unit 3- why did Parliament win the English Civil War?

Question 1

when was the battle of Edgehill? how did it take place?

Answer 1

-Charles set out with his army with an attempt to recover London, but was blocked by Parliamentary forces at Edgehill in south Warwickshire.
-Charles chose to delay and this proved a fateful decision as had his forces arrived in London before Parliament had time to organise its defence he could have taken the city and ended the war.

Question 2

what was the Royalist plan in 1643? and how did this work out?

Answer 2

-separate royalist armies in the north, the west and Kent to secure their areas for the King and then attack London.
-Rupert took Bristol and other Royalist commanders made gains but key areas such as Gloucester and Plymouth remained in Parliaments hands making their plan an impossibility.

Question 3

what was the Solemn League and Covenant?

Answer 3

• September 1643
  -alliance between Scots and Parliament in which the main terms being that the Scottish Covenanters agreed to bring their forces into England to help defeat the royalist armies and in return Parliament agreed to make Presbyterianism as the state religion.

Question 4

who was Oliver Cromwell?

Answer 4

-military genius, organised the Eastern Association which eventually grew into the New Model Army.

Question 5

what was the issue with military Parliament leaders?

Answer 5

-earl of Essex and the Earl of Manchester and others who seemed not to be seeking victory like Cromwell but instead some form of compromise settlement.

Question 6

what happened at Marston Moor and when was it?

Answer 6

-1644
-entry of Scottish forces into England due to the Covenant and league.
-Charles brought 18,000 and Parliament had 27,000
-biggest battle in the war and Cromwell showed his skill as a commander in scattering the royalist units when they were on the verge of winning the infantry struggle.
-Cromwell won them the battle

Question 7

what did other commanders do after Marston?

Answer 7

-instead of seizing the opportunity the victory had given them to inflict total defeat, Essex and Manchester delayed for months and moved their armies elsewhere eventually this gave the Royalists time to recover and meant that the war kept going for 2 more years.

Question 8

what happened at the battle of Naseby and when was it?

Answer 8

-1645 June
-quality of the New Model Army and Cromwell’s leadership were shown.
-2 decisions handed victory to Parliament: Kings decision to fight against Rupert’s advice since they were outnumbered 2 to 1 and Rupert then left at the start of the battle to pursue fleeing Parliamentarians only to find that Cromwell had scattered Royalist ranks.

Question 9

why was Naseby important?

Answer 9

-defeat which the Royalists couldn’t recover from militarily, any chance of a royal recovery was gone
-resulted in capture of royal baggage train including incriminating documents which showed Charles’s attempt to enlist foreign armies to fight for him in England.

Question 10

how were people recruited?

Answer 10

-initially volunteers but conscription was soon imposed

Question 11

who were Clubmen and what did they want?

Answer 11

-resentment felt in the localities most affected by the fighting led to groups known as clubmen.
-they pledged to prevent the war from disturbing local life and called for King and Parliament to make peace.

Question 12

details of Clubmen?

Answer 12

-by 1645 groups found in 22 counties
-at their largest groups amounted to thousands big enough to be regarded as a third force competing
-they resisted enlistment by negotiating on occasion.

Question 13

how many casualties did the war cause?

Answer 13

-England 185,000 3.7% of the population

Question 14

how did the length of the war fall in Parliaments favour?

Answer 14

-Charles best hope for winning laid in a short war as many Parliamentarians were still doubtful at the start, but Parliamentarians were eager to stress that they were doing this due to tyrannical ruling.

Question 15

how did leadership fall in Parliaments favour?

Answer 15

-Charles was unable to provide inspired leadership and his military commanders were not imaginative with tactics and strategy and were not well led overall.
-contrasts with Cromwell and Fairfax leadership who inspired Parliamentary cause.

Question 16

how did the cavalry fall in Parliaments favour?

Answer 16

-at the start Royalists had an advantage as the young men who owned horses and rode them were on the Kings side.
-but the longer the war went on the smaller the advantage was and the New model army was better.

Question 17

how did finance fall in Parliaments favour?

Answer 17

-they had control of London and were able to collect taxes.
-Charles was initially given generous gifts of gold silver etc but were only short term and had to resort to ‘sequestration’ and ‘the contribution’

Question 18

what are some reasons why London helped Parliament?

Answer 18

-huge source of food, weapons and transport and it was unmatched by any other city.
-from the beginning London had its own army called the London trained bands and at the start of the war were the best troops.
-position on the river Thames allowed access to supplies from English and continental ports and control of ports allowed control of customs of levied goods.
-control of the Royal Navy

Question 19

what were Parliaments weaknesses?

Answer 19

-reluctance of leaders at the start limited chances of victory
-growing tension between the Presbyterian Parliament and its independent army threatened to undermine the parliamentary cause.

Question 20

what were Parliaments strengths?

Answer 20

-geographical location gave Parliament an advantage.
-forces outnumbered the Royalists.
-control of London.
-control of ports like London and Hull for supplies
-control of navy also helped supplies
-Scots helped strengthen their position.
-army maintained discipline at key points
-genius of Cromwell.

Question 21

what were Royalist strengths?

Answer 21

-sacred person of the King initially gave the Royalists a powerful moral advantage.
-at the beginning of war had number of skilled horsemen.
-received large wealthy donations at the start.

Question 22

what were royalist weaknesses?

Answer 22

-location of kings supporters were too widespread to enable him to concentrate forces
-sympathy for him as king wore off.
-inability of Royalists to recruit enough troops meant they were outnumbered.
-loss of London provided a handicap.
-loss of key ports such as London and Hull
-Charles’s stance on religion made fear that he might be prepared to introduce Catholicism deterred many Protestants from supporting him.
-were not able to match Parliament in the raising of money and tough methods in attempt to do so might have prevented further support.
-Ruperts impulsive tactics and strained relationships with commanders weakened the royalists as a fighting force.

