The English Civil War is in fact a rather misleading term, as fighting also took place in Scotland and Ireland - the military situation in the latter being a contributory cause of the war in the first place. Also, there were three distinct wars rather than one.

The causes of the first war were complex but at their simplest level reflected a power struggle between the forces of conservatism, represented by the King, and those seeking a more modern constitution, headed by members of Parliament. King Charles I believed in "the divine right of kings" - autocratic rule for the good of the country, if necessary without reference to his subjects' views, whilst on the whole Parliament wished for a measure of accountability from the King with (by 21st century standards) limited democracy.

Religion also played a major role - increasingly many people wished for freedom of worship, rather than tolerate the state-organised system. In the highly religious 17th Century, this issue became extremely emotive. To complicate matters further, Catholics were extremely unpopular, as England's traditional enemies (Spain and France) were Catholic powers and Charles' queen, Henrietta Maria, was a French Catholic. Although Charles himself was sincerely protestant, suspicions abounded (conspiracy theories not being exclusive to our own time!).

When Catholic rebels massacred many protestant settlers in Ireland in 1640, anti-Catholic feeling reached fever pitch and contributed to a general sense of dissatisfaction.

With the King seemingly unable or unwilling to compromise on key issues, it was inevitable that a clash of wills would occur. Although the thought appalled all involved, open warfare eventually became the only option.

Who one supported usually depended on where one lived, especially in the case of "ordinary folk". The main towns and cities supported Parliament whilst more traditional areas, primarily rural, backed the King. This meant that right from the start, King Charles was at a severe disadvantage, as most of the population and centres of industry were either openly hostile to his cause, or at least unsupportive. In particular, London was staunchly Parliamentarian, representing wealth and resources that the King could not hope to match. Catholics generally sided with the King, and whilst there were few, some were very wealthy.

Families became divided on a matter of principle, whilst towns and villages found themselves in "no-man's land" between rival garrisons, both likely to come seeking "voluntary" contributions, in money, provisions or both. The scene was set for a war which killed through battle or disease a greater percentage of the British population than World War One, and which left untold destruction and misery in its wake.

The War, 1642 - 44

With no standing army to draw upon, both sides had to rely on "trained bands" - essentially the "Home Guard", the quality of which varied enormously, together with raw recruits. Some regiments were lucky enough to have experienced officers returned from taking part in the Thirty Years War in Europe - others had to muddle through learning the new trade of war as they went. Under the circumstances it is remarkable how well the armies managed in the field and under the terrifying conditions of battle.

1642 saw the King flee London in search of support, setting up his standard at Nottingham on 22 August - the die was cast. In the eyes of many, Charles had declared war on his own people - something that would return to haunt him after his defeat.

The first major battle, at Edgehill in Warwickshire on 23 October, was indecisive - neither side triumphed, nor did they simply run away (although many on both sides did). However, the King was able to advance on London, but there was turned back by superior numbers at Turnham Green. He didn't know it, but probably his best chance of victory had slipped away. Retiring to Oxford, he set up his headquarters and wondered what to do next. Indeed, there was little in the way of overall strategy on either side - the King needed victory but wasn't certain how to achieve it, whilst Parliament concentrated on surviving, a kind of victory in itself. They were painfully aware that if the King was defeated he was still king, whilst they were rebels who could be executed for treason if the war went the other way.

As fighting had broken out so late in the year, it was 1643 before it truly became a serious affair. During this year the King's cause enjoyed many victories, for example, the Battle of Roundway Down on 13 July, where Sir William Waller's army was destroyed by the Royalists. Another major success was the fall of Bristol, at last offering Charles use of a major port, crucial if he was to maintain his war effort. Other battles were not so decisive however, such as the Battle of Newbury on 20 September. In short, Charles never had enough men or resources to follow up and finish the job, so the year ended with the country divided - most of the South and Midlands under Parliamentarian control, the rest for the King. Within these areas, however, there were often enemy forces holding key fortifications, such as the Marquis of Winchester's Royalist garrison at Basing House in Hampshire.

Many battles were fought and some previously peaceful gentlemen discovered that they had a talent for war. One such person was Oliver Cromwell MP, who raised a regiment of horse and led them to victory at Winceby on 11 October, the beginning of his meteoric rise as a military leader.

1644 saw the fortunes of Parliament improve significantly with an alliance with the Scots. The latter invaded the north east of England, putting severe pressure on the Royalists commanded by the Marquis of Newcastle. Eventually two Parliamentarian armies, together with the Scots, besieged the Marquis at York, attracting a Royalist relief force under the competent but fiery Prince Rupert. The resulting Battle of Marston Moor on 2 July was a total disaster for the Royalists. Under the overall command of Sir Thomas Fairfax - a talented if modest gentleman from Yorkshire - the allied army gained a decisive victory in the largest battle of the war, due to a significant degree to the stunning success of the "ironside" cavalry under Oliver Cromwell. Prince Rupert even had to hide in a bean field to avoid capture, something the Parliamentarian propagandists later made great play of. York surrendered shortly afterwards, its garrison mostly lost in the battle.

