1645 was the fourth year of the First English Civil War . By the beginning of 1645 the war was going badly for Charles I and the campaigns of 1645 did not see a recovery in his prospects.
134-486: Clubmen were bands of local defence vigilantes during the English Civil War (1642–1651) who tried to protect their localities against the excesses of the armies of both sides in the war. They sought to join together to prevent their wives and daughters being raped by soldiers of both sides, themselves being forcibly conscripted to fight by one side or the other, their crops and property being damaged or seized by
268-560: A Roman Catholic French princess, Henrietta Maria . Parliament refused to assign him the traditional right to collect customs duties for his entire reign, deciding instead to grant it only on a provisional basis and negotiate with him. Charles, meanwhile, decided to send an expeditionary force to relieve the French Huguenots , whom French royal troops held besieged in La Rochelle . Such military support for Protestants on
402-478: A charge of treason. The members had learned that he was coming and escaped. Charles not only failed to arrest them but turned more people against him. In the summer of 1642, these national troubles helped to polarise opinion, ending indecision about which side to support or what action to take. Opposition to Charles also arose from many local grievances. For example, imposed drainage schemes in The Fens disrupted
536-658: A country that had been fought over for the two years past, no results were to be expected. Taunton still remained unrelieved, and Goring's horse still rode all over Dorsetshire, when the New Model at last took the field. In the Midlands and Lancashire, the Royalist horse, as ill-behaved even as Goring's men, were directly responsible for the ignominious failure with which the King's main army began its year's work. Prince Maurice
670-451: A court case, attainder did not require a legal burden of proof to be met, but it did require the king's approval. Charles, however, guaranteed Strafford that he would not sign the attainder, without which the bill could not be passed. Furthermore, the Lords opposed the severity of a death sentence on Strafford. Yet increased tensions and a plot in the army to support Strafford began to sway
804-475: A free hand. "Black Tom" gladly and instantly abandoned the siege and marched northward to give battle to the King. Meanwhile, Charles and Rupert were moving northward. On 11 May, they reached Droitwich , from where after two days' ret they marched against Brereton. The latter hurriedly raised the sieges he had on hand, and called upon Yorkshire and the Scottish army there for aid. But only the old Lord Fairfax and
938-516: A fresh attempt to reach Scotland. At Langdale's request Digby was appointed to command in this enterprise, and, civilian though he was, and disastrous though his influence had been to the discipline of the army, he led it boldly and skillfully. His immediate opponent was Poyntz, who had followed the King step by step from Doncaster to Chester and back to Welbeck, and he succeeded on the 15th in surprising Poyntz's entire force of foot at Sherburn. Poyntz's cavalry were soon after this reported approaching from
1072-480: A practical means of compelling them. From the thirteenth century, monarchs ordered the election of representatives to sit in the House of Commons , with most voters being the owners of property, although in some potwalloper boroughs every male householder could vote. When assembled along with the House of Lords , these elected representatives formed a Parliament. So the concept of Parliaments allowed representatives of
1206-421: A range of up to 300 yards. Musketeers would assemble three rows deep, the first kneeling, second crouching, and third standing. At times, troops divided into two groups, allowing one to reload while the other fired. Among the musketeers were pike men, carrying pikes of 12 feet (4 m) to 18 feet (5.5 m) long, whose main purpose was to protect the musketeers from cavalry charges. Positioned on each side of
1340-563: A resurgence of Protestant power, struck first , and all Ireland soon descended into chaos. Rumours circulated that the King supported the Irish, and Puritan members of the Commons soon started murmuring that this exemplified the fate that Charles had in store for them all. On 4 January 1642, Charles, followed by 400 soldiers, entered the House of Commons and attempted to arrest five members on
1474-698: A single group, but in practice they were divided, with the Clubmen from the Langport area explicitly dissociating themselves from other areas within the broad region. This division contributed to differing reactions to the arrival of the Parliamentarians and their New Model Army in mid-1645; the Langport Clubmen assisted the Parliamentarians, while the broader Dorset-Wiltshire Clubmen rose up against them. Historian Ronald Hutton theorizes that
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#17327869259141608-560: A single kingdom. Many English Parliamentarians were suspicious of such a move, fearing that such a new kingdom might destroy old English traditions that had bound the English monarchy. Because James had described kings as "little gods on Earth", chosen by God to rule in accordance with the doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings , and Charles shared his father's position, the suspicions of the Parliamentarians had some justification. At
1742-647: A stalemate. Concern over the political influence of radicals within the New Model Army like Oliver Cromwell led to an alliance between moderate Parliamentarians and Royalists, supported by the Covenanter Scots . Royalist defeat in the 1648 Second English Civil War resulted in the execution of Charles I in January 1649, and establishment of the Commonwealth of England . In 1650, Charles II
1876-465: A third party in England was morally as significant as it was materially futile. The Royalists were now fighting with the courage of despair. Those who still fought against Charles did so with the full determination to ensure the triumph of their cause, and with the conviction that the only possible way was the annihilation of the enemy's armed forces. The majority, however, were so weary of the war that
2010-506: A united army, 15,000 strong. Taunton, in spite of Massey's efforts to keep the field, was again besieged. In Wilts and Dorset , numerous bands of Clubmen were on foot, which the King's officers were doing their best to turn into troops for their master. But the process of collecting a fresh royal army was slow, and Goring and his subordinate, Sir Richard Grenville, were alienating the King's most devoted adherents by their rapacity, cruelty and debauchery. Moreover, Goring had no desire to lose
2144-680: The Covenanter militia in Scotland. Without their cavalry to find supplies, Leven's Scottish infantry, were more occupied with plundering Worcestershire for food than with the siege works. With his cavalry support on the march to meet Montrose, Leven had no alternative but to withdraw without fighting as the Royalists approached Worcester. Worcester was relieved on 1 September. King Charles entered Worcester on 8 September, but he found that he could no longer expect recruits from South Wales. Worse
2278-651: The Earl of Lindsey , was to die fighting for the King at the Battle of Edgehill . In early January 1642, a few days after failing to capture five members of the House of Commons, Charles feared for the safety of his family and retinue and left the London area for the north country. Further frequent negotiations by letter between the King and the Long Parliament, through to early summer, proved fruitless. On 1 June 1642
