MAPS 50 51 The Battle of Worcester 3 September 1651
Cromwell's main body lay to the south-east of the city on and around the Red Hill, on the east bank of the Severn, whilst Fleetwood was moving from Upton along the road to Powick and so to Powick Bridge, scene of a royalist cavalry victory in 1642, Fleetwood's objective was to cross the River Teme and attack the Scots on its northern bank, who formed the western defences of the city. The troops under Fleetwood moved slowly, but came to the Teme at two points, near Powick Bridge itself and...
MAPS 18 19 The Battle of Cheriton 29 March 1644
Hopton's cavalry under Sir Edward Stawell had outpaced Waller's under Balfour, and reached Alresford before the parliamentary army could do so. The long awaited pitched battle seemed to be coming, but on 28 March the parliamentary commanders at Hinton Ampner were divided. Recognising that retreat, however, was as perilous as staying to fight, Waller prepared for action on the 29th. Whilst there is no doubt that Hopton wanted a battle, he was probably surprised to find Waller apparently...
War in the East and East Midlands
The counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire, formed into the Eastern Association on 20 December 1642, saw little real fighting, coming early and easily under parliamentarian control. Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire were the battlegrounds, where the southward thrusts of the earl of Newcastle were resisted, although Lincolnshire was a markedly royalist county. In early December 1642, Newcastle had garrisoned Pontefract in Yorkshire, and sent forces out to garrison...
The Fall of Bristol and the Marches of the King
Following upon his defeat at Naseby in June 1645, the King withdrew to Hereford and made contact with Charles Gerard, the able royalist commander in South Wales. Gerard had been sent into the country early in 1644 to recover the royalist control there, lost by the earl of Carbery to the efficient Rowland Laugharne. Gerard's overwhelming success, accompanied by some brutality, made South Wales a potential recruiting ground for the King, and Charles was at Raglan Castle when news of Langport...
MAPS 27 28 The Second Battle of Newbury 27 October 1644
The royalist infantry under Lord Astley held Shaw House and the line of the Lambourn, Prince Maurice, away towards Speen, was trying to entrench his infantry on their new position, whilst the bulk of the royalist cavalry formed the centre of the royalist position close to their guns. Donnington Castle's guns were also involved in the general dispositions. Whether or not the King knew for certain of the projected outflanking march is not clear, but that he moved Maurice towards Speen indicates...
Scotland in 16391640 and the Bishops Wars
The root cause of the armed confrontations between Charles I and part of his Scottish subjects lay in his policy of anglicisation and their fears that the union of the two crowns was leading them into subjugation. As early as 1637 there were hopes of a closer, parliamentary union, to offset the personal union represented by Charles, but internal divisions and contradictions led Scotland first to ally with Parliament in 1643, then to revert to loyalty to the Crown and, as a consequence, to end...
The Second Civil War The Royalists and the Scots
The insurrections in England and Wales had taken place without Scottish help, which was long delayed by deep divisions within Scotland over the issue of the Engagement. Colchester was under siege, and the fall of Pembroke but three days away, when the duke of Hamilton entered Cumberland on 8 July. An abortive rising at Kingston on Thames led by the earl of Holland had come to nothing, and the Scots army could hope to achieve little. It entered Carlisle and joined up with English cavaliers under...
The Outbreak of the Third Civil War
The failure of the 1648 rising was largely due to the inability of the Scots either to act in unison or to act positively. In the attitude to Charles II in Scotland, there was more or less a three-way split the old Montrose royalists, the Engagers residue of Hamilton's party and the hard-line Covenanters. The two latter shared a mutual dislike of Montrose. It was unfortunate for Charles II, therefore, that after the events of 1649 50 he was obliged to depend upon the Scots for a military...
MAPS 23 24 The Battle of Marston Moor 2 July 1644
On the morning of 2 July the allied army which had lain encamped on Marston Moor, began to march away towards Tadcaster and so southwards. The rearguard, commanded by Sir Thomas Fairfax, Oliver Cromwell and David Leslie, was alarmed by the sudden appearance of Rupert's army crossing Hessay Moor towards them, and the allied generals were obliged to turn back and to offer battle rather than be caught in line of march. The allied troops drew up in battle order on Braham Hill, cultivated land...
MAPS 34 35 The Battle of Naseby 14 June 1645
The royalist dispositions on the ridge were conventional, with Langdale and his Northern Horse on the left flank, Rupert and his cavalry on the right, and Astley with the infantry in the centre. Cromwell and Fairfax considered that the royalist position gave Rupert an option not to fight if he so wished, and decided to withdraw towards Naseby and occupy high ground there. The enemy movement was seen by Rupert, who ordered the whole royalist army to set in motion, and a flanking march was begun....
