Second English Civil War

Denzil Holles, a leader of the Presbyterian faction in Parliament

When the First English Civil War began in 1642, all parties agreed a 'well-ordered' monarchy was divinely mandated. They disagreed on what 'well-ordered' meant, particularly the balance of power between king and Parliament, and who held ultimate authority in clerical affairs. There was considerable alignment among moderates, choice of sides often being down to personal loyalties and relationships. Royalists generally supported a Church of England governed by bishops, appointed by, and answerable to, the king; Parliamentarians believed he was answerable to the leaders of the church, appointed by their congregations.[1]

Puritan was a general term for anyone who wanted to reform, or 'purify', the Church of England; Presbyterians were the most prominent, but there were many others, often grouped together as Independents. Presbyterians were over-represented in Parliament, generally believed in a constitutional monarchy, and wanted to keep the church, but as a reformed, Presbyterian body. A good example was Denzil Holles, one of the Five Members in January 1642, who fought in the early stages of the war, but by 1644 supported a negotiated peace.[2]

Independents opposed a state church in principle, and although relatively few in Parliament, formed a significant part of the New Model Army, including senior commanders like Oliver Cromwell, Thomas Rainsborough, Thomas Harrison, and Henry Ireton. Many were also members of radical groups, the most famous being the Levellers. These definitions simplify a complex reality; Sir Thomas Fairfax, commander of the New Model, was a Presbyterian, who fought for Charles I in 1639, and refused to participate in his execution.

Unlike England, where Presbyterians were a minority, the 1639 and 1640 Bishops Wars resulted in a Covenanter, or Presbyterian government, and Presbyterian kirk, or Church of Scotland. This settlement had wide ranging support; Royalist general Montrose fought for the Covenanters in 1639 and 1640. The Scots wanted to preserve these achievements; concerns over the implications for Scotland if Charles defeated Parliament led to the 1643 Solemn League and Covenant. By 1646, they viewed Charles as a lesser threat than the Independents, who opposed their demand for a unified, Presbyterian church of England and Scotland; Cromwell claimed he would fight, rather than agree to it.[3]

Many Parliamentarians assumed military defeat would force Charles to compromise, which proved a fundamental misunderstanding of his character. When Prince Rupert suggested in August 1645 the war was lost, Charles responded he was correct, if seen from a military viewpoint, but 'God will not suffer rebels and traitors to prosper'. This deeply-held conviction meant he refused any substantial concessions.[4] Aware of divisions among his opponents, he used his position as king of both Scotland and England to deepen them, assuming he was essential to any government; while true in 1646, by 1648 significant elements believed it was pointless to negotiate with someone who could not be trusted to keep any agreement.[5]

With two companions, on 27 April Charles left Oxford in disguise; on 6 May, Parliament received a letter from David Leslie, commander of Scottish forces besieging Newark, announcing he had the king in custody. The same day, Charles ordered the Royalist governor, Lord Belasyse, to surrender Newark, and the Scots withdrew to Newcastle, taking the king with them.[6]

In July, the Scots and English commissioners presented Charles with the Newcastle Propositions, which he rejected; his refusal to negotiate created a dilemma for the Covenanters. Even if Charles agreed to a Presbyterian union, there was no guarantee it would be approved by Parliament. Keeping him was too dangerous; as subsequent events proved, whether Royalist or Covenanter, many Scots supported his retention. In February 1647, they agreed a financial settlement, handed Charles over to Parliament, and retreated into Scotland.[7]

Carisbrooke Castle, on the Isle of Wight, where Charles was held in December 1648

In England, Parliament was struggling with the economic cost of the war, a poor 1646 harvest, and a recurrence of the plague. The Presbyterian faction had the support of the London Trained Bands, the Army of the Western Association, leaders like Rowland Laugharne in Wales, and elements of the Royal Navy. By March 1647, the New Model was owed more than £3 million in unpaid wages; Parliament ordered it to Ireland, stating only those who agreed would be paid. When their representatives demanded full payment for all in advance, it was disbanded.[8]

The New Model refused to be disbanded; in early June, Charles was removed from his Parliamentary guards, and taken to Thriplow, where he was presented with the Army Council's terms. More lenient than the Newcastle Propositions, Charles rejected them; on 26 July, pro-Presbyterian rioters burst into Parliament, demanding he be invited to London. In early August, Fairfax and the New Model took control of the city; this re-established command authority over the rank and file, completed at Corkbush in November.[9]

