The English Civil War Explained | History of Warfare | Battlefields Of History

The English Civil War Disrupted what had been a long period of peace and prosperity for England. Suddenly brother was turning on brother as the country descended into a brutal and bitter conflict that would come to shape the nation and where power lay within it.

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throughout the quiet shes and peaceful towns of 17th century England a long period of blissful Prosperity had stretched unbroken from the time of Henry VII through Queen Elizabeth’s long Rule and throughout the reign of King James I but in the year of Our Lord 1639 there began an unparalleled series of events which led to an armed conflict in the Three Kingdoms of Britain although it is generally known as the English Civil War the causes lay in Scotland and by the time the Wars ended 20 years later men had died on battlefields as far apart as kith Ness and Cornwall and from Flanders to [Music] Virginia [Music] when asked to describe the sequence of events on the battlefield at watero the Duke of Wellington remarked that one could no more Chronicle all of the events of a battle than one could hope to record all the events at a bore although the Duke was referring to the difficulty in pinpointing the interplay of cause and effect among thousands of men on a single field he could easily have been referring to the complex interaction of the various factors which lead to war itself seldom if ever can the outbreak of War be ascribed to a single cause despite the seemingly endless list of conflicts throughout history the decision to take up arms against another country is not one made lightly to fight against one’s fellow countrymen is an even more tragic act which needs greater provocation than a simple Call to Arms against a foreign foe the causes of the war which led Englishmen to take up arms against other Englishmen in a bitter conflict in 1642 stemmed from the disruptive process of evolution in this case the evolution of the church and Constitution from a medieval Society to one more suited to a modern nation state the pace of progress during the long piece of the 17th century had imposed intolerable strains on the feudal structures by which the people were governed and their religious worship controlled in the fields of art science Theology and commerce old boundaries were constantly being pushed back the process of Renaissance the rediscovery which had dragged Europe out of the Middle Ages was by now complete and England was a peaceful prosperous Nation more new discoveries and advances in trade created an increasingly successful and sophisticated society and many Englishmen felt this new Society needed new forms of government and religious worship among those who sought change the precise nature of what this new Society needed had yet to be defined throughout the nation there was a heated debate on matters of government and religion which would eventually polarize into two distinct parties but as yet that process was still in its infancy for some Englishmen constitutional change was uppermost for the mass of the population religious reform mattered most to others greater freedom of trade was the great issue of the day the issues which concerned each of these groups were not entirely separate matters and there was some overlap between them but any move towards reform would inevitably come into collision with the person of the King Charles I King Charles was a man of great principle and conviction but he was a man totally opposed to the kind of change to which large sections of his people were gravitating Charles’s father James I 6 of Scotland had ascended the empty Throne of England left by the childless Elizabeth the and so became both James I 6 of Scotland and James the of England Charles was therefore the second king to rule both kingdoms of Scotland and England which were still separate countries in every legal and economic sense although he was born in Scotland and spoke with a trace of the Scots accent which he had inherited from his father Charles largely turned his back on that country his slight speech impediment meant that he lacked a certain presence but this was more than made up for By His Earnest sincere faith and the serious manner in which he accepted the burden of kingship Charles was studious dedicated and absolutely Resolute in any cause in which he firmly believed he was particularly staunch in his desire to uphold the ancient laws and structures of England as he interpreted them Charles distrusted parliaments absolutely and had in fact governor country for long periods without recourse to a parliament at that time Parliament was not an essential requirement for the government of England however Charles’s failure to call one meant that there was no effective platform for National debate so the unrest fermenting beneath the surface of English society had no real Outlet this was to have disastrous consequences for Charles when he was eventually forced by events to recall Parliament a good King acknowledges himself ordained by God for his people he receives from God the burden of G government for which he must be accountable but a king must rule his people like a father and like a father his authority is founded on the immutable decree of almighty God his subjects must therefore respect The Sovereign like a father I alone must answer to God for our exercise of the authority he has vested in me it is for me to decide how our nation is to be governed how my subjects are to be ruled and above all how the church shall be established under the rule of law these are the Divine rights of kings and are ordained by the almighty it is not the place of the subject to question question the Royal prerogative I shall Endeavor to uphold the Liberties of the country but my authority is absolute and may not be questioned you may rest assured that I have no other intention but to honor God and procure the good of my people because the king and his party represented a common obstacle to change in the main spheres where many of his subjects demanded reform inevitably the king’s supporters would come to be viewed as the common enemy for those who sought to change society in some way or another even his severest opponents stopped short of actual hostility to the king’s person they were in dispute not with the King but with his evil counselors Chief among them was Charles’s close friend and Confidant Thomas Wentworth Earl of straford eventually the various group seeking change would coales from a range of separate interests into a single party directly opposed to the the king’s party but this process took some time and in order to understand how the parliamentarians as they would later be known could draw a unified strength from a range of disperate groups one would first need to look closer at the great issues of the day viewed from an increasingly secular society where the influence of the church waines with every year that passes it is barely possible for us to understand the fundamental role which religion occupied in 17th century life English society at that time was profoundly and sincerely religious people attended church and felt the influence of God in everyday events they were also intensely concerned with the form and manner in which his worship was observed the English were overwhelmingly Protestant they accepted the reformed Protestant Doctrine which Martin Luther had eloquently expounded at the dawn of the Reformation as there was no reference in the Bible to a pope most Englishmen would not therefore recognize papal Authority nor would they indulge in the more elaborate Catholic rituals for which there was no apparent justification in the Bible the predominance of ritual was and still is an intrinsic part of the Catholic religion which was vilified and loathed with an unforgiving passion in 17th century England however if the English people were agreed on the aspects of religion which they would not accept then was still considerable discussion as to what was the correct form of worship in a reformed Protestant Church many Englishmen favored the adoption of the Scottish Presbyterian system which was based on the calvinist model of a Reformed Church organized into preseries with each Parish controlled by elders and the clergy working together others were Baptists who sought the freedom to worship God in the