SECOND CIVIL WAR The close of the First Civil War left England and Scotland in the hands potentially of any one of the four parties or any com bination of two or more that should prove strong enough to dom inate the rest. Armed political Royalism was indeed at an end, but Charles, though practically a prisoner, considered himself and was, almost to the last, considered by the rest as necessary to ensure the success of whichever amongst the other three parties could come to terms with him. Thus he passed successively into the hands of the Scots, the Parliament and the New Model, trying to reverse the verdict of arms by coquetting with each in turn. (From this point onwards the names of the Scots Covenanters, formerly the allies of the Parliamentarians, but now their op ponents are not italicized.) The Presbyterians and the Scots, after Cornet Joyce of Fairfax's horse seized upon the person of the king for the army (June 3, 1647), began at once to prepare for a fresh civil war, this time against Independency, as embodied in the New Model—henceforward called the Army. After making use of its sword, its opponents attempted to dis band it, to send it on foreign service, to cut off its arrears of pay, with the result that it was exasperated beyond control, and remem bering not merely its grievances but also the principle for which it had fought, soon became the most powerful political party in the realm. From 1646 to 1648 the breach between army and parlia ment 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.
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 and Presbyterianism 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 Parlia ment, and many honourable Royalists, foremost amongst them the old Lord Astley, who had fought the last battle for the king in 1646, 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 in 1648 than in 1645, and had already determined to "call Charles Stuart, that man of blood, to an account for the blood he had shed." On May 21 Kent rose in revolt in the king's name. 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-Admiral 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 of June i 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 the City of London to declare for them, fled into Essex. In Cornwall, Northampton shire, North Wales and Lincolnshire the revolt collapsed as easily.
Only in South Wales, Essex and the north of England was there serious fighting. In the first of these districts Cromwell rapidly reduced all the fortresses except Pembroke, where Laugharne, Poyer and Powel held out with the desperate courage of deserters. In the north, Pontefract was surprised by the Royalists, and shortly afterwards Scarborough Castle declared for the king. Fairfax, after his success at Maidstone and the pacification of Kent, turned northward to reduce Essex, where, under their ardent, experienced and popular leader Sir Charles Lucas, the Royalists were in arms in great numbers. He soon drove the enemy into Colchester, but the first attack on the town was repulsed and he had to settle down to a long and wearisome siege en regle. A Surrey rising, remembered only for the death of the young and gallant Lord Francis Villiers in a skirmish at Kingston (July 7), collapsed almost as soon as it had gathered force, and its leaders, the duke of Buckingham and the earl of Holland, escaped, after another attempt to induce London to declare for them, to St. Albans and St. Neots, where Holland was taken prisoner. Buckingham escaped overseas.
Major-General Lambert, a brilliant young general of 29, was more than equal to the situation. He had already left the sieges of Pontefract and Scarborough to Colonel Rossiter, and hurried into Cumberland to deal with the English Royalists under Sir Marmaduke Langdale. With his cavalry he got into touch with the enemy about Carlisle and slowly fell back, fighting small rearguard actions to annoy the enemy and gain time, to Bowes and Barnard Castle. Langdale did not follow him into the moun tains, but occupied himself in gathering recruits and supplies of material and food for the Scots. Lambert, reinforced from the midlands, reappeared early in June and drove him back to Carlisle with his work half finished. About the same time the local horse of Durham and Northumberland were put into the field by Sir A. Hesilrige, governor of Newcastle, and under the command of Colonel Robert Lilburne won a considerable success (June 3o) at the river Coquet. This reverse, coupled with the existence of Langdale's force on the Cumberland side, practically compelled Hamilton to choose the west coast route for his advance, and his army began slowly to move down the long couloir between the mountains and the sea. The campaign which followed is one of the most brilliant in English history.