2412-705: The English Lords and Commons approved a list of proposals known as the Nineteen Propositions . In these demands, the Parliament sought a larger share of power in the governance of the kingdom. Before the end of the month the King rejected the Propositions. As the summer progressed, cities and towns declared their sympathies for one faction or the other: for example, the garrison of Portsmouth commanded by Sir George Goring declared for
2546-586: The Magnum Concilium (the House of Lords , but without the Commons , so not a Parliament), Charles finally bowed to pressure and summoned another English Parliament in November 1640. The new Parliament proved even more hostile to Charles than its predecessor. It immediately began to discuss grievances against him and his government, with Pym and Hampden (of ship money fame) in the lead. They took
2680-471: The Tonnage and Poundage Act 1640 . On 3 May, Parliament decreed The Protestation , attacking the 'wicked counsels' of Charles's government, whereby those who signed the petition undertook to defend 'the true reformed religion', Parliament, and the king's person, honour and estate. Throughout May, the House of Commons launched several bills attacking bishops and Episcopalianism in general, each time defeated in
2814-436: The "Committee of Both Kingdoms" on the one side, and Charles, Rupert, and Goring, on the other, held different views. On 1 May 1645, Fairfax, having been ordered to relieve Taunton, set out from Windsor for the long march to that place. Meeting Cromwell at Newbury on 2 May, he directed the lieutenant-general to watch the movements of the King's army. He himself marched on to Blandford , which he reached on 7 May. Thus, Fairfax and
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#17327869259142948-447: The "Committee of Both Kingdoms", though aware on the 29th of Goring's move, only made up its mind to stop Fairfax on the 3rd, and did not send off orders till the 5th. These orders were to the effect that a detachment was to be sent to the relief of Taunton, and that the main army was to return. Fairfax gladly obeyed, even though a siege of Oxford , and not the enemy's field army, was the objective assigned him. But long before he came up to
3082-588: The "Eleven Years' Tyranny". During this period, Charles's policies were determined by his lack of money. First and foremost, to avoid Parliament, the King needed to avoid war. Charles made peace with France and Spain, effectively ending England's involvement in the Thirty Years' War . However, that in itself was far from enough to balance the Crown's finances. Unable to raise revenue without Parliament and unwilling to convene it, Charles resorted to other means. One
3216-457: The 13th Charles slept at Lubenham, Fairfax at Guilsborough. Cromwell, just appointed lieutenant-general of the New Model, had ridden into camp on the morning of the 13th with fresh cavalry from the eastern counties, Colonel Rossiter came up with more from Lincolnshire on the morning of the battle, and it was with an incontestable superiority of numbers and an overwhelming morale advantage that Fairfax fought at Naseby (q.v.) on 14 June. The result of
3350-478: The 24th, he routed a detachment of Royalist horse at Islip . On the same day, though he had no guns and only a few firearms in the whole force, he terrified the governor of Bletchingdon House into surrender. Riding thence to Witney , Cromwell won another cavalry fight at Bampton-in-the-Bush on the 27th, and attacked Faringdon House , though without success, on 29 April. From there, he marched at leisure to Newbury. He had done his work thoroughly. He had demoralised
3484-490: The Church more ceremonial, replacing the wooden communion tables with stone altars. Puritans accused Laud of reintroducing Catholicism, and when they complained he had them arrested. In 1637, John Bastwick , Henry Burton , and William Prynne had their ears cut off for writing pamphlets attacking Laud's views – a rare penalty for gentlemen , and one that aroused anger. Moreover, the Church authorities revived statutes from
3618-614: The Church. In the spring of 1639, King Charles I accompanied his forces to the Scottish border to end the rebellion known as the Bishops' War , but after an inconclusive campaign, he accepted the offered Scottish truce: the Pacification of Berwick . This truce proved temporary, and a second war followed in mid-1640. A Scots army defeated Charles's forces in the north, then captured Newcastle . Charles eventually agreed not to interfere in Scotland's religion. Charles needed to suppress
3752-613: The Clubmen, Rupert was eager to resume his march into the north. It is unlikely that he wished to join Montrose in Scotland, though Charles himself favoured that plan. However, he certainly intended to fight the Scottish army, more especially as after the Covenanter's defeat at the Scottish Battle of Inverlochy , the Scottish army in England had been called upon to detach a large force to deal with Montrose. But this time there
3886-467: The Clubmen. These were demonstrated largely through physical demonstrations and print culture, particularly in pamphlets. English Civil War Parliamentarian victory 1643 1644 1645 1646 England The English Civil War was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Royalists and Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of
4020-665: The Continent potentially alleviated concerns about the King's marriage to a Catholic. However, Charles's insistence on giving command of the English force to his unpopular royal favourite George Villiers, the Duke of Buckingham , undermined that support. Unfortunately for Charles and Buckingham, the relief expedition proved a fiasco (1627), and Parliament, already hostile to Buckingham for his monopoly on royal patronage , opened impeachment proceedings against him. Charles responded by dissolving Parliament. This saved Buckingham but confirmed
4154-488: The Earl of Manchester's Presbyterian royalism, which had contributed so materially to the prolongation of the struggle, would probably have been accepted by four-fifths of all England as the basis of a peace. It was, in fact, in the face of almost universal opposition, that Fairfax and Cromwell and their friends at Westminster guided the cause of their weaker comrades to complete victory. Having without difficulty, rid himself of
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4288-599: The Elder , a member of the King's Privy Council, who refused to confirm it in Parliament out of loyalty to Charles. On 10 April 1641, Pym's case collapsed, but Pym made a direct appeal to the Younger Vane to produce a copy of the notes from the King's Privy Council, discovered by the Younger Vane and secretly turned over to Pym, to the great anguish of the Elder Vane. These notes contained evidence that Strafford had told
4422-757: The English Book of Common Prayer to Scotland in the middle of 1637. This was violently resisted. A riot broke out in Edinburgh, which may have been started in St Giles' Cathedral , according to legend, by Jenny Geddes . In February 1638, the Scots formulated their objections to royal policy in the National Covenant . This document took the form of a "loyal protest", rejecting all innovations not first tested by free Parliaments and General Assemblies of