manner they saw fit others still felt that a Protestant church church had no place for Bishops or archbishops and clamored for their removal supporters of these and a number of other groups became generally known as Puritans and despite their many differences they did share one thing in common King Charles would not yield to any of their requests for change unless they fitted precisely with his own view of how the church should be governed the Church of England as presided over by Charles was rigidly and efficiently organized but under Archbishop William Lord many practices were reintroduced which the people associated with Catholicism the lighting of candles the burning of incense making the sign of the cross bowing at the name of Jesus images of the Virgin Mary surpluses and vestments for the clergy had all made a return to the Anglican Church during Charles’s Reign many were now officially recognized as a part of the prescribed service for the Church of England naturally the Puritans with their desire for an even more Stern form of protestant worship were outraged by these changes in an age where a man’s religious conscience could lead him to endure any form of suffering to defend the particular religion which he believed in there were many who were prepared to die in the fight against what they saw as the return of papacy when the time did eventually come to fight more than half of the king’s subjects could be said to be of a Puritan persuasion to some degree or other but although religion was a major factor in the escalation of national unrest it was economic issues which would finally plunge the country into Civil War once again however religion would play its part not content with imposing a rigid form of worship on the Church of England Charles wished to extend this to the Church of Scotland in doing so he committed a fatal error Charles attempted to impose a new book of common prayer on the Church of Scotland from its first introduction there were riots and unrest culminating in the famous incident where a stool was thrown at the First bishop to introduce the new form of worship it seemed as if the whole Scot’s nation was incensed and they signed a national Covenant in defense of their own fiercely Protestant religion which led them into open conflict with the king the wars of 1639 and 1640 became known as the Bishops War as the Scots had once again thrown out the Bishops who had been reimposed upon them by James the using great skill 30 years before the outcome of these two short and relatively bloodless Wars proved to be an unmitigated military disaster for King Charles the Victorious Scots army easily defeated the English forces hastily thrown against them at the Battle of Newburn and then marched on to occupy Newcastle militarily The Bishop’s War had been a shambles but worse still for Charles was the economic cost of Waging War for 11 years he had been governing the country without recourse to Parliament Charles mistrusted Parliament and whenever possible sought to rule the country without one in order to raise the money to govern the country he had twisted and manipulated the laws governing Taxation and the sovereign’s right to Grant monopolies in so doing he had created huge unrest among the merchant classes they objected to Royal monopolies being granted on among other things the manufacturer of soap and salt the reintroduction and extension of dormant taxes like ship money further fanned the Flames of Revolt forced to call a parliament so that it could vote him the funds to finance his Scottish Wars Charles found that he had Unleashed a pent up Force which would not easily be contained the parliament of 1639 refused to vote Charles any funds until its own grievances had first been dealt with in a fury Charles dismissed this short-lived Parliament however he was soon forced to call another the so-called long parliament of 1640 which was even more hostile in its demands Parliament presented King Charles with a list of grievances which became known as the grand remonstrance and further challenged the authority of Royal control by claiming that Parliament not the king should have the right to raise and control control the Army in 1641 Ireland had exploded into Rebellion so the question of who controlled the Armed Forces was more pressing than ever under the able leadership of John Pim the long parliament increasingly used this and other arguments to bring into question Charles’s right and his personal suitability to govern using great political skill Pim had Charles’s great friend and adviser straford tried and executed Charles always hostile towards his parliaments gradually lost patience and decided to act with Force if necessary the two factions finally came to an allout declaration of war after a failed attempt by Charles to seize the leaders of the party acting in opposition to him with his failure to arrest the five members Pim Hollis Hampton hazelrig and Strode the king had played his last card he had attempted to overrule the rights and privileges of parliament by a coupet the London mob took to the streets backing Parliament and there was no turning back unrest in society now took the form of increasingly open conflict soon riots and brawls became more serious and the first shots were fired in Anger faced with the outright hostility of the commons and the populace of London the king fled North to York from there he attempted to seize arms and ammunition stored at Hull but was refused entry on St George’s day 1642 desperately short of arms and ammunition Charles spent the next four months Gathering the beginnings of an army when he felt strong enough he raised his standard at Nottingham and the gential pretenses were cast aside Civil War had begun in Earnest there’s no doubt that the par Arian Earl of Essex began the recruiting game much earlier than the king Robert de Earl of Essex went into the Eastern Association counties to the east and south of London and began to build quite a substantial Army and when the king began to take this seriously in August really Parliament had a very considerable Head Start in the in the numbers game anyway even when he did begin to recruit having raised his standard at Nottingham in late August of 1642 the King was very disappointed by the initial reaction there 3,000 militia had been paraded for his delectation on that occasion but despite the best har rangs of the king and his ministers and friends and so forth only 300 agreed to take service and the King had to be content with this disarmed the remainder and put all their weapons into his wagons and moved away hoping to get a bigger Army somewhere else but at the very start there’s no doubt some parliamentarians were discussing whether the king would have the ability to raise an army considering the feeling in the country as a whole but in fact he was going to do so Parliament had easily managed to raise the more sizable Army a large part of these men were drawn from the regiments which had been recruited to suppress the rebellion in Ireland London was then a hotbed of puritanism and large numbers of londoners therefore joined the army and the popular Earl of Essex was appointed to commanded unfortunately he was to prove a more able politician than a soldier the king’s Army was always smaller than that of Parliament and many were very poorly armed being described by one contemporary as poor Welsh Vermin the Infantry regiments of both sides were made up of two quite different types of soldier Musketeers and pikemen in action the pikemen were grouped together in the center of each Battalion forming a forest of Pike shafts with a wing of Musketeers on each side the Musketeers were mainly armed with matchlock muskets these were simple muzzle loading weapons with a slow burning fuse or match which was used to fire them an experienced Soldier could load and fire within 30 seconds but there were few enough of those When The War Began in order to load his musket the soldier had first to level it waste high and pour some Gunpowder into the flash pan at the bottom of the barrel he then placed the butt of his musket on the ground and poured the main powder charge down it followed by the musket ball and some wadding after ramming down with his scaring stick the soldier had to look to his match at this time the widespread introduction of the flint lock still lay in the future and muskets were actually fired