The History of England from the First Invasion by the Romans to the Accession of King George the Fifth. Volume 08 of 11

In Short

This volume covers the turbulent central decade of seventeenth-century England, tracing the descent from the open battles of the First Civil War to the execution of Charles I, the rise of the Commonwealth, and the eventual Restoration of the monarchy. It documents a nation tearing itself apart over religious authority, parliamentary rights, and military power. Through meticulously cited diplomatic letters, parliamentary journals, and battle dispatches, the text examines how initial efforts at compromise repeatedly collapsed into ideological extremism and military dictatorship. It details not merely the famous field engagements like Edge Hill, Marston Moor, and Naseby, but also the administrative mechanisms, heavy taxation, religious persecutions, and political purges that sustained the changing regimes. The work endures because it refuses simple heroic narratives, exposing the pragmatic calculations, mutual paranoia, and human misjudgments on both sides that repeatedly turned intended peaces into fresh outbreaks of violence.

The Story

The narrative opens amidst the operational paralysis and ideological fracturing of the early Civil War. Following the inconclusive Battle of Edge Hill, King Charles I establishes his court and headquarters at Oxford, while the Parliamentary forces under the Earl of Essex attempt to hem him in. Neither side possesses the immediate force required to deliver a decisive blow, forcing both to seek outside alliances. The Parliamentary faction enters into the Solemn League and Covenant with the Scots, bringing Leslie’s northern army across the border in exchange for financial support and promises of Presbyterian church reform. In response, Charles attempts to secure his position by negotiating a cessation of hostilities with the Catholic forces in Ireland to free up royalist troops for the English mainland.

As the war spreads, internal divisions deepen within both camps. Brilliant tactical victories by the Marquess of Montrose in Scotland briefly revive royalist hopes, but the Parliamentary victory at Marston Moor and the total capitulation of Essex’s infantry in the west force Parliament to overhaul its military command. Through the passage of the Self-Denying Ordinance, older aristocratic commanders are sidelined in favor of a reorganized, highly disciplined force—the New Model Army. At the Battle of Naseby, this newly structured army shatters the King’s primary field force. Deprived of his infantry and artillery, Charles wanders across the country, seeking to avoid capture before winter while pinning his hopes on foreign intervention or division among his enemies.

With Oxford surrounded, Charles escapes in disguise and surrenders himself to the Scottish army at Southwell, believing he can play the Presbyterians against the rising Independent faction in Parliament. Instead, after prolonged and futile negotiations over church government and royal authority, the Scots deliver the King to the English Parliament in exchange for their back pay. Yet Parliament’s triumph is short-lived. A fundamental schism opens between the Presbyterian majority in the House of Commons, who seek a negotiated settlement with the King and the disbandment of the military, and the Army leadership, which embraces radical religious toleration and demands full pay and political reform.

The Army takes matters into its own hands, forcibly seizing the King from his captivity at Holmby House and marching on London. Charles exploits this rift, negotiating secretly with Scottish commissioners while pretending to treat with the Army officers. His escape to the Isle of Wight and his covert treaty with the Scots trigger the bloody Second Civil War. Royalist risings erupt across Wales, Kent, and the north, but Oliver Cromwell and the veteran army crush the insurrections at Pembroke and Preston. Furious at what they view as the King’s treachery and double-dealing, the military grandees march on Westminster, execute Pride’s Purge to expel Presbyterian members, and reduce Parliament to a dependent "Rump." This radicalized remnant establishes a High Court of Justice, puts Charles I on trial for treason, and executes him outside Whitehall.

The story then shifts to the precarious consolidation of the newly declared Commonwealth. A Council of State assumes executive power, but faces immediate threats from royalist garrisons in Ireland, Scottish loyalists, and radical political movements at home like the Levellers. Cromwell is dispatched to Ireland, enforcing submission through brutal, ruthless sieges at Drogheda and Wexford, followed by a vast, systematic policy of land confiscation and forced transplantation of Catholic landowners beyond the River Shannon. Returning to England, Cromwell takes full command of the military after Fairfax resigns over the decision to invade Scotland. Cromwell defeats David Leslie at Dunbar and subsequently destroys the young Charles II’s invading force at the Battle of Worcester.

Despite its total military dominance across England, Scotland, and Ireland, the Commonwealth struggles to build political legitimacy. Cromwell steadily expands his personal influence, forcibly dissolving the Rump Parliament when it resists his authority, and replacing it with a hand-picked assembly. Finding civil assemblies unmanageable, he eventually assumes absolute power as Lord Protector under a new military constitution. His regime maintains internal order through a apparatus of regional major-generals and secret intelligence, while waging energetic wars against Holland and Spain abroad. Yet the Protectorate remains haunted by its own illegitimacy and the constant threat of assassination or royalist plots.

