military, as the discontent which ended in the Civil War was now coming to a head. He went north again in 1640 as Sergeant-Major-General of the infantry and colonel of the combined Oxfordshire and Berkshire Trained Bands. In the ill-starred Bishops' Wars, Astley provided service to the king, and he was involved in the so-called "Army Plot". At the outbreak of the First English Civil War in 1642 he at once joined Charles, and was made Major-General of the Foot (infantry)—the cavalry was under the command of his former student Prince Rupert. His characteristic battle-prayer at the Battle of Edgehill has become famous: "O Lord, Thou knowest how busy I must be this day. If I forget Thee, do not thou forget me" which he followed promptly with the order "March on, boys!" Both sides' troops were poorly trained and both sides claimed