The English Civil War

A Historical Companion

Martyn Bennett

• Publisher: The History Press
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN: 9780752454825, 9780752431864
• eBook ISBN: 9780750951425
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: British History
• Index: History

The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political upheavals which spanned the British Isles in the mid-seventeenth century. It was fought on a wide range of religious, political and racial issues, and succeeded in dividing the traditional loyalties of class, friendship and family ties within all four kingdoms. This unprecedented period of disruption resulted in far-reaching political revolution, the re-evaluation of political representation and social structure, and ultimately laid the foundations of the British constitution we know today.

In The English Civil War, Martyn Bennett introduces the reader to the main debates surrounding the Civil War, from the St Giles riots in Edinburgh in 1637 to the restoration of Charles II in May 1660. Complete with biographies of the key personalities and descriptions of events, battles and military institutions, Bennett covers the run-up to the conflict, the wars themselves and the aftermath.

This comprehensive A–Z companion to the history of the civil wars provides all the facts and figures that an armchair general would ever need.

The Dictionary

* cross-reference entry ** multiple cross-reference entries

ABERDEEN DOCTORS. The Scottish city of Aberdeen was the first place to witness serious fighting during the wars. Some of the academics from the university, known as the Aberdeen Doctors, refused to sign the Covenant^* and persuaded the town not to do so too. In response a team of Covenanters^* was sent to debate the issue. The Aberdeen Doctors’ stance was moderate; they did not find the episcopate to be forbidden by the Bible, but would not sign the Covenant because it was not sanctioned directly by the monarch or Scottish Privy Council, not because of theological differences or because they supported the episcopate fully.

Charles I^* took this opposition as an example of support and set out to exploit it. In 1639 and again in 1640 Aberdeen was to be the locus of anti-Covenanter risings and a proposed landing point for the king’s forces. In 1639 the earl of Montrose^* defeated the marquis of Huntly’s^* forces outside the city at the Bridge o[f] Dee. In 1644 Montrose, this time as a royalist^* lieutenant general, defeated the Covenanter forces from the city at the Battle of Justice Mills^*.

ABJURATION, OATH OF. This oath was imposed on Catholics* who were sequestered or active in the royalist^* cause. It required them to renounce the pope and the tenets of the Catholic Church. Only if they abjured could they compound^* for their estates.

ADAMS, MARY (?–1652). A member of the Ranter* sect who believed herself to be carrying the new Messiah. She committed suicide after the birth of a stillborn child.

ADWALTON, BATTLE OF. Fought on 30 June 1643 in the vicinity of Adwalton and Drighlington between Leeds and Bradford in Yorkshire, this battle saw the forces of the marquis of Newcastle* outmanoeuvre and then defeat the parliamentarian army under Lord Fairfax^* and his son, Sir Thomas Fairfax^*. This forced the Parliamentarians^* into hiding at Hull^*, whilst Newcastle was able to dominate the West Riding of Yorkshire. Almost total control of the north-east of England meant that Newcastle was able to march south and drive the parliamentarian forces out of central Lincolnshire.

AGITATORS. During 1647, to represent the views of the rank and file at the General Council of the Army^*, agitators or agents were elected by, first, the Horse* regiments and then the Foot* regiments of the New Model Army^*, The agitators were important figures in the relationships between the army and the Levellers* during the period June 1647 to December 1648.

AGREEMENTS OF THE PEOPLE. There were three Agreements. The first was drafted by the Leveller^* leaders and Agitators^* from the Army Regiments in the late summer and autumn of 1647. This first Agreement was presented to the General Council of the Army^* at the end of October at Putney Church. A good deal of the ensuing Putney Debates^* centred on the Agreement’s apparent call for democratic reform, which implied that every free man would have a vote regardless of status. This was rejected by the grandees^*, in particular Henry Ireton^*. The escape of King Charles I^* from Hampton Court brought these discussions to an end. A new Agreement was drafted after the Second Civil War, this time with the co-operation of Ireton and parts of the Army Council. This watered down the demand for an expanded electorate considerably, suggesting that anyone in receipt of wages would be ineligible for a vote. In any case the Agreement was presented to the Parliament^* in Westminster during the king’s trial and therefore shelved. The third Agreement was drafted in the spring of 1649 and returned to a more radical, if now highly polished set of demands, for an expanded electorate, a unicameral assembly, and annual elections. The Leveller mutiny in May 1649 and its defeat at Burford* led to the downfall of the Agreement.

