Background The English Civil War broke out in 1642, less than 40 years after the death of Queen
Elizabeth I. Elizabeth had been succeeded by her
first cousin twice-removed,
King James VI of Scotland, as James I of England, creating the first
personal union of the Scottish and English kingdoms. As King of Scots, James had become accustomed to Scotland's weak parliamentary tradition since assuming control of the Scottish government in 1583, so that upon assuming power south of the border, the new King of England was affronted by the constraints the
English Parliament attempted to place on him in exchange for money. Consequently, James's personal extravagance, which resulted in him being perennially short of money, meant that he had to resort to extra-parliamentary sources of income. Moreover, increasing inflation during this period meant that even though Parliament was granting the King the same nominal value of subsidy, the income was actually worth less. This extravagance was tempered by James's peaceful disposition, so that by the succession of his son Charles I in 1625 the two kingdoms had both experienced relative peace, internally and in their relations with each other. Charles followed his father's dream in hoping to unite the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland into a single kingdom. Many English Parliamentarians were suspicious of such a move, fearing that such a new kingdom might destroy old English traditions that had bound the English monarchy. Because James had described kings as "little gods on Earth", chosen by God to rule in accordance with the doctrine of the
Divine Right of Kings, and Charles shared his father's position, the suspicions of the Parliamentarians had some justification. believed in the
divine right of kings; painting by
Van Dyck Parliament in an English constitutional framework At the time, the Parliament of England did not have a large permanent role in the English system of government. Instead, it functioned as a temporary advisory committee and was summoned only if and when the monarch saw fit. Once summoned, a Parliament's continued existence was at the King's pleasure since it was subject to dissolution by him at any time. Yet in spite of this limited role, Parliament had acquired over the centuries
de facto powers of enough significance that monarchs could not simply ignore them indefinitely. For a monarch, Parliament's most indispensable power was its ability to raise tax revenues far in excess of all other sources of revenue at the Crown's disposal. By the 17th century, Parliament's tax-raising powers had come to be derived from the fact that the
gentry was the only stratum of society with the ability and authority to collect and remit the most meaningful forms of taxation then available at the local level. So, if the king wanted to ensure smooth revenue collection, he needed the gentry's cooperation. For all of the Crown's legal authority, its resources were limited by any modern standard to the extent that if the gentry refused to collect the king's taxes on a national scale, the Crown lacked a practical means of compelling them. From the thirteenth century, monarchs ordered the election of representatives to sit in the
House of Commons, with most voters being the owners of property, although in some
potwalloper boroughs every male householder could vote. When assembled along with the
House of Lords, these elected representatives formed a Parliament. So the concept of Parliaments allowed representatives of the property-owning class to meet, primarily, at least from the point of view of the monarch, to sanction whatever taxes the monarch wished to collect. In the process, the representatives could debate and enact
statutes, or
acts. However, Parliament lacked the power to force its will upon the monarch; its only leverage was the threat of withholding the financial means required to implement his plans.
Parliamentary concerns and the Petition of Right , painted by
Peter Lely, 1660 Many concerns were raised over Charles's marriage in 1625 to a
Roman Catholic French princess,
Henrietta Maria. Parliament refused to assign him the traditional right to collect customs duties for his entire reign, deciding instead to grant it only on a provisional basis and negotiate with him. Charles, meanwhile, decided to send an expeditionary force to relieve the French
Huguenots, whom French royal troops held
besieged in La Rochelle. Such military support for Protestants on the Continent potentially alleviated concerns about the King's marriage to a Catholic. However, Charles's insistence on giving command of the English force to his unpopular royal favorite
George Villiers, the Duke of Buckingham, undermined that support. Unfortunately for Charles and Buckingham, the 1627 relief expedition proved a fiasco, and Parliament, already hostile to Buckingham for his monopoly on
royal patronage, opened
impeachment proceedings against him. Charles responded by dissolving Parliament. This saved Buckingham but confirmed the impression that Charles wanted to avoid Parliamentary scrutiny of his ministers. Having dissolved Parliament and unable to raise money without it, the king assembled a new one in 1628. (The elected members included
Oliver Cromwell,
John Hampden, and
Edward Coke.) The new Parliament drew up a
Petition of Right, which Charles accepted as a concession to obtain his subsidy. The Petition made reference to
Magna Carta, but did not grant him the right of
tonnage and poundage, which Charles had been collecting without Parliamentary authorization since 1625. Several more active members of the opposition were imprisoned, which caused outrage; one,
John Eliot, subsequently died in prison and came to be seen as a martyr for the rights of Parliament.