by a lighted match being plunged into the gunpowder in the Pan Once loaded the musketeer therefore needed to fix his match to the lock of his musket and make sure that it was burning properly he was now ready to fire because it took so long to Fire and reload a musket regiments were drawn up six deep and only one rank fired at a time the first rank would fire their inaccurate muskets in the general direction of the enemy aiming as best they could then move smartly to the rear to reload while the second rank moved up into their place by the time all the ranks had fired the first first one would have finished the cumbersome reloading process and would have moved back up to the front ready to start the cycle aresh for every two musketeers in the regiment there would ideally be one Pikeman the pikemen had once been the more important element of an infantry regiment and had formed 2third of the regiments in Elizabeth’s time but by the time of the Civil War they were in decline eclipsed by the more versatile and deadly Musketeers fewer and fewer of them now wore the armor shown in the elegantly Illustrated drill books but they still had an important role to play especially in using their long Pikes to fend off enemy cavalrymen they could also be called upon to deliver the decisive Blow by moving forward with their Pikes leveled at the charge usually the threat of coming to grips with the pike was enough to cause one side or the other to break and run but if both parties were Resolute it came to push of Pike with both parties contending locked in Mortal Combat as one Observer put it like Bulls trying to Bear each other down Cavalry were of two kinds the heavy kassier clad in armor from head to toe like medieval knights and the light cavman called aquabus who wore only helmets and either a breastplate or a heavy buff leather coat the kassier were intended to charge home while the akaber were skirmishers trained to fight with Firearms rather than close with the sword in the England of 1642 both the armor for Kier and horses fit to Bear them were hard to find but Prince Rupert the king’s flamboyant young nephew appointed to command the royalist company ignored convention and trained his lightly armed Troopers to charge home as if they were kassier no such stroke of imagination was to be seen on the other side Parliament could must only three troops of Kier but the rest of her Cavalry were trained to rely on their firearms rather than the sword artillery was invaluable in sieges but seldom played a decisive part in the battles since Cannon were generally too heavy to move easily and too slow to reload the cannon of the period fired cannon balls smooth projectiles which were not designed to explode but rather to cause horrific injury by the violence of their Passage tearing off arms and legs as they passed through the mass ranks of men although they were cumbersome and inefficient no Army of the period was considered complete without at least a few guns on the 23rd of September detachments of both armies met each other by accident at pck Bridge outside Worcester neither side had realized that the other was close at hand but the royalists were the first to recover from the Shar of Discovery and in the short fight which follow followed Prince Rupert’s Cavaliers were victorious of itself the Skirmish was insignificant but it began the myth that the Cavalier horse were Invincible a myth which the parliamentarians would need some time to destroy a month later at EDG Hill in the veil of the red horse in warshire the first major battle of the Civil War was fought as The Roundheads could not be tempted to attack the favorable royalist positions on the hill itself the King’s Men moved off to and were drawn up on the forward slope looking from radway towards the village of Kon the king’s nephew Prince Rupert commanded the Cavalry on the right wing and Lord wilou a professional Soldier turned courtier commanded the left in the center the Infantry formed five brigades with three in the front line and the two others in support the drons were deployed on the flanks of the Cavalry in total the royalists fielded nearly 3,000 cavalry 1,000 drons and just over 10,000 infantry the Earl of essex’s army waiting for them at the foot of the hill was drawn up in much the same way the parliamentarians had 12,000 infantry but less than 3,000 Cavalry and drons as a commander Essex was to develop an unfortunate reputation for allowing his opponent to interpose between him and his home base The Edge Hill campaign was the first example of this dangerous tendency essex’s Army therefore formed up with the royalist Army between him and his base at London a major defeat in the battle would therefore have been doubly disastrous a battle had not been expected and many of essex’s soldiers were scattered in farms and Villages where they had been finding shelter from the cold October nights at first it looked as though the Cavaliers might end the war in an afternoon led by the fiery Prince Rupert the royalist Cavalry swept all before them as the royalists advanced upon the Parliamentary Cavalry The Roundheads who opened fire with their carbines expected the royalists to respond in kind instead the Cavaliers came on at a furious charge and the parliamentarians panicking fled away pursued clear of the battlefield by the jubilant Cavaliers who thought the day won Rupert’s men cut down the fugitives many of whom they pursued for seven miles and then began plundering the parliamentarian baggage train had the Victorious Cavaliers returned to the field they would have seen the parliamentarian infantry rally and hold the king’s Army to a bloody stalemate on the battlefield the presence of the royalist Cavalry would have won the day but their IND discipline and pursuing the fleeing parliamentarian Cavalry too far allowed the Infantry of parliament to save the de by their dogged persistence they were able to hold the royalists to a draw but at a very high cost after a bitterly cold night Essex abandoned the battlefield to the king and retired northwards to the safety of warik Castle leaving the way clear for the king to march on London the impetuous Prince Rupert was all for making a dash with his Cavalry to occupy London before esic could reach the city with the battered remains of his army however the king prevaricated in the hope of a peaceful settlement and the greatest opportunity of the war to capture the Parliamentary stronghold was lost by November Essex had regained London and the forces of the King and Parliament were joined in some indecisive fighting around brenford and hsow to the west of London one of those who joined the king’s forces at this time was a young Welshman named John gwin myself and five comrades repaired from the court of Richmond to the king’s Royal Army which we met accidentally that morning upon Hound law Heath we had no sooner joined with our old acquaintance s George bankley but we marched up to the enemy engaged them and made them Retreat into brenford and from then to the Open Fields after firing we Advanced up to push of Pike in the butt end of musket which proved so fatal to hollers and his butchers and D that day that a great abundance of them were killed and taken prisoner besides those drowned in their attempt to escape by leaping into the river no Soldier or an impartial man could say that we could have advanced further towards London than we did because of the thick enclosures with strong Hedges and ditches which were lined with men standing shoulder Tosh shoulder by one another on the Common Road were planted their artillery with defensible Works about them so that we could not approach any nearer as we were at such a great disadvantage the king with ruin marched for Hampton Court where for my further encouragement I had the care of the regiment’s colors conferred upon me in the hope that I would go on with as much resolution as I had begun the parliamentarians mustered at turnam Green to defend London were too numerous for his exhausted Army and the King reluctantly withdrew to Oxford for the winter there to establish his court for the next four years the University City was to be the royalist capital as luck would have it the winters of the early 1640s were particularly severe with unnaturally heavy and prolonged Falls of snow with a sudden thw the prim roads of 17th century England quickly turned into muddy quagmires which