English Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between
Parliamentarians (Roundheads) and Royalists (Cavaliers). The first (1642–46) and second (1648–49) civil wars
pitted the supporters of King Charles I against the supporters of the Long Parliament, while the third war (1649–51)
saw fighting between supporters of King Charles II and supporters of the Rump Parliament. The Civil War ended
with the Parliamentary victory at the Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651.
The Civil War led to the trial and execution of Charles I, the exile of his son, Charles II, and replacement of English
monarchy with first, the Commonwealth of England (1649–53), and then with a Protectorate (1653–59), under
Oliver Cromwell's personal rule. The monopoly of the Church of England on Christian worship in England ended
with the victors consolidating the established Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. Constitutionally, the wars
established the precedent that an English monarch cannot govern without Parliament's consent, although this concept
was legally established only with the Glorious Revolution later in the century.
Terminology
The term English Civil War appears most commonly in the singular form, although historians often divide the
conflict into two or three separate wars. Although the term describes events as impinging on England, from the
outset the conflicts involved wars with and civil wars within both Scotland and Ireland; see Wars of the Three
Kingdoms for an overview.
Unlike other civil wars in England, which focused on who ruled, this war also concerned itself with the manner of
governing Britain and Ireland. Historians sometimes refer to the English Civil War as the English Revolution and
works such as the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica call it the Great Rebellion. Marxist historians such as Christopher
Hill (1912–2003) have long favoured the term English Revolution.[1]
Background
The King's Rule
War broke out less than forty years after the death of Elizabeth I in 1603. At the accession of Charles I in 1625,
England and Scotland had both experienced relative peace, both internally and in their relations with each other, for
as long as anyone could remember. Charles hoped to unite the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland into a new
single kingdom, fulfilling the dream of his father, James I of England (James VI of Scotland).[2] Many English
Parliamentarians had suspicions regarding such a move, because they feared that setting up a new kingdom might
destroy the old English traditions which had bound the English monarchy. As Charles shared his father's position on
the power of the crown (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"), the suspicions of the Parliamentarians had some justification.[3]
1
English Civil War
2
Parliament in the English constitutional framework
Charles I, painted by Van Dyck
Before the fighting, the Parliament of England did not have a large permanent
role in the English system of government, functioning as a temporary advisory
committee, summoned by the monarch whenever the Crown required additional
tax revenue, and subject to dissolution by the monarch at any time. Because
responsibility for collecting taxes lay in the hands of the gentry, the English
kings needed the help of that stratum of society in order to ensure the smooth
collection of that revenue. If the gentry refused to collect the King's taxes, the
Crown would lack any practical means with which to compel them. Parliaments
allowed representatives of the gentry to meet, confer and send policy-proposals
to the monarch in the form of Bills. These representatives did not, however, have
any means of forcing their will upon the king—except by withholding the
financial means required to execute his plans.[4]
Parliamentary concerns and the Petition of Right
One of the first events to raise concerns over Charles's reign was his marriage to
a French Roman Catholic princess, Henrietta-Marie de Bourbon, in 1625,
directly after ascending to the throne.[5] Charles's marriage raised the possibility
that his children, including the heir to the throne, might grow up as Catholics, an
alarming prospect to Protestant England.[5]
Charles set his sights on taking part in the conflicts which Europe was
undergoing in the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648).[6] Foreign wars necessitated
heavy expenditures, and the Crown could raise taxes only through Parliamentary
consent (described above). Charles experienced further financial difficulty when
his first 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.[7]
Henrietta Maria, painted by Peter
Lely, 1660
Charles, meanwhile, pressed ahead with his European wars, deciding to send an
expeditionary force to relieve the French Huguenots whom Royal French forces
held besieged in La Rochelle. Military support for Protestants on the Continent was, in itself, popular both in
Parliament and with the Protestant majority in general, and it had the potential to alleviate concerns brought about by
the King's Catholic marriage. However, Charles's insistence on having his unpopular royal favourite George Villiers,
the Duke of Buckingham assume command of the English force undermined that support. Unfortunately for Charles
and Buckingham, the relief expedition proved a fiasco (1627),[8] and Parliament, already hostile to Buckingham for
his monopoly on royal patronage, opened impeachment proceedings against him.[5] Charles responded by dissolving
Parliament. This move, while saving Buckingham, reinforced the impression that Charles wanted to avoid
Parliamentary scrutiny of his ministers[5]
Having dissolved Parliament and unable to raise money without it, the king assembled a new one in 1628. (The
elected members included Oliver Cromwell.) The new Parliament drew up the Petition of Right, and Charles
accepted it as a concession in order to obtain his subsidy.[9] Amongst other things, the Petition referred to the Magna
Carta.[10]
English Civil War
Personal Rule
Charles I avoided calling a Parliament for the next decade, a period known as the "Eleven Years' Tyranny" or
"Charles' Personal Rule".[11] During this period, Charles' lack of money determined policies. 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 through Parliament — and unwilling to convene it — Charles resorted to other means. For
example, not observing often long-outdated conventions became, in some cases, a finable offence (for example, a
failure to attend and to receive knighthood at Charles' coronation), with the fine paid to the Crown. The King also
tried to raise revenue through the ship money tax, by exploiting a naval war-scare in 1635, demanding that the inland
English counties pay the tax for the Royal Navy. Established law supported this policy, but authorities had ignored it
for centuries,and many regarded it as yet another extra-Parliamentary (and therefore illegal) tax.[12] Some prominent
men refused to pay ship money arguing that the tax was illegal, but they lost in court and the fines imposed on them
for refusing to pay ship money (and for standing against the tax's legality) aroused widespread indignation.[12]
During the "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 advisor, Archbishop William Laud.[13] In 1633, Charles appointed Laud as Archbishop of
Canterbury and started making the Church more ceremonial, replacing the wooden communion tables with stone
altars.[14] Puritans accused Laud of reintroducing Catholicism; 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.[15] Moreover, the Church authorities revived the
statutes passed in the time of Elizabeth I about church attendance, and fined Puritans for not attending Anglican
church services.[16]
Rebellion in Scotland
The end of Charles' 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.[17] Charles,
however, wanted one, uniform Church throughout Britain,[18] and introduced a new, High Anglican, version of the
English Book of Common Prayer to Scotland in summer of 1637. This was violently resisted; a riot broke out in
Edinburgh,[19] which may have been started in a church by Jenny Geddes; and, in February of 1638, the Scots
formulated their objections to royal policy in the National Covenant.[20] This document took the form of a "loyal
protest", rejecting all innovations not first having been tested by free parliaments and General Assemblies of the
Church.