The Rump Parliament and Interregnum Government
The execution of Charles I and the abolition of the monarchy were, obviously, events of profound significance. It was an inauspicious beginning for the Republic, however, that the period of the 'Commonwealth' 649 to 1653 was marked by the government of the Rump, a minority element of the Long Parliament. This proved to be strikingly unpopular although its corruption was exaggerated , and not overly dedicated to the current revolutionary sentiments. And from its very inception, the morale of the...
War in the North The Scottish Invasion January to April 1644
Haggerston 19.1.44 lA N Middleton fi elfjeld Haggerston 19.1.44 lA N Middleton fi elfjeld Ebchester - 20.3.44Chester le StreeT Easington 1.4.44 r. o. i'Quarnngton 8.4.44 Sishop Auckland fVerry Hill 1 00' Easington 1.4.44 r. o. i'Quarnngton 8.4.44 Sishop Auckland fVerry Hill 1 00' In September 1643 Parliament and the Scots reached an agreement, the Solemn League and Covenant, whereby more than 20,000 Scottish troops would enter the war against the King. Scottish involvement would force the...
MAP 55 1659 Sir George Booths Rising
The death of Cromwell on 3 September 1658 saw the accession of his son Richard as Lord Protector, from which office he was pushed by a strange alliance of New Model commanders and former Rumpers, who restored the Rump Parliament in reduced form. From the defeat at Worcester through to Cromwell's death, royalist plots aimed at restoring Charles II to his throne had proved full of high ideals and little else yet with the move against Richard Cromwell from within, some royalists entertained hopes...
S s
Bourtononf Woodstock the Water Handborough Burfordt Brii9ef Witney Newbridge Bletchingdon ,Cassington 79 Islip .Wolvercote Oxford Thame By the spring of 1644 the royalists were in an unenviable position. The military advantage had swung decidedly in favour of the Parliament and of its Scottish allies, whilst the reinforcements coming from Ireland had proved a mere trickle. There was no real prospect of an alliance with the Irish confederacy. The King, to create a strong enough main army based...
Royalist Conspiracy and the Risings of 1655
The battle of Worcester marked the end of royalist hopes of success through a Scottish alliance. The field army was gone, Charles II barely escaped to Europe, and the earl of Derby was executed. The Isle of Man fell to the government on 31 October 1651, Jersey and Guernsey fell in December. The Parliament began to move towards reconciliation, the Act of Oblivion of February 1652 inaugurating a policy that Cromwell personally favoured. In France, the court in exile was riddled with intrigue, the...
Bibliography
Place of publication London unless otherwise stated. Abell, H.F. Kent and the Great Civil War 1901 Adair, John Roundhead General A Military Biography cfSir William Waller 1969 --Cheriton 1644 The Campaign and the Battle Kineton, 1973 Allen, J.W. English Political Thought 1603-44 1938 Andriette, Eugene A. Devon and Exeter In The Civil War Newton Abbot, 1971 Ashton, Robert 7he English Civil War Conservatism and Revolution 1603-1649 1978 Aylmer, G.E. The Struggle for the Constitution 1963 Bayley,...
MAPS 4 5 The Battle of Edgehill 23 October 1642
Battle between the two armies was inevitable, but the time and place a matter of chance. From the bare Edgehill a plain ran down towards Kineton township, giving the royalist commanders overall view of the field, but obstructed by enclosures near Kineton itself. Prince Rupert rode to the ridge early in the morning, his cavalry were in place shortly before noon, and the infantry came into position by about two o'clock. Essex's surprise may be indicated by the fact that the royal army was now...
MAP 44 16491650 Cromwell in Ireland
The marquess of Ormond's revitalised royalist army failed to take Dublin early in 1649, being defeated at the battle of Baggot-rath by Michael Jones. Cromwell, with 20,000 men, entered the capital on 15 August with the set purpose of punishing the Irish confederates and of restoring Ireland to order. He struck first at Drogheda where, after storming the defences, he allowed a general massacre to take place, leading to 3,000 or more deaths including those of royalist fugitives from England....
MAP 54 The Rule of the Major Generals
Cromwell's period of personal rule as Protector, which began on 16 December, merely legalised his position as the single most important leader in post-monarchical England. It may be that Cromwell sought to make his authority constitutional, as the Instrument of Government allowed for, and it may also be that his objectives fell far short of dictatorship. However, his power base was narrow, being opposed not only by royalists at home and in exile, but also by the large Presbyterian faction,...
Introduction
This book is concerned with the topography of the English Civil Wars of 1642-51 and, to a lesser extent, with events prior and subsequent to those dates. It sets out to fill a gap in the available literature concerning the period, by offering a series of complementary texts and maps aimed at explaining, for the most part, the sometimes confusing prose accounts of campaigns and battles. Over the last thirty years or so, there has been a marked and widespread interest in the civil wars amongst a...