4556-469: The Irish Catholic gentry to pay new taxes in return for promised religious concessions. In 1639, Charles had recalled Wentworth to England and in 1640 made him Earl of Strafford, attempting to have him achieve similar results in Scotland. This time he proved less successful and the English forces fled the field at their second encounter with the Scots in 1640. Almost the whole of Northern England
4690-539: The King for an attack on the New Model. The Parliamentary general moved from Oxford towards Northampton so as to cover the Eastern Association. On 12 June the two armies were only a few miles apart, Fairfax at Kislingbury, Charles at Daventry, and, though the Royalists turned northward again on the 13th to resume the Yorkshire project under the very eyes of the enemy, Fairfax followed close. On the night of
4824-640: The King in 1638. The fines imposed on people who refused to pay ship money and standing out against its illegality aroused widespread indignation. During his "Personal Rule", Charles aroused most antagonism through his religious measures. He believed in High Anglicanism , a sacramental version of the Church of England , theologically based upon Arminianism , a creed shared with his main political adviser, Archbishop William Laud . In 1633, Charles appointed Laud Archbishop of Canterbury and started making
4958-589: The King's army was still in Huntingdon, and Goring was trying to raise a new army to replace the one he had lost at Langport and Bridgwater the city was invested. In these urgent circumstances Charles left Oxford for the west only a day or two after he had come in from the Eastern Association raid. Calculating that Rupert could hold out longest, he first moved to the relief of Worcester. The success of Montrose's Scottish campaign and his victory at Battle of Kilsyth forced Leslie to lead his cavalry north to bolster
5092-401: The King's army, unimpaired by Goring's notorious indiscipline, made no attempt to prevent the separation, which in the event proved wholly unprofitable. The flying column from Blandford relieved Taunton long before Goring's return to the west. Colonel Weldon and Colonel Graves, its commanders, set him at defiance even in the open country. As for Fairfax, he was out of Goring's reach, preparing for
5226-562: The King's ministers. Finally, the Parliament passed a law forbidding the King to dissolve it without its consent, even if the three years were up. These laws equated to a tremendous increase in Parliamentary power. Ever since, this Parliament has been known as the Long Parliament . However, Parliament did attempt to avert conflict by requiring all adults to sign The Protestation , an oath of allegiance to Charles. Early in
5360-433: The King, but when Charles tried to acquire arms from Kingston upon Hull , the weaponry depository used in the previous Scottish campaigns, Sir John Hotham , the military governor appointed by Parliament in January, refused to let Charles enter the town, and when Charles returned with more men later, Hotham drove them off . Charles issued a warrant for Hotham's arrest as a traitor but was powerless to enforce it. Throughout
5494-458: The King, "Sir, you have done your duty, and your subjects have failed in theirs; and therefore you are absolved from the rules of government, and may supply yourself by extraordinary ways; you have an army in Ireland, with which you may reduce the kingdom." Pym immediately launched a Bill of Attainder stating Strafford's guilt and demanding that he be put to death. Unlike a guilty verdict in
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5628-472: The King, at the geographical centre of England, found an important and wealthy town at his mercy. Rupert, always for action, took the opportunity, and Leicester was stormed and thoroughly pillaged on the night of the 30 May–31 May. There was the usual panic at Westminster, but, unfortunately for Charles, it resulted in Fairfax being directed to abandon the siege of Oxford and given carte blanche to bring
5762-400: The King, but he was distrusted by all sections of Royalists for his reckless optimism. The resumption of the northern enterprise, opposed by Rupert and directly inspired by Digby, led to nothing. Charles marched by Bridgnorth, Lichfield and Ashbourne to Doncaster , where on 18 August he was met by great numbers of Yorkshire gentlemen with promises of fresh recruits. For a moment the outlook
5896-471: The Long Parliament, the house overwhelmingly accused Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford , of high treason and other crimes and misdemeanors. Henry Vane the Younger supplied evidence of Strafford's claimed improper use of the army in Ireland, alleging that he had encouraged the King to use his Ireland-raised forces to threaten England into compliance. This evidence was obtained from Vane's father, Henry Vane
6030-539: The Lords. Charles and his Parliament hoped that the execution of Strafford and the Protestation would end the drift towards war, but in fact, they encouraged it. Charles and his supporters continued to resent Parliament's demands, and Parliamentarians continued to suspect Charles of wanting to impose episcopalianism and unfettered royal rule by military force. Within months, the Irish Catholics, fearing
6164-568: The Parliament after only a few weeks; hence its name, "the Short Parliament ". Without Parliament's support, Charles attacked Scotland again, breaking the truce at Berwick, and suffered comprehensive defeat. The Scots went on to invade England, occupying Northumberland and Durham . Meanwhile, another of Charles's chief advisers, Thomas Wentworth, 1st Viscount Wentworth , had risen to the role of Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1632, and brought in much-needed revenue for Charles by persuading
6298-488: The Presbyterian balance, as against the victorious New Model. Fairfax's army was intended by its founders to be a specifically English army, and Cromwell for one, would have employed it against the Scots, almost as readily as against malignants. But for the moment, the advance of the northern army was of the highest military importance, for Fairfax was thereby set free from the necessity of undertaking sieges. Moreover,
6432-645: The Restoration to the 19th century, the common phrase for the civil wars was "the rebellion" or "the great rebellion". The wars spanning all four countries are known as the Wars of the Three Kingdoms . In the early 19th century, Sir Walter Scott referred to it as "The Great Civil War". The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica called the series of conflicts the "Great Rebellion". Some historians, notably Marxists such as Christopher Hill (1912–2003), favoured
6566-509: The Royal army to battle wherever it was met. On his side the King had, after the capture of Leicester, accepted the advice of those who feared for the safety of Oxford. Rupert, though commander-in-chief, was unable to insist on the northern enterprise and had marched to Daventry, where he halted to throw supplies into Oxford. Thus Fairfax in his turn was free to move, thanks to the insubordination of Goring, who would neither relieve Oxford nor join
6700-445: The Royalist cavalry, and, above all, had carried off every horse on the countryside. To all Rupert's entreaties, Charles could only reply that the guns could not be moved till the 7 May, and he even summoned Goring's cavalry from the west to make good his losses. Cromwell's success thus forced the King to concentrate his various armies in the neighbourhood of Oxford. The New Model had, so Fairfax and Cromwell hoped, found its target. But