The whole of the North now fell to Parliament, a major blow for the King. However, this was balanced in the South with Charles defeating his enemies at Cropedy Bridge in 29 June and, more spectacularly, at Lostwithiel in Cornwall on 31 August, when the whole of the Parliamentary infantry was trapped and forced to surrender.

Would the war ever end? Could one side or the other gain a decisive advantage? Many doubted it. But Parliament had a plan...

The New Model Army

By late 1644 it had become clear that neither side possessed sufficiently professional armies to secure victory, and that some generals simply were not up to scratch. On the parliamentary side it was resolved to change this with the creation of a new army, drawn from the remains of three existing forces and augmented with new recruits. Most of the generals that hitherto had led the cause in the field were dismissed (amongst much rancour) through the passing of the "Self-Denying Ordnance" in Parliament, although talented senior officers could be reappointed. Crucially, the New Model was to be a standing army - paid professions, led by experienced commanders with a good track record.

Whilst the Royalists dismissively considered the "New Noddle" as no serious threat, they also made efforts to put their troops on a more professional basis but ultimately failed due to infighting and petty jealousies. The latter had hamstrung the Royalist war effort from the start, but in 1645 this proved terminal.

The New Model was created with an establishment of 22,000 men in 12 regiments of foote, 11 of horse and 1 of dragoons. Sir Thomas Fairfax headed the army as Commander in Chief, Oliver Cromwell led the horse, and the redoubtable Sir Phillip Skippon the foote. Whilst the cavalry were relatively easy to raise, recruits (often reluctant) had to be found in order to get the infantry up to strength. Even so, there was a large core of experienced soldiers that made the New Model a formidable force.

The New Model's first major test was also one of its greatest triumphs. On 14 June 1645 it met the King's veteran Oxford army at the Battle of Naseby. In this, the decisive battle of the Civil War, around 16,000 of the New Model destroyed the Kings's army of approximately 10,000. At the start, it looked as if the King could win - his infantry crashed into the first line of Parliamentarian foote, sending them reeling back to the second line. Meanwhile, Prince Rupert's cavalry swept all before them, but they could not be constrained from charging off the field in pursuit of the enemy, effectively removing them from the battle. By the time they reformed, it was too late.

On the other flank, not only did Cromwell defeat his opponents, he was able to rally his better-disciplined troopers and attack the Royalist foote. Although the infantry fight in the centre was hard-fought, it became clear to the Royalists that the battle was lost. Charles' foote began a fighting retreat but attacked in the flanks and rear by victorious ironsides, they soon lost the will to fight on and threw down their arms in thousands. When the King was persuaded not to intervene with his small reserve, the game was up. To all intents and purposes, Charles had lost the war. Worst of all, his private papers were captured, showing that he had been actively seeking direct military aid from foreign powers - even Catholics - just about the worse thing one could do in the xenophobic atmosphere of 17th century England.

The victorious New Model now moved against remaining opposition including isolated strongholds such as Basing House (taken and destroyed by Cromwell on 14 October). Fairfax advanced against the one remaining Royalist army, an ill disciplined force under the command of General Goring, utterly routing it the Battle of Langport on 10 July 1645. The remnants were finally dispersed at Torrington on 17 February 1646. Remaining Royalist garrisons gradually succumbed to the forces of Parliament, the final stronghold being Raglan Castle, pointlessly holding out until 19 August 1647, after the King had already surrendered to the Scots (to be promptly sold back to Parliament!).

The military defeat of the King had one major unforeseen consequence - Parliament's soldiers, aware of their crucial role in securing the victory, began dabbling in politics, leading to the rise of radical parties such as the Levellers. Over the next two years the situation would gradually get out of control until Oliver Cromwell stepped in to crush the dissidents. These stirrings towards modern democracy are a story in themselves.

The Second Civil War, 1648

The question now was what to do with Charles? He was King and the vast majority of Parliamentarians believed he should be, despite his obvious faults. Accordingly, in 1647 negotiations were opened with the captive monarch in an attempt to reach a settlement. What Parliament did not realise was that Charles had no intention of keeping any promises made. Instead, he played for time whilst secretly planning an alliance with the Scots, the latter back in Scotland, disenchanted with Parliament. The result of Charles' intrigues was a Scots invasion and a number of Royalist risings, but due to poor co-ordination this new war swiftly ended in disaster for his cause.

Local risings were crushed and by June the only significant Royalist force in England was bottled up in Colchester by elements of the New Model under the command of Fairfax. The troops were in no mood to be trifled with, shocked by Charles' duplicity and openly declaring him to be "this man of bloode" for bringing more misery upon the war weary country. In the meantime, the Scots had invaded.