In spring of 1639, King Charles I accompanied his forces to the Scottish border, to end the rebellion known as the
Bishops' War,[21] but, after an inconclusive military campaign, he accepted the offered Scottish truce — the
Pacification of Berwick. The truce proved temporary; a second war followed in summer of 1640. This time, a Scots
army defeated Charles' forces in the north, then captured Newcastle.[22] Charles eventually agreed not to interfere
with Scotland's religion, and paid the Scots war-expenses.
Recall of the English Parliament
Charles needed to suppress the rebellion in Scotland. He had insufficient funds, however, and needed to seek money
from a newly elected English Parliament in 1640.[23] The majority faction in the new Parliament, led by John Pym,
took this appeal for money as an opportunity to discuss grievances against the Crown, and opposed the idea of an
English invasion of Scotland. Charles took exception to this lèse-majesté (offence against the ruler) and dissolved the
Parliament after only a few weeks; hence the name "the Short Parliament".[23]
3
English Civil War
Without Parliament's support, Charles attacked Scotland again, breaking the truce at Berwick, and suffered a
comprehensive defeat. The Scots then seized the opportunity and invaded England, occupying Northumberland and
Durham[23] Meanwhile, another of Charles' chief advisors, Thomas Wentworth, 1st Viscount Wentworth, had risen
to the role of Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1632[21] and brought in much-needed revenue for Charles by persuading the
Irish Catholic gentry to pay new taxes in return for promised religious concessions.[24]
In 1639 Charles recalled Wentworth to England, and in 1640 made him Earl of Strafford, attempting to have him
work his magic again in Scotland.[21] This time he proved less successful, and the English forces fled the field in
their second encounter with the Scots in 1640.[21] Almost the entirety of Northern England was occupied, and
Charles was forced to pay £850 per day to keep the Scots from advancing. If he did not, they would "take" the
money by pillaging and burning the cities and towns of Northern England.[25]
All this put Charles in a desperate financial position. As King of Scots, he had to find money to pay the Scottish
army in England; as King of England, 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.[9] Against this
backdrop, and according to advice from 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.[21]
The Long Parliament
The new Parliament proved even more hostile to Charles than its predecessor. It immediately began to discuss
grievances against Charles and his Government, and with Pym and Hampden (of ship money fame) in the lead, took
the opportunity presented by the King's troubles to force various reforming measures—including many with strong
'anti-Papist' themes—upon him.[26] The legislators passed a law which stated that a new Parliament should convene
at least once every three years—without the King's summons, if necessary. Other laws passed by the Parliament
made it illegal for the king to impose taxes without Parliamentary consent, and later, gave Parliament control over
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. 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.[27]
In early 1641 Parliament had Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, arrested and sent to the Tower of London on a
charge of treason. John Pym claimed that Wentworth's statements of readiness to campaign against "the kingdom"
were aimed in fact at England itself. Unable to prove the case in court, the House of Commons, led by Pym and
Henry Vane, resorted to a Bill of Attainder.[28] Unlike a guilty finding in a court case, attainder did not require a
legal burden of proof, but it did require the king's approval. Charles, still incensed over the Commons' handling of
Buckingham, refused. Wentworth himself, hoping to head off the war he saw looming, wrote to the king and asked
him to reconsider. Wentworth's execution took place in May, 1641.[29]
Instead of saving the country from war, Wentworth's sacrifice in fact doomed it to one. Within months, the Irish
Catholics, fearing a resurgence of Protestant power, struck first, and all Ireland soon descended into chaos.[30]
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.[31]
In early January 1642, accompanied by 400 soldiers, Charles attempted to arrest five members of the House of
Commons on a charge of treason.[32] This attempt failed. When the troops marched into Parliament, Charles inquired
of William Lenthall, the Speaker, as to the whereabouts of the five. Lenthall replied "May it please your Majesty, I
have neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak in this place but as the House is pleased to direct me, whose servant I
am here."[32] In other words, the Speaker proclaimed himself a servant of Parliament, rather than of the King.[32]
4
English Civil War
5
Local grievances
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 owing to many local grievances. For example, the
imposition of drainage-schemes in The Fens negatively affected the livelihood of thousands of people after the King
awarded a number of drainage-contracts.[33] Many regarded the King as worse than insensitive, and this played a role
in bringing a large part of eastern England into Parliament’s camp. This sentiment brought with it people such as the
Earl of Manchester and Oliver Cromwell, each a notable wartime adversary of the King. Conversely, one of the
leading drainage contractors, the Earl of Lindsey, was to die fighting for the King at the Battle of Edgehill.[34]
The First English Civil War
In early January 1642, a few days after his failure to capture
five members of the House of Commons, fearing for his own
personal safety and for that of his family and retinue, Charles
left the London area.[35] Further negotiations by frequent
correspondence between the King and the Long Parliament
through to early summer proved fruitless. As the summer
progressed, cities and towns declared their sympathies for one
faction or the other: for example, the garrison of Portsmouth
under the command of Sir George Goring declared for the
King,[36] but when Charles tried to acquire arms for his cause
from Kingston upon Hull, the depository for the weapons used
in the previous Scottish campaigns, Sir John Hotham, the
military governor appointed by Parliament in January, initially
refused to let Charles enter Hull,[37] and when Charles
returned with more men, drove them off.[38] Charles issued a
warrant for Hotham to be arrested as a traitor but was
powerless to enforce it. Throughout the summer months,
tensions rose and there was brawling in a number of places,
with the first death of the conflict taking place in
Manchester.[39] [40]
Maps of territory held by Royalists (red) and
Parliamentarians (green), 1642—1645
At the outset of the conflict, much of the country remained neutral, though the Royal Navy and most English cities
favoured Parliament, while the King found considerable support in rural communities. Historians estimate that
between them, both sides had only about 15,000 men. However, the war quickly spread and eventually involved
every level of society. Many areas attempted to remain neutral, some formed bands of Clubmen to protect their
localities against the worst excesses of the armies of both sides,[41] but most found it impossible to withstand both
the King and Parliament. On one side, the King and his supporters thought that they fought for traditional
government in Church and state. On the other, most supporters of the Parliamentary cause initially took up arms to
defend what they thought of as the traditional balance of government in Church and state, which the bad advice the
King had received from his advisers had undermined before and during the "Eleven Years' Tyranny". The views of
the Members of Parliament ranged from unquestioning support of the King — at one point during the First Civil
War, more members of the Commons and Lords gathered in the King's Oxford Parliament than at Westminster —
through to radicals, who wanted major reforms in favour of religious independence and the redistribution of power at
the national level. However, even the most radical supporters of the Parliamentarian cause still favoured the retention
of Charles on the throne.
