The English Civil War started in 1642 and ended in 1646 just after the Battle of Naseby. Parliament won this war against the King Charles I and his supporters, who are often referred to as the Royalists, for a variety of different reasons. In this blog post I will discuss the reasons behind this victory. The reasons I will cover will involve the allies that the Parliament, new officers, the New Model Army, money and the unpopularity of the war. At the end I will conclude with what I think were the most important factors for Parliaments victory.
Firstly, I will talk about the allies. King Charles I had made peace with Ireland and this allowed his army, which was fighting against Ireland, to return home to fight the Parliamentarians. But this meant that his army would have been worn out from fighting the Irish and would not be as good at fighting. Also, not all his soldiers would have come back as many would have been injured or killed. Additionally, the war partly started because it was thought that he was Catholic and making peace with the Irish, who were also Catholic, and this would have made him unpopular.
Parliament made a deal with Scotland that they’d make a church like the one in England if they won. So, Scotland gave them 20,000 troops, which was a lot. These troops were fresh and fit to fight. They also helped win the battle of Marston Moor, which helped win a lot of land in the north. This would have got more taxes for Parliament, so they got lots of money from this. A lot of these Scots made up some of the New Model Army which I will talk about later.
Now to move on to the new officers. In 1645, Parliament made a new law saying members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons could not be army officers. This is because they suspected that some of them of did not like the idea of fighting the King and wanted to negotiate. This meant that they would hesitate to defeat him in battle. I think this was important because I think they would have eventually realised that the king would not negotiate and would fight properly. Though this did help the New Model Army.
The New Model Army was made from the three existing Parliament armies. This army was paid well, drilled well and led well. One of the officers of the previous armies that had to retire was replaced by a skilled war veteran called Fairfax. The retirement of the former officers helped for leadership and the money kept the soldiers happy. The New Model Army defeated the king at Naseby and he did not have enough money for a new army. This is what caused the king’s defeat.
After that we move on to money. Parliament had more money than the king. The king had many rich supporters, but they ran out of money themselves. Parliament was better at collecting taxes and controlled London which had many rich businessmen and supporters. Also, since they had more money they could pay the army well. This meant that the soldiers in its army were more willing to serve and train. Because the king had no money he could not carry on with the war.
Finally, we have the unpopularity of the war. By 1645 people were tired of the battles, the heavy taxes, being looted and many other things. This meant that they supported the side they thought would win. By now everyone knew that Parliament would win so they gave their taxes, land and crops to the Parliamentarians. This gave Parliament a lot of money and after Naseby the people refused to give money to King Charles I so he could not fight on.
Now to my conclusion. Overall, I think the most important factor was money. This is because the army had to be well-paid. This made the Parliaments army motivated more than the king’s soldiers as they were better paid than the Royalist army. They also had access to better equipment, food and drink, weapons, armour and could continue for longer.
Secondly, we have the Parliaments allies who helped it to victory. This is because Scotland sent a lot of troops to help fight the King. This was good for Parliament because it helped it to win at Marston Moor. And if they’d lost they would have not gotten all the equipment close to Marston Moor and all the land in the north. This would have given the king an advantage as he would then have had more soldiers, money and territory. But maybe this would not be as important as money because Parliament still had London with lots of rich people in it and so they would still have gotten a lot of taxes.
Third was the New Model Army. This is because the Parliament could use this army to attack the Royalists and take territory from them. This army fought many of the last battles including the Battle of Naseby which caused the defeat of King Charles I. I don’t think this army is as important as the other two factors because Parliament still had loads of money and land which would have slowly worn down the Royalists and Parliament would have eventually won without the New Model Army. Also, the Scots made up a lot of the New Model Army which links back to Parliaments allies.
Finally, at joint last is the unpopularity of the war and the new officers. I chose these two factors to be last because even if the people still carried on normally with more patience for the war the Royalists would still have eventually lost because they lacked land and money. Also, had the officers not have been replaced by the new officers they would have eventually seen that the king would not negotiate, and they would eventually have fought properly in the New Model Army.
That is what I think were the factors that led to the victory of Parliament over the Royalists.
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