made movement impossible winter was therefore a time for small engagements between detachments and garrisons while the main field armies waited for the spring and dry roads all around the country garrisons were attacked convoys were ambushed and there was a constant seesaw of raid and counter raid as the two sides sought to improve the positions for the coming camp campaign season Northumberland and Durham were already held for the king and the royalists were pushing southwards into the veil of York on the other side of the penines Cumberland and Westland were for the king but in Lancashire the issue was still in some doubt Wales was dominated by royalists and most of East Anglia was parliamentarian in the South Sir William Waller captured Winchester from its Cavalier Garrison shortly before Christmas while in the west country his old friend and Future opponent sir Ralph Hopton had secured Cornwall and the Southwest for King Charles in the all important temps Valley and in the Midlands there was some jockeying for position as both sides prepared for the real war in the spring there is some contention amongst serious historians on the Civil War as to whether you can speak of a royal strategy for the year 1642 at all some like to mention the famous triple Advance upon London Newcastle R’s Army from the north Hopton from the southwest and of course the Kings from the Midlands three prongs descending upon the center of parliamentary control and of course had London been taken out at that time and Parliament with it there’s no doubt the war would have come to an end in 1642 but in fact after the battle of Edge Hill the king who combined indecisiveness uh in his character with a great deal of stubbornness a fatal combination as was going to prove before the end of the first Civil War the king would not release Prince rert and his Cavalry for a dash on London although in fact there is very little between them and the capital perhaps a few train bands but as they would find at turnam Green that was nothing to be uh worried about but the opportunity was lost and with it effectively Charles’s chance of winning the war as the campaign season of 1643 opened the king at first appeared to have the initiative but his army was crippled by a serious shortage of arms and ammunition in in some regiments there were actually more pikem men than Musketeers which meant that the royalists would have to rely on brute strength rather than Firepower in battle at the end of February the queen who had gone to Holland to porn the crown jewels and buy arms with the proceeds landed at bidlington in Yorkshire and prepared a great Convoy to convey the arms to Oxford to cover this vital armed shipment Prince rert moved into the Midlands and stormed the defenses of Birmingham on the 3rd of April and took Lichfield after a short Siege on the 21st emboldened by his absence however Essex struck West and laid Siege to reing ruper returned in great haste but both he and the King were powerless to prevent the Garrison’s surrender on the 27th of April Sir Arthur Aon the governor received a letter upon the Castle Hill guard looking about him said here are none that I may safely communicate the contents of my letter unto then arose from his chair opened his letter and went out of door to peruse it when as his Hasty fate would have it he had scarce a minute to look it over before a cannon shot came through the guard house and knocked off the tiles from the roof one fell upon his head and sunk him almost to the ground before Colonel Lansford and another officer caught him by both hands held him up brought him into the guard house put him into his chair then presently he laid his hand upon his head under his cap he faintly said my head’s whole I thank God and spoke no more there at that time but immediately was carried away to his house in the town where during the rest of the siege he was speechless a short time after the Garrison was surrendered but they broke their conditions with us and plundered us sorely now that the issue of Reading had been decided the two mainfield armies withdrew to their old positions watching each other weily the roundhead Army was crippled by a typhus epidemic the first of many to sweep the Three Kingdoms in the Army’s wake to break the deadlock a major victory was required which could alter the delicate balance in favor of one side or the other the main chance fell to the royalists sir Ralph Hopton the royalist leader in the west defeated Sir William Waller who in former days had been a close friend at L’s down hill Hill outside bath on the 5th of July hopton’s Victorious Western Cavaliers then mve to finally destroy walla’s Army on roundway down on the 13th of July 1643 the tragedy of a civil war can be clearly seen in the surviving letters between Hopton and Waller when two old friends found themselves on different sides of a bitter conflict to you are so unchangeable that hostility itself cannot violate my friend to my Noble friend sir Ralph poton my affections to you are so unchangeable that hostility itself cannot violate my friendship to your person that great God the Searcher of my heart knows with What a Sad sense I go up to this service and with what perfect hatred I go upon this war without an enemy we are both upon the stage and must act those parts that are assigned to us in this tragedy let us do it in a way of Honor without personal animosity your affectionate friend William Waller despite the friendship between their leaders the war between the two armies in the West Was vigorously pursued voided up by hopton’s success the royalists moved swiftly a second arms Convoy arrived in Oxford 2 days later and leaving a scattering of garrisons to mask the main roundhead Army the royalists marched on Bristol the city’s hastily constructed Earth defenses were rather too extensive for the small Garrison they proved incapable of repelling a furious royalist assault on the 26th of July the storming of the defenses of the City of Bristol was to prove one of the most Savage days fighting of the whole [Applause] [Music] [Applause] War royalist casualties were high the dead lay piled high on the ramparts as Gallant gentlemen as ever Drew sword lay upon that ground like so many rotten sheep although the losses were high the gain to the royalist cause however was incalculable Bristol was the Second City in the Kingdom a major port with sufficient ships in it to form the the nucleus of a royalist fleet less spectacularly but no less importantly the city also had factories capable of turning out hundreds of muskets a week which were greatly welcomed by the undersupplied royalists by the end of the war most royalist infantry regiments were wholly armed with muskets and had abandoned Pikes entirely with Bristol secure some of the king’s advisers advocated turning back on London the the city fell it would mean the end of the war but Charles again hesitated and instead it was decided to First capture Gloucester the last remaining major parliamentary stronghold in the west it was unlikely to be able to hold out for very long and in the meantime the king’s shattered Western Army could be reorganized and refitted at Bristol the combined royalist armies would then Advance on London with their rear secure the governor Colonel Massie confounded the king’s Army by holding out sickened by the losses at Bristol Charles would not permit the city to be stormed preferring instead to starve the Defenders into submission the ear of Essex was therefore able to assemble a relief force from London by filling out his typhus ravaged ranks with several regiments of militia from the London trained bands on the fourth of September with the Garrison down to a single barrel of powder Essex raised the siege of Gloucester but once again the Earl allowed the royalist Army to get between him and his base at London the King was able to force Essex to fight him on ground of his choosing the two forces met at Newbury John Gwyn was present at the [Music] Battle I was at the siege of Gloucester where we would probably have captured the town but a great glut of rain fell flooding our works and we were forced to remove the next day when we drew off it proved to be a most miserable tempestuous rainy weather so few could take rest on the Hills where they were at newb we beat the enemy from the town’s end to the top of the hill by the heath a wing of Essex his horse