English Civil War
6
After the debacle at Hull, Charles moved on to Nottingham, where on 22 August 1642, he raised the royal
standard.[42] When he raised his standard, Charles had with him about 2,000 cavalry and a small number of
Yorkshire infantry-men, and using the archaic system of a Commission of Array,[43] Charles' supporters started to
build a larger army around the standard. Charles moved in a south-westerly direction, first to Stafford, and then on to
Shrewsbury, because the support for his cause seemed particularly strong in the Severn valley area and in North
Wales.[44] While passing through Wellington, in what became known as the "Wellington Declaration", he declared
that he would uphold the "Protestant religion, the laws of England, and the liberty of Parliament".[45]
The Parliamentarians who opposed the King had not remained passive during this pre-war period. As in the case of
Kingston upon Hull they had taken measures to secure strategic towns and cities, by appointing men sympathetic to
their cause, and on 9 June they had voted to raise an army of 10,000 volunteers, appointing Robert Devereux, 3rd
Earl of Essex commander three days later.[46] He received orders "to rescue His Majesty's person, and the persons of
the Prince [of Wales] and the Duke of York out of the hands of those desperate persons who were about them".[47]
The Lords Lieutenant, whom Parliament appointed, used the Militia Ordinance to order the militia to join Essex's
army.[48]
Two weeks after the King had raised his standard at Nottingham, Essex led his army north towards Northampton,[49]
picking up support along the way (including a detachment of Cambridgeshire cavalry raised and commanded by
Oliver Cromwell).[50] By the middle of September Essex's forces had grown to 21,000 infantry and 4200 cavalry and
dragoons. On 14 September he moved his army to Coventry and then to the north of the Cotswolds,[51] a strategy
which placed his army between the Royalists and London. With the size of both armies now in the tens of thousands,
and only Worcestershire between them, it was inevitable that cavalry reconnaissance units would sooner or later
meet. This happened in the first major skirmish of the Civil War, when a cavalry troop of about 1,000 Royalists
commanded by Prince Rupert, a German nephew of the King and one of the outstanding cavalry commanders of the
war,[52] defeated a Parliamentary cavalry detachment under the command of Colonel John Brown in the Battle of
Powick Bridge, at a bridge across the River Teme close to Worcester.[53]
Rupert withdrew to Shrewsbury, where a council-of-war discussed two courses
of action: whether to advance towards Essex's new position near Worcester, or to
march along the now opened road towards London. The Council decided to take
the London route, but not to avoid a battle, for the Royalist generals wanted to
fight Essex before he grew too strong, and the temper of both sides made it
impossible to postpone the decision. In the Earl of Clarendon's words: "it was
considered more counsellable to march towards London, it being morally sure
that Essex would put himself in their way".[54] Accordingly, the army left
Shrewsbury on 12 October, gaining two days' start on the enemy, and moved
south-east. This had the desired effect, as it forced Essex to move to intercept
them.[54]
Prince Rupert of the Rhine
The first pitched battle of the war, fought at Edgehill on 23 October 1642, proved
inconclusive, and both the Royalists and Parliamentarians claimed it as a
victory.[55] The second field action of the war, the stand-off at Turnham Green, saw Charles forced to withdraw to
Oxford.[56] This city would serve as his base for the remainder of the war.[57]
In 1643 the Royalist forces won at Adwalton Moor, and gained control of most of Yorkshire.[58] In the Midlands, a
Parliamentary force under Sir John Gell, 1st Baronet besieged and captured the cathedral city of Lichfield, after the
death of the original commander, Lord Brooke.[59] This group subsequently joined forces with Sir John Brereton to
fight the inconclusive Battle of Hopton Heath (19 March 1643), where the Royalist commander, the Earl of
Northampton, was killed.[59] Subsequent battles in the west of England at Lansdowne and at Roundway Down also
went to the Royalists.[60] Prince Rupert could then take Bristol. In the same year, Oliver Cromwell formed his troop
of "Ironsides", a disciplined unit that demonstrated his military leadership ability. With their assistance, he won a
English Civil War
7
victory at the Battle of Gainsborough in July.[61]
In general, the early part of the war went well for the Royalists. The turning point came in the late summer and early
autumn of 1643, when the Earl of Essex's army forced the king to raise the siege of Gloucester[62] and then brushed
the Royalist army aside at the First Battle of Newbury (20 September 1643),[63] in order to return triumphantly to
London. Other Parliamentarian forces won the Battle of Winceby,[64] giving them control of Lincoln. Political
manoeuvering to gain an advantage in numbers led Charles to negotiate a ceasefire in Ireland, freeing up English
troops to fight on the Royalist side in England,[65] while Parliament offered concessions to the Scots in return for aid
and assistance.
With the help of the Scots, Parliament won at Marston Moor (2 July 1644),[66] gaining York and the north of
England.[67] Cromwell's conduct in this battle proved decisive,[68] and demonstrated his potential as both a political
and an important military leader. The defeat at the Battle of Lostwithiel in Cornwall, however, marked a serious
reverse for Parliament in the south-west of England.[69] Subsequent fighting around Newbury (27 October 1644),
though tactically indecisive, strategically gave another check to Parliament.[70]
In 1645 Parliament reaffirmed its determination to fight the war to a finish. It
passed the Self-denying Ordinance, by which all members of either House of
Parliament laid down their commands, and re-organized its main forces into the
New Model Army ("Army"), under the command of Sir Thomas Fairfax, with
Cromwell as his second-in-command and Lieutenant-General of Horse.[71] In
two decisive engagements—the Battle of Naseby on 14 June and the Battle of
Langport on 10 July—the Parliamentarians effectively destroyed Charles'
armies.[72]
In the remains of his English realm Charles attempted to recover a stable base of
support by consolidating the Midlands. He began to form an axis between
Oliver Cromwell
Oxford and Newark on Trent in Nottinghamshire. Those towns had become
fortresses and showed more reliable loyalty to him than to others. He took
Leicester, which lies between them, but found his resources exhausted. Having little opportunity to replenish them,
in May 1646 he sought shelter with a Presbyterian Scottish army at Southwell in Nottinghamshire.[73] Charles was
eventually handed over to the English Parliament by the Scots and was imprisoned.[74] This marked the end of the
First English Civil War.
