1651: The Worcester Campaign Following the defeat at Dunbar,
General David Leslie regrouped the remnants of the Covenanter
army at Stirling, determined to remain on the defensive until he
could build up his forces again. Charles II was undismayed by
the defeat, believing that the Scots would now be inclined to
turn away from the godly Kirk Party and look to the Royalists to
drive Cromwell out of Scotland. Charles' leading military
adviser, John Middleton, began recruiting a Royalist army in the
Highlands. A few days after the battle of Dunbar, Oliver
Cromwell occupied the city of Edinburgh. Sir Walter Dundas
refused to surrender Edinburgh Castle until December 1650, but
his defence was a symbolic gesture rather than a serious
military threat to the English invaders. During the autumn of
1650, Cromwell tried by peaceable means to persuade the
Covenanters of the righteousness of the Commonwealth cause. A
fundamentalist covenanting group known as the Remonstrants hoped
to induce Cromwell to leave Scotland by und