Self denying ordinance English Civil War (1642-1649) Home Page menu New Model Army Self denying ordinance Personal Rule Prince Rupert Control of Ports Wealth Tower of London Summary of Causes

English Civil War (1642-1649) New Model Army The creation of the New Model Army in the winter of February 1645 is a significant factor in the ultimate success of Parliament. The battle of Marston Moor was a great triumph for the Parliamentarians, but not totally decisive in the sense that Charles and the Royalist army were able to recover from it relatively well. Therefore, the New Model army was created to make sure that next time; the Royalists would not be able to recover. Charles appointed General Fairfax as the commander in chief and Oliver Cromwell was put in charge of the cavalry. The army was successful because it became a superior force to the Royalist army. They were paid, well trained and professional. A career in the new model army depended on how skilled you were, not your social position in society. These ideals were popular within the army and the men responded to it well, therefore making the army stronger. Cromwell believed that God was on their side.

New Model Army continued Another reason for success was that the soldiers were well equipped; donning thick leather jerkins which were effective protection but did not slow the horses down. They were also effective strategists; they attacked the King’s army at the flanks where they were most weak. This was because the muskets used by the Royalists were difficult to handle and manoeuvre. The soldiers also stayed in position and did not flee after escaping soldiers. According to Coward, Cromwell’s “control of his cavalry troopers was disciplined and close”. This was essential to their success. Discipline was strict and the training was thorough. At the battle of Naseby, it the June of 1645, the new model army was put into use for the first time. Nearly 1000 Royalist soldiers were killed and over 4500 were taken prisoner. By the end of the battle of Naseby, the Parliamentarians had captured most of the Kings guns and ammunition and the Royalists suffered a great defeat. The New model army was very strong and was able to defeat the Royalist army at ease. This was an advantage for Parliament because they were able to conquer the Royalist’s in any battle. Not only were they able to kill and capture thousands of the Royalists army but they were also able to seize their ammunition. This made the King’s army weak, making the Parliamentarians stronger in land, wealth and ammunition. Prince Rupert, the most respected officer in the King’s army, called the Parliamentarians the Ironsides because they seemed to be able to cut through the King’s army at ease.

Self Denying ordinance English Civil War (1642-1649) Self Denying ordinance The new Model Army began its reconstruction after the Self-denying ordinance in 1645 where “members of either House of Parliament… are discharged”. From here on, social hierarchy no longer dictated your position in the army and instead there was a system of meritocracy which the Royalist army didn’t have. The Houses of Parliament in Westminster, in the late 1600s

English Civil War (1642-1649) Personal Rule The eleven years personal rule was when King Charles ruled completely on his own without Parliament. This made the parliamentary cause in the civil war more committed and ‘godly’. Charles first dissolved Parliament in 1629 and the personal rule lasted eleven years until it was eventually reformed in 1940. It was triggered by the Parliament’s official complaints about the Kings policies which Charles took as a personal insult and attack of his authority which he believed was bestowed upon him by God. Charles was allowed to dissolve Parliament because of the Royal Prerogative, despite this, Charles critics and enemies dubbed this period as the ‘eleven year tyranny’. This was because Charles had difficulty handling and solving problems and issues. He simply did not understand why everyone did not obey his authority and agree with whatever choices he made. Charles was a firm believer in the ‘Divine Right of Kings’ which stated that God gave the Monarch their power and therefore whatever the King decided was God’s will. This was not a modern view and many now thought that compromise was essential in the ruling of a country. Add?

Personal Rule continued The eleven years of personal rule were extremely unpopular and caused Parliament to be seen as the representatives of the public where as Charles was out of touch with the people’s needs. They therefore got more popular support. When Parliament was called back in 1640, Parliament had a great amount of grievances. Many members of Parliament completely opposed the King’s policies. Many questioned the legality of the Royal Prerogative and Charles right or authority to disband Parliament. Charles imprisoned members of Parliament who opposed him. On April 17th Pym gave a speech on all of Parliaments grievances with the King’s policies which included the squandering of money, ship money and Arch Bishop Laud. The eleven years personal rule is therefore illustrative of Charles’ arrogance. According to Wanklyn, Parliament’s victory was down to “ the king’s faulty command structure”. Charles’ personality and refusal to listen to others was key to parliamentary victory