The Second English Civil War
Charles I took advantage of the deflection of attention away from
himself to negotiate a secret treaty with the Scots, again promising
church reform, on 28 December 1647.[75] Under the agreement, called
the "Engagement", the Scots undertook to invade England on Charles'
behalf and restore him to the throne on condition of the establishment
of Presbyterianism for three years.[76]
"And when did you last see your father?" by
A series of Royalist uprisings throughout England and a Scottish
William Frederick Yeames.
invasion occurred in the summer of 1648. Forces loyal to
Parliament[77] put down most of the uprisings in England after little
more than skirmishes, but uprisings in Kent, Essex and Cumberland, the rebellion in Wales, and the Scottish
invasion involved the fighting of pitched battles and prolonged sieges.[75]
In the spring of 1648 unpaid Parliamentarian troops in Wales changed sides. Colonel Thomas Horton defeated the
Royalist rebels at the Battle of St Fagans (8 May)[78] and the rebel leaders surrendered to Cromwell on 11 July after
the protracted two-month siege of Pembroke.[79] Sir Thomas Fairfax defeated a Royalist uprising in Kent at the
English Civil War
Battle of Maidstone on 1 June. Fairfax, after his success at Maidstone and the pacification of Kent, turned northward
to reduce Essex, where, under their ardent, experienced and popular leader Sir Charles Lucas, the Royalists had
taken up arms in great numbers. Fairfax soon drove the enemy into Colchester, but his first attack on the town met
with a repulse and he had to settle down to a long siege.[80]
In the North of England, Major-General John Lambert fought a very successful campaign against a number of
Royalist uprisings—the largest that of Sir Marmaduke Langdale in Cumberland.[81] Thanks to Lambert's successes,
the Scottish commander, the Duke of Hamilton, had perforce to take the western route through Carlisle in his
pro-Royalist Scottish invasion of England.[82] The Parliamentarians under Cromwell engaged the Scots at the Battle
of Preston (17 August – 19 August). The battle took place largely at Walton-le-Dale near Preston in Lancashire, and
resulted in a victory by the troops of Cromwell over the Royalists and Scots commanded by Hamilton.[82] This
Parliamentarian victory marked the end of the Second English Civil War.
Nearly all the Royalists who had fought in the First Civil War had given their parole not to bear arms against the
Parliament, and many honourable Royalists, like Lord Astley, refused to break their word by taking any part in the
second war. So the victors in the Second Civil War showed little mercy to those who had brought war into the land
again. On the evening of the surrender of Colchester, Parliamentarians had Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle
shot.[83] Parliamentary authorities sentenced the leaders of the Welsh rebels, Major-General Rowland Laugharne,
Colonel John Poyer and Colonel Rice Powel to death, but executed Poyer alone (25 April 1649), having selected him
by lot.[84] Of five prominent Royalist peers who had fallen into the hands of Parliament, three, the Duke of Hamilton,
the Earl of Holland, and Lord Capel, one of the Colchester prisoners and a man of high character, were beheaded at
Westminster on 9 March.[85]
Trial of Charles I for treason
The betrayal by Charles caused Parliament to debate whether to return the King to power at all. Those who still
supported Charles' place on the throne tried once more to negotiate with him.[86] Furious that Parliament continued
to countenance Charles as a ruler, the Army marched on Parliament and conducted "Pride's Purge" (named after the
commanding officer of the operation, Thomas Pride) in December 1648.[87] Troops arrested 45 Members of
Parliament and kept 146 out of the chamber. They allowed only 75 Members in, and then only at the Army's bidding.
This Rump Parliament received orders to set up, in the name of the people of England, a High Court of Justice for
the trial of Charles I for treason.[88]
At the end of the trial the 59 Commissioners (judges) found Charles I guilty of high treason, as a "tyrant, traitor,
murderer and public enemy".[89] [90] His beheading took place on a scaffold in front of the Banqueting House of the
Palace of Whitehall on 30 January 1649. (After the Restoration in 1660, Charles II executed the surviving regicides
not living in exile or sentenced them to life imprisonment.)
The Third English Civil War
Ireland
Ireland had known continuous war since the rebellion of 1641, with most of the island controlled by the Irish
Confederates.[91] Increasingly threatened by the armies of the English Parliament after Charles I's arrest in 1648, the
Confederates signed a treaty of alliance with the English Royalists.[92] The joint Royalist and Confederate forces
under the Duke of Ormonde attempted to eliminate the Parliamentary army holding Dublin, but their opponents
routed them at the Battle of Rathmines (2 August 1649).[93] As the former Member of Parliament Admiral Robert
Blake blockaded Prince Rupert's fleet in Kinsale, Oliver Cromwell could land at Dublin on 15 August 1649 with an
army to quell the Royalist alliance in Ireland.[94]
Cromwell's suppression of the Royalists in Ireland during 1649 still has a strong resonance for many Irish people.
After the siege of Drogheda,[94] the massacre of nearly 3,500 people—comprising around 2,700 Royalist soldiers
8
English Civil War
and 700 others, including civilians, prisoners, and Catholic priests (Cromwell claimed all the men carrying
arms)—became one of the historical memories that has driven Irish-English and Catholic-Protestant strife during the
last three centuries. However, the massacre has significance mainly as a symbol of the Irish perception of
Cromwellian cruelty, as far more people died in the subsequent guerrilla and scorched-earth fighting in the country
than at infamous massacres such as Drogheda and Wexford. The Parliamentarian conquest of Ireland ground on for
another four years until 1653, when the last Irish Confederate and Royalist troops surrendered.[95] Historians have
estimated that around 30% of Ireland's population either died or had gone into exile by the end of the wars. The
victors confiscated almost all Irish Catholic-owned land in the wake of the conquest and distributed it to the
Parliament's creditors, to the Parliamentary soldiers who served in Ireland, and to English people who had settled
there before the war.[96]
Scotland
The execution of Charles I altered the dynamics of the Civil War in Scotland, which had raged between Royalists
and Covenanters since 1644. By 1649, the struggle had left the Royalists there in disarray and their erstwhile leader,
the Marquess of Montrose, had gone into exile. At first, Charles II encouraged Montrose to raise a Highland army to
fight on the Royalist side.[97] However, when the Scottish Covenanters (who did not agree with the execution of
Charles I and who feared for the future of Presbyterianism and Scottish independence under the new
Commonwealth) offered him the crown of Scotland, Charles abandoned Montrose to his enemies. However,
Montrose, who had raised a mercenary force in Norway,[97] had already landed and could not abandon the fight. He
did not succeed in raising many Highland clans and the Covenanters defeated his army at the Battle of Carbisdale in
Ross-shire on 27 April 1650. The victors captured Montrose shortly afterwards and took him to Edinburgh. On 20
May the Scottish Parliament sentenced him to death and had him hanged the next day.[97]
Charles II landed in Scotland at Garmouth in Morayshire on 23 June
1650[98] and signed the 1638 National Covenant and the 1643 Solemn
League and Covenant shortly after coming ashore.[99] With his original
Scottish Royalist followers and his new Covenanter allies, King
Charles II became the greatest threat facing the new English republic.
In response to the threat, Cromwell left some of his lieutenants in
Ireland to continue the suppression of the Irish Royalists and returned
to England.[97]
He arrived in Scotland on 22 July 1650[100] and proceeded to lay siege
"Cromwell at Dunbar", by Andrew Carrick Gow
to Edinburgh. By the end of August disease and a shortage of supplies
had reduced his army, and he had to order a retreat towards his base at
Dunbar. A Scottish army, assembled under the command of David Leslie, tried to block the retreat, but Cromwell
defeated them at the Battle of Dunbar on 3 September.[101] Cromwell's army then took Edinburgh, and by the end of
the year his army had occupied much of southern Scotland.
