- Second English Civil War
Infobox Military Conflict
conflict= Second English Civil War
partof= the English Civil War
date= February,1648 –30 January ,1649
place=England andWales
casus= Failure ofFirst English Civil War to provide a satisfactory long-term settlement.
territory=
result= Execution of King Charles I, The Interregnum in the British Isles.
combatant1=Royalist Forces
combatant2=Parliamentary Forces:
commander1 = King Charles I Duke of Hamilton Earl of Norwich Baron Capel
commander2 =Oliver Cromwell Thomas FairfaxThomas Horton
casualties1=
casualties2=The Second English Civil War (
1648 –1649 ) was the second of three wars known as theEnglish Civil War (or Wars) which refers to the series of armed conflicts and political machinations which took place between Parliamentarians and Royalists from1642 until1652 and include theFirst English Civil War (1642 –1646 ) and theThird English Civil War (1649 –1651 ).Overview
The end of the First Civil War, in 1646, left a partial power vacuum in which any combination of the three English factions, Royalists, Independents of the
New Model Army (henceforward called the Army), andPresbyterian s of the English Parliament, as well as the Scottish Parliament allied with the Scottish Presbyterians (theKirk ), could prove strong enough to dominate the rest. Armed political Royalism was at an end, but despite being a prisoner, King Charles I was considered by himself and his opponents (almost to the last) as necessary to ensure the success of whichever group could come to terms with him. Thus he passed successively into the hands of the Scots, the Parliament and the Army. The King attempted to reverse the verdict of arms by coquetting with each in turn. On3 June ,1647 CornetGeorge Joyce of Thomas Fairfax's horse seized the King for the Army, after which the EnglishPresbyterian s and the Scots, began to prepare for a fresh civil war, this time against Independency, as embodied in the Army. After making use of the Army's sword, its opponents attempted to disband it, to send it on foreign service and to cut off its arrears of pay. The result was that the Army leadership was exasperated beyond control, and, remembering not merely their grievances but also the principle for which the Army had fought, it soon became the most powerful political force in the realm. From1646 to1648 the breach between Army and Parliament widened day by day until finally the Presbyterian party, combined with the Scots and the remaining Royalists, felt itself strong enough to begin a Second Civil War.Encyclopaedia Britannica Eleventh Edition article GREAT REBELLION; 45. Second Civil War (1648-52)]Revolt against Parliament in South Wales
In February
1648 ColonelJohn Poyer , the Parliamentary Governor ofPembroke Castle , refused to hand over his command to one of Fairfax's officers, and he was soon joined by some hundreds of officers and men, who mutinied, ostensibly for arrears of pay, but really with political objects. At the end of March, encouraged by minor successes, Poyer openly declared for the King. Disbanded soldiers continued to join him in April, allSouth Wales revolted, and eventually he was joined by Major-GeneralRowland Laugharne , his district commander, and ColonelRice Powell . In April also news came that the Scots were arming and thatBerwick andCarlisle had been seized by the English Royalists.Encyclopaedia Britannica Eleventh Edition article GREAT REBELLION; 46. The English War]Oliver Cromwell was at once sent off at the head of a strong detachment to deal with Laugharne and Poyer. But before he arrived Laugharne had been severely defeated on the8 May by ColonelThomas Horton at theBattle of St. Fagans . The English Presbyterians found it difficult to reconcile their principles with their allies when it appeared that the prisoners taken at St Fagans bore "We long to see our King" on their hats; very soon in fact the English war became almost purely a Royalist revolt, and the war in the north an attempt to enforce a mixture of Royalism andPresbyterianism on Englishmen by means of a Scottish army. The former were disturbers of the peace and no more. Nearly all the Royalists who had fought in the First Civil War had given their parole not to bear arms against the Parliament, and many honourable Royalists, foremost amongst them the old Lord Astley, who had fought the last battle for the King in1646 , refused to break their word by taking any part in the second war. Those who did so, and by implication those who abetted them in doing so, were likely to be treated with the utmost rigour if captured, for the Army was in a less placable mood in1648 than in1645 , and had already determined to "call Charles Stuart, that man of blood, to an account for the blood he had shed."Revolt against Parliament in Kent
A precursor to Kent's Second Civil War had come on Wednesday,
22 December , 1647, whenCanterbury 'stown crier had proclaimed the county committee's order for the suppression of Christmas Day and its treatment as any other working day. [See the pamphlet "Canterbury Christmas; or, a true Relation of the Insurrection in Canterbury on Christmas Day last," published in 1648.] [John Brand [http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Text/Brands/christmas_day.htm Christmas Day] ,Popular Antiquities Of Great Britain 1905 edition] However, a large crowd gathered 3 days later 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. [Chris Durston [http://www.misterdann.com/earlyarlordsmisrule.htm Lords of misrule: The Puritan war on Christmas 1642-60] ,History Today , December 1985.]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-AdmiralWilliam 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 of1 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 theCity of London to declare for them, fled intoEssex .The Downs
