Keith Roberts - Cromwell’s War Machine: The New Model Army 1645 - 1660

Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658). He had no military experience before the English Civil War began, but he was a charismatic leader and one of the best cavalry commanders to serve on either side. He was second in command of the New Model Army when it was first formed, but though Sir Thomas Fairfax was the commander of the New Model Army (until 1650), Cromwell was seen as representing its heart and soul.

For my father, Tony Roberts

First published in Great Britain in 2005 by
Pen & Sword Military
an imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
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Copyright Keith Roberts 2005

ISBN 1-84415-094-1
PRINT ISBN: 9781844150946
ePub ISBN: 9781844683253
PRC ISBN: 9781844683260

The right of Keith Roberts to be identified as
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Contents

Preface

The New Model Army was one of the toughest and most successful armies ever raised in England. It was created during the English Civil War and was formed out of existing Parliament armies as the means to break a stalemate and end the war by victory on the battlefield. In its first campaign it succeeded beyond all expectations, crushing the main Royalist army so completely at the battle of Naseby on 14 June 1645 that the Royalist cause never recovered.

The following chapters set out the military context of the time, in mainland Europe as well as Britain, the campaigns of the New Model Army and the experiences of its soldiers from recruitment through training to skirmish and battle, and their everyday life in camp or garrison.

As a fighting army, the New Model Army followed a highly aggressive strategic and tactical style of warfare. Its generals and junior officers modelled their approach on the campaigns of the great Swedish commander King Gustavus Adolphus during the Thirty Years War (161848) in Germany, seeking battlefield solutions to campaigns rather than relying on long-drawnout siege warfare. The accounts which many of them had read in the newsbook the Swedish Intelligencer , printed during 1632 and 1633, were slanted favourably towards Gustavus Adolphuss Swedish/German army, but its underlying doctrine of being ready, willing and able to fight was reliably described. Oliver Cromwells comment in 1648, on taking the decision to march towards a numerically superior opponent, it was thought that to engage the enemy to fight was our business demonstrates this attitude. However, although aggressive, the strategy it followed was always a measured approach. The New Model Army commanders made use of English naval superiority to transport heavy siege artillery and supplies by water, and made careful use of printed propaganda pamphlets offering the local population where it campaigned, whether in England, Scotland or Ireland, fair treatment for any not in arms against it and payment in ready money for local supplies.

The composition of the New Model Army was unusual for its day because it included a broad cross-section of society. In most parts of Europe, military service as a private soldier was seen as something to be avoided, but the origins of the New Model Army lay in the outbreak of the English Civil War, and the first armies of both sides had been formed largely of volunteers. Although diluted by conscription from the second year of the English Civil War, this sense of fighting for a cause they believed in remained a strong factor amongst Parliamentary armies, particularly amongst the cavalry, and was transferred to the New Model Army. This sense of purpose made it less amenable to the Parliaments attempt to disband it without its arrears of pay after the New Model Army had won the First Civil War, and the broader social origins of its soldiers and NCOs provided literate, argumentative soldiers with easy links to friends in civilian political movements, such as the loose association called the Levellers. Lack of pay and a burning sense of injustice brought this army to mutiny, and mutiny brought the armys leaders into power.

The proud boast of the New Model Army pamphleteers who sought to influence opinion in London in 1647, that Noe other Army could doe the Business that the New Model Army had been victorious where other armies could achieve only a stalemate proved to be literally true in the later campaigns of the New Model Army in England, Scotland, Ireland and Europe.

Terminology

I have referred to this army as the New Model Army throughout the book. Strictly speaking the term New Model Army or The Model was used when it was first raised and, sometimes, for those regiments in the English army in Ireland reorganized by Michael Jones. After the mutiny Sir Thomas Fairfax became commander of all English forces, and it became usual for its officers to refer to the English Army or simply the Army. However, neither of these terms is particularly distinctive, as there were English armies on both sides during the Civil War. So I have retained the term New Model Army throughout.

Dates

Dates in this period can be confusing for two reasons. Firstly, there are two different calendars in use, one the Julian or Old Style calendar, and the other the Gregorian or New Style calendar. The latter was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in 1581 and its impact was to advance the date by ten days, but not all countries adopted it immediately. So, for example, the battle of Ltzen during the Thirty Years War was fought in November 1632. For those in the Catholic Imperial German Army the date was 16 November, as they used the Gregorian or New Style calendar, while for those on the other side in the Protestant Swedish/German army the battle was fought on 6 November, as they still used the Julian or Old Style calendar. The second area of confusion is that in the Old Style calendar the new year begins on 25 March, not 1 January.

At this period in history, England still used the Julian calendar and I have retained the dates as they would appear in contemporary documents, with the exception that I have taken the year to begin on 1 January, not 25 March. For dates of the wars in mainland Europe I have used the Gregorian calendar because most modern writers do so, and to convert the dates back to the Julian calendar would create confusion for anyone reading any work on mainland European history.

Money

The currency used in England was pounds (), shillings (s) and pence (d). Twelve pence make 1 shilling, and 20 shillings (240 pence) make 1.