Personal rule Charles avoided calling a Parliament for the next decade, a period known as the "
personal rule of Charles I", or by its critics as the "Eleven Years' Tyranny". During this period, Charles's policies were determined by his lack of money. First and foremost, to avoid Parliament, the King needed to avoid war. Charles made peace with France and Spain, effectively ending England's involvement in the
Thirty Years' War. However, that in itself was far from enough to balance the Crown's finances. Unable to raise revenue without Parliament and unwilling to convene it, Charles resorted to other means. One was to revive conventions, often outdated. For example, a failure to attend and receive
knighthood at Charles's coronation became a finable offence with the fine paid to the Crown. The King also tried to raise revenue through
ship money, demanding in 1634–1636 that the inland English counties pay a tax for the
Royal Navy to counter the threat of privateers and pirates in the English Channel. Established law supported the policy of coastal counties and inland ports such as London paying ship money in times of need, but it had not been applied to inland counties before. Authorities had ignored it for centuries, and many saw it as yet another extra-Parliamentary, illegal tax, which prompted some prominent men to refuse to pay it. Charles issued a writ against
John Hampden for his failure to pay, and although five judges including George Croke supported Hampden, seven judges found in favour of the King in 1638. The fines imposed on people who refused to pay ship money and standing out against its illegality aroused widespread indignation. During his "Personal Rule", Charles aroused most antagonism through his religious measures. He believed in
High Anglicanism, a sacramental version of the
Church of England, theologically based upon
Arminianism, a creed shared with his main political adviser, Archbishop
William Laud. In 1633, Charles appointed Laud
Archbishop of Canterbury and started making the Church more ceremonial, replacing the wooden
communion tables with stone altars.
Puritans accused Laud of reintroducing Catholicism, and when they complained he had them arrested. In 1637,
John Bastwick,
Henry Burton, and
William Prynne had their ears cut off for writing pamphlets attacking Laud's views – a rare penalty for
gentlemen, and one that aroused anger. Moreover, the Church authorities revived statutes from the time of Elizabeth I about church attendance and fined Puritans for not attending Anglican services.
Rebellion in Scotland The end of Charles's independent governance came when he attempted to apply the same religious policies in Scotland. The
Church of Scotland, reluctantly
episcopal in structure, had independent traditions. Charles wanted one uniform Church throughout Britain and introduced a new, High Anglican version of the English
Book of Common Prayer to Scotland in the middle of 1637. This was violently resisted. A riot broke out in Edinburgh, which may have been started in
St Giles' Cathedral, according to legend, by
Jenny Geddes. In February 1638, the Scots formulated their objections to royal policy in the
National Covenant. This document took the form of a "loyal protest", rejecting all innovations not first tested by free Parliaments and General Assemblies of the Church. By the spring of 1639, a political movement known as the
Covenanters had taken control of Scotland and Charles decided to re-assert his authority by force. He accompanied an army to the Scottish border near
Berwick but hostilities were avoided when
a truce was agreed. However, both sides viewed the truce as temporary, and continued preparations for military confrontation.