6834-442: The Royalist field forces in this quarter, was truculent, insubordinate and dissolute. On the rare occasions when he did his duty, however, he did display a certain degree of skill and leadership, and the influence of the prince's counsellors was but small. As usual, operations began with the sieges, necessary to conciliate local feeling. Plymouth and Lyme Regis were blocked up, and Taunton again invested. The reinforcement thrown into
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#17327869259146968-409: The Royalist militia of the westeach in its own way a broken reed to lean upon. A hollow reconciliation was patched up between Charles and Rupert, and the court remained at Newark for over a month. Before it set out to return to Oxford another Royalist force had been destroyed. On 14 October, receiving information that Montrose had raised a new army, the King permitted Langdale's northern troops to make
7102-535: The Scottish government in 1583, so that upon assuming power south of the border, the new King of England was affronted by the constraints the English Parliament attempted to place on him in exchange for money. Consequently, James's personal extravagance, which resulted in him being perennially short of money, meant that he had to resort to extra-parliamentary sources of income. Moreover, increasing inflation during this period meant that even though Parliament
7236-608: The Severn valley; a large force in the Eastern Association; General Browne's in Buckinghamshire , etc., — besides the Scots in the north. The New Model originally consisted of 14,400 foot and 7,700 horse and dragoons . Of the infantry, only 6,000 came from the combined armies, the rest being new recruits furnished by the 'press'. Thus, there was considerable trouble during the first months of Fairfax's command, and discipline had to be enforced with unusual sternness. As for
7370-543: The Thames valley, the situation was again changed. Rupert, now in possession of the guns and their teams, urged upon his uncle, the resumption of the northern enterprise, calculating that with Fairfax in Somersetshire , Oxford was safe. Charles accordingly marched out of Oxford on the 7th towards Stow-on-the-Wold, on the very day as it chanced, that Fairfax began his return march from Blandford . But Goring and most of
7504-524: The Welsh hills brought the Royal army on 22 September to the neighbourhood of Chester. Charles himself with one body entered the city, which was partially invested by the Parliamentarian colonel Michael Jones, and the rest under Sir Marmaduke Langdale was sent to take Jones's lines in reverse. But at the opportune moment Poyntz's forces, which had followed the King's movements since he left Doncaster in
7638-522: The Yorkshiremen responded. Leven had just heard of new victories , won by Montrose. He could do no more than draw his army and his guns over the Pennine chain into Westmorland, in the hope of being in time to bar the King's march on Scotland via Carlisle . If the news of Auldearn brought Leven to the region of Carlisle, it had little effect on his English allies. Fairfax was not yet released from
7772-551: The Yorkshiremen, and the midland forces to oppose the King. It is hard to understand how, having created a new model army, "all its own" for general service, Parliament at once tied it down to a local enterprise, and trusted an improvised army of local troops to fight the enemy's main army. In reality, the Committee seems to have been misled by false information to the effect that Goring and the governor of Oxford were about to declare for Parliament. Had they not dispatched Fairfax to
7906-412: The ability and authority to collect and remit the most meaningful forms of taxation then available at the local level. So, if the king wanted to ensure smooth revenue collection, he needed the gentry's cooperation. For all of the Crown's legal authority, its resources were limited by any modern standard to the extent that if the gentry refused to collect the king's taxes on a national scale, the Crown lacked
8040-446: The armies and their lives threatened or intimidated by soldiers, battle followers, looters, deserters or refugees. As their name suggests, they were mostly armed with cudgels , flails , scythes and sickles fastened to long poles. They were otherwise unarmed. Initially Clubmen gatherings came together spontaneously in response to the actions of soldiers in their localities but as the war went on Clubmen in some areas were organised by
8174-504: The battle, this time a decisive battle, was the annihilation of the Royal army. Part of the cavalry escaped, a small fraction of it in tolerable order, but the guns and the baggage train were taken, and, above all, the splendid Royal infantry were killed or taken prisoners to a man. After Naseby, though the war dragged on for another year, the King never succeeded in raising an army as good as, or even more numerous than that, which Fairfax's army had so heavily outnumbered on 14 June 1645. That
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#17327869259148308-477: The cavalry, by itself, to prevent Rupert from gaining a start. Cromwell, then under Waller's command, had come to Windsor to resign his commission, as required by the Self-denying Ordinance. Instead, he was placed at the head of a brigade of his own old soldiers, with orders to stop the march of the artillery train. On 23 April 1645, Cromwell started from Watlington , north-westward. At dawn on
8442-426: The cavalry, rode off early on the 8th to try and surprise Taunton. This place was no longer protected by Massey's little army, which Fairfax had called up to assist his own. But Fairfax, who was not yet across Long Sutton bridge, heard of Goring's raid in good time, and sent Massey after him with a body of horse. Massey surprised a large party of the Royalists at Ilminster on the 9th, wounded Goring himself, and pursued
8576-418: The centuries de facto powers of enough significance that monarchs could not simply ignore them indefinitely. For a monarch, Parliament's most indispensable power was its ability to raise tax revenues far in excess of all other sources of revenue at the Crown's disposal. By the 17th century, Parliament's tax-raising powers had come to be derived from the fact that the gentry was the only stratum of society with
8710-410: The enemy's positions around Oxford. It is hardly necessary to say that Goring found good military reasons for continuing his independent operations, and marched off towards Taunton regardless of the order. He redressed the balance there for the moment by overawing Massey's weak force, and his purse profited considerably by fresh opportunities for extortion, but he and his men were not at Naseby. Meanwhile,
8844-499: The enemy, Oxford was openly contemptuous of "the rebels' new brutish general" and his men, who seemed hardly likely to succeed, where Essex and Waller had failed. But the effect of Parliament having "an army all its own" was soon to be apparent. On the Royalist side, the campaign of 1645 opened in the west, where Charles II , the young prince of Wales was sent with Hyde (later, Earl of Clarendon ), Hopton, and others as his advisers. General (Lord) Goring , however, now in command of
8978-495: The enemy, he was incapable. On the news from Yeovil, he abandoned the line of the Yeo, as far as Langport, without striking a blow. Fairfax, having nothing to gain by continuing his detour through Yeovil, came back and quietly crossed at Long Sutton , west of Ilchester on 9 July. Goring had by now formed a new plan. A strong rearguard was posted at Langport, and on high ground east and north-east of it, to hold Fairfax. He himself, with
