Oliver Cromwell attacked the larger Scottish Engager and English Royalist army around Preston in Lancashire from 17 to 19 August 1648. The poorly coordinated Royalist alliance was defeated across a wide area during heavy rain. The victory destroyed the principal invasion supporting Charles I.

Cromwell's dispatches interpreted Preston as an unmistakable act of divine judgement. That providential rhetoric helped justify the political conclusion that the king's repeated appeals to war had made reconciliation impossible.