In July 1651, Cromwell's forces crossed the Firth of Forth into Fife and defeated the Scots at the Battle of
Inverkeithing (20 July 1651).[102] The New Model Army advanced towards Perth, which allowed Charles, at the
head of the Scottish army, to move south into England. Cromwell followed Charles into England, leaving George
Monck to finish the campaign in Scotland. Monck took Stirling on 14 August and Dundee on 1 September.[103] The
next year, 1652, saw the mopping up of the remnants of Royalist resistance, and under the terms of the "Tender of
Union", the Scots received 30 seats in a united Parliament in London, with General Monck appointed as the military
governor of Scotland.[104]
9
English Civil War
England
Although Cromwell's New Model Army had defeated a Scottish army at Dunbar, Cromwell could not prevent
Charles II from marching from Scotland deep into England at the head of another Royalist army.[105] The Royalists
marched to the west of England because English Royalist sympathies were strongest in that area, but although some
English Royalists joined the army, they came in far fewer numbers than Charles and his Scottish supporters had
hoped. Cromwell finally engaged and defeated the new king at Worcester on 3 September 1651.[106] Charles II
escaped, via safe houses and a famous oak tree, to France, ending the civil wars.[105]
Political control
During the Wars, the Parliamentarians established a number of successive committees to oversee the war-effort. The
first of these, the Committee of Safety, set up in July 1642, comprised 15 Members of Parliament.[107] Following the
Anglo-Scottish alliance against the Royalists, the Committee of Both Kingdoms replaced the Committee of Safety
between 1644 and 1648.[108] Parliament dissolved the Committee of Both Kingdoms when the alliance ended, but its
English members continued to meet and became known as the Derby House Committee.[108] A second Committee of
Safety then replaced that committee.
Casualties
As usual in wars of this era, disease caused more deaths than combat. There are no accurate figures for these periods,
and it is not possible to give a precise overall figure for those killed in battle, as opposed to those who died from
disease, or even from a natural decline in population.
Figures for casualties during this period are unreliable, but some attempt has been made to provide rough
estimates.[109] [110] In England, a conservative estimate is that roughly 100,000 people died from war-related disease
during the three civil wars. Historical records count 84,830 dead from the wars themselves. Counting in accidents
and the two Bishops' wars, an estimate of 190,000 dead is achieved.[110]
Figures for Scotland are more unreliable and should be treated with greater caution. Casualties include the deaths of
prisoners-of-war in conditions that accelerated their deaths, with estimates of 10,000 prisoners not surviving or not
returning home (8,000 captured during and immediately after the Battle of Worcester were deported to New
England, Bermuda and the West Indies to work for landowners as indentured labourers[111] ). There are no figures to
calculate how many died from war-related diseases, but if the same ratio of disease to battle deaths from English
figures is applied to the Scottish figures, a not unreasonable estimate of 60,000 people is achieved.[110]
Figures for Ireland are described as "miracles of conjecture". Certainly the devastation inflicted on Ireland was
unbelievable, with the best estimate provided by Sir William Petty, the father of English demography. Although
Petty's figures are the best available, they are still acknowledged as being tentative. They do not include the estimate
of 40,000 driven into exile, some of whom served as soldiers in European continental armies, while others were sold
as indentured servants to New England and the West Indies. Many of those sold to landowners in New England
eventually prospered, but many of those sold to landowners in the West Indies were worked to death. Petty estimates
that 112,000 Protestants were killed through plague, war and famine, and that 504,000 Catholics were killed, giving
an estimated total of 618,000 dead.[110]
These estimates indicate that England suffered a 3.7% loss of population, Scotland a loss of 6%, while Ireland
suffered a loss of 41% of its population. Putting these numbers into the context of other catastrophes helps to
understand the devastation to Ireland in particular. The Great Hunger of 1845-1852 resulted in a loss of 16% of the
population, while during the Second World War the population of the Soviet Union fell by 16%.[110]
10
English Civil War
Popular gains
Ordinary people took advantage of the dislocation of civil society during the 1640s to derive advantages for
themselves. The contemporary guild democracy movement won its greatest successes among London's transport
workers, notably the Thames watermen.[112] Rural communities seized timber and other resources on the
sequestrated estates of royalists and Catholics, and on the estates of the royal family and the church hierarchy. Some
communities improved their conditions of tenure on such estates.[113] The old status quo began a retrenchment after
the end of the main civil war in 1646, and more especially after the restoration of monarchy in 1660. But some gains
were long-term. The democratic element introduced in the watermen's company in 1642, for example, survived, with
vicissitudes, until 1827.[114]
Aftermath
The wars left England, Scotland, and Ireland among the few countries in Europe without a monarch. In the wake of
victory, many of the ideals (and many of the idealists) became sidelined. The republican government of the
Commonwealth of England ruled England (and later all of Scotland and Ireland) from 1649 to 1653 and from 1659
to 1660. Between the two periods, and due to in-fighting amongst various factions in Parliament, Oliver Cromwell
ruled over the Protectorate as Lord Protector (effectively a military dictator) until his death in 1658.[115]
Upon his death, Oliver Cromwell's son Richard became Lord Protector, but the Army had little confidence in
him.[116] After seven months the Army removed Richard, and in May 1659 it re-installed the Rump.[117] However,
since the Rump Parliament acted as though nothing had changed since 1653 and as though it could treat the Army as
it liked, military force shortly afterwards dissolved this, as well.[118] After the second dissolution of the Rump, in
October 1659, the prospect of a total descent into anarchy loomed as the Army's pretence of unity finally dissolved
into factions.[119]
Into this atmosphere General George Monck, Governor of Scotland under the Cromwells, marched south with his
army from Scotland. On 4 April 1660, in the Declaration of Breda, Charles II made known the conditions of his
acceptance of the Crown of England.[120] Monck organised the Convention Parliament,[121] which met for the first
time on 25 April 1660. On 8 May 1660, it declared that King Charles II had reigned as the lawful monarch since the
execution of Charles I in January 1649. Charles returned from exile on 23 May 1660. On 29 May 1660, the populace
in London acclaimed him as king.[122] His coronation took place at Westminster Abbey on 23 April 1661. These
events became known as the Restoration.[123]
Although the monarchy was restored, it was still only with the consent of Parliament; therefore, the civil wars
effectively set England and Scotland on course to adopt a parliamentary monarchy form of government.[124] This
system would result in the outcome that the future Kingdom of Great Britain, formed in 1707 under the Acts of
Union, would manage to forestall the kind of often-bloody revolution, typical of European republican movements
that followed the Jacobin revolution in 18th century France and the later success of Napoleon, which generally
resulted in the total abolition of monarchy. It was no coincidence that the United Kingdom was spared the wave of
revolutions that occurred in Europe in the 1840s. Specifically, future monarchs became wary of pushing Parliament
too hard, and Parliament effectively chose the line of royal succession in 1688 with the Glorious Revolution and in
the 1701 Act of Settlement. After the Restoration, Parliament's factions became political parties (later becoming the
Tories and Whigs) with competing views and varying abilities to influence the decisions of their monarchs.