9112-511: The fruits of the victory could not be gathered in a few weeks was due to a variety of hindrances (rather than to direct opposition): As to the latter, within a few days of Naseby, the Scots rejoiced that the "back of the malignants was broken". They demanded reinforcements, as a precaution against "the insolence of others", i.e., Cromwell and the Independents, "to whom alone the Lord has given
9246-478: The fugitives up to the south-eastern edge of Langport. On the 10th, Fairfax's advanced guard, led by Major Bethel of Cromwell's own regiment, brilliantly stormed the position of Goring's rearguard, east of Langport. The cavalry of the New Model, led by Cromwell himself, swept in pursuit right up to the gates of Bridgwater, where Goring's army, dismayed and on the point of collapse, was more or less rallied. Thence, Goring himself retired to Barnstaple . His army, under
9380-459: The impression that Charles wanted to avoid Parliamentary scrutiny of his ministers. Having dissolved Parliament and unable to raise money without it, the king assembled a new one in 1628. (The elected members included Oliver Cromwell , John Hampden , and Edward Coke .) The new Parliament drew up a Petition of Right , which Charles accepted as a concession to obtain his subsidy. The Petition made reference to Magna Carta , but did not grant him
9514-554: The independent command, he had extorted at Stow-on-the-Wold in May. Still, it was clear that he must be disposed of, as quickly as possible. On 26 June, Fairfax requested the Houses to take other measures against the King. This, they did by paying up the arrears due to Leven's army, and bringing it to the Severn valley. On 8 July, Leven reached Alcester , bringing with him a Parliamentarian force from Derbyshire, under Sir John Gell . The design
9648-493: The infantry were cavalry, with a right wing led by the lieutenant-general and left by the commissary general . Its main aim was to rout the opponents' cavalry, then turn and overpower their infantry. The Royalist cavaliers' skill and speed on horseback led to many early victories. Prince Rupert , commanding the king's cavalry, used a tactic learned while fighting in the Dutch army, where cavalry would charge at full speed into
9782-452: The issue. On 21 April, the Commons passed the Bill (204 in favour, 59 opposed, and 250 abstained), and the Lords acquiesced. Charles, still incensed over the Commons' handling of Buckingham, refused his assent. Strafford himself, hoping to head off the war he saw looming, wrote to the king and asked him to reconsider. Charles, fearing for the safety of his family, signed on 10 May. Strafford
9916-623: The king failed to issue a proper summons, the members could assemble on their own. This act also forbade ship money without Parliament's consent, fines in distraint of knighthood, and forced loans. Monopolies were cut back sharply, the courts of the Star Chamber and High Commission abolished by the Habeas Corpus Act 1640 , and the Triennial Act respectively. All remaining forms of taxation were legalised and regulated by
10050-480: The last place by Waller and Cromwell was dismissed by Blake (then a colonel in command of the fortress (afterwards, the great admiral of the Commonwealth ). After many adventures, Blake rejoined Waller and Cromwell. The latter generals, who had not yet laid down their commissions, then engaged Goring for some weeks. Neither side had infantry or artillery, and both found subsistence difficult in February and March. In
10184-623: The leadership of Charles Nott, the parson of Shelsley drew up the Woodbury Declaration, which protests at the "utter ruin by the outrages and violence of the soldier; threatening to fire our houses; endeavouring to ravish our wives and daughters, and menacing our persons", and presented it to Henry Bromley (of Holt ), the Royalist Sheriff of Worcestershire . In theory, the Clubmen of Dorset and Wiltshire operated as
10318-418: The livelihood of thousands after the King awarded a number of drainage contracts. Many saw the King as indifferent to public welfare, and this played a role in bringing much of eastern England into the Parliamentarian camp. This sentiment brought with it such people as the Earl of Manchester and Oliver Cromwell , each a notable wartime adversary of the King. Conversely, one of the leading drainage contractors,
10452-628: The local gentry and churchmen and were a force which both sides in the war had to take into account when planning a campaign and garrisoning some areas, particularly in the south and west. The Clubmen, distinguishing themselves by white ribbands, were of a third party, neither Royalist nor Parliamentarian, and they were repressed severely by the authorities on both sides. Though Lord Fairfax met with Clubmen and negotiated with them, eventually he moved against them. Organised Clubmen in Worcestershire met on Woodbury Hill on 5 March 1645 and under
10586-406: The main army of Parliament were marching away in the west, while Cromwell's detachment was left, as Waller had been left the previous year, to hold the King, as best he could. On the very evening that Cromwell's raid ended, the leading troops of Goring's command destroyed part of Cromwell's own regiment near Faringdon . On 3 May Rupert and Maurice appeared with a force of all arms at Burford . Yet
10720-441: The middle of August, appeared in rear of Langdale, and defeated him in the battle of Rowton Heath (September 24), while at the same time a sortie of the King's troops from Chester was repulsed by Jones. Thereupon the Royal army withdrew to Denbigh, and Chester, the only important seaport remaining to connect Charles with Ireland, was again besieged. Charles received the news of Philiphaugh on 28 September 1645, and gave orders that
10854-480: The name of which place, they are known to history) occupied the attention of the Scots and their Presbyterian friends. The rise of Independency, and of Cromwell, was a further distraction. The Lords and Commons were seriously at variance over the new army, and the Self-denying Ordinance. But in February, a fresh mutiny in Waller's command struck alarm into the hearts of the disputants. The "treaty" of Uxbridge came to
10988-520: The new levies, and reluctantly the King turned back to Oxford, raiding Huntingdonshire and other parts of the hated Eastern Association en route. But Charles was in no case to resume his northern march. Fairfax and the New Model, after reducing Bridgwater, had turned back to clear away the Dorsetshire Clubmen and to besiege Sherborne Castle . On the completion of this task, it had been decided to besiege Bristol, and on 23 August 1645 while
11122-479: The northern enterprise, begun in the spring. His recruiting operations in south Wales had not been as successful as he had hoped, owing to the apathy of the people, and the vigour of the local Parliamentary leaders. This time Rupert would not be with him. The prince, now despairing of success and hoping only for a peace on the best terms procurable, listlessly returned to his governorship of Bristol and prepared to meet Fairfax's impending attack. The influence of Rupert