Question 23

who were the four groups after the war competing for their agenda?

Answer 23

-Presbyterians, majority in Parliament wanted a Pres Church and army disbanded.
-independents, minority in Parliament representative of the religious sects resistant to a state church.
-army, refused to disband until their pay had been met and guarantee that they would not face trouble for their actions in the war.
-Scots, unhappy with Parliaments failure to impose presbyterianism in accordance with the Solemn league.

Question 24

what agenda did the Presbyterians have after the war?

Answer 24

-Presbyterians, majority in Parliament wanted a Pres Church and army disbanded.

Question 25

what agenda did the independents have after the war?

Answer 25

-independents, minority in Parliament representative of the religious sects resistant to a state church.

Question 26

what agenda did the army have after the war?

Answer 26

-army, refused to disband until their pay had been met and guarantee that they would not face trouble for their actions in the war.

Question 27

what agenda did the Scots have after the war?

Answer 27

-Scots, unhappy with Parliaments failure to impose presbyterianism in accordance with the Solemn league

Question 28

how did Charles treat reaching a settlement?

Answer 28

-considered he was in a position to play these groups off against each other.

Question 29

what was the Newcastle propositions?

Answer 29

-July 1646
-Parliament proposed to Charles that in return for his safety and making peace he would agree to the establishment of a Presbyterian state church, give up control of his armies and dismiss ministers who Parliament had thought ill advised him.

Question 30

how did Charles react to the Newcastle propositions? and what did this lead to?

Answer 30

-didn’t give a straight answer deliberately procrastinated and believed that time was on his side.
-heads of the proposals.

Question 31

what was the heads of the proposals? when?

Answer 31

-August 1647
-drafted by Henry Ireton and presented by the council of the army.
-in return for restoring the royal families honour and freedom they required acceptance of the following: Parliaments to be called every two years, control of the army and navy to be in Parliaments hands, bishops to no longer have authority in civil matters, no more mandatory use of the book of common prayer and an act of Indemnity to be passed allow the actions of soldiers during the war.

Question 32

what was the engagement and when?

Answer 32

-December 1647 after Charles escaped from army custody and began negotiations with the Scots.
-they wanted: Charles to be restored to the position he had held before the breakdown and in return he would adopt presbyterian as state religion.

Question 33

what happened due to the engagement?

Answer 33

-when army learned of it broke off all negotiations with the King
-and this made the second civil war was unavoidable due to Cromwell.

Question 34

what was the second civil war?

Answer 34

-1648
-Scots and the King against Parliament
-Scots and royalists failed to coordinate plans effectively and the speed of the Parliamentary response led to crushing defeats and lost all hope after the scattering of forces at Preston in August.

Question 35

what was the agreement of the people?

Answer 35

-soldiers representatives put forward radical demands of: present parliament to be dissolved, future parliaments acknowledge they exist solely by the permission of the people, freedom of worship be reorganised, law be applied to all men equally and recognition that ‘estate degree birth or place’ did not confer any special privileges.

Question 36

what happened at the Putney debates?

Answer 36

-Grandee put forward by Cromwell and Ireton who argued that they fought the war to preserve society not to overthrow it.
-attack by Thomas Rainborough who argued that rights were universal and not dependent on property
-did not resolve anything

Question 37

how did Charles be put on trial?

Answer 37

-the commons voted on 5th December 1648 129 to 83 that the King should continue talks, this was too much for the army leaders who followed through with Pride’s purge.

Question 38

what was Prides purge?

Answer 38

• 6 December 1648
  -Colonel Pride acting on behalf of the army council stood at the doors to the commons and forcibly turned away members who had voted in favour of continued negotiations.

Question 39

what was the outcome of Charles’s trial?

Answer 39

-declared guilty and condemned to death by beheading
-sentence was carried out on January 30th 1649.

Question 40

who were the levellers? what did they grow from? and led by?

Answer 40

-began from London in the 1640s and came from a conviction amongst traders and merchants that the war had created an economic recession which threatened their livelihoods.
-led by John Lilburne.

Question 41

what and when was the humble petition?

Answer 41

-September 1648
-presented by the Levellers and was a list of the failures of Parliament to attend to the nations needs
-complained that they had failed to: reform and extend the franchise and make Parliament answerable to the people.

Question 42

why was Lilburne arrested?

Answer 42

-accused Cromwell of high treason for his part in the execution of Charles

Question 43

how did Lilburne inspire the army?

Answer 43

-his resistance helped inspire resistance in the army and led to May 1649 to a number of units mutinying.

Question 44

how did Cromwell crush the army uprising?

Answer 44

-assured them he would pay their wages
-chased retreating levellers, they surrendered and they shot 3 ringleaders.

Question 45

why did the levellers fail?

Answer 45

-in 1649 the movement was only 2 years old which was far too young to take root in english society
-the attention that they received doesn’t mean they were supported as out of an army of 40,000 barely 800 joined the revolt.
-times when poor harvests and bread shortages led to appeal but when better times appeared there was less support.
-when Cromwell and Ireton persuaded the rump to give back the owed money unrest in the ranks was greatly reduced.
-only gained few adherents from the army officers.
-never fully committed to the use of force.

Question 46

what were the true diggers? what did they want?

Answer 46

-1649 group of 50 people who called themselves the true Levellers took over a patch of wasteland on St Georges hill in Surrey and began to cultivate
-believed that land and property belonged not to the individuals but to the community
-sought a godly society.
-Fairfax interrogated Winstanley and Everard
-movement collapsed in the end.