Chapter 6
In This Chapter
● The First Civil War: 1642-1646
● The Second Civil War: 1648-1649
● The Third Civil War: 1650-1651
● The Battle of the Dunes: 1658
King Charles I was a walking disaster. Everything he touched - foreign expeditions, attempts to interest the Presbyterian Scots in bishops, trying to raise taxes without parliamentary approval, and even attempting to arrest Members of Parliament - went horribly wrong. He was a master of indecision, failing to make up his mind and then changing it when he did, usually without telling anyone else.
To be fair to Charles, in the times in which he reigned (1625-1649) the word compromise meant very little. Charles thought he ruled by Divine Right (meaning he was appointed by God) and could do what he wanted, whereas Parliament (elected representatives of the people) thought that he should seek its approval. Charles’s Queen, Henrietta Maria, was French and this produced deep suspicion among England’s Puritans and Presbyterians, who held a majority in Parliament, that Charles was preparing the way for a return of Catholicism. People felt very deeply about such matters and, since they could not reach agreement, the issues had to be resolved by force. The actions that followed in the mid-seventeenth century became known as the English Civil Wars.
For more on the build-up to the Civil Wars, seek out a copy of Sean Lang’s British History For Dummies and Philip Wilkinson’s The British Monarchy For Dummies (both published by Wiley).
Although everyone knows these campaigns as the English Civil Wars, British Civil Wars would be more accurate. Soldiers from England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland all took part, as whoever sat on the English throne was powerful enough to influence affairs across the British Isles.
Battles in the English Civil War were fought by the following types of soldier:
● Musketeers: Along with pikemen, musketeers formed the basis of infantry units. They wore little or no armour, and were equipped with slow-loading, heavy muskets, with an effective range of about 45 metres (50 yards).
● Pikemen: Carrying long spears, their main role was to use these weapons to protect their fellow musketeers from cavalry attack. Pikemen usually wore some armour, and worked alongside the musketeers (see Chapter 5 for more on this battle formation).
● Cavalrymen: Armed with swords and pistols, Civil War cavalry could choose to fire or charge. Some were heavily armoured (known as cuirassiers), and others, known as dragoons, acted as mounted infantry who rode to the battlefield but fought on foot muskets.
● Artillery: As detailed in Chapter 5, many calibres and types of gun existed, and were used both on the battlefield and in sieges.
Figure 6-1 shows typical infantrymen from this period.
Figure 6-1: A musketeer and pikeman from the English Civil War.
Those who fought for Charles became known as Cavaliers, while their Parliamentarian opponents were called Roundheads. According to tradition, Cavaliers were jolly fellows who grew their hair long, and were natty dressers who sang and drank a lot, and chased wenches. Roundheads cut their hair shorter (hence the name), dressed soberly, disliked merriment of any kind, and got a real boost from singing psalms. In fact, men from both armies looked and behaved in a similar manner, but they still hated each other’s guts.
The First Civil War
In 1642 King Charles I and Parliament both raised armies to resolve their grievances by force. Opinion as to who was in the right was strongly divided, setting neighbour against neighbour and splitting families down the middle. As with any civil war involving an element of religion, the struggle was to be bitter, unforgiving, and at times merciless.
The armies that marched to war in 1642 consisted largely of amateurs, led by a few veterans of the continental wars of religion who knew their business (for more on these continental wars, see Sean Lang’s European History For Dummies, published by Wiley).
The army of Parliament was led by the Earl of Essex. Parliament’s army was larger than the Royalist force, but the king was fortunate in having Prince Rupert of the Rhine, one of the outstanding cavalry leaders of his day, among his commanders.
Setting the Civil War in swing
The first battle of the war took place at Edgehill, Warwickshire, on 23 October 1642. Prince Rupert (naturally fighting on his uncle’s side) chased the Parliamentary cavalry off the field and pursued it out of sight. In his absence Essex put in a sharp counter-attack, but Rupert’s eventual return to the field forced Essex’s army to withdraw and fall back on London.
