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 The Civil War, 1642-1645
  1642-1645; Part 4

1642-1645; Part 4

In the last month of the year the Parliament suffered a great loss in the death of Pym. Before his death, however, he had succeeded in negotiating an alliance with the Scots. Both sides had appealed to the Scots, but the Presbyterians, feeling that if the King triumphed over Parliament he would inevitably try to subdue them, determined to throw in their lot with Parliament. The Scottish terms were uncompromising-Presbyterianism must be the future religion of England. Parliament, in the Solemn League and Covenant, accepted the condition with qualifications (The Church of England was to be reformed "according to the Word of God and the example of the best reformed Churches". The second half of the sentence refers to the Scot! Church in particular, but the first half might be and was variously interpreted by Scots; English), and in return obtained from Scotland an army of 20,000 men a force which enabled it to win the war. With 1644 the war took a somewhat different shape. Each side had secured an ally; the Scots had joined Parliament, and to balance them Charles brought a force over from Ireland. But the tide ran strongly for Parliament. The Scottish army was of immense assistance, whilst the Irish soldiers, who were worthless troops and hated as Catholics, merely alienated a large number of the king's supporters (I he Irish rebels were regarded with horror by the English, and the use of them by Charles had the same effect in England then, it has been well pointed out, as the employment of Sepoys would have had if a similar crisis had arisen in England just after the Indian Mutiny of 1857). Moreover, the army of the Eastern Association-an association of Eastern Counties formed originally for defensive purposes only-left its own district, and under Lord Manchester prepared to take an active part in the war; and in March the defeat of Hopton meant the loss of all hope of a successful invasion of Sussex and Kent by the Royalists.

In July, 1644, came the great Royalist defeat at Marston Moor. Newcastle, who had been besieged in York by the Scots and by Fairfax and Manchester, was relieved by Rupert, and shortly afterwards a great battle was fought between the combined Royalist and Parliamentary forces. The battle of Marston Moor was notable because of the large number of the men employed: the Royalists were seventeen thousand, and the supporters of Parliament were twenty-six thousand in number. But, above all, the battle was important in that Prince Rupert was to find his match. Oliver Cromwell, a Huntingdonshire squire, had trained for the Eastern Association a body of cavalry composed, as he said, of "men of religion", who could stand up to the "men of honour" serving in the Royalist cavalry. Moreover, Cromwell was a leader who could make his cavalry charge as hard as Prince Rupert, but who, unlike Rupert, could keep his men in hand for a further movement. At seven o'clock in the evening Cromwell charged (The Royalist leaders thought there would be no fight that day. Newcastle had gone to his great coach, called for a pipe of tobacco, and settled down for the evening). He defeated, with the aid of the Scottish horse, Rupert's cavalry, then wheeled round and dispersed the Royalist cavalry who had been successful on the other wing. Meantime, the Scottish infantry in the centre were hard pressed. Cromwell, however, quite untiring, came to their assistance and then helped to annihilate the "Whitecoats", as Newcastle's own infantry regiments were called. It was Cromwell who won the battle- indeed, the three chief generals on his side were at one period fugitives from the field-and the result of the battle was not only that Newcastle retired abroad, but that the six northern counties were lost to the king (Here is Cromwell's own description of the battle: "We never charged but we routed the enemy. The left wing, which I commanded, being our own force, saving a few Scots in our rear, beat all the prince's horse, and God made them stubble to our swords. We charged their regiments of foot and routed all we charged").

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