Sorry mate that article is so full of holes it is like a journalistic sieve. How many people refuse to eat bacon ?? It was a stupid throw away line on an equally stupid program.
Newcastle did hold the Royal Charter as far as coal was concerned, and it did cause a great deal of pain and animosity. That much is true.
Newcastle was Royalist, only in so much that the castle was invested with troops under the Marquess of Newcastle, who were there to protect the coal supplies The ordinary people were not allowed into the castle, and offered no protection from it. The ordinary man was more than likely a Roundhead sympathiser, but you don't publicise that view to loudly with the enemy army on your front lawn. Durham, the Bishop and County Durham was also Royalist, and had troops, there was also a garrison at South Shields. If Sunderland had been a Roundhead base it would have been crushed in short order and wiped from the map.
A Scottish Army came down to capture Newcastle, and to effectively cut off coal supplies to the rest of the country. The Scots were repulsed . They then attacked small towns, villages and communication lines. The Royalists from Newcastle and Durham and Shield went out to meet them, to stop them destroying and killing the unprotected. This includes Sunderland, which was being raped by the 'old enemy'
The only connection with Sunderland was that the Scottish army , under Earl of Leven retired there during the Battle of Boldon Hill, while the Royalists retired to Durham. The Scots used Sunderland as a supply base, in reality they marched in and took what they wanted. To imagine that a secret Roundhead alliance welcomed them in is laughable, Sunderland was occupied by a foreign army who ransacked the place. The Scots were highly unlikely to allow Englishman to join in with them. The Scots were not just fighting the Royalist but moreover killing Englishmen and hoping to retain any land that they held. That is not to say one or two looters did not tag on to the Scots coattails, while the Scots took what they needed from Sunderland.
There were no Roundhead troops based in Sunderland because it was of no strategic importance what so ever. To say that there was a Scottish / Sunderland alliance is ridiculous in the extreme. More like history been airbrushed out of shame.
The Royalist Army was not raised from Newcastle. They were Royalist supporters from further afield, only stationed there to thwart the Scots
The Royalists and Scots fought over 4 days and retreated back to Durham and Sunderland respectively. There was no outright victory to either side as the Battle of Selby ( a Royalist defeat) forced both sides south. Newcastle was NOT taken at that time by a Scottish army and a handful of Mackems. Although a Scottish army did occupy Newcastle AFTER the Royalist defeat at Marston Moor.
Only the Mackems could try and turn this imagined traitorous act of siding with an invading army as so kind of virtue, especially when you think of what the Scots did in Sunderland over those four days.
Aaah wuz theyur when us and the Jocks took the mag kernts.,
Is that a joke? Nope, he's done a lot of unspectacular stuff, tidied up a few times and hit the post too, so a tidy game in my eyes.