10A

Stuart Britain and the Crisis of Monarchy, 1603-1702

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SECTION TWO Revolution, 1629-1649

Topic 10 The First Civil War: England, Scotland and Ireland

Key Question A: How did events in Scotland and Ireland affect the outcome of the First Civil War?

The First Civil War, 1642-46

Although the Civil War in English History is remembered as primarily a struggle between the ‘Crown’ and ‘Parliament’, it should be considered that the conflict that took place between 1642-46 was in fact far more complex and imprecise. For example, in the House of Commons, approximately one-third of MPs supported the King and two-thirds supported Parliament; in the Lords, the proportions were reversed. Thus, as a body, Parliament was split in half diagonally. A similar division of support could be ascertained across the country at large; a rough line of demarcation ran from the north-east to the south-west, with Parliament stronger to the south and the Royalists stronger to the north. This was by no means an exact division, of course; there were pockets of resistance dotted throughout both areas of enemy territory, and the geographical lines blurred as major towns were successively captured and lost by both sides as the war progressed.

Further insight into the composition of the two sides can be gained from examining the various groups that declared their support for one or the other.

Royalists		Parliamentarians
Charles I’s Royal Army: Having issued The Commissions of Array in April 1642, Charles initially had about 2,000 cavalry and infantry when he raised his standard at Nottingham to declare war on 22 August. As support for his cause seemed particularly strong towards the south-west, the King moved in this direction; by the autumn of 1642, his army was said to number in the tens of thousands. The Council of War: The Council coordinated the Royalist war effort from Oxford, where a makeshift court and parliament was established. Leading members included Henrietta Maria, Edward Hyde and George Digby, Earl of Bristol. William Cavendish, the Earl of Newcastle: Newcastle was a staunch Royalist Privy Councillor, with oversight of the education of the future Charles II. When the Bishops’ Wars began he had loaned the King £10,000 and a company of soldiers. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Newcastle received the command of the four northern counties, maintaining troops at his own expense. James Graham, the Earl of Montrose: Montrose had been one of the original Covenanters in 1638, but after signing the Treaty of Berwick to end the First Bishops’ War, he switched allegiance and sided with the King as a result of what he perceived to be the increasing radicalism of the Scottish Parliament. In August 1640, he signed the Cumbernauld Bond in protest against the leaders of the Covenant, and thus became the figurehead of a breakaway group of conservative Scottish nobles who would fight for the Royalists north of the border when war broke out. Prince Rupert of the Rhine, the Earl of Cavendish: Rupert was Charles’s nephew. He had been a soldier in the Thirty Years’ War from the age of 14, fighting for the Palatinate against the Holy Roman Empire. Aged just 23, he was appointed commander of the Royalist cavalry alongside his brother Maurice at the start of the Civil War. His flamboyant personality gave him a reputation as the archetypal Cavalier, while his connections and military skill (he was known for his ‘Thunderbolt Charge’ across the battlefield) soon saw him established as the senior Royalist general.		London Trained Bands: In the absence of a regular army, local militia regiments were the only permanent military units in England. While those in the counties were poorly equipped and disciplined, in London they were larger (40 companies of 200 men each) and better, thanks to enthusiastic societies of citizens who regularly practised drills and hired expert soldiers to instruct them. The Solemn League and Covenant: This treaty between the English Parliament and its Scottish counterpart was signed in 1643 to safeguard the future of the Protestant religion. The Covenanters sent an army of 22,000 men to England to fight on the Parliamentarian side. The Committee of Both Kingdoms was established to manage their combined actions in the war against the Royalists. The Eastern Association: As part of Parliament's efforts to improve the administration of its forces, the militias of Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire and Lincolnshire were formalised as the Eastern Association in 1642. These were some of the richest agricultural regions of England, so the Association's forces were probably the most impressively financed and equipped troops on either side in the early part of the war. Edward Montagu, the Earl of Manchester (who Charles had tried to arrest along with the 5 MPs in January 1642), initially took command of its forces. Oliver Cromwell, a country gentleman and MP for Cambridge, was Lieutenant-General of the Cavalry. General Sir Thomas Fairfax: Fairfax was an MP and veteran soldier of the Thirty Years’ War, where he had fought on the side of the Protestant Dutch against Spanish Catholics. He had fought alongside Charles during the Bishops’ Wars, but by 1642 had switched hisallegiance to Parliament. At the outbreak of civil war, his father, Lord Fairfax, was appointed general of the Parliamentary forces in the north, and Thomas was made Lieutenant-General of the cavalry under him. Both father and son immediately distinguished themselves in the campaigns in Yorkshire, and Fairfax junior gained a reputation as ‘the Rider of the White Horse’ for his daring forays into the field of battle.