11256-538: The officers of the escort about peace and the future of his adopted country. Charles, almost stunned by the suddenness of the catastrophe, dismissed his nephew from all his offices and ordered him to leave England, and for almost the last time called upon Goring to rejoin the main army, if a tiny force of raw infantry and disheartened cavalry can be so called, in the neighbourhood of Raglan. But before Goring could be brought to withdraw his objections Charles had again turned northward towards Montrose. A weary march through
11390-423: The opponent's infantry, firing their pistols just before impact. However, with Oliver Cromwell and the introduction of the more disciplined New Model Army , a group of disciplined pike men would stand its ground, which could have a devastating effect. The Royalist cavalry had a tendency to chase down individual targets after the initial charge, leaving their forces scattered and tired, whereas Cromwell's cavalry
11524-425: The opportunity presented by the King's troubles to force various reforming measures – including many with strong "anti- Papist " themes – upon him. The members passed a law stating that a new Parliament would convene at least once every three years – without the King's summons if need be. Other laws passed making it illegal for the king to impose taxes without Parliamentary consent and later gave Parliament control over
11658-427: The other generals were for a march into the west, in the hope of dealing with Fairfax as they had dealt with Essex in 1644. The armies therefore parted, as Essex and Waller had parted at the same place in 1644. Rupert and the King were to march northward, while Goring was to return to his independent command in the west. Rupert, not unnaturally, wishing to keep his influence with the King and his authority as general of
11792-619: The others sent to London. As the Civil War continued, the Clubmen began to grow increasingly impatient with the lack of seriousness in the approach of both King and Parliament to signing any relevant or significant peace treaty. The longer the war continued, the more substantial the negative impact on local communities, via plundering and heavy taxation. A peace treaty was therefore highly sought after by ordinary people and so Parliament and Charles I's failure in establishing one only served to increase tension and give further motivations and aims to
11926-489: The policy of coastal counties and inland ports such as London paying ship money in times of need, but it had not been applied to inland counties before. Authorities had ignored it for centuries, and many saw it as yet another extra-Parliamentary, illegal tax, which prompted some prominent men to refuse to pay it. Charles issued a writ against John Hampden for his failure to pay, and although five judges including Sir George Croke supported Hampden, seven judges found in favour of
12060-471: The property-owning class to meet, primarily, at least from the point of view of the monarch, to sanction whatever taxes the monarch wished to collect. In the process, the representatives could debate and enact statutes , or acts . However, Parliament lacked the power to force its will upon the monarch; its only leverage was the threat of withholding the financial means required to implement his plans. Many concerns were raised over Charles's marriage in 1625 to
12194-489: The publication of the King's papers, taken at Naseby, gave Fairfax's troops, a measure of official and popular support, which a month before, they could not have been said to possess. It was now obvious that they represented the armed force of England against the Irish, Danes , French, Lorrainers , etc., whom Charles had for three years been endeavouring to let loose on English soil. Even the Presbyterians abandoned for
12328-512: The reason for the different reaction is due to their differing experiences within the war. The Langport Clubmen had only experienced occupation by the "underpaid and unruly royalists", while the Dorset-Wiltshire Clubmen had experienced occupation by both the Royalists and by the Parliamentarians. In Dorset , on 2 August 1645, Colonel Charles Fleetwood surrounded and dispersed 1,000 Clubmen at Shaftesbury . Stiffer resistance
12462-438: The rebellion in Scotland but had insufficient funds to do so. He needed to seek money from a newly elected English Parliament in 1640. Its majority faction, led by John Pym , used this appeal for money as a chance to discuss grievances against the Crown and oppose the idea of an English invasion of Scotland. Charles took exception to this lèse-majesté (offense against the ruler) and, after negotiations went nowhere, dissolved
12596-615: The regimental officers, defended itself in Bridgwater resolutely till 23 July, when it capitulated. The fall of Bridgwater gave Fairfax complete control of Somerset and Dorset, from Lyme Regis to the Bristol channel. Even in the unlikely event of Goring's raising a fresh army, he would now have to break through towards Bristol by open force, and a battle between Goring and Fairfax could only have one result. Thus, Charles had perforce to give up his intention of joining Goring, and of resuming
12730-489: The relief of Taunton in the first instance, the necessity for such intrigues would not have arisen. However, Fairfax obeyed orders, invested Oxford, and so far as he was able, without a proper siege train, besieged it for two weeks, while Charles and Rupert ranged the Midlands unopposed. At the end of that time came news, so alarming that the Committee hastily abdicated their control over military operations, and gave Fairfax
12864-649: The remaining cathedral cities (except York, Chester, Worcester). Lacey Baldwin Smith says, "the words populous, rich, and rebellious seemed to go hand in hand". Many officers and veteran soldiers had fought in European wars, notably the Eighty Years' War between the Spanish and the Dutch, which began in 1568, as well as earlier phases of the Thirty Years' War which began in 1618 and concluded in 1648. The war
12998-450: The right of tonnage and poundage , which Charles had been collecting without Parliamentary authorisation since 1625. Several more active members of the opposition were imprisoned, which caused outrage; one, John Eliot , subsequently died in prison and came to be seen as a martyr for the rights of Parliament. Charles avoided calling a Parliament for the next decade, a period known as the " personal rule of Charles I ", or by its critics as
13132-401: The right of Goring's first position, had perhaps rightly been withdrawn to Ilchester, when the second position was taken up. Fairfax repaired the bridge without interruption. Goring showed himself unequal to the new situation. He might, if sober, make a good plan when the enemy was not present to disturb him, and he certainly led cavalry charges with boldness and skill. But of strategy in front of
13266-472: The same end as the treaty of Oxford in 1643, and a settlement as to army reform was achieved on 15 February. Though it was only on 25 March that the second and modified form of the ordinance was agreed to by both Houses, Sir Thomas Fairfax and Philip Skippon (who were not members of parliament) had been approved as lord general and major-general (of the infantry) respectively of the new army as early as 21 January. The post of lieutenant-general and cavalry commander
13400-474: The siege of Oxford, in spite of the protests of the Scottish representatives in London. Massey, the active and successful governor of Gloucester, was placed in command of a field force on 25 May 1645, but he was to lead it against, not the King, but Goring. At that moment the military situation once more changed abruptly. Charles, instead of continuing his march on to Lancashire, turned due eastward towards Derbyshire. The alarm at Westminster when this new development