Before leaving for Essex, Fairfax delegated command of the Parliamentarian forces to Colonel Nathaniel Rich to deal with the remnants of the Kentish revolt in the east of the county, where the naval vessels in the Downs had gone over to the Royalists and Royalist forces had taken control of the three previously Parliamentarian "castles of the Downs" (Walmer, Deal, and Sandown) and were trying to take control of
Dover Castle . Rich arrived at Dover on5 June 1648 and prevented the attempt, before moving tothe Downs . It took almost a month to retake Walmer (15 June -12 July ), before moving on to Deal and Sandown castles. Even then, due to the small size of Rich's force, he was unable to surround both Sandown and Deal at once and the two garrisons were able to send help to each other. At Deal he was also under bombardment from the Royalist warships, which had arrived on15 July but been prevented from landing reinforcements. On 16th, thirty Flemish ships arrived with about 1500 mercenaries and - though the ships soon left when the Royalists ran out of money to pay them - this incited sufficient Kentish fear of foreign invasion to allow SirMichael Livesey to raise a large enough force to come to Colonel Rich's aid.On
28 July , the Royalist warships returned and, after 3 weeks of failed attempts to land a relief force at Deal, on the night of13 August , managed to land 800 soldiers and sailors under cover of darkness. This force might have been able to surprise the besieging Parliamentarian force from behind had it not been for a Royalist deserter who alerted the besiegers in time to defeat the Royalists, with less than a hundred of them managing to get back to the ships (though 300 managed to flee to Sandown Castle). Another attempt at landing soon afterwards also failed and, when on23 August news was fired into Deal Castle on an arrow of Cromwell's victory at Preston, most Royalist hope was lost and 2 days later Deal's garrison surrendered, followed by Sandown on5 September . This finally ended the Kentish rebellion. Rich was made Captain of Deal Castle, a position he held until1653 and in which he spent around £500 on repairs. [Jenny Noake. [http://www.dealkent.co.uk/heritage_pages/default.asp?PageID=3 Deal Castle] website of [http://www.dealkent.co.uk/heritage_pages/default.asp?PageID=1 Deal Kent Heritage Pages] ]Revolt elsewhere
In
Cornwall ,Northamptonshire ,North Wales , andLincolnshire the revolt collapsed as easily as that in Kent. Only inSouth 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.In the north,
Pontefract Castle was surprised by the Royalists, and shortly afterwardsScarborough 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 SirCharles Lucas , the Royalists were in arms in great numbers. Fairfax soon drove Lucas intoColchester , but the first attack on the town was repulsed and he had to settle down to a long and wearisome siege.A
Surrey rising is remembered only for the death of the young and gallant Lord Francis Villiers, younger brother ofGeorge Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham , in a skirmish at Kingston (July 7 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, toSt Albans andSt Neots , where Holland was taken prisoner. Buckingham escaped overseas.Lambert in the north
Major-General John Lambert, a brilliant young commander of twenty-nine, was more than equal to the situation. He left the sieges of
Pontefract Castle andScarborough Castle to ColonelEdward Rossiter , and hurried into Cumberland to deal with the English Royalists under SirMarmaduke Langdale . With his cavalry, he got into touch with the enemy aboutCarlisle and slowly fell back toBowes andBarnard 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.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 andNorthumberland were put into the field for the Parliamentarians by SirArthur Hesilrige , governor of Newcastle. On30 June , under the direct command of ColonelRobert Lilburne , these mounted forces won a considerable success at theRiver Coquet .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 longcouloir between the mountains and the sea. The Campaign of Preston which followed is one of the most brilliant in English history.Campaign of Preston
On the
8 July 1648 , when the ScottishEngager army crossed the Border in support of the English Royalist, [David Plant. [http://www.british-civil-wars.co.uk/military/1648-preston.htm 1648: The Preston Campaign] , [http://www.british-civil-wars.co.uk/ British Civil Wars & Commonwealth website] . Accessed29 May 2008 ] the military situation was well defined. For the Parliamentarians, Cromwell besieged Pembroke in South Wales, Fairfax besieged Colchester in Essex, and Colonel Rossiter besiegedPontefract and Scarborough in the north. On11 July , Pembroke fell and Colchester followed on28 August .Encyclopaedia Britannica Eleventh Edition article GREAT REBELLION; 47. Lambert in the north] 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.Encyclopaedia Britannica Eleventh Edition article GREAT REBELLION; 48. Campaign of Preston]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.On
