Cromwell issued a proclamation in the days after the battle which was sent with Cornets all over Scotland, telling people that they might collect their dead and wounded without interference but they may not remove weapons from the field. He also gave instructions with regards to the prisoners wellbeing which were not adhered to.

At the time of the battle, Haselrigg must either have been at or near Berwick and would not have been able to get past Cockburnspath, so the prisoners would not have become his responsibility until they were near Berwick.

That means that the soldiers escorting the forced march must have been what Cromwell could spare out of his diminished force. Equally ill fed and equally exhausted as the Scots. Thus the initial forced march to Berwick.

What the Scots had tried to do was impose Charles II as King of England by proclaiming him, not just King of Scotland, but also of England and Ireland.

What Cromwell did was to free the Scots from the tyranny of the presbyterians, who were horribly like the Taliban on today.

Their cruelties knew no bounds and their treatment of prisoners was horrible. They used religion to further their own aims and to gain land and property.

Durham Catherdral Abu Grabe or Guantanamo bay… We didn’t come far!

“Many and sharp the numerous ills inwoven with our frame,

More pointed still we make ourselves, regret, remorse an shame,

And man who’s heaven erected face the smiles of love adorn,

Man’s inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn.”

It’s hard for me as a Christian to believe that any fellow Christian would resist acknowledging the suffering of our fellow men, and not bless their final resting place, nor mark it with a proper memorial.