AIRLIE, JAMES OGILVY, 1ST EARL OF (?1615–?1704). Airlie was an opponent of the Covenanters* and was fined for his behaviour in 1639–40. In 1645 he allied himself to the marquis of Montrose’s royalist^** forces and was present at Montrose’s victory at the Battle of Kilsyth^*. He was also present at the defeat of the royalist forces at the Battle of Philliphaugh^*.

ALDBOURNE CHASE, BATTLE OF. This skirmish, on 18 September 1643, halted the march of the earl of Essex^* towards London after his relief of Gloucester (September 6)^*. The royalist^* army had pursued Essex after having been successfully diverted away from the earl’s path. Eventually Prince Rupert^* intercepted Essex at Aldbourne Chase and forced him to turn back to Hungerford, whilst with the Foot King Charles I^** entered Newbury, getting between Essex and London.

ALFORD, (BRIDGE OF) BATTLE OF. This battle was fought on 2 July 1644 between the marquis of Montrose’s royalist^** Scots and Irish army and the Covenanter Army of William Baillie^**. Baillie was attempting to keep Montrose from the Highlands^*, where he would be able to find refuge, whereas Montrose sought to entrap Baillie to defeat the Covenanters before leaving the Highland region. Montrose had slightly more Horse^* than he had had at Inverlochy and Auldearn^**, and with these he launched an attack on Baillie. The royalists were not able to inflict defeat on the superior numbers of Covenanter Horse^*, however, and were being pushed back when Montrose’s Foot^* were able to fire on the Covenanter Horse, driving them off. The royalist Foot drove back their opponents in the centre of the field, and the sudden appearance of their baggage train gave the impression that reinforcements had arrived, and the Covenanters began a hasty retreat. Lord Gordon, Montrose’s principle commander of Horse and main figure in the royalist Gordon family’s support for Montrose, was killed late in the battle.

ANABAPTISTS. A term generally used as an insult against Baptists* to tar them with the brush of social revolution. The German Anabaptist movement seemed to be a harbinger of great social upheaval, such as the Munster Commune of John of Leiden established in 1534. There were strong theological links between Baptists and Dutch Anabaptists after the First Civil War^* as both rejected the idea of a structured national Church and infant baptism. They were in favour of pacifism, religious toleration and the separation of Church and state.

ANCASTER HEATH, BATTLE OF. Royalist^* forces from Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire, under Sir Charles Cavendish, defeated Lord Willoughby of Parham on 11 April 1644. Willoughby had tried to surprise a meeting of the Lincolnshire Commissioners of Array^* at a county meeting being held at Grantham designed to indict prominent county Parliamentarians for treason.

ANDREWS PLOT. This united royalists^*, including Colonel Eusibius Andrews, and former parliamentarians such as Sir John Gell^*, in an attempt to seize the Isle of Ely in the name of Charles II^*, who was at this time negotiating with the Scots prior to going to Scotland. The plotters were arrested in March 1650 and Andrews was executed in August.

ANGLO-SCOTTISH WARS. See Bishop’s Wars.

ANTE-COVENANTER. This term was given to any person who refused to sign the National Covenant^*. It bound together moderate opponents and the more politically motivated opponents in an undistinguished body from whom additional levies were extracted to support the war effort of the Covenanters^*.