Recall of the English Parliament Charles needed to suppress the rebellion in Scotland but he lacked sufficient funds. To obtain finance, in February 1640 for the first time in 11 years, he recalled an English Parliament. The majority faction of the new Parliament, led by
John Pym, were opposed to an English invasion of Scotland and used Charles's appeal for money as a chance to redress grievances. Charles took exception to this
lèse-majesté (offence against the ruler). Negotiations collapsed and after only a few weeks he dissolved what later became known as the
Short Parliament. Without Parliament's support, Charles again prepared for war with Scotland. In August, a Scots army invaded, won a battle at
Newburn and occupied parts of the north of England. This put Charles in a desperate financial state and according to advice from the
Magnum Concilium (the
House of Lords, but without the
Commons)
another truce was established where Charles agreed to pay the Scottish army's expenses pending the negotiation of a final settlement. He also agreed to summon another English Parliament in November 1640.
The Long Parliament , 1640 , depicted in a 19th-century painting. The new Parliament proved even more hostile to Charles than its predecessor. It immediately began to discuss grievances against him and his government, with Pym and
Hampden in the lead. They took the opportunity presented by the King's troubles to force various reforming measures – including many with strong "anti-
Papist" themes – upon him. The members passed a law stating that a new Parliament would convene at least once every three years – without the King's summons if need be. Other laws passed making it illegal for the king to impose taxes without Parliamentary consent and later gave Parliament control over the King's ministers. Finally, the Parliament passed a law forbidding the King to dissolve it without its consent, even if the three years were up. These laws equated to a tremendous increase in Parliamentary power. Ever since, this Parliament has been known as the
Long Parliament. However, Parliament did attempt to avert conflict by requiring all adults to sign
The Protestation, an oath of allegiance to Charles. Early in the Long Parliament, the house overwhelmingly accused
Thomas Wentworth (now Earl of Strafford) of high treason and other crimes and misdemeanors.
Henry Vane the Younger supplied evidence of Strafford's claimed improper use of the army in Ireland, alleging that he had encouraged the King to use his Ireland-raised forces to threaten England into compliance. This evidence was obtained from Vane's father,
Henry Vane the Elder, a member of the King's Privy Council, who refused to confirm it in Parliament out of loyalty to Charles. On 10 April 1641, Pym's case collapsed, but Pym made a direct appeal to the Younger Vane to produce a copy of the notes from the King's Privy Council, discovered by the Younger Vane and secretly turned over to Pym, to the great anguish of the Elder Vane. These notes contained evidence that Strafford had told the King, "Sir, you have done your duty, and your subjects have failed in theirs; and therefore you are absolved from the rules of government, and may supply yourself by extraordinary ways; you have an army in Ireland, with which you may reduce the kingdom." Pym immediately launched a
Bill of Attainder stating Strafford's guilt and demanding that he be put to death. Unlike a guilty verdict in a court case, attainder did not require a
legal burden of proof to be met, but it did require the king's approval. Charles, however, guaranteed Strafford that he would not sign the attainder, without which the bill could not be passed. Furthermore, the Lords opposed the severity of a death sentence on Strafford. Yet increased tensions and
a plot in the army to support Strafford began to sway the issue. On 21 April, the Commons passed the Bill (204 in favour, 59 opposed, and 250 abstained), and the Lords acquiesced. Charles, still incensed over the Commons' handling of Buckingham, refused his assent. Strafford himself, hoping to head off the war he saw looming, wrote to the king and asked him to reconsider. Charles, fearing for the safety of his family, signed on 10 May. Strafford was beheaded two days later. In the meantime, both Parliament and the King agreed to an independent investigation into the king's involvement in Strafford's plot. The Long Parliament then passed the
Triennial Act 1640, also known as the Dissolution Act, in May 1641, to which
royal assent was readily granted. The Triennial Act required Parliament to be summoned at least once in three years. When the king failed to issue a proper summons, the members could assemble on their own. This act also forbade ship money without Parliament's consent, fines in distraint of knighthood, and forced loans. Monopolies were cut back sharply, the courts of the
Star Chamber and
High Commission abolished by the
Habeas Corpus Act 1640, and the Triennial Act respectively. All remaining forms of taxation were legalised and regulated by the
Tonnage and Poundage Act 1640. On 3 May, Parliament decreed
The Protestation, attacking the 'wicked counsels' of Charles's government, whereby those who signed the petition undertook to defend 'the true reformed religion', Parliament, and the king's person, honour and estate. Throughout May, the House of Commons launched several bills attacking bishops and Episcopalianism in general, each time defeated in the Lords. Charles and his Parliament hoped that the execution of Strafford and the Protestation would end the drift towards war, but in fact, they encouraged it. Charles and his supporters continued to resent Parliament's demands, and Parliamentarians continued to suspect Charles of wanting to impose
episcopalianism and unfettered royal rule by military force. Within months, the Irish Catholics, fearing a resurgence of Protestant power,
struck first, and all Ireland soon descended into chaos. Rumours circulated that the King supported the Irish, and Puritan members of the Commons soon started murmuring that this exemplified the fate that Charles had in store for them all. On 4 January 1642, Charles, followed by 400 soldiers, entered the House of Commons and attempted to arrest
five members on a charge of treason. The members had learned that he was coming and escaped. Charles not only failed to arrest them but turned more people against him.