English Civil War (1642-1649) Prince Rupert At the beginning of the Civil War, Prince Rupert was at advantage to the Parliamentarians because they were without a good cavalry or anyone with experience to command them. His tactic was to send the cavalry at full charge towards the opposing army, the Parliaments having hardly any experience with fighting they just turned around and ran away from Prince Rupert. Prince Rupert was King Charles nephew, he commanded the Kings cavalry and fought with Charles for 13 years. He was in control of the cavalry at Edgehill in October 1642, yet he got too carried away with his cavalry charge which prevented the Royalists being able to succeed at defeating the Parliamentarians, making it a turning point in the war. What changed it all was that Prince Rupert, even though the cavalry was seen as excellent , didn’t actually turn his cavalry around therefore the soldiers would ride into the horizon and didn’t re-enter battle. The parliamentarians saw this and used to their advantage because when they had their New Model Army with the cavalry instead of letting the soldiers go into the sunset he turned them back around so they were able to fight again. As Cromwell boasted “we never charged but we routed the enemy”. According to Coward, Cromwell’s “control of his cavalry… was disciplined and close”, which gave them the advantage over the Royalists.

English Civil War (1642-1649) Control of the ports Parliament was in control of London throughout the war, they had great importance as a supplier both of money and men. Most of the larger towns in the country were also under parliamentary control as were most of the seaports. Control of London and the other ports gave the Parliamentarians the ability to collect most of the customs revenue which continued to flow into the country and they were able to use the navy under their authority from the beginning of the war to ensure that their control of the coasts was kept to move food and men to ports which were threatened by Royalist attack. If this had not been the case, they would have reduced supplies and funds, which were crucial to their success. Parliament therefore controlled the greater part of the country’s wealth and soldiers; in 1641 the British navy consisted of 42 men-of-war, ranging from the Sovereign of the Seas, with its 100 canons; to the Whelps, which mainly policed the English Channel with only 14 canons. In July 1642 the major proportion of the fleet went to parliament because the men thought that they might better their conditions. The Earl of Warwick was in command. When not engaged in offensive attacks, the fleet was used to patrol with 16 men-of-war off the coast of Kent as far as the Thames Estuary, two or three in the Irish Sea, and the remaining 24 armed merchantmen supplying and supporting the selected ports and maintaining trade from abroad. Giles agrees that victory ultimately depending on controlling resources, such as the towns and the ports.

English Civil War (1642-1649) Wealth As Alan GR Smith in ‘The Emergence of a nation state’, “Parliament controlled London throughout the war, a fact of very considerable significance in view of the city’s importance as a supplier both of money and men.” This was significant to parliament because the king Charles had relied on money from his people from taxes but now had to rely on money purely on his supporters whereas Parliament didn’t have the worry of money as they had a steady flow of money from sources such as banks and high finance supporters as it was parliament who used to collect taxes and could carry on collecting taxes from the people so therefore had enough money to pay for men and weapons as well as resources such as food.

English Civil War (1642-1649) Tower of London The Tower of London held great power for Parliament in the Civil War. Luckily for them they had already taken the tower from the king before the war and even started therefore having an advantage. How come the possession of the Tower gave Parliament an advantage? Firstly then Royal mint was there, the parliamentarians having control of the mint meant that they had control of the economy and wealth. Seeing as they did not have the riches of the nobility this helped them a lot. Also at the tower the equipment for war was held there from tents to armour. Henceforth when it came down to actually battle Parliament had easy access to everything they needed. There were also horses kept there so when the cavalry was needed even though at the beginning wasn’t as successful as the Royalists they still had access and once again didn’t have to rely on nobility. It was also important to Parliament because they could hold people when imprisoned this was very useful for when they took Archbishop Laud before he was killed just outside of the Tower on Tower Hill. He was executed there because he was not important enough to be killed within the Tower grounds.

Tower of London continued The Tower then showed great power, so when people knew that Parliament had the tower then they knew that they had great power and may have looked up to them and joined their side because of this. According to Smith, the control of London was of major importance. It was such a threat to the King knowing that he had no control over London and all of the resources that Parliament had on their doorsteps, whereas he had to rely on what he could gather in the north and the riches of the nobility.

Although factors such as control of the tower and of London are crucial to their success, it would not have been possible to achieve this without the new model army. Therefore I deduce that the new model army was the key cause to Parliamentarian success. Summary of Causes Although the key to a Parliamentarian victory was the result of many factors, it can be reduced down to several of the key causes. The success of the self-denying ordinance and the resulting new model army was vital to the Parliamentarian victory. Military prowess is essential in a war. If Parliament did not have a strong and efficient army, then there would have been no hope of victory. The Battle of Newbury was a turning point in the war that could not have been achieved by a disorganised army with poor tactics. In gaining that victory, it gave Parliament the ability to take control of the road to London. Although factors such as control of the tower and of London are crucial to their success, it would not have been possible to achieve this without the new model army. Therefore we deduce that the new model army was the key cause to Parliamentarian success.

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