In late November, the king escaped from his guards, and made his way to Carisbrooke Castle. In April 1648, the Engagers became a majority in the Scottish Parliament; in return for restoring him to the English throne, Charles agreed to impose Presbyterianism in England for three years, and suppress the Independents. His refusal to take the Covenant himself split the Scots; the Kirk Party did not trust Charles, objected to an alliance with English and Scots Royalists, and denounced the Engagement as 'sinful.'[10]

After two years of constant negotiation, and refusal to compromise, Charles finally had the pieces in place for a rising by Royalists, supported by some English Presbyterians, and Scots Covenanters.

St Fagans

Cardiff

Bangor

Pembroke

Tenby

Chepstow

Anglesey

Harlech

Shrewsbury

Raglan

Carmathen

Western England & South Wales; 1645

Wales was a sensitive area; most of it had been Royalist during the war, while Harlech Castle was the last of their strongpoints to surrender in March 1647. The interception of secret messages between Charles and the Irish Confederacy made it important to secure ports like Cardiff and Milford Haven, since they controlled shipping routes with Ireland. The Army Council viewed the local commanders, John Poyer and Rowland Laugharne, with suspicion, since they supported the Parliamentarian moderates. In July, Horton was sent to replace Laugharne, and secure these positions.[11]

The revolt began in Pembrokeshire, an area controlled by Parliament since early 1643. Like their New Model colleagues, the soldiers had not been paid for months, and feared being disbanded without their wages. In early March, Poyer, Governor of Pembroke Castle, refused to relinquish command; he was soon joined by Rice Powell, who commanded Tenby Castle, then by Laugharne.[12]

What began as a pay dispute became overtly political when the Welsh rebels made contact with Charles. Most Royalists had sworn not to bear arms against Parliament and did not participate, one exception being Sir Nicholas Kemeys, who held Chepstow Castle for the king. By the end of April, Laugharne had assembled around 8,000 troops, and was marching on Cardiff; however, on 8 May, he was defeated at St Fagans.[13]

This ended the revolt as a serious threat, although Pembroke Castle did not surrender until 11 July, with minor risings in Bangor and Anglesey suppressed by early October. The Welsh rising is generally not considered part of a planned, Royalist plot, but largely accidental; however, its retention was vital for future operations in Ireland.[14]

A precursor to Kent's Second Civil War had come on Wednesday, 22 December 1647, when Canterbury's town crier had proclaimed the county committee's order for the suppression of Christmas Day and its treatment as any other working day.[15][16] However, a large crowd gathered on Christmas to demand a church service, decorate doorways with holly bushes, and keep the shops shut. This crowd – under the slogan "For God, King Charles, and Kent" – then descended into violence and riot, with a soldier being assaulted, the mayor's house attacked, and the city under the rioters' control for several weeks until forced to surrender in early January.[17]

On 21 May 1648, Kent rose in revolt in the King's name, and a few days later a most serious blow to the Independents was struck by the defection of the Navy, from command of which they had removed Vice-Admiral William Batten, as being a Presbyterian. Though a former Lord High Admiral, the Earl of Warwick, also a Presbyterian, was brought back to the service, it was not long before the Navy made a purely Royalist declaration and placed itself under the command of the Prince of Wales. But Fairfax had a clearer view and a clearer purpose than the distracted Parliament. He moved quickly into Kent, and on the evening of 1 June, stormed Maidstone by open force, after which the local levies dispersed to their homes, and the more determined Royalists, after a futile attempt to induce the City of London to declare for them, fled into Essex.[18]

In Cornwall, Northamptonshire, North Wales, and Lincolnshire the revolt collapsed as easily as that in Kent. Only in South Wales, Essex, and the north of England was there serious fighting. In the first of these districts, South Wales, Cromwell rapidly reduced all the fortresses except Pembroke. Here Laugharne, Poyer, and Powel held out with the desperate courage of deserters.[18]

Pontefract Castle in 1648, with civil war fortifications surrounding the old medieval ones.