The royal army followed up as far as Turnham Green on the outskirts of London, only to find that Essex had been reinforced by the London Trained Bands (a standing militia) and now possessed far more than his original strength. If a general engagement had been fought, Charles would probably have won and entered his somewhat subdued capital. As it was, he dithered magnificently and after a brief skirmish decided to withdraw to Oxford, which became his headquarters.
1643 also went badly for Parliament, although a Puritan farmer and Member of Parliament from Huntingdon, Oliver Cromwell, defeated a force of Royalist cavalry at Grantham (Lincolnshire) in March. Charles also sustained a reverse at Gloucester, but by now Parliament was becoming desperate:
● In Yorkshire, Royalists carried all before them.
● In the West Country, Royalists under Sir Ralph Hopton trounced Sir William Waller’s Roundheads at Stratton in May, fought a hard battle against them at Lansdowne near Bath on 5 July, and defeated them at Roundway Down, Devizes, on 13 July.
● In the midlands, Rupert won a victory at Chalgrove Field near Oxford on 18 June and took Bristol on 26 July.
In August, Parliament empowered local authorities to raise troops by conscription, only for the Royalists to follow suit.
The Scots had played no part in the war before 1643, but a now-desperate Parliament was prepared to offer them anything to enlist their support. On 25 September it concluded a Solemn League and Covenant with them, promising not only to protect Presbyterianism in Scotland but also to impose it throughout England and Wales. In return, the Scots began assembling a large army under the veteran Alexander Leslie, Earl of Leven, ready to participate for Parliament in the next year’s campaigning.
Civil War sieges
By 1643, the King controlled northern and western England and Wales, while Parliament controlled the English midlands and southeast. Inevitably, these areas contained pockets that were sympathetic to their respective enemies, and within those pockets were castles and fortified manor houses that each side had to neutralise. As well as operations by the field armies, the war involved numerous siege operations.
In general, the medieval castles withstood their ordeal by gunfire for longer than had been expected. The general rule was that if cannon blasted a breach in the walls through which a storming party could enter, the garrison was invited to surrender. It was not dishonourable to accept such an offer if the castle was no longer considered defensible. In such circumstances the garrison may or may not be permitted to march out with honour. If the offer was rejected, the garrison could expect the worst. In places where a castle's natural position rendered it less vulnerable to gunfire, starving the defenders into submission was sometimes the only option. In one instance the people in the garrison were so weak that they were unable to dismantle the barricades that they had erected in the gatehouse and the besiegers had to do it for them.
When Parliament captured a castle or fortified manor it was usually slightedto prevent its being defended again. This meant throwing down the battlements into the moat, ripping the massive gates off their hinges in the gatehouse, removing the lead from roofs, and selling internal timber. If that was not enough, gunpowder was used to blow down the more important towers and sometimes half the keep as well. The process led to the English countryside being dotted with picturesque ruins, for which we blame Cromwell for more than his fair share. This in turn resulted in the Edwardian music hall song I'm One of the Ruins Cromwell Knocked About a Bit, usually sung by ladies of a certain age.
The siege of Lathom House
The most famous siege of all was that of Lathom House in Lancashire, held for the king by the redoubtable Charlotte de Tremouille, Countess of Derby, in the absence of her husband. The Countess felt that 3000 men would be required to man the defences properly, yet the Earl, departing to raise troops for the King's cause in the Isle of Man, left her with just 300 and a few small guns. The siege lasted from May 1643 until June 1644. It was conducted on behalf of Parliament by a Colonel Alexander Rigby, a lawyer and Member of Parliament for Wigan who held a deep-seated grudge against the entire Stanley family, of which the Earl was head. One of his preacher cronies described Lathom House as Babylon and the Countess as the Scarlet Woman herself. That would simply have amused her, for she was the toughest of cookies and more than a match for Rigby in every way.