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 from many local grievances. For example, imposed drainage schemes in
The Fens disrupted the livelihood of thousands after the King awarded a number of drainage contracts. Many saw the King as indifferent to public welfare, and this played a role in bringing much of eastern England into the Parliamentarian camp. This sentiment brought with it such people as
Edward Montagu, Earl of Manchester and
Oliver Cromwell, each a notable wartime adversary of the King. Conversely, one of the leading drainage contractors,
Robert Bertie, Earl of Lindsey, was to die fighting for the King at the
Battle of Edgehill.
First English Civil War (1642–1646) In early January 1642, a few days after failing to capture five members of the House of Commons, Charles feared for the safety of his family and retinue and left the London area for the north country. Further frequent negotiations by letter between the King and the Long Parliament, through to early summer, proved fruitless. On 1 June the
English Lords and
Commons approved a list of proposals known as the
Nineteen Propositions. In these demands, the Parliament sought a larger share of power in the governance of the kingdom. Before the end of the month the King rejected the Propositions. . From the
Royal Albert Memorial Museum's collection (93/1978x) As the summer progressed, cities and towns declared their sympathies for one faction or the other: for example, the garrison of
Portsmouth commanded by
George Goring declared for the King, but when Charles tried to acquire arms from
Kingston upon Hull, the weaponry depository used in the previous Scottish campaigns,
John Hotham, the military governor appointed by Parliament in January, refused to let Charles enter the town, and when Charles returned with more men later,
Hotham drove them off. Charles issued a warrant for Hotham's arrest as a traitor but was powerless to enforce it. Throughout the summer, tensions rose and there was brawling in several places, the first death from the conflict taking place in
Manchester.
1642 battles rose to become
Lord Protector in 1653 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 marked support in rural communities. 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 from the worst excesses of the armies of both sides, but most found it impossible to withstand both King and Parliament. On one side, the King and his supporters fought for what they saw as traditional government in church and state. On the other, most Parliamentarians initially took up arms to defend what they viewed as a traditional balance of government in church and state, and which they felt had been undermined by bad advice the King received from his advisers — such as
George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham — and during his
Personal Rule (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 sought major reforms in
religious independence and redistribution of power at a national level. After the debacle at Hull, Charles moved on to
Nottingham, raising the royal standard there on 22 August 1642. At the time, Charles had with him about 2,000 cavalry and a small number of Yorkshire infantrymen, and using the archaic system of a
Commission of Array, his supporters started to build a larger army around the standard. Charles moved in a westerly direction, first to
Stafford, then on to
Shrewsbury, as support for his cause seemed particularly strong in the
Severn valley area and in North Wales. While passing through
Wellington, he declared in what became known as the "
Wellington Declaration" that he would uphold the "Protestant religion, the laws of England, and the liberty of Parliament". The Parliamentarians who opposed the King did not remain passive in this pre-war period. As in Hull, they took measures to secure strategic towns and cities by appointing to office men sympathetic to their cause. On 9 June they voted to raise an army of 10,000 volunteers and appointed
Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex its commander three days later. He received orders "to rescue His Majesty's person, and the persons of the Prince [of Wales] and the Duke of York [James II] out of the hands of those desperate persons who were about them." The
Lords Lieutenant whom Parliament appointed used the
Militia Ordinance to order the militia to join Essex's army. Two weeks after the King had raised his standard at Nottingham, Essex led his army north towards