13534-399: The siege of Oxford. On the other side also, the generals were working by data that had ceased to have any value. Fairfax's siege of Oxford, ordered by the Committee on 10 May 1645, and persisted in, after it was known that the King was on the move, was the second great blunder of the year. The blunder was hardly redeemed, as a military measure, by the visionary scheme of assembling the Scots,
13668-409: The singular, but historians often divide the conflict into two or three separate wars. These were not restricted to England alone, as Wales (having been annexed into the Kingdom of England ) was affected by the same political instabilities. The conflicts also involved wars with Scotland and Ireland and civil wars within them. Some historians have favoured the term The British Civil Wars . From
13802-470: The summer, tensions rose and there was brawling in several places, the first death from the conflict taking place in Manchester . First English Civil War, 1645 1643 1644 1645 1646 For the present, Charles's cause was crumbling, more from internal weakness than from the blows of the enemy. Fresh negotiations for peace which opened on 29 January 1645 at Uxbridge (by
13936-428: The term " English Revolution ". Each side had a geographical stronghold, such that minority elements were silenced or fled. The Royalist areas included the countryside, the shires, the cathedral city of Oxford, and the less economically developed areas of northern and western England. Parliament's strengths spanned the industrial centres, ports, and economically advanced regions of southern and eastern England, including
14070-417: The time of Elizabeth I about church attendance and fined Puritans for not attending Anglican services. The end of Charles's independent governance came when he attempted to apply the same religious policies in Scotland. The Church of Scotland , reluctantly episcopal in structure, had independent traditions. Charles wanted one uniform Church throughout Britain and introduced a new, High Anglican version of
14204-489: The time, any attempt to negotiate with the King, and advocated a vigorous prosecution of the war. This, in the hands of Fairfax and Cromwell, was likely to be effective. While the King and Rupert, with the remnant of their cavalry, hurried into South Wales to join Sir Charles Gerard's troops, and to raise fresh infantry, Fairfax decided that Goring's was the most important Royalist army in the field. He turned to
14338-419: The time, the Parliament of England did not have a large permanent role in the English system of government. Instead, it functioned as a temporary advisory committee and was summoned only if and when the monarch saw fit. Once summoned, a Parliament's continued existence was at the King's pleasure since it was subject to dissolution by him at any time. Yet in spite of this limited role, Parliament had acquired over
14472-404: The victory of that day". Leven had by now returned to Yorkshire, and a fortnight after Naseby, Carlisle fell to David Leslie's besieging corps, after a long and honourable defence by Sir Thomas Glemham. Leicester was reoccupied by Fairfax on the 18th, and on the 20th, Leven's army, moving slowly southward, reached Mansfield . This move was undertaken largely for political reasons, i.e. to restore
14606-476: The west should be abandoned, the prince of Wales should be sent to France, and Goring should bring up what forces he could to the Oxford region. On 4 October Charles himself reached Newark (whither he had marched from Denbigh after revictualling Chester and suffering the defeat of Rowton Heath). The intention to go to Montrose was of course given up, at any rate for the present, and he was merely waiting for Goring and
14740-498: The west, reaching Lechlade on the 26th, less than a fortnight after the battle of Naseby. One last attempt was made to dictate the plan of campaign from Westminster, but the Committee refused to pass on the directions of the Houses, and Fairfax remained free to deal with Goring, as he desired. Time pressed. Charles in Monmouthshire and Rupert at Bristol were well placed for a junction with Goring, which would have given them
14874-648: The wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms , the struggle consisted of the First English Civil War and the Second English Civil War . The Anglo-Scottish War of 1650 to 1652 is sometimes referred to as the Third English Civil War. While the conflicts in the three kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland had similarities, each had their own specific issues and objectives. The First English Civil War
15008-502: Was able to turn the headwaters of Goring's river-line via Beaminster and Crewkerne . The Royalists, at once, abandoned the south and west side of the rivers. The siege of Taunton had already been given up, and passed over to the north and east bank. Bridgwater was the right of this second line, as it had been the left of the first; the new left was at Ilchester . Goring could thus remain in touch with Charles in south Wales, through Bristol. The siege of Taunton having been given up, there
15142-590: Was beheaded two days later. In the meantime, both Parliament and the King agreed to an independent investigation into the king's involvement in Strafford's plot. The Long Parliament then passed the Triennial Act 1640 , also known as the Dissolution Act, in May 1641, to which royal assent was readily granted. The Triennial Act required Parliament to be summoned at least once in three years. When
15276-556: Was bright, for the Derbyshire men with Gell were far away at Worcester with Leven, the Yorkshire Parliamentarians engaged in besieging Scarborough Castle, Pontefract and other posts. But two days later he heard that David Leslie with the cavalry of Leven's army was coming up behind him, and that, the Yorkshire sieges being now ended, Major-General Poyntz's force lay in his front. It was now impossible to wait for
15410-519: Was called back to clear his line of retreat on Oxford. The Herefordshire and Worcestershire peasantry, weary of military exactions, were in arms. Though they would not join Parliament, and for the most part dispersed after stating their grievances, the main enterprise was wrecked. This was but one of many ill-armed crowds, the " Clubmen " as they were called, that assembled to enforce peace on both parties. A few regular soldiers were sufficient to disperse them in all cases, but their attempt to establish
15544-545: Was crowned King of Scotland, in return for agreeing to create a Presbyterian church in both England and Scotland. The subsequent Anglo-Scottish War ended with Parliamentarian victory at Worcester on 3 September 1651. Both Ireland and Scotland were incorporated into the Commonwealth, and Britain became a unitary state until the Stuart Restoration in 1660. The term English Civil War appears most often in
15678-472: Was for the moment left vacant, but there was little doubt as to who would eventually occupy it. The New Model Army's first necessity was regular pay; its first duty to serve wherever it might be sent. Of the three armies that had fought at Newbury, only one, Essex's, was in a true sense a general service force; and only one, Manchester's, was paid with any regularity. Waller's army was no better paid than Essex's, and no freer from local ties than Manchester's. It