moving gently towards us made us leave our execution upon the enemy and Retreat into the next field there were several gaps to get to it but not near my way with the colors in my hand I jumped over the hedge and the ditch otherwise I would have died by a multitude of hands we kept this field and until midnight and until some intelligence came that Essex was marching away with a great part of his army and that he would buried a great many of his Great Guns near and to this field upon the heath lay a whole file of men six deep with their heads all struck off with one Cannon shot of ours with reading recaptured and an indecisive outcome from the newb battle the winter of 1643 closed in on another stalemate neither side it seemed was strong enough to win the war without outside help so both parties earnestly set about the business of securing outside intervention frustrated in his attempts to bring in a French army a ceasefire with the Irish Rebels allowed the king to ship home thousands of troops and to form a new Army in cheser and North Wales but it was to prove a short-lived hope this new Army Was Defeated and dispersed at nwit in January 1644 the parliamentarians were to be more successful in their search for help a few days before the battle at nwit the Scots had come to parliament’s Aid and crossed the border near Beric with a mighty Army of some 20,000 men suddenly the whole complexion of the war was altered well I think there’s no doubt that had the Scots 20,000 men which they brought over into England at this juncture being put straight into effective action it would been very hard for the king’s cause to survive in the north of England as it was however the 7,000 or so troops of the Newcastle were reinforced by 5,000 more a little later on from Ireland under Lord Byron now this added a new context to the war in fact we have the first massacres taking place now because many of these troops from Ireland were Catholics and you had the straight forward confrontation therefore between Catholicism under one hand and the Presbyterians and Puritan par is on the other and it was not going to have an ameliorating effect on the war the appearance of a Scots Army in support of parliament had been feared by the royalist party for some time they had long been in discussion on friendly terms with the Parliamentary Commissioners but it was not until September 1643 that parliamentarian and Scots Commissioners signed the solemn league and Covenant which bound the Scots to bring in an Army on the side of parliament it also committ committed both countries to establishing a common form of worship the Scots Commissioners assumed from the discussion that this would be presbyterianism according to the example of the best reformed churches the English however added the phrase according to the word of God thus making the whole agreement a good deal more ambiguous the Scots carelessly assumed that this meant that the English would adopt a presbyterian system of organization of the church like that of Scotland ultimately this misunderstanding would lead to the breakup of their Alliance but by then the Parliamentary forces would have had what they needed from their new allies the Scots Army entering England was opposed by the king’s Northern Army under the fabulously Rich Marquis of Newcastle Newcastle however could do little to stop them all he could spare was a token Force to protect his rear while he maintained the fight in York against the Parliamentary Army led by Sir Thomas Fairfax only some IL equipped local militia regiments were left to watch the border and these could only fall back before the Invaders on hearing of this the Marquis hurried North from Yorkshire through a succession of blizzards and with his main Army flung himself into Newcastle upone with just 12 hours to spare before the arrival of the Scots taking advantage of newcastle’s difficulties in in the North Fairfax stormed Selby in Yorkshire on the 11th of April black Tom as he was known to his men was the eldest son of Lord Fairfax he was a talented soldier who had maintained an unequal fight against Newcastle and his larger royalist forces since the beginning of the war in 1642 hearing the news that Fairfax was again in action Newcastle rushed southwards to secure York the Scots Army left a token Force to Blade the remaining Northern royalists in Newcastle and moved South to join Fairfax Against The Marquis of Newcastle meanwhile the Earl of Manchester brought the Eastern Association Army up from Lincolnshire to tighten the net Newcastle was therefore trapped with his forces in York by three Allied armies in the South the war was progressing equally badly for the king Prince Rupert had destroyed a parliamentarian Army in a battle outside Newar but on the 29th of March hopton’s Western Cavaliers were decisively beaten by Sir William Waller at cheritan in Hampshire effectively ending any further royalist threat to London not without some misgiving on the part of Charles therefore Prince rert was dispatched North to try and retrieve the situation there rer took few men with him as few could be spared instead he stripped every Garrison and press ganged every stray regiment on the line of March Rupert’s men carried out a series of ferocious attacks on the scattered parliamentarian strongholds in a short campaign marked by the bitterness of the fighting on the 25th of May he stormed Stockport and 2 Days Later Bolton Liverpool was next stormed on the 11th of June after a short Siege and there Rupert received a letter from the King which he was to carry with him to his dying day the king’s letter to Modern ears is confused and unclear but when Sir John CER the royal advisor was shown the letter he exclaimed to King Charles before God you are undone for on this peremptory order he will fight whatever comes of it if York be lost I shall esteem my crown little less unless supported by your sudden march to me and a miraculous Conquest in the South before the effects of their Northern power can be found here but if York be relieved and you beat the rebels Army of both kingdoms which are before it then but otherwise not I may possibly make a shift upon the defensive to spin out time until you come to assist me but if that be either lost or have freed themselves from the besieges or that from want of powder you cannot undertake that work that you immediately march with your whole strength strength directly to Worcester and to assist me and my Army without which or your having relieved York by beating the Scots all the successes you can afterwards have must infallibly be useless unto me the letter was highly ambiguous to say the least was it an order to fight or to avoid battle but C pepper was to be proved right rert interpreted it as the order to fight he decided he must therefore March at once for York and fight when he got there the Allies had warning of his coming and abandoned their Siege lines to wait for him on Maron Moore all day throughout the 1 of July they waited and waited in vain instead of marching straight for the city and engaging an army which outnumbered his own by two: one Rupert circled around them and relieved York from the north it was a Long Day’s March well over 20 mi but while his infantry men flung themselves down exhausted at totan his Cavalry pushed on to enter York itself confident of beating Rupert on his own the Allied generals were less sanguin of their chances against Rupert’s and newcastle’s armies combined there was it seemed no alternative but to retreat despite the weary condition of his men from his interpretation of the king’s strange letter rert was determined to fight he understood the letter to mean he was to bring the Allies to battle and Destroy them had he succeeded in doing so he might have won the war in a single afternoon as it was he very nearly lost it although rert was ready to fight his army was certainly not newcastle’s Army had endured a long Siege on short rations his chief of staff Lord Ethan argued that his men needed to rest after the riggers of The Siege Rupert’s own infantry were equally wearied by their epic March of the day before but the prince would not be denied his chance to come to grips with the three parliamentary armies which faced him the king’s nephew Prince Rupert of the Ry had one great advantage over probably almost all the other Generals in the Civil War and that was he had taken a large part