The First English Civil War

After Charles left London and subsequently declared war on Parliament, various towns and cities all over the country declared their allegiance for one faction or the other. Throughout 1642 there was little military action but tensions rose and there was significant inter-city brawling.

Though the majority of the country remained neutral at the outset of the war, the King managed to galvanise support in the rural areas of the country, whereas most of the cities favoured Parliament, who also had control of the Royal navy. Surprisingly, it was not a case of rich areas supporting the King and poorer areas supporting parliament – there were many cases where the exact opposite was the reality.

As the war dragged on, fewer and fewer neutral areas remained as many were drawn into the fighting.

Charles proceeded to move to Nottingham, where he raised his standard and started to build up and army centred there. Once this was in motion, he began to move west towards Shrewsbury because he knew he had a lot of support in these areas, and continued to expand his forces.

Meanwhile, the Parliamentarians had also attempted to secure strategic towns and cities, raising an army of around twenty one thousand infantry. With this force, the Earl of Essex marched north.

The first major conflict of the war came in 1642 at Edgehill. It was preceded by a cavalry skirmish, where Prince Rupert, a royalist commander, routed a Parliamentary cavalry detachment. Rupert subsequently marched towards London, which forced the Early of Essex to intercept him.

The resulting battle was indecisive, with neither side viewing it as defeat. The second battle, that of Turnham Green, saw Charles retreat to Oxford which remained his base for the rest of the war.

The next major battle was at Adwalton Moor, where the Royalist victory resulted in most of Yorkshire falling under their control. This was followed by other Royalist victories, though relatively minor, such as at Lansdowne and Roundway Down – this allowed Prince Rupert to take the city of Bristol, massively boosting the Royalist cause.

Yet that same year, Oliver Cromwell (a parliamentary general who was on the rise) began to reform some of the troops, which allowed him to win a victory at the battle of Gainsborough. Though the early part of the war had gone well for the Royalists, this marked the beginning of the turn of the tide, as parliament began to gain momentum.

In September of that year, the Earl of Essex won a decisive victory at the battle of Newbury, and other Parliamentary forces won a victory at Winceby.

In a clever political manoeuvre, Parliament enlisted the aid of the Scots, which proved to be useful asset at the Battle of Marston Moor in 1644, which provided the Parliamentarian forces with both York and the majority of the north of England. The conduct of Cromwell in this battle was a key indicator of his military and tactical potential.

The penultimate year of the war, 1645, brought about two crucially important engagements; the Battle of Naseby and Langport, which essentially resulted in the destruction of Charles’ armies and his potential to continue the war.

 

Though he attempted to consolidate the forces he still had available to him, and managed to take Leicester, his resources were exhausted, and he had little or no opportunity to replenish them. In May of the following year, Charles sought shelter with a Scottish army in Nottinghamshire, but was eventually handed over to Parliament by the Scots, and was subsequently imprisoned.

 

With the King in a Parliamentarian prison, the First Civil war was over, but to a devastating consequence; the country was both utterly exhausted and utterly divided.