2.The Civil Wars

Cavaliers vs.Roundheads

The first Civil War began in August 1642.For the next four years，the war was fought all over England，with fighting places in nearly every county.Geographically，London，the southeast and East Anglia were for Parliament.The north of England and Wales were for the King.The King’s followers called the Parliamentarians“Roundheads”because they kept their hair cut very short.The Roundheads called the King’s men“Cavaliers”，which meant proud，upper-class horsemen.

The nobility for the most part supported the King，and only a handful of them fought for the Parliament.The country gentlemen were about equally divided between Cavaliers and Roundheads.The majority of the merchants supported Parliament，though some of the wealthier merchants，and the City livery companies⁸，supported the king.The yeomen in the countryside formed the backbone of the Roundhead army，and some of the artisans in the towns，especially the young apprentices in London were usually neutral.As far as religion was concerned，the more extreme a Protestant a man was，the more enthusiastically he supported the Roundheads.The Catholics realizing who was their greatest enemy，fought loyally for the king，though he and they tried to keep secret in order to avoid causing him political embarrassment.

The war went badly for Parliament in 1643.The king’s army won some victories in many places.The Roundheads were successful only in East Anglia，where their commanders，the earl of Manchester and Oliver Cromwell，crushed the Cavalier resistance.Cromwell was a country gentlemen and member of the Parliament.At the outbreak of the Civil War，he raised a troop to fight for Parliament.He put the yeoman farmers in his regiments through an intensive course of military training which made them the finest cavalry units in the Parliamentary army.

During the winter of 1644-1645Cromwell worked to get rid of all the incompetent parliamentary generals.He achieved this by persuading Parliament to pass the“Self-Denying Ordinance”by which all those leaders of the parliamentary forces，except Cromwell and Fairfax，were dismissed and supreme command given to the two generals.Cromwell continued leading his regiments.They became known as the New Model Army.

After three years of struggle，the King’s forces were destroyed at the battle of Naseby by Cromwell’s New Model Army.The King himself escaped to the north，and surrendered to the Scottish army.The Scots agreed to hand over Charles to the Parliament in return for Parliament agreeing to pay them￡400，000for their expenses in the war.The deal was strongly criticized by the Cavaliers as a Judas⁹-type transaction by which the Scots sold their king to his rebels，and is perhaps the origin of the traditional English belief in the meanness of the grasping Scot who will do anything for money.

With the Civil War over and the king aprisoner in Parliament’s hands，the Presbyterians，who stood for the interests of Anglican noblemen and High Churchmen，were willing to come to terms with Charles.They controlled both the House of Lords and the House of Commons.The Independents，the extremist Protestant sects led by Cromwell，stood for middle layers of the bourgeoisie and the new“nobility”of wealth.They controlled the Army and objected to the Presbyterian compromise with the King and to the Presbyterian rule of the Church.The more extremist forces were Levellers，who aimed at a pettybourgeois democracy.They put pressure on Cromwell to take vigorous action against the King and the Presbyterian Parliament.Cromwell and most of his officers opposed the Levellers’demands for political democracy and later the Levellers were suppressed，

In May 1648the Second Civil War broke out as the result of secret negotiations between the King，the Presbyterian leaders in Parliament，and the Scots.The Scots and the Presbyterians agreed to restore Charles as king；and Charles agreed to establish Presbyterianism for a trial period of three years as the official state religion in England as well as in Scotland.A Scottish army then invaded the north of England，and a group of Cavaliers started a revolt in Kent and Essex.Facing this serious situation Cromwell again united together the Independents and Levellers and completely defeated the reactionaries in a few months.The Second Civil War was over.