Northampton, picking up support along the way (including a detachment of
Huntingdonshire cavalry raised and commanded by Oliver Cromwell). By mid-September Essex's forces had grown to 21,000 infantry and 4,200 cavalry and
dragoons. On 14 September he moved his army to
Coventry and then to the north of the
Cotswolds, a strategy that placed it 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 meet sooner or later. This happened in the first major skirmish of the Civil War, when a troop of about 1,000 Royalist cavalry under
Prince Rupert, a German nephew of the King and one of the outstanding cavalry commanders of the war, defeated a Parliamentary cavalry detachment under Colonel John Brown at the
Battle of Powick Bridge, which crossed the
River Teme close to
Worcester. 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 march down the now open road towards London. The Council decided on 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 the earl of Essex would put himself in their way." Hence, the army left Shrewsbury on 12 October, gaining two days' start on the enemy, and moved south-east. This had the desired effect of forcing Essex to move to intercept them. The first
pitched battle of the war, at
Edgehill on 23 October, proved inconclusive, with both Royalists and Parliamentarians claiming victory. The second field action, the stand-off at
Turnham Green, saw Charles forced to withdraw to
Oxford, which would serve as his base for the rest of the war.
1643 battles In 1643, Royalist forces won at
Adwalton Moor, gaining control of most of
Yorkshire. In the Midlands, a Parliamentary force under
John Gell besieged and captured the cathedral city of
Lichfield, after the death of the original commander,
Lord Brooke. This group then joined forces with
William Brereton at the inconclusive
Battle of Hopton Heath (19 March), where the Royalist commander, the
Earl of Northampton, was killed.
John Hampden died after being wounded in the
Battle of Chalgrove Field (18 June 1643). Subsequent battles in the west of England at
Lansdowne and
Roundway Down also went to the Royalists. Prince Rupert could then take
Bristol. In the same year, however, Cromwell formed his troop of "
Ironsides", a disciplined unit that demonstrated his military leadership ability. With their assistance he won a victory at the
Battle of Gainsborough in July. , Lord General of the Covenanter Army and one of the victors of Marston Moor At this stage, from 7 to 9 August, there were some popular demonstrations in London – both for and against war. They were protesting at Westminster. A peace demonstration by London women, which turned violent, was suppressed; the women were beaten and fired upon with live ammunition, leaving several dead. Many were arrested and incarcerated in
Bridewell and other prisons. After these August events, the
Venetian ambassador in England reported to the
doge that the London government took considerable measures to stifle dissent. 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 and then brushed the Royalists aside at the
First Battle of Newbury (20 September), to return triumphantly to London. Parliamentarian forces led by the Earl of Manchester besieged the port of
King's Lynn, Norfolk, which under
Hamon L'Estrange held out until September. Other forces won the
Battle of Winceby, giving them control of
Lincoln. Political manoeuvring 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, while Parliament offered concessions to the Scots in return for aid and assistance.
1644 battles in July 1644 was won by the
Parliamentarians Helped by the Scots, Parliament won at
Marston Moor (2 July), gaining
York and the north of England. Cromwell's conduct in the battle proved decisive, and showed his potential as a political and as an important military leader. Parliament's defeat at the
Battle of Lostwithiel in Cornwall, however, marked a serious reverse in the south-west of England. Subsequent
fighting around Newbury (27 October), though tactically indecisive, strategically gave another check to Parliament.
1645 battles 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-organised its main forces into the
New Model Army, under the command of
Thomas Fairfax, with Cromwell as his second-in-command and
Lieutenant-General of Horse. In two decisive engagements – the
Battle of Naseby on 14 June and the
Battle of Langport on 10 July – the Parliamentarians effectively destroyed Charles's armies.