Royalists

Parliamentarians

Charles I’s Royal Army:

Having issued The Commissions of Array in April 1642, Charles initially had about 2,000 cavalry and infantry when he raised his standard at Nottingham to declare war on 22 August. As support for his cause seemed particularly strong towards

the south-west, the King moved in this direction; by the autumn of 1642, his army was said to number in the tens of thousands.

The Council of War:

The Council coordinated the Royalist war effort from Oxford, where a makeshift court and parliament was established. Leading members included Henrietta Maria, Edward Hyde and George Digby, Earl of Bristol.

William Cavendish, the Earl of Newcastle:

Newcastle was a staunch Royalist Privy Councillor, with oversight of the education of the future Charles II. When the Bishops’ Wars began he had loaned the King £10,000 and a company of soldiers. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Newcastle received the command of the four northern counties, maintaining troops at his own expense.

James Graham, the Earl of Montrose:

Montrose had been one of the original Covenanters in 1638, but after signing the Treaty of Berwick to end the First Bishops’ War, he switched allegiance and sided with the King as a result of what he perceived to be the increasing radicalism of the Scottish Parliament. In August 1640, he signed the Cumbernauld Bond in protest against the leaders of the Covenant, and thus became the figurehead of a breakaway group of conservative Scottish nobles who would fight for the Royalists north of the border when war broke out.

Prince Rupert of the Rhine, the Earl of Cavendish:

Rupert was Charles’s nephew. He had been a soldier in the Thirty Years’ War from the age of 14, fighting for the Palatinate against the Holy Roman Empire. Aged just 23, he was appointed commander of the Royalist cavalry alongside his brother Maurice at the start of the Civil War. His flamboyant personality gave him a reputation as the archetypal Cavalier, while his connections and military skill (he was known for his ‘Thunderbolt Charge’ across the battlefield) soon saw him established as the senior Royalist general.

London Trained Bands:

In the absence of a regular army, local militia regiments were the only permanent military units in England. While those in the counties were poorly equipped and disciplined, in London they were larger (40 companies of 200 men each) and better, thanks to enthusiastic societies of citizens who regularly practised drills and hired expert soldiers to instruct them.

The Solemn League and Covenant:

This treaty between the English Parliament and its Scottish counterpart was signed in 1643 to safeguard the future of the Protestant religion. The Covenanters sent an army of 22,000 men to England to fight on the Parliamentarian side. The Committee of Both Kingdoms was established to manage their combined actions in the war against the Royalists.

The Eastern Association:

As part of Parliament's efforts to improve the administration of its forces, the militias of Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire and Lincolnshire were formalised as the Eastern Association in 1642. These were some of the richest agricultural regions of England, so the Association's forces were probably the most impressively financed and equipped troops on either side in the early part of the war. Edward Montagu, the Earl of Manchester (who Charles had tried to arrest along with the 5 MPs in January 1642), initially took command of its forces. Oliver Cromwell, a country gentleman and MP for Cambridge, was Lieutenant-General of the Cavalry.

General Sir Thomas Fairfax:

Fairfax was an MP and veteran soldier of the Thirty Years’ War, where he had fought on the side of the Protestant Dutch against Spanish Catholics. He had fought alongside Charles during the Bishops’ Wars, but by 1642 had switched hisallegiance to Parliament. At the outbreak of civil war, his father, Lord Fairfax, was appointed general of the Parliamentary forces in the north, and Thomas was made Lieutenant-General of the cavalry under him. Both father and son immediately distinguished themselves in the campaigns in Yorkshire, and Fairfax junior gained a reputation as ‘the Rider of the White Horse’ for his daring forays into the field of battle.

Civil War in Scotland

The British Civil Wars, or Wars of the Three Kingdoms, had technically begun with the Scottish Prayer Book Rebellion of 1637, as this marked the start of a continuous conflict that had spread from Scotland, to Ireland in 1641 (with the Irish Rebellion), to England by 1642 when Charles I raised his royal standard outside Nottingham Castle.