The crisis was now at hand. Cromwell had received the sur render of Pembroke on the i 1 th, and had marched off, with his ,nen unpaid, ragged and shoeless, at full speed through the mid lands. Rains and storms delayed his march, but he knew that Hamilton in the broken ground of Westmorland was still worse off. Shoes from Northampton, and stockings from Coventry met him at Nottingham, and, gathering up the local levies as he went, he made for Doncaster, where he arrived on Aug. 8, 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. On the 12th he was at Wetherby, Lambert with horse and foot at Otley, Langdale at Skipton and Gargrave, Hamilton at Lancaster, and Sir George 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) at Hornby. On the i3th, while Cromwell was marching to join Lambert at Otley, the Scottish leaders were still disputing as to whether they should make for Pontefract or con tinue through Lancashire so as to join Lord Byron and the Cheshire Royalists.
Various attempts were made to raise the Royalist standard in Wales and elswhere, but Preston was the death-blow. On Aug. 28, starving and hopeless of relief, the Colchester Royalists sur rendered to Lord Fairfax. 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 Sir George Lisle were shot. Laugharne, Poyer and Powel were sentenced to death, but Poyer alone was executed on April 25, 1649, being the victim selected by lot. Of five promi nent Royalist peers who had fallen into the hands of the Parlia ment, three, the duke of Hamilton, the earl of Holland and Lord Capel, one of the Colchester prisoners and a man of high char acter, were beheaded at Westminster on March 9. Above all, after long hesitations, even after renewal of negotiations, the army and the Independents "purged" the House of their ill wishers, and created a court for the trial and sentence of the king. The more resolute of the judges nerved the rest to sign the death warrant, and Charles was beheaded at Whitehall on Jan. 3o.
Meanwhile, Ireland, in which a fresh war, with openly anti English and anti-Protestant objects, had broken out in 1648, was thoroughly reduced to order by Cromwell, who beat down all resistance by his skill, and even more by his ruthless severity, in a brief campaign of nine months (battle of Rathmines near Dublin, won by Colonel Michael Jones, Aug. 2, 1649; storming of Drogheda, Sept. i 1, and of Wexford, Oct. i 1, by Cromwell; capture of Kilkenny, March 28, 165o, and of Clonmel, May 1o). Cromwell returned to England at the end of May 165o, and on June 26 Fairfax, who had been anxious and uneasy since the execution of the king, resigned the command-in-chief of the army to his lieutenant-general. The pretext, rather than the reason, of Fairfax's resignation was his unwillingness to lead an English army to reduce Scotland.
Operations Around Edinburgh.—The same day a sharp but indecisive fight took place on the lower slopes of Arthur's Seat, after which Cromwell, having felt the strength of Leslie's line, drew back to Musselburgh. Leslie's horse followed him up sharply, and another action was fought, after which the Scots assaulted Musselburgh without success. Militarily Leslie had the best of it in these affairs, but it was precisely this moment that the kirk party chose to institute a searching three days' examination of the political and religious sentiments of his army. The result was that the army was "purged" of 8o officers and 3,00o soldiers as it lay within musket shot of the enemy. Cromwell was more con cerned, however, with the supply question than with the distracted army of the Scots. On Aug. 6 he had to fall back as far as Dunbar to enable the fleet to land supplies in safety, the port of Mussel burgh being unsafe in the violent and stormy weather which pre vailed. He soon returned to Musselburgh and prepared to force Leslie to battle. In preparation for an extended manoeuvre three days' rations were served out. Tents were also issued, perhaps for the first time in the civil wars, for it was a regular professional army, which had to be cared for, made comfortable and econo mized, that was now carrying on the work of the volunteers of the first war.
Even after Cromwell started on his manoeuvre, the Scottish army was still in the midst of its political troubles, and, certain though he was that nothing but victory in the field would give an assured peace, he was obliged to intervene in the confused negotiations of the various Scottish parties. At last, however, Charles II. made a show of agreeing to the demands of his strange supporters, and Leslie was free to move. Cromwell had now entered the hill country, with a view to occupying Queensferry and thus blocking up Edinburgh. Leslie had the shorter road and barred the way at Corstorphine Hill (Aug. 21). Cromwell, though now far from his base, manoeuvred again to his right, Leslie meet ing him once more at Gogar (Aug. 27). The Scottish lines at that point were strong enough to dismay even Cromwell, and the manoeuvre on Queensferry was at last given up. It had cost the English army severe losses in sick, and much suffering in the autumn nights on the bleak hillsides.