8 July ,1648 , the Scots, with Langdale as advanced guard, were about Carlisle, and reinforcements fromUlster 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.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 fromBarnard Castle to Richmond so as to closeWensleydale against any attempt of the invaders to march onPontefract . 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 on11 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 fromNorthampton and stockings fromCoventry met him, atNottingham , and, gathering up the local levies as he went, he made forDoncaster , where he arrived on8 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. On12 August he was atWetherby , Lambert with horse and foot atOtley , Langdale atSkipton andGargrave , Hamilton at Lancaster, and SirGeorge 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) atHornby . On13 August , while Cromwell was marching to join Lambert at Otley, the Scottish leaders were still disputing whether they should make for Pontefract or continue throughLancashire so as to join Lord Byron and the Cheshire Royalists.Battle of Preston
On
14 August ,1648 Cromwell and Lambert were at Skipton, on15 August atGisburn , and on16 August they marched down the valley of the Ribble towardsPreston with full knowledge of the enemy's dispositions and full determination to attack him. They had with them horse and foot not only of the Army, but also of the militia ofYorkshire , Durham, Northumberland and Lancashire, and withal were heavily outnumbered, having only 8,600 men against perhaps 20,000 of Hamilton's command. But the latter were scattered for convenience of supply along the road from Lancaster, through Preston, towardsWigan , Langdale's corps having thus become the left flank guard instead of the advanced guard.Encyclopaedia Britannica Eleventh Edition article GREAT REBELLION; 49. Preston Fight]Langdale called in his advanced parties, perhaps with a view to resuming the duties of advanced guard, on the night of
13 August , and collected them nearLongridge . It is not clear whether he reported Cromwell's advance, but, if he did, Hamilton ignored the report, for on17 August Monro was half a day's march to the north, Langdale east of Preston, and the main army strung out on the Wigan road, Major-GeneralWilliam Baillie with a body of foot, the rear of the column, being still in Preston. Hamilton, yielding to the importunity of his lieutenant-general,James Livingston, 1st Earl of Callendar , sent Baillie across the Ribble to follow the main body just as Langdale, with 3,000 foot and 500 horse only, met the first shock of Cromwell's attack onPreston Moor . Hamilton, like Charles at Edgehill, passively shared in, without directing, the Battle of Preston, and, though Langdale's men fought magnificently, they were after four hours' struggle driven to the Ribble.Baillie attempted to cover the Ribble and Darwen bridges on the Wigan road, but Cromwell had forced his way across both before nightfall. Pursuit was at once undertaken, and not relaxed until Hamilton had been driven through Wigan and Winwick to
Uttoxeter and Ashbourne. There, pressed furiously in rear by Cromwell's horse and held up in front by the militia of the midlands, the remnant of the Scottish army laid down its arms on25 August . Various attempts were made to raise the Royalist standard in Wales and elsewhere, but Preston was the death-blow. On28 August , starving and hopeless of relief, the Colchester Royalists surrendered to Lord Fairfax.Execution of Charles I
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 SirGeorge Lisle were shot. Laugharne, Poyer and Powel were sentenced to death, but Poyer alone was executed on25 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 on9 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. At the end of the trial the 59 Commissioners (judges) found Charles I guilty ofhigh treason , as a "tyrant, traitor, murderer and public enemy". [Kelsey, Sean. " [http://ehr.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/118/477/583 The Trial of Charles I] "English Historical Review 2003, Volume 118, Number 477 Pp. 583-616] [Kirb, Michael " [http://www.hcourt.gov.au/speeches/kirbyj/kirbyj_charle88.htm The trial of King Charles I – defining moment for our constitutional liberties] " speech to the Anglo-Australasian Lawers' association, on22 January 1999.] He was beheaded on a scaffold in front of theBanqueting House of thePalace of Whitehall on30 January 1649 . (After the Restoration in 1660, theList of regicides of Charles I were either executed or sentenced to life imprisonment.)
regicides who were still alive and not living in exilePontefract Castle
Pontefract Castle was noted byOliver Cromwell as " [...] one of the strongest inland garrisons in the kingdom". [Staff. [http://www.duchyoflancaster.co.uk/output/page32.asp History and Records of the Duchy of Lancaster: Pontefract Castle, West Yorkshire] , [http://www.duchyoflancaster.co.uk/output/page1.asp Duchy of Lancaster] ] Its ruins held out in the north for the Royalist. On the execution of Charles I the garrison recognised Charles II as King and refused to surrender. It was the last Royalist stronghold to surrender. The garrison finally capitulated on24 March 1649. Parliament had the remains of the castle demolished the same year. [Staff. [http://www.wakefield.gov.uk/CultureAndLeisure/HistoricWakefield/Castles/PontefractCastle/history.htm History Of Pontefract Castle] [http://www.wakefield.gov.uk/AboutWakefield/default.htm www.wakefield.gov.uk] . Accessed29 July 2008] [Staff. "The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction." [http://infomotions.com/etexts/gutenberg/dirs/1/1/5/3/11538/11538.htm Volume 19, No. 531] , Saturday, January 28, 1832]ee also
*
English Civil War timeline References
Further reading
* [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=32812#s24 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]
* [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=32812#s26 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)Footnotes
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