11
English Civil War
Historiography and explanations of the English Civil War
In the early decades of the 20th century the Whig school was the dominant theoretical view. They explained the
Civil War as resulting from a centuries-long struggle between Parliament (especially the House of Commons) and
the Monarchy, with Parliament defending the traditional rights of Englishmen, while the Stuart monarchy
continually attempted to expand its right to arbitrarily dictate law. The most important Whig historian, S.R. Gardiner,
popularized the English Civil War as a 'Puritan Revolution': challenging the repressive Stuart Church, and preparing
the way for religious toleration in the Restoration. Thus, Puritanism was the natural ally of a people preserving their
traditional rights against arbitrary monarchical power.
The Whig view was challenged and largely superseded by the Marxist school, which became popular in the 1940s,
and which interpreted the English Civil War as a bourgeois revolution. According to Marxist historian Christopher
Hill:
The Civil War was a class war, in which the despotism of Charles I was defended by the reactionary forces of
the established Church and conservative landlords, Parliament beat the King because it could appeal to the
enthusiastic support of the trading and industrial classes in town and countryside, to the yeomen and
progressive gentry, and to wider masses of the population whenever they were able by free discussion to
understand what the struggle was really about.
—Christopher Hill[125]
In the 1970s, a new generation of historians, who would become known as Revisionists challenged both the Whig
and the Marxist theories.[126] In 1973, a group of revisionist historians published the anthology The Origins of the
English Civil War (Conrad Russell ed.). These historians disliked both Whig and Marxist explanations of the Civil
War as long-term socio-economic trends in English society, producing work focused on the minutiae of the years
immediately preceding the civil war, thereby returning to the contingency-based historiography of Clarendon's
famous contemporary history History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England. This, it was claimed,
demonstrated that factional war-allegiance patterns did not fit either Whig or Marxist history. Puritans, for example,
did not necessarily ally themselves with Parliamentarians. Many members of the bourgeoisie fought for the King,
while many landed aristocrats supported Parliament. Thus, revisionist historians have discredited some Whig and
Marxist interpretations of the English Civil War .[126]
Jane Ohlmeyer discarded and replaced the historical title "English Civil War" with the titles the "Wars of the Three"
and the "British Civil Wars", positing that the civil war in England cannot be understood isolated from events in
other parts of Great Britain and Ireland; King Charles I remains crucial, not just as King of England, but also because
of his relationship with the peoples of his other realms. For example, the wars began when King Charles I tried
imposing an Anglican Prayer Book upon Scotland, and when this was met with resistance from the Covenanters, he
needed an army to impose his will. However, this forced him to call an English Parliament to raise new taxes to pay
for the army. The English Parliaments were not willing to grant Charles the revenue he needed to pay for the Scottish
expeditionary army unless he addressed their grievances. By the early 1640s, Charles was left in a state of near
permanent crisis management; often he was not willing to concede enough ground to any one faction to neutralise
the threat, and in some circumstances to do so would only antagonise another faction. For example, Charles finally
agreed upon terms with the Covenanters in August 1641, but although this might have weakened the position of the
English Parliament, the Irish Rebellion of 1641 broke out in October 1641, largely negating the political advantage
he had obtained by relieving himself of the cost of the Scottish invasion.[127]
12
English Civil War
13
Re-enactments
Two large historical societies exist, The Sealed Knot and The English
Civil War Society, which regularly re-enact events and battles of the
Civil War in full period costume.
Notes
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
Hill 1972, for example.
Croft 2003, p. 63.
McClelland 1996, p. 224.
William Dawson Johnston, The history of England from the accession of James the
Second (http:/ / www. archive. org/ details/ historyenglandf01johngoog) Volume I,
Boston and New York, Houghton, Mifflin and company, 1901.
A historical civil war re-enactment
[5] Gregg 1984, p. 73.
[6] Gregg 1984, p. 123
[7] Gregg 1984, pp. 129–30.
[8] Gregg 1984, p. 166.
[9] Purkiss 2007, p. 93.
[10] Petition of Right at III, VII.
[11] Rosner & Theibault 2000, p. 103.
[12] Pipes 1999, p. 143.
[13] Carlton 1987, p. 48.
[14] Carlton 1987, p. 96.
[15] Purkiss 2007, p. 201.
[16] Carlton 1987, p. 173.
[17] Purkiss 2007, p. 74.
[18] Purkiss 2007, p. 83.
[19] Purkiss 2007, p. 75.
[20] Purkiss 2007, p. 77.
[21] Purkiss 2007, p. 96.
[22] Purkiss 2007, p. 97.
[23] Coward 2003, p. 180.
[24] Coward 2003, p. 172.
[25] Sharp 2000, p. 13.
[26] Purkiss 2007, pp. 104,5.
[27] See Walter 1999, p. 294, for some of the complexities of how the Protestation was interpreted by different political actors.
[28] Purkiss 2007, p. 116.
[29] Jacob Abbott Charles I (http:/ / www. mainlesson. com/ display. php?author=abbott& book=charles1& story=_contents) Chapter Downfall
of Strafford and Laud (http:/ / www. mainlesson. com/ display. php?author=abbott& book=charles1& story=downfall)
[30] Purkiss 2007, pp. 109–113.
[31] See Purkiss 2007, p. 113 for the concerns of a similar English Catholic rising.
[32] Sherwood 1997, p. 41.
[33] Hughes 1991, p. 127.
[34] Purkiss 2007, p. 180.
[35] Wedgwood 1970, p. 57.
[36] Wedgwood 1970, p. 107.
[37] Wedgwood 1970, p. 82.
[38] Wedgwood 1970, p. 100.
[39] Royle 2006, pp. 158–166.
[40] Wedgwood 1970, p. 100
[41] Wedgwood 1970, pp. 403,4.
[42] Wedgwood 1970, p. 111.
[43] Wedgwood 1970, p. 96.
[44] Royle 2006, pp. 170,183.
[45] Sherwood 1992, p. 6.
[46] Wedgwood 1970, pp. 108,9.
[47] Hibbert 1993, p. 65.
English Civil War
[48]
[49]
[50]
[51]
[52]
[53]
[54]
[55]
[56]
[57]
[58]
[59]
[60]
[61]
[62]
[63]
[64]
[65]
[66]
[67]
[68]
[69]
Royle 2006, pp. 165,161.
Wedgwood 1970, p. 113.
Cromwell had already secured Cambridge and the supplies of college silver - see Wedgwood 1970, p. 106.
