Clifton Moor Skirmish - Most Recent Battle On English Soil

Most Recent Battle On English Soil

There are at least three contenders for the claim to have been the last battle on English soil, as different historians have used different definitions for what constitutes a battle. If Clifton Moor was a "skirmish" and not a battle, and if the Battle of Preston, fought during Jacobite Rising of 1715, was a siege and not a battle, and the Battle of Reading (1688) is discounted as a street fight, then the last pitched battle on English soil was the battle of Sedgemoor fought in 1685, which was the decisive battle in Monmouth Rebellion. However either of the former, or possibly the Battle of Bossenden Wood (1838), can also be considered the last battle, depending on how a battle is defined. There is also, of course, a certain semanticism in the expression "last battle on English soil", for it specifically excludes the subsequent Second World War air battles over English soil, particularly the Battle of Britain (10 July to 31 October 1940) which was fought in the skies over Kent and the winter blitz of 1940-1941 which is sometimes called the Battle of London. The claim to be the most recent battle site in England, for what were relatively small armed confrontations, is useful for promoting tourism at the locations.