in the 30 Years War on the continent rather mixed Fortunes in fact he had been a prisoner of war for three years at one stage but he had experience and used that three years in incarceration to study the Art of War from all the available books of the period and therefore could be set up as being something of an expert he also was of course a very dashing commander in the field together with his famous dog boy which the parliamentarians began to believe was a familiar of the devil who accompanied him into the field he cut such a dash on the battlefield that nobody who saw it would ever forget it but there was a limit ations to the greatness of our friend Prince rert Rupert’s greatest drawback as a commander was an total inability to control his Horsemen now this is surprising given his his experience on the continent where certainly Gustavus adulas and the swedes had laid great amount of importance on rallying cavalary after the charge but several times as after nasby who find the the coyal Cavalry under Rupert leaving the field having defeated their enemy for a very important period and by the time he had returned to nasy for example the battle which had been going all the king’s way until that particular moment had been lost by the Infantry in the center and Rupert’s return was far too late to retrieve the situation effectively therefore rert time and again threw away all the Cavalry advantage and the King’s Army suffered as a consequence so it was that the Allied rear guards covering the retreat of the parliamentarians across Mar War saw royalist Cavalry appear in the early morning Haze opposite and they were soon followed by further infantry regiments this was clearly no reconnaissance but the Overture to a pitched battle frantic orders were sent to recall the retreating Allied regiments but beyond drawing up in order of battle the royalists made no move to attack the trouble lay with newcastle’s men the northern infantry had muted loudly demanding their careers of pay and it was late in the afternoon before an impatient Prince Rupert saw them March onto the moall the delay had given the parliamentarians the time they needed to recall the three armies and now they could count on a single force of over 7,000 Cavalry and 20,000 infantry on the left were the Eastern Association Cavalry led by one Oliver Cromwell a lesser known Member of Parliament But A Gifted Commander who like rert had grasped that the essence of Cavalry fighting was to charge home at the gallop although he was not yet the figure he would later become cromwell’s reputation was growing both on and off the battlefield his Cavalry were already renowned for their Fierce courage and excellent discipline behind cromwell’s men were a brigade of Scot’s Cavalry under a professional soldier named David Leslie these Scots were destined to play a crucial role in the battle in the center stood the combined infantry of the Allied armies commanded by two more Scots professionals Lawrence Crawford and James lumson on the right wing were fairfax’s Cavalry and another Scott’s Brigade The royalist dispositions left something to be desired rert had intended that his own and newcastle’s armies should be drawn up side by side however the late appearance of the northern infantry meant that his own men had to be spread thinly cross the entire front while the latecomers eventually grouped together in the rear rert assumed that it was too late in the day to fight the battle would be fought on the tomorrow but the Earl of Leven had other ideas after all he reasoned a summer’s evening was as long as a Winter’s day no sooner had the royalists begun to relax and cook the evening meal when under the cover of a brief summer thunderstorm the parliamentarian surged forward and the battle began the Allies came on at a running March and in moments all was confusion the Cavaliers were taken completely by surprise cromwell’s men scattered the Cavalry opposite and in the center the royalist Infantry under Sir Thomas tilsley also began to give way before the onslaught only fairfax’s Cavalry on the right were checked the royalist left wing defeated fairfax’s Northern regiments and carved their way deep into the Allied Infantry led by the Earl of Leven himself thousands of parliamentarians and Scots fled the field spreading the word of a royalist victory at this crucial juncture Cromwell too left the field to have a minor wound attended to in his absence the Scots Cavalry halted Rupert’s Cavaliers then swung round to attack the unsupported royalist infantry the battle had been stabilized Cromwell returned and resumed command but the general Allied Advance was to be halted by a brigade of white coated royalist infantry newcastle’s Northerners had arrived late but now they were in a strong position and determined not to give [Music] ground the white coats refused to surrender and the Scots took no prisoners less than 30 survived as the white coats went down in bloody ruin Cromwell drove off the last of the Cavaliers and the day ended with a complete Allied Victory praise the Lord Mar and mo was the largest battle ever never fought on British soil but the Allies gained very little from their famous Victory York surrendered 2 weeks later but Newcastle ofon held out until October and carile until the following June only the Earl of Manchester’s Eastern Association Army was free to turn South and without it Parliament might still have lost the war while rer was in the north the king had been very hard pressed at Oxford by the combined arm of Essex and Waller defeat for the king looked imminent but then the two generals who harbored a personal hatred for each other suddenly parted company the king at once seized his opportunity to attack each in turn and defeated Waller’s Army at certy Bridge in Oxfordshire then he pursued the inept Earl of Essex into the royalist West country once again interposing his own Army between Essex and London this time there would be no Mystics in a weekl long running battle the parliamentarians were harried to destruction at lost wiel in Cornwall most of essex’s Cavalry eventually broke out under cover of rain and darkness and he himself fled in a tiny fishing boat but his infantry were forced to surrender on the 2nd of September Mast and Moore had been Avenged and no end to the war was in sight on his return to Oxford from the victory at lost wiel fresh parliamentarian forces sought to trap the king at Newbury but the royalists fought their way clear in the Second Battle of Newbury angry recriminations followed and the parliamentarians split into two factions on the one hand were the Presbyterians and their Scots allies led by the old generals Essex Manchester and Waller they were sickened by the fighting and ready for peace the Presbyterians favored the reorganization of the Church of England along the same lines as that of the the Church of Scotland they were also more inclined to make peace with the King Manchester was the chief spokesman I beseech you let us consider what we do the king need not care how often he fights if we fight 100 times and beat him 99 he will be king still but if he beats us but once or the last time we shall be hanged and all our posterity undone on the other side were The Independents and their Champion Oliver Cromwell to Manchester Cromwell had the stern reply if this be so my Lord why did we take up arms in the first this is against fighting ever Hereafter on one point both The Independents and the Presbyterians were agreed the parliamentarian forces had to be remodeled the performance of the Parliamentary armies in the field was poor there were too many regiments and too many officers but all too few Soldiers the solution was to break up the existing units and draft the men into fewer but larger regiments nomination of officers became a trial of strength between the two factions The Independents won and Sir Thomas Fairfax was appointed General but the overriding influence in the Army was that of Oliver Cromwell it’s interesting to compare Prince ruper all Dash and Feathers with cromwell’s Attitude to a Cavalry command he was much less experienced than rert and indeed in 1642 was only beginning to raise his very first troop of Cavalry in the Eastern Association but he would emerge during these years as by far the greater Cavalry commander of the two and on the basis of his Cavalry command everything else was going to be built