Dunbar.—On the 28th Cromwell fell back on Musselburgh, and on the 31st, after embarking his non-effective men to Dun bar, Leslie followed him up, and wished to fight a battle at Dun bar on Sunday, Sept. 1. But again the kirk intervened, this time to forbid Leslie to break the Sabbath, and the unfortunate Scot tish commander could only establish himself on Doon Hill (see DUNBAR) and send a force to Cockburnspath to bar the Berwick road. He had now 23,00o men to Cromwell's i i ,000, and pro posed, faute de mieux, to starve Cromwell into surrender. But the English army was composed of "ragged soldiers with bright muskets," and had a great captain of undisputed authority at their head. Leslie's, on the other hand, had lost such discipline as it had ever possessed, and was now, under outside influences, thoroughly disintegrated. Cromwell wrote home, indeed, that he was "upon an engagement very difficult," but, desperate as his position seemed, he felt the pulse of his opponent and steadily refused to take his army away by sea. He had not to wait long. It was now the turn of Leslie's men on the hillside to endure pa tiently privation and exposure, and after one night's bivouac, Leslie, too readily inferring that the enemy was about to escape by sea, came down to fight. The battle of Dunbar (q.v.) opened in the early morning of Sept. 3. It was the most brilliant of Cromwell's victories. Before the sun was high in the heavens the Scottish army had ceased to exist.
Royalism in Scotland.—After Dunbar it was easy for the victorious army to overrun southern Scotland, more especially as the dissensions of the enemy were embittered by the defeat of which they had been the prime cause. The kirk indeed put Dun bar to the account of its own remissness in not purging their army more thoroughly, but, as Cromwell wrote on Sept. 4, the kirk had "done its do." "I believe their king will set up on his own score," he continued, and indeed, now that the army of the kirk was destroyed and they themselves were secure behind the Forth and based on the friendly Highlands, Charles and the Cavaliers were in a position not only to defy Cromwell, but also to force the Scottish national spirit of resistance to the invader into a purely Royalist channel. Cromwell had only received a few drafts and reinforcements from England, and for the present he could but block up Edinburgh Castle (which surrendered on Christmas eve), and try to bring up adequate forces and material for the siege of Stirling—an attempt which was frustrated by the bad ness of the roads and the violence of the weather. The rest of the early winter of 165o was thus occupied in semi-military, semi political operations between detachments of the English army and certain armed forces of the kirk party which still maintained a precarious existence in the western Lowlands, and in police work against the moss-troopers of the Border counties. Early in February 1651, still in the midst of terrible weather, Cromwell made another resolute but futile attempt to reach Stirling. This time he himself fell sick, and also his losses had to be made good by drafts of recruits from England, many of whom came most unwillingly to serve in the cold wet bivouacs that had been reported. The tents were evidently issued for regular marches, not for cross-country manoeuvres against the enemy. These manoeuvres, as we have seen, often took several days. The bon general ordinaire of the 17th and 18th centuries framed his manoeuvres on a smaller scale so as not to expose his expensive and highly trained soldiers to discomfort and the consequent temptation to desert.