The invasion was a complete fiasco. It was ill timed (had the Scots invaded earlier they might have been more successful, although ultimately unlikely to be victorious), ill disciplined, badly led and no match for the New Model. Inevitably, they came to grief, at Preston on 17 August at the hands of Cromwell. Darkness halted pursuit, but the end was near and soon all the Scots infantry were caught and forced to surrender.

After a long and miserably wet siege, Colchester fell on 28 August and along with it all Royalist hopes. The war had lasted just 6 months.

The Execution of the King

By now, the mood of the army and many supporters, enflamed by political radicals, was ugly. Charles could obviously not be trusted and could no longer be permitted to rule. Nor could he be exiled, as he would still constitute a dangerous threat. Even Cromwell, who had supported earlier attempts to secure a settlement, now felt that trial and execution was the only practical solution, however unpopular in some quarters. Accordingly, the King underwent a "show" trial, charged with waging war on his own subjects. The King's defence was dignified but doomed - he was condemned to death. Many Parliamentarians, including Sir Thomas Fairfax, found themselves unable to support regicide, but none the less on 30 January 1649, Charles was beheaded. Although perhaps a pigheaded and stubborn man, he was certainly brave to the end.

One of the regicides that signed Charles' death warrant was Valentine Walton.

Ireland

Throughout the first two Civil Wars, the rebellion in Ireland continued, fought between Catholic rebels and Government forces answering to Parliament. However, in 1648 key Government generals had gone over to the Royalists, so now represented a threat that had to be dealt with. In summer 1649 Cromwell - now commander of the New Model following Fairfax's resignation - landed near Dublin and commenced his campaign to defeat first the Royalists and then the rebels. In a series of actions (some controversial due to the killing of inhabitants during the storming of the rebel-held towns of Wexford and Drogheda) Cromwell's troops were victorious, although one temporary repulse was suffered on 9 May 1650 at Clonmel. Having achieved much of what he set out to do, Cromwell returned to England, leaving Henry Ireton as commander. By 1652 the rebellion had collapsed militarily but the memory of the bloodshed during this long rebellion still lives on today.

The Third Civil War, 1650-51

The Army maintained its unbeaten record by massively defeating the numerically stronger but less well disciplined Scots at Dunbar on 3 September 1650. Once again the Scots foote - this time 10,000 of them - were captured and their horse put to flight. However, this disaster did not end the war. The New Model took Edinburgh whilst Charles (not present at Dunbar) raised a second army. Winter ended active campaigning.

In the summer of 1651 Charles marched into England with a mixed and disunited army of Royalists and Scots, pursued by Cromwell. Royalist morale was so low that a move on London was abandoned. Eventually, the Royal army reached Worcester - site of the very first battle of the Civil War (Powick Bridge, 23 September 1642). In a twist of fate, it was here at Worcester that the final battle would be fought, almost exactly nine years later on 3 September 1651 (and also one year to the day since Dunbar).

As so often, it ended in complete disaster for the Royalists. 30,000 New Model and local troops closed in on just 12,000 Royalists and in a hard-fought action, 3,000 of the latter lay dead, the rest captured. Charles fled and after various adventures, retired to exile.

Aftermath

England remained firmly in the hands of the army and in particular, Cromwell, who became "Lord Protector" in late 1653. Some feeble Royalist uprising occurred, but nothing serious. Cromwell eventually felt compelled to close Parliament (ironic, since Charles I had been castigated for doing the same) and administer the country through the army. Unfortunately, the "rule of the Major Generals" was extremely unpopular and in many ways more autocratic than Charles I had ever been. Cromwell died on 3 September 1658 - exactly 7 years after his "Crowning Mercy", the Battle of Worcester. Although his Son Richard became Lord Protector, he could not hope to fill his father's shoes and the stability of the Government - known as "the Rump" - began to falter.

The final act began in February 1660, when the much-respected General Monck and his men marched from Coldstream in Scotland to London without meeting resistance. They ushered in a new parliament, sympathetic to a restoration of the throne. On 25 May Charles II landed at Dover and shortly afterwards entered London as monarch. Although surviving regicides were rounded up and mostly executed, things could never be the same again - Charles learned from his father's failure and was careful to rule by consent rather than divine right. Further, his army contained many ex-New Model Army soldiers and still clothed in red, the royal army was in many respects a continuation of the force that had won the Civil War for Parliament and with it, many liberties we take for granted today.

Sources

The above article was based on knowledge accumulated over the years, including reading many works (some of which are noted below). Any mistakes or omissions, however, are entirely Howards!.

Suggested Reading

General history

Personalities

Battles, Sieges and Campaigns

The Soldiers