In the north, Pontefract Castle was surprised by the Royalists, and shortly afterwards Scarborough Castle declared for the King as well. Fairfax, after his success at Maidstone and the pacification of Kent, turned northward to reduce Essex, where, under their ardent, experienced, and popular leader Sir Charles Lucas, the Royalists were in arms in great numbers. Fairfax soon drove Lucas into Colchester, but the first attack on the town was repulsed and he had to settle down to a long and wearisome siege.[18]

A Surrey rising is remembered for the death of the young and gallant Lord Francis Villiers, younger brother of George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, in a skirmish at Kingston (7 July 1648). The rising collapsed almost as soon as it had gathered force, and its leaders, the Duke of Buckingham and Henry Rich, the Earl of Holland, escaped, after another attempt to induce London to declare for them, to St Albans and St Neots, where Holland was taken prisoner. Buckingham escaped overseas.[18]

Major-General John Lambert, a brilliant young Parliamentarian commander of twenty-nine, was more than equal to the situation. He left the sieges of Pontefract Castle and Scarborough Castle to Colonel Edward Rossiter, and hurried into Cumberland to deal with the English Royalists under Sir Marmaduke Langdale. With his cavalry, Lambert got into touch with the enemy about Carlisle and slowly fell back to Bowes and Barnard Castle. Lambert fought small rearguard actions to annoy the enemy and gain time. Langdale did not follow him into the mountains. Instead, he occupied himself in gathering recruits, supplies of material, and food for the advancing Scots.[20]

Lambert, reinforced from the Midlands, reappeared early in June and drove Langdale back to Carlisle with his work half finished. About the same time, the local horse of Durham and Northumberland were put into the field for the Parliamentarians by Sir Arthur Hesilrige, governor of Newcastle. On 30 June, under the direct command of Colonel Robert Lilburne, these mounted forces won a considerable success at the River Coquet.[20]

This reverse, coupled with the existence of Langdale's Royalist force on the Cumberland side, practically compelled Hamilton to choose the west coast route for his advance. His Scottish Engager army began slowly to move down the long couloir between the mountains and the sea. The Campaign of Preston which followed is one of the most brilliant in English history.[20]

On 8 July 1648, when the Scottish Engager army crossed the border in support of the English Royalists,[21] the military situation was well defined. For the Parliamentarians, Cromwell besieged Pembroke in West Wales, Fairfax besieged Colchester in Essex, and Colonel Rossiter besieged Pontefract and Scarborough in the north. On 11 July, Pembroke fell and Colchester followed on 28 August.[20] Elsewhere the rebellion, which had been put down by rapidity of action rather than sheer weight of numbers, smouldered, and Charles, the Prince of Wales, with the fleet cruised along the Essex coast. Cromwell and Lambert, however, understood each other perfectly, while the Scottish commanders quarrelled with each other and with Langdale.[22]

As the English uprisings were close to collapse, it was on the adventures of the Engager Scottish army that the interest of the war centred. It was by no means the veteran army of the Earl of Leven, which had long been disbanded. For the most part it consisted of raw levies and, as the Kirk party had refused to sanction The Engagement (an agreement between Charles I and the Scots Parliament for the Scots to intervene in England on behalf of Charles), David Leslie and thousands of experienced officers and men declined to serve. The leadership of James Hamilton, the Duke of Hamilton proved to be a poor substitute for that of Leslie. Hamilton's army, too, was so ill provided that as soon as England was invaded it began to plunder the countryside for the bare means of sustenance.[20]

On 8 July 1648, the Scots, with Langdale as advanced guard, were about Carlisle, and reinforcements from Ulster were expected daily. Lambert's horse were at Penrith, Hexham and Newcastle, too weak to fight and having only skillful leading and rapidity of movement to enable them to gain time.[22]

Appleby Castle surrendered to the Scots on 31 July, whereat Lambert, who was still hanging on to the flank of the Scottish advance, fell back from Barnard Castle to Richmond so as to close Wensleydale against any attempt of the invaders to march on Pontefract. All the restless energy of Langdale's horse was unable to dislodge Lambert from the passes or to find out what was behind that impenetrable cavalry screen. The crisis was now at hand. Cromwell had received the surrender of Pembroke Castle on 11 July, and had marched off, with his men unpaid, ragged and shoeless, at full speed through the Midlands. Rains and storms delayed his march, but he knew that the Duke of Hamilton in the broken ground of Westmorland was still worse off. Shoes from Northampton and stockings from Coventry met him at Nottingham, and gathering up the local levies as he went, he made for Doncaster, where he arrived on 8 August, having gained six days in advance of the time he had allowed himself for the march. He then called up artillery from Hull, exchanged his local levies for the regulars who were besieging Pontefract, and set off to meet Lambert. On 12 August he was at Wetherby, Lambert with horse and foot at Otley, Langdale at Skipton and Gargrave, Hamilton at Lancaster, and Sir George Monro with the Scots from Ulster and the Carlisle Royalists (organized as a separate command owing to friction between Monro and the generals of the main army) at Hornby. On 13 August, while Cromwell was marching to join Lambert at Otley, the Scottish leaders were still disputing whether they should make for Pontefract or continue through Lancashire so as to join Lord Byron and the Cheshire Royalists.[22]