For months, the siege amounted to nothing more than a distant blockade. That didn't work because the local people had been tenants of the Stanleys for centuries and kept the garrison supplied with food. Early in 1644 Sir Thomas Fairfax, Parliament's commander in the north, began to take an interest and the siege was taken in hand seriously. Guns began battering the walls, but because the house lay in a hollow their balls only struck the upper courses and were unable to bring down any section. By no means a gifted soldier, Rigby had sited his guns poorly. This was a major omission for which he would pay dearly.
The Countess's men were perpetually short of powder and what they had was reserved for the estate's gamekeepers, who were the best shots and regularly picked off any Roundhead foolish enough to venture within range of the walls. When the powder began to run out, the garrison made a sortie and obtained more from the besiegers' gun positions. Further sorties succeeded in spiking (disabling) the enemy guns by hammering nails into their touch-holes, inflicting casualties, and taking prisoners. Morale inside the walls was sky-high. Outside it was nearly at rock
bottom. Then, Rigby had an idea. He had a mortar (see Chapter 5 for more on these guns) brought up from Cheshire at great expense, hoping that its shells would set the timber-framed buildings in the house's interior ablaze. The mortar succeeded in firing a few shots, causing a certain amount of damage. However, a meticulously planned sortie from the house captured it and the mortar was gleefully dragged inside the walls on a sledge. Disheartened, the besiegers began deserting.
In May, Rigby learned that Prince Rupert and the Earl of Derby had entered Lancashire from the south. Abandoning the siege, he marched to Bolton, where Rupert caught up with him. After the Roundheads had rashly killed several prisoners in cold blood in front of the royal army, the prince gave orders that no quarter was to be given when the town was stormed. Needless to say Rigby, as slimy a politician as any, survived. Disguising himself as a Royalist, he galloped through the streets and on to safety, shouting joyously, 'The town is ours!' Rupert sent no fewer than 23 captured Colours to Lathom House, where they were hung in triumph. He went on to capture Liverpool and, accompanied by the Earl, reached Lathom on 13 June. The Earl and Countess left for the Isle of Man and Rupert marched on into Yorkshire.
After a Parliamentarian victory at Marston Moor, a second siege began at Lathom House in August 1644. The garrison held out until December the following year. After the king's defeat at Naseby in June 1645, hopes of relief began to fade. In December, Charles advised the defenders of Lathom to seek the best terms they could get. They were offered the honours of war, which would have enabled them to march out with their Colours, arms, and personal possessions. This was too much for the mean-spirited Rigby, who was fully aware that those in the house were on the verge of starvation, and he withdraw the offer. He demanded unconditional surrender, which was accepted. The garrison left with their lives, what they were wearing, and nothing else.
Campaigning in 1644
The intervention of the Scots army (see the previous section) proved decisive in northern England. It altered the entire strategic situation and resulted in the joint Scottish and Parliamentary army besieging the Royalist commander, the Duke of Newcastle, in York. Prince Rupert marched to his assistance through the Pennines. Fairfax, Parliament’s commander in the north, abandoned the siege and marched to Long Marston, west of the city, where he received reinforcements. This enabled Newcastle and Rupert to join forces. The scene was now set for the Battle of Marston Moor.
The Battle of Marston Moor, 2 July 1644
Marston Moor was the largest engagement of the first Civil War, fought just outside York. Rupert’s army consisted of 11,000 infantry and 6500 cavalry, a total of 17,500 men, and 16 guns. The Scottish/Parliamentary army, jointly commanded by Fairfax and the Earls of Manchester and Leven, possessed 18,000 infantry and 9000 cavalry, a total of 27,000 men, and 25 guns. Rupert was unwise to offer battle when so seriously outnumbered, but it was not in his nature to refuse it.
The Royalist cavalry was contained by counter-attacks on both flanks. In the centre, a general advance by the Parliamentary allies overwhelmed the Royalist infantry after a bitter struggle. One of the best regiments in the king’s service, Newcastle’s Whitecoats, came close to routing their opposite numbers but were surrounded. Too proud to accept quarter, they went down fighting, only 30 of them being taken alive.