Following his swift military reverse at the hands of the Covenanters during the Bishops’ Wars, Charles had been forced to sign the Treaty of Ripon in 1640. Initially, his supporters in Scotland, led by the Earl of Montrose and the other signatories of the Cumbernauld Bond, were isolated as a result of their failed attack on the Covenanter leaders in 1641 (‘the Incident’); therefore, no significant action on behalf of the Crown could either be planned or executed. To make matters worse for the King, the Covenanters entered into an alliance with the English Parliament in 1643 – the Solemn League and Covenant. In return for their 22,000 troops, Parliament swore to uphold the Presbyterian faith in Scotland. Cementing the alliance was the creation of the Committee of Both Kingdoms, which established a joint command over the Scottish and Parliamentary armies. The alliance soon proved its worth when the Covenanter army, under the command of Alexander Leslie, Earl of Leven, helped to encircle Royalist troops at York, which enabled the Parliamentary forces to defeat the King at the Battle of Marston Moor in July 1644. This was the first major Roundhead victory of the Civil War and would prove to be an important turning-point for the two sides.

However, the Solemn League and Covenant alienated a number of Scottish nobles who rallied to the support of the Earl of Montrose, now the leader of the Royalist force in Scotland. Montrose proved a fearsome commander, winning multiple victories (albeit in relatively small-scale battles) against the Covenanters in 1644 and 1645. However, his successes led to little material gain, and gradually the Highlanders in Montrose’s force left the army to return to their homeland. In 1645, the main body of the Covenanter force marched north from their position in England and crushed Montrose at the Battle of Philiphaugh in September 1645. Montrose subsequently attempted to raise another army, but was unable to find enough supporters to take to the field. After fighting a guerrilla campaign over the following winter, he received orders from the King (who was himself a prisoner by this point) to lay down his arms, thus ending the Royalist’s military hopes in Scotland.

Civil War in Ireland

Civil War had essentially begun in Ireland with the outbreak of the Irish Rebellion in October 1641. The Gaelic Irish and ‘old English’ formed their own government and army under an alliance known as the Catholic Confederation in May 1642. James Butler, the Earl of Ormond, was placed in charge of the Royal Irish Army and was bolstered by 10,000 troops financed by the English Parliament. He therefore found himself in the unusual and difficult position of being claimed as a representative of both the Crown and Parliament when the Civil War broke out in England several months later.

After a year of fighting, the Protestants had consolidated and extended their control of Dublin and Ulster, although the Confederates still essentially controlled the rest of the country. In September 1643, under orders from Charles, Ormond signed a cessation treaty (ceasefire) with the Catholic Confederation. As a result, approximately 4,000 Irish troops (a mixture of Catholics and Protestants) were transported to England to aid the King’s forces in England. However, this had two negative effects on the Royalist cause:

1. it forced Parliament’s hand in agreeing to the Solemn League and Covenant with the Scots;

2. rumours soon spread that if Charles won the war, he would be indebted to Catholic forces – giving Parliament the opportunity to produce yet more propaganda that played on fears that the King’s actions were all part of an elaborate plot to establish Catholicism and absolutism.

Worse was to follow for Charles when, after the Battle of Naseby (1645), Parliament captured correspondence between the King and the Catholic Confederation. It was clear that Charles was attempting to win their support by promising to govern Ireland through a Catholic Lord Deputy, introduce Catholic bishops into the House of Lords, and make Catholicism the official religion in Ireland. Even staunch Royalist supporters were appalled.

In the event, Charles’s ‘Irish peace dividend’ never materialised. For a time, the extra Irish troops helped secure Royalist control of the Welsh marches, but Parliament’s control of the Navy prevented Irish forces being transferred to England in the numbers that would have been required to make a significant difference to the Royalist cause. With little that could be achieved in Ireland, Ormond signed a more permanent peace with the Catholics in March 1646. In June, a Scottish Covenanter army was defeated by the Confederation at the Battle of Benburb. However, not even this could help the King because it now made them less inclined to identify a common cause with the defeated Royalists. Charles’s hopes of bringing pressure to bear on Parliament in England with the use of an Irish Catholic alliance had come to nothing.