why was this so first of all he believed in total indoctrination and dedication on the part at least of his officers if not of his Rank and file whereas Rupert on the other hand was loyal to his uncle King Charles I first but really couldn’t care a damn about what else was being fought for Cromwell on the other hand of course was absolutely clear from the beginning what he was after he’d had this conversion to a low Church calvinistic type religion in about 1638 it is thought and he was ideologically committed to the struggle and he looked for men of the same type give me a plain fustian Captain he said who knows why he fights and loves what he knows now that attitude of dedication to a cause whether we happen to agree with it or not is immaterial contrasts so markedly with the attitudes of the Cavaliers who after all the word word has come into the language to mean somebody who’s pretty slap Happy Devil May care but what the hell there’s a contrast there but passing on from uh the mere Cavalry commander Cromwell he then emerges as an overall commanderin-chief this of course he owes in large measure to Fairfax who undoubtedly taught him a great deal of the dos and don’ts of 17th century battlefields and so when we get to the time of the battle of Preston against the Scots we find Cromwell as the overall commander very cleverly welding together his guns his infantry or foot and his Cavalry or horse into a most effective fighting team and he is becoming a great General personally however I would not rate him as high as say mbra or Wellington in our English military Pantheon why well first of all he was dealing with opponents who on the whole were second rate he never had the challenge of taking on a major Continental opponent for example brought up in a different military tradition probably far more efficient perhaps than his own Army although it is true of course the battle of the Junes was fought uh with by parts of his army very effectively without his presence yet I feel our first of men as he is often described as being was possibly a figure of military importance who might come third after both malur and Wellington certainly ahead of Montgomery however in our military list of great commanders the Cavalry for the New Model Army were easy to find they were generally better provided for than the Infantry who weighed Knee Deep through mud and shivered under hedge RS at night far fewer cavalrymen deserted or died from the dentry exposure or want which had so thinned the ranks of the Infantry most of the old Cavalry regiments were simply transferred directly into the New Model Army the Infantry were a different matter one of their more charitable officers described them as arant scum the frequent gaps in the ranks had to be filled with unwilling conscripts who promptly deserted at the first opportunity by 1645 the whole country was war weary and infantry recruits almost impossible to find on the 30th of May 1645 the king’s last field Army breaking out from Oxford stormed leester and Parliament sent its new Army northwards to seek the decisive battle which would end the war with no clear overall strategy the royalists had option but to oblige and both armies met at nasby in northamptonshire on the 14th of June 1645 this surviving contemporary map shows the dispositions of the army numbers were unequal the king’s Army commanded by Prince Rupert had dwindled to 5,500 Cavalry and about 4,500 infantry Sir Thomas Fairfax mustered 6,000 Cavalry but had no fewer than 6,500 Infantry and 1,000 drons the disparity of forces should have been enough to ensure a comfortable victory for parliamentary forces the royalist Army marshaled itself on Dust Hill 2 mi north of nasby Village as usual the Infantry stood in the center flanked by the two wings of Cavalry the New Model Army Drew up a thousand yards to the south on the other side of the valley they differed from the royalists in two respects most stood behind the crest of M Hill and could not therefore be seen by Rupert’s men more importantly the right wing of the Cavalry led by Oliver Cromwell had three lines of regiments and very heavily outnumbered the Cavaliers opposite confident of his men rert ignored the disparity in numbers and ordered an immediate assault Rupert’s men swept down the hill ignoring the parliamentarian drons in in the Hedge RS first into action was Prince Rupert himself leading the royalist right wing his men crashed into his opponent numbers and after a brief fight drove them clean off the field despite the superior numbers ranged against them the royalist Infantry too came on with great spirit they mounted the crest of M Hill poured a single volley into the parliamentarians and then fell on with swords and musket butts the roundhead’s first line dissolved into a mass of panic-stricken fugitives and fell back upon the reserves in the second one not even a despairing Counterattack by the few Cavalry squadrons left unscathed by Prince Rupert’s charge could stop the royalists fairfax’s second line of infantry held on grimy but royalist reinforcements were moving up and the roundhead Infantry had looked ready to crack it was Cromwell who saved the day with the first charge his division broke the royalist Cavalry opposite him unlike Prince ruper however Cromwell did not allow his men to waste time in chasing the fugitives instead seeing the disaster looming in the center he turned his welld disciplined men inwards to attack the royalist Infantry from behind now surrounded most of the royalist Infantry surrendered though a few held out stoutly for a time thinking that the royalists had gained the victory Prince rert meanwhile had pushed as far south as the parliamentarian baggage train his men stopped to pillage the train but were discouraged by parliamentary guards Rupert returned to find the battle over one not by the royalists as he expected but by The Roundheads who had captured all of the king’s artillery put his Cavalry to route and destroyed his infantry in the royalist camp the wives and Children of the king’s Irish and Welsh Soldiers awaited the outcome of the battle the first signs of defeat came when the surviving Infantry fled through the camp with the victorious parliamentarians in Pursuit when they reached the royalist tents a fearful Massacre ensued many of the royalist regiments had served in the Irish WS the soldiers had Irish wives and girlfriends and now over a hundred women died in a senseless orgy of killing afterwards it was lamely claimed that they were Catholics and that many had Long Knives the defeat of the king’s Army at nasby signaled the end of the last major royalist Army in a series of sieges and smaller Affairs the war dragged on for another year after the battle of nasby Fairfax marched next into the West country and cleared it of royalists in a Brisk campaign everywhere War weariness was apparent many garrisons held out stubbornly others surrendered with indecent Haste The King was Now power powerless without the veteran infantry lost at nasby he could do nothing Scotland gave him some cause to hope for a while the Marquis of Monro led a royalist Uprising there which came tantalizingly close to Victory but this brief spark too was extinguished David Leslie utterly destroyed the army of montos at Philip H near selker on the 12th of September and the King’s Last Hope was gone at length even Charles recognized his plight and surrendered himself to the Scots Army besieging outside Newar on the 5th of May 1646 he seems to have had some thought of persuading them to support him but their First Act was to compel him to order the surrender of his remaining fortresses with that the war should have been over but the king even now refused to admit defeat and the Scots went home leaving the king in parliamentarian custody two years of intrigue plots and counter Intrigue followed even although Charles was now effectively a prisoner of parliament a settlement was deferred time and time again as the king tried to play one faction off against the other Charles is shown here in this contemporary pamphlet negotiating with the Parliamentary Commissioners his army may have been defeated but he was King still even though he was now effectively a prisoner here with his Jailer Colonel Hammond the Presbyterians were disposed to accommodate him but the independent dominated Army became increasingly impatient with Charles concerned over its