1646 battles In the remains of his English realm, Charles tried to recover a stable base of support by consolidating the Midlands. He began to form an axis between Oxford and
Newark-on-Trent in Nottinghamshire. These towns had become fortresses and showed more reliable loyalty to him than 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. Charles was eventually handed over to the English Parliament by the Scots and imprisoned. This marked the end of the First English Civil War.
Interbellum The end of the
First Civil War, in 1646, left a partial power vacuum in which any combination of the three English factions, Royalists,
Independents of the
New Model Army ("the Army"), and
Presbyterians of the English Parliament, as well as the Scottish Parliament allied with the Scottish Presbyterians (the "
Kirk"), could prove strong enough to dominate the rest. Armed political
Royalism was at an end, but despite being a prisoner, Charles I was considered by himself and his opponents (almost to the last) as necessary to ensure the success of whichever group could come to terms with him. Thus, he passed successively into the hands of the Scots, the Parliament and the Army. The King attempted to reverse the verdict of arms by "
coquetting" with each in turn. On 3 June 1647, Cornet
George Joyce of Thomas Fairfax's cavalry seized the King for the New Model Army; following the seizure, the English Presbyterians and the Scots began to prepare for a fresh civil war, less than two years after the conclusion of the first, this time against "Independency" as embodied in the Army. After making use of the Army, its opponents attempted to disband it, send it onward to foreign service, and to cut off its arrears of pay. The result was that the Army leadership was exasperated beyond control, and, remembering not merely its grievances but also the principle for which the Army had fought, it soon became the most powerful political force in the realm. From 1646 to 1648 the breach between Army and Parliament widened day by day, until finally the Presbyterian party, combined with the Scots and the remaining Royalists, felt itself strong enough to begin a Second Civil War.
Second English Civil War (1648–1649) . The oil-on-canvas picture, painted in 1878, depicts a scene in an imaginary Royalist household during the English Civil War. The Parliamentarians have taken over the house and question the son about his Royalist father. The man lounging on a chair in the centre of the scene is identifiable as a
Roundhead officer by his military attire and his orange sash. Charles I took advantage of the deflection of attention away from himself to negotiate on 28 December 1647 a secret treaty with the Scots, again promising church reform. Under the agreement, called the "
Engagement", the Scots undertook to invade England on Charles's behalf and restore him to the throne. A series of Royalist uprisings throughout England and a Scottish invasion occurred in the summer of 1648. Forces loyal to Parliament put down most of those in England after little more than a skirmish, but uprisings in
Kent,
Essex and
Cumberland, the rebellion in Wales, and the Scottish invasion involved pitched battles and prolonged sieges. In the spring of 1649, unpaid Parliamentarian troops in Wales changed sides. Colonel
Thomas Horton defeated the Royalist rebels at the
Battle of St Fagans (8 May) and the rebel leaders surrendered to Cromwell on 11 July after a protracted two-month
siege of Pembroke. Thomas Fairfax defeated a Royalist uprising in Kent at the
Battle of Maidstone on 1 June. Fairfax, after his success at
Maidstone and the pacification of Kent, turned north to reduce Essex, where, under an ardent, experienced and popular leader,
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. In the North of England, Major-General
John Lambert fought a successful campaign against several Royalist uprisings, the largest being that of
Marmaduke Langdale in Cumberland. Thanks to Lambert's successes, the Scottish commander, the
Duke of Hamilton, had to take a western route through
Carlisle in his pro-Royalist
Scottish invasion of England. The Parliamentarians under Cromwell engaged the Scots at the
Battle of Preston (17–19 August). The battle took place largely at
Walton-le-Dale near
Preston, Lancashire, and resulted in a victory for Cromwell's troops over the Royalists and Scots commanded by Hamilton. This 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 word not to bear arms against Parliament, and many, like
Lord Astley, were therefore bound by oath not to take any part in the second conflict. 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
Charles Lucas and
George Lisle shot. Parliamentary authorities sentenced the leaders of the Welsh rebels, Major-General
Rowland Laugharne, Colonel
John Poyer and Colonel Rice Powel to death, but executed only Poyer (25 April 1649), having selected him by lot. Of five prominent Royalist peers who had fallen into Parliamentary hands, three – the Duke of Hamilton, the
Henry Rich, Earl of Holland, and
Arthur Capell, one of the Colchester prisoners and a man of high character – were beheaded at Westminster on 9 March.