The English Militia.—About this time there occurred in England two events which had a most important bearing on the campaign. The first was the detection of a widespread Royalist Presbyterian conspiracy—how widespread no one knew, for those of its promoters who were captured and executed certainly formed but a small fraction of the whole number. Harrison was ordered to Lancashire in April to watch the north Welsh, Isle of Man and Border Royalists, and military precautions were taken in various parts of England. The second was the revival of the militia. Since 1644 -there had been no general employment of local forces, the quarrel having fallen into the hands of the regu lar armies by force of circumstances. The New Model, though a national army, resembled Wellington's Peninsular army more than the soldiers of the French Revolution and the American Civil War. It was now engaged in prosecuting a war of aggression against the hereditary foe over the Border—strictly the task of a professional army with a national basis. The militia was indeed raw and untrained. Some of the Essex men "fell flat on their faces on the sound of a cannon." In the north of England Harri son complained to Cromwell of the "badness" of his men, and the lord general sympathized, having "had much such stuff" sent him to make good the losses in trained men. His recruits were un willing drafts for foreign service, but in England the new levies were trusted to defend their homes, and the militia was soon triumphantly to justify its existence on the day of Worcester.
But the Royalists were mistaken in supposing that the enemy was taken aback by their new move. Everything had been f ore seen both by Cromwell and by the Council of State in West minster. The latter had called out the greater part of the militia on the 7th. Lieutenant-General Fleetwood began to draw to gether the midland contingents at Banbury, the London trained bands turned out for field service no fewer than 14,00o strong. Every suspected Royalist was closely watched, and the maga zines of arms in the country-houses of the gentry were for the most part removed into the strong places. On his part Cromwell had quietly made his preparations. Perth passed into his hands on Aug. 2, and he brought back his army to Leith by the 5th. Thence he despatched Lambert with a cavalry corps to harass the invaders. Harrison was already at Newcastle picking the best of the county mounted troops to add to his own regulars. On the 9th Charles was at Kendal, Lambert hovering in his rear, and Harri son marching swiftly to bar his way at the Mersey. Fairfax emerged for a moment from his retirement to organize the York shire levies, and the best of these as well as of the Lancashire, Cheshire and Staffordshire militias were directed upon Warring ton, which point Harrison reached on the i5th, a few hours in front of Charles's advanced guard. Lambert, too, slipping round the left flank of the enemy, joined Harrison, and the English fell back (i6th), slowly and without letting themselves be drawn into a fight, along the London road.
Charles arrived at Worcester on Aug. 22, and spent five days in resting the troops, preparing for further operations, and gath ering and arming the few recruits who came in. It is unnecessary to argue that the delay was fatal; it was a necessity of the case foreseen and accepted when the march to Worcester had been decided upon, and had the other course, that of marching on London via Lichfield, been taken the battle would have been fought three days earlier with the same result. As affairs turned out Cromwell merely shifted the area of his concentration two marches to the south-west, to Evesham. Early on the 28th Lam bert surprised the passage of the Severn at Upton, 6 m. below Worcester, and in the action which followed Massey was se verely wounded. Fleetwood followed Lambert. The enemy was now only i 6,000 strong and disheartened by the apathy with which they had been received in districts formerly all their own. Cromwell, for the first and last time in his military career, had a two-to-one numerical superiority.
Charles escaped after many adventures, but he was one of the few men in his army who regained a place of safety. The Parlia mentary militia were sent home within a week. Cromwell, who had ridiculed "such stuff" six months ago, knew them better now. "Your new raised forces," he wrote to the House, "did perform singular good service, for which they deserve a very high estima tion and acknowledgment." Worcester resembled Sedan in much more than outward form. Both were fought by "nations in arms," by citizen soldiers who had their hearts in the struggle, and could be trusted not only to fight their hardest but to march their best. Only with such troops would a general dare to place a deep river between the two halves of his army or to send away detachments beforehand to reap the fruits of victory, in certain anticipation of winning the victory with the remainder. The sense of duty which the raw militia possessed in so high a degree, ensured the arrival and the action of every column at the appointed time and place. The result was, in brief, one of those rare victories in which a pursuit is superfluous—a "crowning mercy," as Cromwell called it. There is little of note in the closing operations. Monk had completed his task by May 1652; and Scotland, which had twice attempted to impose its will on England, found itself reduced to the position of an English province under martial law.