Estimates place the Royalist and allied killed at 3000 and 2000 respectively, but desertions were heavy on both sides. Rupert was left with only 6000 men to withdraw into Lancashire. When York surrendered to the Parliamentarians on 16 July, the Royalist presence in the north was reduced to a handful of isolated garrisons.
Swings and roundabouts
Aside from Marston Moor (see the previous section), the Royalists sustained a defeat at Nantwich in Cheshire. But on 6 June, the King defeated Waller at Cropredy Bridge, near Oxford. He then turned southwest, trapping Essex at Lostwithiel in Cornwall. Essex managed to escape with his cavalry, but his infantry surrendered on 2 September, handing over all their artillery.
The following month, Manchester, Waller, and Cromwell managed to concentrate their forces to produce a 22,000-strong Parliamentary army. On 22 October they confronted the king, who had only 10,000 men at his disposal, at the Second Battle of Newbury. The Roundheads failed to coordinate their attacks properly and the surprising result was a drawn battle, enabling Charles to fall back on his base at Oxford. For some reason, Manchester declined to pursue him.
The New Model Army
For all that he was a most unpleasant individual, Oliver Cromwell was undoubtedly the best commander that either side possessed in the Civil War. He began by commanding the troops raised by the Eastern Association of six East Anglian counties. He trained and disciplined his men thoroughly and always exercised tight tactical control over them in action, so that after a successful charge his cavalry did not carry out an uncontrolled pursuit, as Prince Rupert's did so often. This meant that they were available for the next phase of the fighting, which usually decided the battle. Such was their reputation that they became known as the Ironsides.
In January 1645 Cromwell urged Parliament to adopt what he called 'a frame for the whole militia'. What he proposed, in fact, was a standing army to be raised by conscription and paid for by taxation. The army consisted of 12 infantry regiments containing about 14,000 men, 11 cavalry regiments with 6600 men, and 1000 dragoons.
The last were infantrymen who rode to battle but fought on foot, their name being taken from the dragon, a French version of the musket with which they were equipped. Cromwell expanded the artillery and made some progress towards standardising its guns. Training methods were loosely based on those of the Ironsides. As constituted, the New Model Army overcame the local militias' reluctance to serve beyond their home territories. In addition, the army was to receive a uniform, the colour of which was russet (a shade of red).
Cromwell's ideas were passed by Parliament and reinforced in April 1645 by a measure styled the Self-Denying Ordinance, requiring Members of Parliament to relinquish their military commands. Sir Thomas Fairfax succeeded Essex as Captain General of the Army and Cromwell obtained a dispensation allowing him to continue serving as Lieutenant General.
For their part, the Scots had begun to look uneasily over their shoulders, for in Scotland James Graham, Marquis of Montrose, had raised several of the Highland clans on behalf of the King and on 1 September he inflicted a defeat on government troops at Tippermuir.
Reaching a conclusion: 1645-1646
In Scotland, Montrose inflicted one defeat after another on his Parliamentarian opponents, beginning with Inverlochy (2 February), then Auldearn (9 May), Alford (2 July), and finally Kilsyth (15 August). He had now secured most of Scotland for the king.
In England, Charles succeeded in taking Leicester after sustaining severe casualties that he could ill afford. He was still operating in the Midlands when a Parliamentary army commanded by Fairfax and Cromwell surprised him at Naseby, and the decisive battle of the war was fought there on 14 June.
The Battle of Naseby, 14 June 1645
At Naseby, Charles possessed 4000 infantry and 5000 cavalry, a total of 9000, and 12 guns. Fairfax and Cromwell had 7000 infantry and 6000 cavalry, a total of 13,000, and 13 guns.