ANTINOMIAN. The general principle that earthly laws and morals are subordinate to the laws of God. The doctrine of free grace, which entailed universal salvation, was seen to exonerate the truly enlightened from any divine retribution. The charge of antinomianism was levelled at several religious sects, such as the Baptists^* in an attempt to make them out to be in favour of dissolving social and moral bonds.

ANTRIM, RANDAL MACDONALD, EARL OF (1609–1683). Antrim was involved in the build-up to war between England and Scotland during the Covenant^* crisis of 1638–40. He proposed raising a force from his clan, the MacDonnells, in north-eastern Ireland and the MacDonalds in western Scotland and the Isles. This plan was discouraged by the lord deputy of Ireland, Viscount Wentworth^*, who believed it to be impractical and ill-organised; he also suspected that it related more to Antrim’s desire to seize former clan land from the Covenanter Campbells than it did from a wish to support Charles I^*. Wentworth also realised that the support from the Catholic^* MacDonnells/MacDonalds would politically compromise the king.

In 1641 it appears that Antrim was involved in one of the plots that evolved into the Irish Rebellion^*. He was captured just after the uprising began and details of his involvement began to emerge. However, Antrim escaped and assisted in the recruitment of Catholic Irish troops for service under his kinsman Alasdair MacColla^* who served with the marquis of Montrose^* in Scotland. Antrim made bargains with continental powers whereby he received arms and ships for his Scottish campaigns in return for supplying mercenaries. When Charles I surrendered in May 1646, Antrim defied orders to lay down arms and sided with the Catholic Confederation of Kilkenny^* against the marquis of Ormond’s^* attempts to create a Catholic/royalist^* alliance. When the English/Welsh army defeated the Confederation in 1649–53, Antrim changed sides and through judicious negotiation succeeded in getting into the British Republic’s^* favour. After the Restoration^* in 1660 it only took him five years to secure his freedom and estates.

APOLOGY OF THE COMMON SOLDIERS. This was drafted and signed by the Agitators^* in spring 1647 and presented to the Parliament^* in Westminster on 28 April. It was later joined with the Apology of the Soldiers to Their Officers dated 3 May 1647. The original draft avoided wider political issues and concentrated on demands for back pay and treatment of the soldiers. Nevertheless the Agitators had been treated as criminals by Parliament on receipt of the Large Petition^*. The second apology attempted to promote sympathy for the common soldiers’ grievances from the officer corps in the light of Parliament’s savage rejection of the original Apology.

ARGYLL, ARCHIBALD CAMPBELL, MARQUIS OF (1598–1661). Argyll emerged as a prominent leader amongst the Covenanters^* after the death of his father, who did not support the Covenant^*. In the Covenanting cause Argyll saw the chance to advance the cause of the Clan Campbell and further secure his hold over newly acquired territory, the former lands of the Catholic MacDonalds. It was claimed by 1640 that Argyll wanted to depose Charles I^* and that marriage of his daughter into the Stuart family of the marquis of Hamilton^* suggested to some that he had ambitions for interfering in the succession.

Argyll remained at the centre of the Scottish government, but his prestige was severely damaged by the defeats inflicted on him by the marquis of Montrose^* at Inverlochy^* on 31 January 1645, and by the loss of clan lands to the army of MacColla^* and Montrose. After the Covenanter victory over the royalists^*, Argyll was for a time eclipsed by the moderates, who came to terms with the captive king. During the period of the Engagement^* and the disastrous invasion of England in 1648, Argyll remained in the shadows. He re-emerged as part of the seizure of power by the Whiggamores^*, and the uneasy alliance with Oliver Cromwell^* in 1648–49. Despite trying to control Charles II^* in 1650–51, Argyll and the extremists divided the leadership of the army and state, and were thus swept aside by the defeats at the Battles of Dunbar (1650) and Worcester (1651)^**. Argyll was reduced to negotiating with the Commonwealth^* to pass on pa...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• The Dictionary
• Map
• Chronology
• Acknowledgements
• Bibliography