increasing power Parliament tried to have the Army disbanded but the move failed the Army along with its new Champion Oliver Cromwell would have the last say meanwhile the king had concluded a secret alliance with some of the more moderate Scots royalist agents were also secretly prepared for a great Uprising in England to coincide with another Scots Invasion this time on the side of the King on the 23rd of March 1648 The Garrison of Pembrook declared for the king in the rather naive belief that he would settle their arear of pay Cromwell was at once sent to deal with them but a month later more royalist Rebels seized Beric and carile opening the way for the arrival of the Scottish Army into England now marching to the aid of the king worst news was to come for Cromwell at the end of May a royalist Revolt broke out in Kent and the Navy mutin it and declared for the king although the Scots were to support the royalists uprising and come to the aid of the king they were delayed by Fierce opposition at home until the beginning of July by that time it was too late Fairfax had defeated the kentish rebels at Maidstone in June 1648 and and he pursued the fugitives North across the temps and besieged them in Colchester Pembrook surrendered to Cromwell on the 11th of August only 3 days later the Scots at last crossed the border there was not a moment to lose marching hard Cromwell joined General Lambert at Weatherby then turned westwards again across the penines to pursue the Scottish Army marching southwards on London by this time the Scots had reached Preston but on the 17th of cromwell’s men defeated the English royalist forces Allied to the Scots outside the town over the next two days the Scots Army now in considerable disorder continued to push South in driving rain while cromwell’s men snapped at their heels on the 19th abandoned by their Cavalry the Scottish infantry turned at Bay outside warington we held them in some dispute wrote Cromwell afterwards till our army came up they maintaining the pass with great resolution for many hours ours and theirs coming to push of Pike and very close charges eventually the Scots ran out of ammunition and fell back into Warrington there was some talk of fortifying the town but without ammunition it was hopeless next day they surrendered a week later fairfax’s men flaunted the banners taken from the Scots Army before the walls of Colchester The Defenders now realize that no relief could now be expected so they surrendered on the 28th of August 1648 the second Civil War was over and it was time for a Reckoning with the king the events of coester and Preston proved to be Charles’s final undoing it was clear to all that with his various intrigues the king had played a significant part in plunging the country once more into Civil War but it was what to do now which was the unanswerable question the role of the king lay at the very heart of the causes of the war and the Dilemma was now greater than ever the Parliamentary party had embarked upon the Civil War earnestly believing that they fought for guard and parliament against the king’s evil counselors they genuinely believed that they were at War not with the King himself but with the malignant party which advised him now The Awful Truth was becoming abundantly clear his armies may have been defeated but even in defeat Charles Stewart the man was still the king and he embodied all that went with that Office King Charles was a man who would not yield his personal position he still clung to principles which he had taken to the field to protect in 1642 the great constitutional issues therefore still remained unsolved no one had intended that it should end this way but among the Victorious Roundheads the uncomfortable realization gradually dawned that the only lasting solution lay in the DraStic step of abolishing the monarchy and the execution of The Sovereign as yet no one had dared to voice such a treacherous solution it fell to Oliver Cromwell to grasp that poison chalice we shall cut off the head of the king with the crown upon it but even Cromwell had supported all of the attempts to find a mutually acceptable Way Forward which would accommodate both the Dignity of the king’s position and the wishes of parliament however the role of the king in bringing about the second Civil War convinced that God-fearing man that there was no other solution Cromwell therefore decided that Charles would face trial for his life Cromwell knew that no lasting peace could be found while Charles Stewart that man of blood still lived however even the most Puritan lawyer declared the trial illegal of the 135 Commissioners selected by Cromwell to try Charles only 68 appeared when the trial opened turning to consider the whole matter of the trial of King Charles I we have to establish whether it was legal or not well in a single word that word is no it was not legal there was no president whatsoever either in our Unwritten or such parts of our written Constitution as then existed to allow a king to be killed by his subjects for supposed uh acts of treason against his own people as the Parliamentary Court tried to establish so King Charles I first was perfectly in order and absolutely correct to first of all deny the charges legality and secondly to refuse to recognize the court which was setting to try him but Cromwell remember was determined to try to solve the problem of the future of the cold country and he believed he could not do that that where the King still lived ironically Oliver Cromwell became far more of a tyrant in the end than Charles I he had to rule when he had had his big arguments with Parliament through the Army the rule of the major generals and so forth which had a major effect right down to the present day on the Constitutional position of the army within the British realm he was offered the crown twice but very wisely refused it but as Lord protector he had in fact far more power than Charles the first had ever exerted all his life Charles had cut a rather reticent figure not at all aided by his slight speech impediment his trial was to be the finest Hour of his life his stammer miraculously left him and he won new admiration and respect from among even his most bitter opponents by his steadfast and dignified defense of his position after his first eloquent speech in his own defense in which he refused to recognize the authority of the Court Charles was not allowed to speak again and it was soon obvious that the trial was nothing more than a sherad by which Cromwell hoped to give the dubious proceedings an air of legality I would know by what Authority and I mean lawful Authority I am to be tried there are many unlawful authorities in the world such as thieves and robbers on the highway which have the same Authority as this assembly do not forget that I am your Sovereign King ordained by God to rule his people by that Authority I stand more for the liberty of my people than any that come here to be my pretended judges you have shown no lawful authority to satisfy any reasonable man if I’m not suffered to speak what Justice shall my people have but however eloquent his defense may have been as Cromwell had intended Charles was sentenced to death by beheading in order to prevent any public ground swell of support for Charles the sentence was to be carried out the day after the signature of his death warrant January the 30th 1649 typically of Charles that unhappy Sovereign went to meet his cruel fate still espousing his unshakable belief that it was the divine right of kings to rule and that of his subjects to be governed his implacable adherence to this principle had been the root cause of the wars and Charles would carry that belief with him to the grave in his last speech on Earth he once again returned to the principles for which he had fought and lost for the people truly I desire this Liberty and freedom as much as anybody but that freedom and liberty does not extend to them having a share in government the process of government is not their Affair a subject and Sovereign are clear different things if I had given way for our ancient laws to be changed in an arbitrary way according to the power of the sword I need not have come here I tell you therefore I am the Martyr of the people I die a Christian according to the profession of the Church of England as I found it left me by my father I will say no [Music] more [Music] oh