Both armies were drawn up with their infantry in the centre and their cavalry on the flanks, with a small reserve behind. In addition, the Parliamentarians deployed a regiment of dragoons (see the sidebar, ‘The New Model Army’ earlier in this chapter) along the hedges to the west of the battlefield, covering the approach to their position. The battle began with successful cavalry charges by the right wings of both armies, but while Prince Rupert’s Cavaliers pursued their opponents as far as the Parliamentary wagon lines, Cromwell exercised tight control. After he had driven off Langdale’s Northern Horse he led his second line in an attack on Lord Astley’s Royalist infantry in the centre, which, despite its inferior numbers, was pushing back the Parliamentary centre. At this point Charles could have launched his reserve and Langdale’s rallied cavalry in a decisive counter-attack that would have smashed into Cromwell’s flank. Unfortunately, one of his supporters, believing that the battle was lost, attempted to lead the king away. In the ensuing confusion the moment passed. The Parliamentarian dragoons mounted their horses and joined in the attack on the Royalist infantry, most of whom, heavily outnumbered and beset on three sides, surrendered. One regiment, Rupert’s Bluecoats, declined to do so and fought to the bitter end; the rest of the royal army broke and fled.
Surrendering to the Scots: Charles calls it a day
The few troops remaining to the king in the south and west of England were unable to stem the tide of Parliamentary victory. One after another, the king’s strongholds surrendered. In Scotland, a Parliamentary force commanded by General David Leslie destroyed Montrose’s Royalist army at Philiphaugh on 13 September 1645. The last Royalist field force in England was defeated at Stow-on-the-Wold in 21 March 1646.
Charles gave himself up to a Scottish force, and the Scots sold him to Parliament for £400,000. Parliament, which owed its soldiers several months’ pay, told the New Model Army to disband. The army not only refused to do so, but made it clear that it was running things from now on.
Meanwhile, Charles bargained with the Scots, with Parliament, and with the army. He promised this, that, and the other, then changed his mind until everyone was thoroughly confused. To make matters worse, he escaped from London to the Isle of Wight. It was just his luck that the island’s governor was Parliament’s man. The Governor imprisoned the king in Carisbrooke Castle, and that made the Scots very angry indeed, as they believed that they had been on the point of being granted everything they wanted from Charles.
The Second Civil War
By 1648, after the army had forcibly taken charge of the country, many people had had enough of the army’s way of doing things.
Risings occurred in Kent and Essex, which Fairfax put down, while Cromwell dealt with similar troubles in south Wales. In July, the Duke of Hamilton crossed the border with a Scottish army and was joined by northern Royalists. He was now at the head of some 24,000 men, although they were poorly equipped and lacked guns. On 17 August they were strung out along many miles of road when Cromwell, with 6000 infantry and 3000 cavalry, drove into their flank. Only a small number of Hamilton’s troops were involved and Cromwell forced them back into Preston, in Lancashire.
The rest of the Royalist army disintegrated, with the major portion trying to escape to the south. On 19 August Cromwell brought its infantry to battle near Warrington, which then was part of Lancashire, and forced them to surrender. Hamilton and his cavalry got as far south as Uttoxeter, in the West Midlands, before Cromwell’s men rounded them up.
The army was now determined to be rid of Charles. On 6 December it prevented over 100 Members of Parliament with known moderate opinions from entering Parliament. Those members whom they did permit to sit became known as the Rump. The Rump convened a court trying Charles for making war on his own people, and therefore for treason. He refused to recognise the court and, predictably, Parliament found him guilty and sentenced him to death. During these proceedings his courage and dignity provoked much sympathy. Charles I was beheaded on 30 January 1649. A Commonwealth replaced the monarchy and, on Cromwell’s instructions, the crown itself was smashed to pieces and destroyed.
The Third Civil War
The Scots, disgusted by the king’s execution (see the preceding section), opened negotiations with his exiled son (who was to become Charles II), who agreed to abide by the Solemn League and Covenant (the section ‘Setting the Civil War in swing’ earlier in this chapter has more on this). He was invited to Scotland and crowned King of Scotland on 1 January 1651.