The victors in the Second Civil War were not merciful to those who had brought war into the land again. On the evening of the surrender of Colchester, Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle were shot. Laugharne, Poyer and Powel were sentenced to death, but Poyer alone was executed on 25 April 1649, being the victim selected by lot. Of five prominent Royalist peers who had fallen into the hands of Parliament, three, the Duke of Hamilton, the Earl of Holland, and Lord Capel, one of the Colchester prisoners and a man of high character, were beheaded at Westminster on 9 March. Above all, after long hesitations, even after renewal of negotiations, the Army and the Independents conducted "Pride's Purge" of the House removing their ill-wishers, and created a court for the trial and sentence of King Charles I.[23] At the end of the trial the 59 Commissioners (judges) found Charles I guilty of high treason, as a "tyrant, traitor, murderer and public enemy".[24][25] 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, the regicides who were still alive and not living in exile were either executed or sentenced to life imprisonment.)

Pontefract Castle was slighted on the orders of Parliament.

Pontefract Castle was noted by Oliver Cromwell as "[...] one of the strongest inland garrisons in the kingdom".[26] Even in ruins, the castle held out in the north for the Royalists. Upon the execution of Charles I, the garrison recognised Charles II as King and refused to surrender. On 24 March 1649, almost two months after Charles was beheaded, the garrison of the last Royalist stronghold finally capitulated. Parliament had the remains of the castle demolished the same year.[27][28][29]

• Grayling, AC (2017). Democracy and its crisis. Oneworld Publications. ISBN 978-1786072894.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Macloed, Donald (Autumn 2009). "The influence of Calvinism on politics". Theology in Scotland. XVI (2).CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
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• Brand, John (1905), "Christmas Day", in Hazlitt, W. Carew (ed.), Faith and Folklore: A Dictionary of National Beliefs, Superstitions and Popular Customs, Past and Current, With Their Classical and Foreign Analogues, Described and Illustrated, 1, pp. 117–18
• DL staff (2012), About the Duchy >Historic Properties >Yorkshire, Duchy of Lancaster, retrieved March 27, 2020
• Durston, Chris (December 1985), "Lords of misrule: The Puritan war on Christmas 1642–60", History Today
• Noake, Jenny (5 February 2007), Deal Castle, www.dealkent.co.uk Deal Kent Heritage Pages, archived from the original on 29 September 2007
• Kelsey, Sean (2003), "The Trial of Charles I", English Historical Review, 118 (477): 583–616, doi:10.1093/ehr/118.477.583
• Kirby, Michael (22 January 1999), The trial of King Charles I – defining moment for our constitutional liberties, speech to the Anglo-Australasian Lawers' association
• Limbird, John (28 January 1832), "Pontefract Castle", The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, London: John Limbird, 143, Strand, 19 (531), archived from the original on 17 February 2012
• Plant, David (27 May 2009), The Preston Campaign 1648, British Civil Wars & Commonwealth, retrieved 29 May 2008
• Wakefield staff (4 January 2012) [2010], Pontefract Castle, www.wakefield.gov.uk, archived from the original on 25 September 2012, retrieved 1 October 2012
• Wakefield staff (7 December 2010), History of Pontefract Castle, www.wakefield.gov.uk, archived from the original on 29 July 2012, retrieved 1 October 2012

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Atkinson, Charles Francis (1911). "Great Rebellion". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 403–421.

• House of Lords Journal Volume 10 19 May 1648: Letter from L. Fairfax, about the Disposal of the Forces, to suppress the Insurrections in Suffolk, Lancashire, and S. Wales; and for Belvoir Castle to be secured
• House of Lords Journal Volume 10 19 May 1648: Disposition of the Remainder of the Forces in England and Wales (not mentioned in the Fairfax letter)