Trial of Charles I for treason Charles's secret pacts and encouragement of supporters to break their parole caused Parliament to debate whether to return the King to power at all. Those who still supported Charles's place on the throne, such as the army leader and moderate Fairfax, tried again to negotiate with him. The Army, furious that Parliament continued to countenance Charles as a ruler, then marched on Parliament and conducted "
Pride's Purge", named after the commanding officer of the operation,
Thomas Pride, in December 1648. Troops arrested 45 members 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. Fairfax, a constitutional monarchist, declined to have anything to do with the trial. He resigned as head of the army, so clearing Cromwell's road to power. At the end of the trial the
59 Commissioners judged Charles I guilty of
high treason as a "tyrant, traitor, murderer and public enemy". He was
beheaded on a scaffold in front of the
Banqueting House of the
Palace of Whitehall on 30 January 1649. After the
Restoration in 1660, nine of the surviving
regicides not living in exile were executed and most others sentenced to life imprisonment. After the regicide,
Charles, Prince of Wales as the eldest son was publicly proclaimed King Charles II in the Royal Square of
St. Helier,
Jersey, on 17 February 1649 (after a first such proclamation in Edinburgh on 5 February 1649). It took longer for the news to reach the trans-Atlantic colonies, with the Somers Isles (also known as
Bermuda) becoming the first to proclaim Charles II King on 5 July 1649.
Third English Civil War (1649–1651) Ireland in Ireland in 1649 Ireland had undergone continual war since the
rebellion of 1641, with most of the island controlled by the
Irish Confederates. 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. The joint Royalist and Confederate forces under
James Butler, Duke of Ormonde tried to eliminate the Parliamentary army holding
Dublin by
laying siege in 1649, but their opponents routed them at the
Battle of Rathmines (2 August 1649).
Admiral Robert Blake, a former Member of Parliament, had blockaded Prince Rupert's fleet in
Kinsale, enabling Oliver Cromwell to land at
Dublin on 15 August 1649 with an army to quell the Royalist alliance. Cromwell's suppression of the Royalists in Ireland in 1649 is still remembered by many Irish people. After the
Siege of Drogheda, the massacre of nearly 3,500 people – around 2,700 Royalist soldiers and 700 others, including civilians, prisoners, and Catholic priests (all of whom Cromwell claimed had carried arms) – became one of the historical memories that has driven Irish-English and Catholic-Protestant strife during the last three centuries. The Parliamentarian conquest of Ireland ground on for another four years until 1653, when the last
Irish Confederate and Royalist troops surrendered. In the wake of the conquest, the victors confiscated almost all Irish Catholic-owned land and distributed it to Parliament's creditors, to Parliamentary soldiers who served in Ireland, and to English who had settled there before the war.
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,
James Graham, Marquess of Montrose, had gone into exile. At first,
Charles II encouraged Montrose to raise a Highland army to fight on the Royalist side. When the Scottish Covenanters, who did not agree with the execution of Charles I and who feared for the future of
Presbyterianism under the new
Commonwealth, offered him the crown of Scotland, Charles abandoned Montrose to his enemies. Montrose, who had raised a
mercenary force in Norway, 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. '', by
Andrew Carrick Gow, 1886 Charles II landed in Scotland at
Garmouth in
Morayshire on 23 June 1650 and signed the 1638
National Covenant and the 1643
Solemn League and Covenant shortly after coming ashore. With his original Scottish Royalist followers and his new Covenanter allies, 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. He arrived in Scotland on 22 July 1650 and proceeded to lay siege 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 under the command of
David Leslie tried to block the retreat, but Cromwell defeated them at the
Battle of Dunbar on 3 September. 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). 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. The next year, 1652, saw a 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 as the military governor of Scotland.