Wegwood, p.115.
Wedgwood 1970, p. 148.
Royle 2006, pp. 171–188
Encyclopaedia Britannica Eleventh Edition Great Rebellion
Wedgwood 1970, pp. 130,1.
Wedgwood 1970, p. 135.
Wedgwood 1970, pp. 167–8;506–7.
Wedgwood 1970, p. 209.
Wanklyn & Jones 2005, p. 74.
Wanklyn & Jones 2005, p. 103.
Young & Holmes 1974, p. 151.
Wedgwood 1970, p. 232.
Wedgwood 1970, p. 238.
Wedgwood 1970, p. 248.
Wedgwood 1970, pp. 298,9.
Wanklyn & Jones 2005, p. 189.
Wedgwood 1970, p. 322.
Wedgwood 1970, p. 319.
Ashley, p.188.
[70] Wedgwood 1970, p. 359.
[71] Wedgwood 1970, p. 373.
[72] Wedgwood 1970, p. 428.
[73] Wedgwood 1970, pp. 519–520.
[74] Wedgwood 1970, p. 570.
[75] Seel 1999, p. 64.
[76] "King Charles I" (http:/ / www. luminarium. org/ encyclopedia/ kingcharles. htm). Luminarium Encyclopedia. . Retrieved 2010-04-08.
[77] House of Lords Journal Volume 10 19 May 1648: Letter from L. Fairfax, about the Disposal of the Forces, to suppress the Insurrections in
Suffolk, Lancashire, and S. Wales; and for Belvoir Castle to be secured (http:/ / www. british-history. ac. uk/ report. asp?compid=32812#s24)
and the House of Lords Journal Volume 10 19 May 1648: Disposition of the Remainder of the Forces in England and Wales not mentioned in
the Fairfax letter (http:/ / www. british-history. ac. uk/ report. asp?compid=32812#s26)
[78] John 2008, p. 127.
[79] Trevelyan 2002, p. 274.
[80] Trevelyan 2002, pp. 274,5.
[81] Newman 2006, p. 87.
[82] Newman 2006, p. 89.
[83] Trevelyan 2002, p. 275.
[84] Gardiner 2006, p. 46.
[85] Gardiner 2006, p. 12.
[86] Aylmer 1980, p. 23.
[87] Aylmer 1980, p. 22.
[88] Aylmer & 1980 p.25.
[89] Sean Kelsey, Sean. " The Trial of Charles I (http:/ / ehr. oxfordjournals. org/ cgi/ content/ abstract/ 118/ 477/ 583)" English Historical
Review 2003, Volume 118, Number 477 Pp. 583-616
[90] Michael Kirby. The trial of King Charles I – defining moment for our constitutional liberties (http:/ / www. hcourt. gov. au/ speeches/
kirbyj/ kirbyj_charle88. htm) speech to the Anglo-Australasian Lawyers' association, on 22 January 1999.
[91] Leniham 2008, p. 121.
[92] Leniham 2008, p. 122.
[93] Leniham 2008, p. 127.
[94] Leniham 2008, p. 128.
[95] Leniham 2008, p. 132.
[96] Leniham 2008, pp. 135–6.
[97] Carpenter 2005, p. 145
[98] Brett 2008, p. 39.
[99] Brett 2008, p. 41.
[100] Reid & Turner 2004, p. 18
[101] Reid & Turner 2004, p..
14
English Civil War
[102] Carpenter 2005, p. 158.
[103] Carpenter 2005, p. 185.
[104] Dand 1972, p. 20.
[105] Weiser 2003, p. 1.
[106] Carpenter 2005, p. 145.
[107] Robert Plant, The Committee of Safety (http:/ / www. british-civil-wars. co. uk/ glossary/ committee-safety. htm), British Civil Wars
website (http:/ / www. british-civil-wars. co. uk/ index. htm), Retrieved 2009-11-25
[108] Kennedy 2000, p. 96.
[109] Matthew White Selected Death Tolls for Wars, Massacres and Atrocities Before the 20th century: British Isles, 1641-52 (http:/ / users.
erols. com/ mwhite28/ warstat0. htm#EnglCW)
[110] Carlton 1992, pp. 211 - 214 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=tVugNXnVrVAC& pg=PP10& lpg=PP9& ots=R_1h4VBt52&
dq=Going+ to+ the+ Wars& lr=& sig=jeEvvoXbdxT3_3ioIDjDA7GWqwQ#PPA211,M1).
[111] Royle 2006, p. 602.
[112] "Christopher O'Riordan, Self-determination and the London Transport Workers in the Century of Revolution (http:/ / web. archive. org/
web/ 20091026215834/ http:/ / geocities. com/ englishrevolution/ workers. htm)" (1992).
[113] Christopher O'Riordan, " Popular Exploitation of Enemy Estates in the English Revolution (http:/ / web. archive. org/ web/
20091026215835/ http:/ / geocities. com/ englishrevolution/ popular. htm)", History, vol. 78 (1993), pp.184-200.
[114] Lindley 1997, p. 160.
[115] See Sherwood 1997, pp. 7–11 for a longer analysis of the relationship between Cromwell's position, the former monarchy and the military.
[116] Keeble 2002, p. 6.
[117] Keeble 2002, p. 9.
[118] Keeble 2002, p. 12.
[119] Keeble 2002, p. 34.
[120] Keeble 2002, p. 31.
[121] Keeble 2002, p. 48.
[122] Lodge 2007, pp. 5,6.
[123] Lodge 2007, p. 6.
[124] Lodge 2007, p. 8.