Cromwell, fully aware of what was going on, had already crossed the border in July 1650 and was marching on Edinburgh. His opponent, the veteran David Leslie, manoeuvred cleverly and employed a ‘scorched earth’ policy that forced the Roundheads to rely on the fleet for their supplies. Disease, hunger, and exhaustion reduced Cromwell’s strength by half, leaving him with just 11,000 men to face Leslie’s 20,000. Cromwell withdrew through Musselburgh and then to Dunbar, where Leslie boxed him in against the coast. Cromwell seriously considered embarking the army on his ships and was prepared to sacrifice his artillery, horses, and baggage if necessary.
Leslie believed that such an evacuation was inevitable. At this point, the Elders of the Kirk, a group so grim that by comparison the English Puritans looked like a song-and-dance troupe, started nagging him. On 2 September they persuaded Leslie to descend from the strong position he held on Doon Hill during the night to attack Cromwell’s army the following morning. In fairness, he would not have done so unless he thought he could win. In the meantime, Cromwell had detected a weakness on the Scottish right and it was against this weakness that he directed a major attack at first light, while his artillery was concentrated against the enemy left. Only a splutter of musketry met Cromwell’s attack and he simply rolled up Leslie’s line. Cromwell’s men killed some 3000 of the Scots and captured 10,000, together with all their guns. Cromwell claimed that his own casualties amounted to just 30 killed, a figure that even the gullible may have found hard to digest. Dissent arose among the Scots, but Cromwell was unable to take advantage of it as he was ill. It was not until the middle of the next year that major hostilities resumed.
The Battle of Worcester, 3 September 1651
Charles II crossed the border from Scotland with the intention of marching on London in the hope of gaining his throne, but attracted little support. Cromwell followed him, and Charles turned to give battle at Worcester. His army, which included 6000 Scots, consisted of 8000 infantry, 4000 cavalry, and some guns. Cromwell produced 18,000 infantry, 9000 cavalry, and some guns.
The Parliamentary army began by attacking across the rivers Severn and Teme on bridges of boats built by its engineers. Charles’s army beat them back and opened an attack on the enemy centre. He was making some progress when Cromwell returned and broke the Royalists’ cavalry, then drove their infantry into the city, where most of them surrendered. Royalist losses amounted to 3000 killed and up to 7000 captured, along with all their artillery. Few of the Scots succeeded in making it back to their own country. Charles became a fugitive for six weeks before escaping to the continent. Cromwell’s casualties almost certainly came to more than the 300 he admitted to.
Worcester was the last battle of the Civil Wars, although some Royalist strongholds held out until 1652. It was not, however, the last battle that the New Model Army fought.
The Irish Campaign, 1649-1652
Fighting took place in Ireland between English Royalists, a Catholic Confederacy, the Anglo-Irish gentry, and the native Irish. To restore order and establish the Commonwealth’s authority, Cromwell crossed to Ireland in September 1649. Such was the climate that neither Royalists nor Catholics expected much in the way of mercy, and Royalist Catholics none at all. Most had taken refuge in fortified towns, but their ancient walls offered little defence against Cromwell’s New Model Army with its wide experience of siegecraft. Drogheda fell in September 1649, Wexford in October 1649, and Clonmel in May 1650. At every captured fortress the defenders and many others were ruthlessly massacred. After the fall of Clonmel, Cromwell returned to England, leaving his subordinates to carry on with the reign of terror. The last Royalist stronghold in Galway surrendered in May 1652. In some parts of Ireland the very name of Cromwell is still hated.
Campaigning for the Commonwealth
During the Franco-Spanish War of 1653-1659, Cromwell’s Commonwealth sided with the French. In 1658 six Cromwellian regiments formed part of an Anglo-French army that besieged Dunkirk. On 3 June French forces defeated a strong Spanish relief force, including 2000 English Royalists under the Duke of York (later James II), four miles east of the town in what became known as the Battle of the Dunes. Anglo-French losses amounted to 400 killed and wounded. The Spaniards lost 1000 killed and 5000 captured. Dunkirk surrendered 10 days later, followed by other Spanish fortresses in Flanders. King Louis XIV of France was so pleased with the result that he ceded Dunkirk to Cromwell (Charles II, permanently short of money, sold it back to Louis in 1662).