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. They marched to the west of England where English Royalist sympathies were strongest, but although some English Royalists joined the army, they were far fewer in number than Charles and his Scottish supporters had hoped. Cromwell finally engaged and defeated the new Scottish king at
Worcester on 3 September 1651.
Wales For several reasons most of
Wales was not as engaged in the English Civil Wars to the same degree as other parts of the British Isles. Wales was isolated from England, both physically and linguistically, so the Welsh were not as much engaged as England in the issues between the king and Parliament. The English considered Wales a remote land, with Welsh, not English, as the primary language. Since England had formally assimilated Wales into the kingdom, starting in 1536 formal agreements had been put in place under Henry VIII and continued under Charles I that allowed for Welsh local administrative authority and economic control, which allowed the Welsh to function to some degree independently. Another factor was the Puritan religion, which played a major role in the English Civil Wars but was not widely practised throughout Wales. Welsh Puritan religious dominance was found in northeast Wales near
Wrexham,
Denbighshire, and an indirect Puritan influence found along the southwestern coast near
Haverfordwest, Pembroke, and
Tenby due to a combination of a strong influence by the third earl of Essex and their strong trade relations with Bristol, England, a fervent Puritan stronghold. In addition, Wales was comparatively more rural in character than England at this time, and lacked the large number of urban settlements home to mercantile, trade, and manufacturing interests who were a bulwark of support for both Puritanism and eventually the Parliamentarian cause. Many of the key Welsh Civil Wars leaders were from the gentry class holding Royalist sympathies, or from the Church. Those Welsh who did participate in the Civil Wars battles were underequipped, underfed, and not properly trained for warfare. The majority of Welsh followed the Protestant faith with a religious perspective that differed from the English puritan zeal. They were also leery of the Irish Catholics invading Wales. The Welsh also did not want to lose what they had, for the gentry were aware of the destruction the Thirty Years' War caused in Europe. Most of those English Civil War battles where Wales was impacted occurred near the border with England and in south Wales. Some of the more significant engagements were: • In Gloucester, England (not far from Wales) Lord Herbert of Raglan (Wales) had Welsh troops assisting the royalists trying to take Gloucester in March, August, and September 1643, but without success; • In November 1643
Thomas Myddelton had secured the north Wales Royalist stronghold of Flintshire and the area east of Denbighshire, depriving Royalists based in Chester, England of their supplies. In response to this attack Archbishop John Williams, on behalf of the Royalists, responded to this attack by taking Wrexham from the Parliamentarians; • Initially in the summer of 1643, Royalist forces under
Richard Vaughan of Golden Grove, 2nd Earl of Carbery, who had been appointed lieutenant-general by the King, was successful in securing three of the southwestern Welsh counties; but in early 1644 Parliamentarians conducted a successful sea and land assault campaign on Pembroke, Haverfordwest, Milford Pil; and continuing on to Swansea and Cardiff. As a result of these Royalist failures the King replaced Carbery with Colonel
Charles Gerard, 1st Earl of Macclesfield who was able to regain many of these lost territories in Cardiganshire and Carmarthenshire; • On 18 September 1644 the first pitched battle on Welsh soil at Montgomery was a successful win for Myddelton; • On 1 August 1645 the Royalist forces were once again defeated at Colby Moor; • During the Second Civil War the Royalists were decisively defeated at the battle of St.
Fagans near Cardiff, which was one of the last more significant battles. In addition to the Civil Wars' impact on the monarchy and the changes in national leadership, unexpected outcomes of the English Civil Wars to Wales included a significant degradation of the country's road system, a deterioration of government administrative functions to the general population, destruction of castles with only the remnants of them remaining, and the desecration of churches.
Immediate aftermath After the Royalist defeat at Worcester,
Charles II escaped to France via safe houses and
an oak tree. Parliament was left in
de facto control of England. Resistance continued for a time in Ireland and Scotland, but with the pacification of England, resistance elsewhere did not threaten the military supremacy of the New Model Army and its Parliamentary paymasters. ==Political control==