15812-488: Was fought primarily over the correct balance of power between Parliament and Charles I . It ended in June 1646 with Royalist defeat and the king in custody. However, victory exposed Parliamentarian divisions over the nature of the political settlement. The vast majority went to war in 1642 to assert Parliament's right to participate in government, not abolish the monarchy, which meant Charles' refusal to make concessions led to
15946-425: Was granting the King the same nominal value of subsidy, the income was actually worth less. This extravagance was tempered by James's peaceful disposition, so that by the succession of his son Charles I in 1625 the two kingdoms had both experienced relative peace, internally and in their relations with each other. Charles followed his father's dream in hoping to unite the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland into
16080-512: Was joined at Ludlow by Rupert and part of his Oxford army, early in March 1645. The brothers drove off Brereton from the siege of Beeston Castle , and relieved the pressure on Lord Byron in Cheshire. So great was the danger of Rupert's again invading Lancashire and Yorkshire that all available forces in the north, English and Scots, were ordered to march against him. But at this moment the prince
16214-479: Was met by Oliver Cromwell in attacking a larger group in the ancient hillfort on Hambledon Hill . An hour's fighting killed 60 Clubmen and captured 400, half of whom were wounded. They were held in the church at Shroton . Parliamentarian sources claimed that they had been stirred up by "malignant priests", for vicars and curates were among the captives. Those who swore to the Covenant were subsequently released,
16348-466: Was naturally the backbone of the New Model. Early in April 1645, Essex, Manchester, and Waller resigned their commissions in anticipation of the passing by Parliament of the self-denying ordinance. Those in the forces, who were not embodied in the new army, were sent to do local duties, for minor armies were still maintained — General Sydnam Poyntz's in the north Midlands; General Edward Massey's in
16482-449: Was no Royalist army in the north to provide infantry and guns for a pitched battle. Rupert had perforce to wait near Hereford till the main body, and in particular the artillery train, could come from Oxford and join him. It was on the march of the artillery train to Hereford that the first operations of the New Model centred. The infantry was not yet ready to move, in spite of all Fairfax's and Skippon's efforts. It became necessary to send
16616-432: Was no longer any incentive for remaining on the wrong side of the water-line. But Goring's army was thoroughly demoralised by its own licence and indiscipline; and the swift, handy and resolute regiments of the New Model made short work of its strong positions. On 7 July 1645, demonstrating against the points of passage between Ilchester and Langport , Fairfax secretly occupied Yeovil. The post at that place, which had been
16750-567: Was occupied and Charles forced to pay £850 per day to keep the Scots from advancing. Had he not done so they would have pillaged and burnt the cities and towns of Northern England. All this put Charles in a desperate financial state. As King of Scots, he had to find money to pay the Scottish army in England; as King of England, he had to find money to pay and equip an English army to defend England. His means of raising English revenue without an English Parliament fell critically short of achieving this. Against this backdrop, and according to advice from
16884-542: Was of unprecedented scale for the English. During the campaign seasons, 120,000 to 150,000 soldiers would be in the field, a higher proportion of the population than were fighting in Germany in the Thirty Years' War . The main battle tactic came to be known as pike and shot infantry. The two sides would line up opposite one another, with infantry brigades of musketeers in the centre. These carried matchlock muskets, an inaccurate weapon which nevertheless could be lethal at
17018-530: Was reported was such that Cromwell, in spite of the Self-Denying Ordinance, was sent to raise an army for the defence of the Eastern Association. Yet the Royalists had no intentions in that direction. Conflicting reports as to the condition of Oxford reached the royal headquarters in the last week of May, and the eastward march was made chiefly to "spin out time" until it could be known whether it would be necessary to return to Oxford, or whether it
17152-526: Was slower but better disciplined. Trained to operate as a single unit, it went on to win many decisive victories. The English Civil War broke out in 1642, less than 40 years after the death of Queen Elizabeth I . Elizabeth had been succeeded by her first cousin twice-removed , King James VI of Scotland , as James I of England, creating the first personal union of the Scottish and English kingdoms . As King of Scots, James had become accustomed to Scotland's weak parliamentary tradition since assuming control of
17286-481: Was still possible to fight Leven in Yorkshire his move into Westmorland was not yet known and invade Scotland by the easy east coast route. Goring's return to the west had already been countermanded and he had been directed to march to Harborough, while the South Wales Royalists were also called in towards Leicester. Later orders on 26 May directed him to Newbury, whence he was to feel the strength of
17420-405: Was supplanted by that of George Digby, Earl of Bristol . As sanguine as Charles and far more energetic, he was for the rest of the campaign the guiding spirit of the Royalists, but being a civilian he proved incapable of judging the military factors in the situation from a military standpoint, and not only did he offend the officers by constituting himself a sort of confidential military secretary to
17554-414: Was therefore broken up early in April, and only 600 of its infantry passed into the New Model. Essex's men, on the other hand, wanted but regular pay and strict officers to make them excellent soldiers. Their own major-general, Skippon, managed by tact and his personal popularity, to persuade the bulk of the men to rejoin. Manchester's army, in which Cromwell had been the guiding influence from first to last,
17688-559: Was to besiege Hereford . By that time, Fairfax and Goring were at close quarters. The Royalist general's line of defence faced west along the River Yeo , and the Parrett , between Yeovil and Bridgwater and thus, barred the direct route to Taunton. Fairfax, however, marched from Lechlade via Marlborough and Blandford, hindered only by Clubmen, the friendly posts of Dorchester and Lyme Regis. With these as his centre of operations, he
17822-455: Was to come. A few hours later, on the night of 9/10 September, Fairfax's army stormed Bristol. Rupert had long realised the hopelessness of further fighting the very summons to surrender sent in by Fairfax placed the fate of Bristol on the political issue, the lines of defence around the place were too extensive for his small force, and on 10 September he surrendered Bristol on terms. He was escorted to Oxford with his men, conversing as he rode with
17956-550: Was to revive conventions, often outdated. For example, a failure to attend and receive knighthood at Charles's coronation became a finable offence with the fine paid to the Crown. The King also tried to raise revenue through ship money , demanding in 1634–1636 that the inland English counties pay a tax for the Royal Navy to counter the threat of privateers and pirates in the English Channel. Established law supported
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