[125] Kaye 1995, p. 106 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=w6xVLvqihBoC& pg=PA106& hl=en& ei=5dICTMP1BM6TkAWVioS2DQ&
sa=X& oi=book_result& ct=result& resnum=3& ved=0CDIQ6AEwAg#v=onepage& q& f=false) quoting Hill from his pamphlet The English
Revolution 1640
[126] Glenn Burgess Historiographical reviews on revisionism: an analysis of early Stuart historiography in the 1970s and 1980s (http:/ /
journals. cambridge. org/ production/ action/ cjoGetFulltext?fulltextid=933920), The Historical Journal, 33, 3 (1990), pp . 609—627)
[127] Ohlmeyer, Jane. Civil Wars of the Three Kingdoms (http:/ / www. historybookshop. com/ articles/ commentary/
civil-wars-of-three-kingdoms-ht. asp), History Today (http:/ / www. historytoday. com/ frontpage. aspx), Retrieved 31 May 2010
References
• Aylmer, G. E. (1980), "The Historical Background", in Patrides, C.A.; Waddington, Raymond B., The Age of
Milton: Backgrounds to Seventeenth-Century Literature, Manchester: Manchester University Press, pp. 1–33
• Brett, A. C. A. (2008), Charles II and His Court, Read Books
• Carlton, Charles (1987), Archbishop William Laud, London: Routledge and Keagan Paul
• Carlton, Charles (1992), The Experience of the British Civil Wars, London: Routledge, ISBN 0-415-10391-6
• Carpenter, Stanley D. M. (2005), Military leadership in the British civil wars, 1642-1651: The Genius Of This
Age, Abingdon: Frank Cass
• Croft, Pauline (2003), King James, Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 0-333-61395-3
• Coward, Barry (2003), The Stuart age: England, 1603-1714, Harlow: Pearson Education
• Dand, Charles Hendry (1972), The Mighty Affair: how Scotland lost her parliament, Oliver and Boyd
• Gardiner, Samuel R. (2006), History of the Commonwealth and Protectorate 1649-1660, Elibron Classics
• Gregg, Pauline (1984), King Charles I, Berkeley: University of California Press
• Hibbert, Christopher (1993), Cavaliers & Roundheads: the English Civil War, 1642-1649‎, Scribner
• Hill, Christopher (1972), The World Turned Upside Down: Radical ideas during the English Revolution, London:
Viking
• Hughes, Ann (1991), The Causes of the English Civil War, London: Macmillan
• John, Terry (2008), The Civil War in Pembrokeshire, Logaston Press
15
English Civil War
• Kaye, Harvey J. (1995), The British Marxist historians: an introductory analysis, Palgrave Macmillan,
ISBN 0312127332
• Keeble, N. H. (2002), The Restoration: England in the 1660s, Oxford: Blackwell
• Kennedy, D. E. (2000), The English Revolution, 1642-1649, London: Macmillan
• Leniham, Pádraig (2008), Consolidating Conquest: Ireland 1603-1727, Harlow: Pearson Education
• Lindley, Keith (1997), Popular politics and religion in Civil War London, Scolar Press
• Lodge, Richard (2007), The History of England - From the Restoration to the Death of William III (1660-1702),
Read Books
• McClelland, J. S. (1996), A History of Western Political Thought, London: Routledge, ISBN 1996
• Newman, P. R. (2006), Atlas of the English Civil War, London: Routledge
• Pipes, Richard (1999), Property and Freedom, Alfred A. Knopf
• Purkiss, Diane (2007), The English Civil War: A People's History, London: Harper Perennial
• Reid, Stuart; Turner, Graham (2004), Dunbar 1650: Cromwell's most famous victory, Botley: Osprey
• Rosner, Lisa; Theibault, John (2000), A Short History of Europe, 1600-1815: Search For A Reasonable World,
New York: M. E. Sharpe
• Royle, Trevor (2006) [2004], Civil War: The Wars of the Three Kingdoms 1638-1660, London:Abacus,
ISBN 978-0-349-11564-1
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Seel, Graham E. (1999), The English Wars and Republic, 1637-1660, London: Routledge
Sharp, David (2000), England in crisis 1640-60, Oxford: Heinneman
Sherwood, Roy Edward (1992), The Civil War in the Midlands, 1642-1651, Alan Sutton
Sherwood, Roy Edward (1997), Oliver Cromwell: King In All But Name, 1653-1658, New York: St Martin's Press
Trevelyan, George Macaulay (2002), England Under the Stuarts, London: Routledge
Walter, John (1999), Understanding Popular Violence in the English Revolution: The Colchester Plunderers,
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Wanklyn, Malcolm; Jones, Frank (2005), A Military History of the English Civil War, 1642-1646: Strategy and
Tactics, Harlow: Pearson Education
Wedgwood, C. V. (1970), The King's War: 1641-1647, London: Fontana
Weiser, Brian (2003), Charles II and the Politics of Access, Woodbridge: Boydell.
Young, Peter; Holmes, Richard (1974), The English Civil War: a military history of the three civil wars
1642-1651, Eyre Methuen
Further reading
• Ashley, Maurice. The English Civil War. Sutton. (1990)
External links
• Official website of the English Civil War Society (http://english-civil-war-society.org.uk/www/cms/)
• History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England: Begun in the Year 1641 by Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of
Clarendon (1717): Volume I, Part 1 (http://www.archive.org/stream/historyrebellio05clargoog), Volume I,
Part 2 (http://www.archive.org/stream/historyrebellio09clargoog), Volume II, Part 1 (http://www.archive.
org/stream/historyrebellio02clargoog), Volume II, Part 2 (http://www.archive.org/stream/
historyrebellio07clargoog), Volume III, Part 1 (http://www.archive.org/stream/historyrebellio00clargoog),
Volume III, Part 2 (http://www.archive.org/stream/historyrebellio03clargoog)
• The Life of Edward, Earl of Clarendon, in which is included a Continuation of his History of the Grand Rebellion
by Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon (Clarendon Press, 1827): Volume I (http://www.archive.org/details/
lifeofedwardearl01clariala), Volume II (http://www.archive.org/details/lifeofedwardearl02clariala), Volume
III (http://www.archive.org/details/lifeofedwardearl03clariala)
16
English Civil War
• The Revolution Over the Revolution (http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2894)
• Jack Goldstone’s Model and the English Civil War (http://gainesjunction.tamu.edu/issues/vol2num1/bduke.
pdf)PDF (103 KiB) by Brandon W Duke
• This page has links to some transcriptions of contemporary documents concerning eastern England (http://boar.
org.uk/ariwxe1CivilWar(home.htm)
• A national Civil War chronology (http://www.theteacher99.btinternet.co.uk/ecivil/index.htm)
• Civil War chronology for Lincolnshire and its environs (http://boar.org.uk/oriwxs5CivilWarLincs(chron.htm)
• David Plant's Civil war site. (http://www.british-civil-wars.co.uk/index.htm)
17
Article Sources and Contributors
Article Sources and Contributors
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Image:King Charles I by Antoon van Dyck.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:King_Charles_I_by_Antoon_van_Dyck.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Sir
Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641)
Image:Sir Peter Lely 001.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Sir_Peter_Lely_001.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Alexandrin, Anna reg, Diego Grez,
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Image:English civil war map 1642 to 1645.JPG Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:English_civil_war_map_1642_to_1645.JPG License: Creative Commons
Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported Contributors: 17177, Bkell, Hystrix, Martynas Patasius, The wub, 5 anonymous edits
Image:Rupert of the Rhine.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Rupert_of_the_Rhine.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: anonymous artist
Image:Oliver Cromwell by Samuel Cooper.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Oliver_Cromwell_by_Samuel_Cooper.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors:
Samuel Cooper (died 1672)
Image:Lastseefather.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Lastseefather.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: William Frederick Yeames
Image:Cromwell at Dunbar Andrew Carrick Gow.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Cromwell_at_Dunbar_Andrew_Carrick_Gow.jpg License: Public Domain
Contributors: Celtus, Lotsofissues
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