A view of the Battle Field the near Naseby a key battle of the English Civil War .

The Royalist army occupied a front of about a mile and a half, between the Clipston-Naseby track on the left and the Sulby Hedges on the right. Their right wing consisted of between 2,000 and 3,000 cavalry under Rupert and his brother Prince Maurice. The centre was organised as three infantry tertias (brigades) commanded by Lord Astley, with a regiment of horse under Colonel Howard in support. On the left were 1,500 "Northern Horse" (cavalry recruited from the northern counties of England, who continued to fight even after their homes were overrun by Scottish Covenanters and Parliamentarians) commanded by Sir Marmaduke Langdale. The King commanded a small reserve, consisting of his own and Prince Rupert's regiments of foot and his Lifeguard of Horse.

On the Parliamentarian side Fairfax had drawn up his army on the ridge a mile north of Naseby, although some of it was behind the crest on the reverse slope. Commissary-General Ireton's wing of five and a half regiments of cavalry was on the left. The infantry under Sergeant-Major General Sir Philip Skippon was in the centre with five regiments in the front line and three in support. A forlorn hope of 300 musketeers was deployed to the front, and two companies of Colonel Edward Harley's regiment were in reserve.