Patrick Little - The English Civil Wars: A Beginners Guide

A Oneworld Paperback Original

This ebook edition published by Oneworld Publications, 2014

Published in North America, Great Britain and Australia
by Oneworld Publications, 2014

Copyright Patrick Little 2014

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In writing this book, I had two primary aims. The first was to produce a concise, accessible account of the conflicts collectively known as the English Civil Wars. The second was to try to give the reader some idea of what it was like to live through that traumatic episode. These aims explain the structure of what follows, which falls into two parts: a narrative of events between the outbreak of war in 1642 and the final defeat of the royalists at Worcester in 1651; and a thematic study of the military, religious, political, and social aspects of the civil war period.

This book has been informed by my own experiences in trying to bring the period to a wider audience. I am grateful to various groups and individuals for encouraging me to continue with what some colleagues may consider a quixotic venture. First, I am indebted to the late Professor Barry Coward, who involved me in teaching mature students at Birkbeck College, London, and then introduced me to The Cromwell Association. More recently, my role as chairman of the latter has allowed me to make contact with a wide range of groups catering for enthusiasts for the period, especially the Battlefields Trust, the Naseby Project, the John Hampden Society, the English Civil War Society, and the Sealed Knot. Parts of this book originated as a talk given to the Marston Moor Live event staged in July 2011 and hosted by Jo and David Smakman at Marston Grange. I am very grateful to them, and to audiences drawn from a variety of organizations, for their helpful comments and encouragement. My thanks also to Lilian Ladle and her team for discussion of the excavations at Bestwall near Wareham in Dorset, and to Dr Kerry Houston for information on John Oker. Dr David L. Smith, who kindly read a draft of the manuscript, provided valuable comments and criticisms. My wife, Susanne, also read the text, and drew my attention to various places where more explanation and clarification were badly needed.

Inevitably, I have relied heavily on the work of many historians, past and present. As this series does not include notes, I must beg indulgence from those whose work I have used and yet cannot acknowledge in the usual way. The guide to further reading at the end of the book includes those books and articles that I found most useful, and others that will help the reader to explore in greater depth for him- or herself.

Finally, I would like to thank my family for their support and encouragement; and on this occasion especially my sister, Clare, to whom this book is dedicated.

In the early afternoon of 23 October 1642, the armies of King Charles I and his parliament stood facing each other at Edgehill in Warwickshire. The kings forces, around 12,000 strong, were positioned on the slopes of the Edgehill escarpment a long 300-foot-high ridge that dominated the surrounding area. Parliaments army, roughly the same size as that of the king, and led by the newly appointed lord general, the earl of Essex, had formed up in front of the village of Kineton. A wide-open area, known as the great meadow, separated the two armies.

Despite the rolling drums, the boldly displayed flags, and the shouted encouragements from officers to their men, the prevailing mood was one of doubt. The kings men were keen to defeat the rebels in one decisive encounter, and to march on London to dictate peace terms, but there had been disputes among the high command in the hours before the battle started. The kings general of foot, the earl of Lindsey, had complained of being slighted. The decision to fight at Edgehill had been taken without advising with him, he complained, and the armys deployment on the battlefield had been in a form that he liked not. Lindsey felt his honour was at stake, and resigned his command, returning to his own foot regiment in the front line.

Parliaments commanders had problems of their own. They were well aware of the risks they were taking, leading an armed revolt against their lawful king. Essex knew that he could follow his father, Elizabeths favourite, the 2nd earl, to the block. His concern for his position and that of all his friends and comrades may have been a factor in his decision to fight a defensive battle. He did not intend to become famous as the man who had attacked his sovereign. Junior officers shared this sense of revulsion at what was about to take place, and at the very start of the battle one of the parliamentarian cavalry officers, Sir Faithful Fortescue, led his troop from the parliamentarian lines to join the kings side.

There was also some doubt as to the quality of the forces that had been raised hastily in the previous few weeks. As Oliver Cromwell, then a parliamentarian captain, remembered telling John Hampden after the battle: Your troopersare most of them old decayed servingmen and tapsters and such kind of fellows, and, said I, their troopers are gentlemens sons, younger sons and persons of quality; do you think that the spirits of such base and mean fellows will be ever able to encounter gentlemen that have honour and courage and resolution in them? Nor was Parliaments army the only one to feel anxiety at the poor quality of its recruits. The decision to use a simplified battle order one of the issues that had so offended the earl of Lindsey was probably taken because of the lack of muskets in the ranks of the kings army. Some of the royalists were armed with only agricultural implements and cudgels. It was painfully apparent to both sides that they were amateurs, who were being forced to fight if not against their wills, then against their better judgement. One can guess the questions that ran through the minds of the combatants as the drums sounded the advance. Could the peace-loving English really be fighting one another? Why had Parliament and the king not been able to settle their differences by peaceful means? Was the world being turned upside-down? In order to appreciate the causes of the conflict that broke out in the summer of 1642, we must look at the two most important areas of dispute: politics and religion.