Upon Cromwell’s death, the regime collapses under his timid successor, Richard. The military, the re-assembled Rump Parliament, and the populace drift into political chaos and financial ruin. General George Monk, commanding the army in Scotland, maintains an impenetrable silence while marching his disciplined troops southward to London. Balancing competing factional demands with extraordinary discretion, Monk restores the expelled Presbyterian members, oversees the assembly of a newly elected Convention Parliament, and subtly orchestrates the peaceful recall of Charles II, bringing the revolutionary period to a close.

How It Unfolds

The war opens in deadlock Following the early battles at Edge Hill and Brentford, Charles I establishes his winter court at Oxford while Parliament attempts to recruit fresh forces and secure the capital. Both sides realize the conflict will be long, prompting Parliament to seek a formal covenant with Scotland and Charles to seek military relief from Ireland.

The rise of military radicalism Repeated tactical failures and aristocratic caution lead Parliament to pass the Self-Denying Ordinance, stripping old commanders of their posts. The army is remodeled into a professional, highly disciplined force under Fairfax and Cromwell, which promptly annihilates the King's main army at Naseby.

The captivity and delivery of the King Cornered at Oxford, Charles escapes to the Scottish army, hoping to negotiate terms. Refusing to accept their strict Presbyterian conditions, he is delivered over to the English Parliament in exchange for the payment of Scottish military arrears, ending the First Civil War.

The rift between Army and Parliament A fierce struggle breaks out between the Presbyterian majority in Parliament and the Independent-dominated Army. The military seizes the King's person, marches into London, and purge their opponents, while Charles secretly negotiates with Scottish envoys to launch a second war.

The second war and the King's trial Royalist risings erupt across the country but are rapidly and ruthlessly crushed by Cromwell. Embittered by the renewed bloodshed, the Army purges Parliament of moderate members and establishes an extraordinary court that tries, condemns, and executes Charles I outside Whitehall.

Subjugation of Ireland and Scotland The new Commonwealth faces multi-front threats, prompting Cromwell to launch punitive campaigns. He executes terrifying massacres at Drogheda and Wexford, enforces vast land transplantations in Ireland, and crushes Scottish royalist armies at Dunbar and Worcester.

The Protectorate and military rule Cromwell forcibly expels the Rump Parliament, eventually assuming supreme executive authority as Lord Protector. He rules through martial authority and regional major-generals, thwarting numerous conspiracies while expanding English naval and diplomatic power across Europe.

The Restoration accomplished Following Cromwell's death and the total breakdown of his son's administration, military factions compete for control. General George Monk marches his army from Scotland to London, restores political order, and secretly facilitates the peaceful return of Charles II.

The People

• King Charles I — The stubborn, deeply religious monarch who firmly believes in the divine right of his crown. Driven by a desire to preserve his royal prerogative and the Episcopal church, he is trapped between competing factions. His habit of duplicity and simultaneous negotiation with rival enemies ultimately convinces the Army leadership that he cannot be trusted, leading directly to his trial and execution.
• Oliver Cromwell — A brilliant military tactician and fervent Independent who rises from a obscure country gentleman to supreme ruler of the Commonwealth. Driven by a intense conviction that he is an instrument of divine providence, he relentlessly pursues military victory, crushed domestic rebellions, and executes royalists, yet privately wrestles with the instability and illegitimacy of his own autocratic regime.
• Queen Henrietta Maria — The energetic, fiercely loyal wife of Charles I who indefatigably secures arms, funding, and foreign support for the royalist cause. She repeatedly risks her life crossing the stormy seas to land supplies on the northern coast, while urging her husband from afar never to surrender his sovereign rights.
• General George Monk — The enigmatic commander of the Commonwealth forces in Scotland, whose defining characteristic is absolute, impenetrable secrecy. Courted by royalists, republicans, and army factions alike, he keeps his true motives entirely hidden while maintaining strict military discipline, eventually using his army to restore Parliament and bring about the peaceful return of the monarchy without further bloodshed.
• Archbishop William Laud — The unyielding prelate whose aggressive enforcement of religious uniformity helped provoke the initial rebellion. Imprisoned in the Tower of London by Parliament, he defends his theological and administrative conduct with legal skill before being condemned by a bill of attainder and executed on Tower Hill.

In Its Own Voice

When the Queen landed under naval bombardment at Burlington, her courageous refusal to abandon her cause was matched by the savagery of her parliamentary pursuers:

"Batten, enraged at his disappointment, anchored on the second night, with four ships and a pinnace, in the road, and discharged above one hundred shot at the houses on the quay, in one of which the queen was lodged."

During the trial of the agitator John Lilburne, the popular fury against the arbitrary power of the military court threatened to boil over into open insurrection:

"His friends, to the amount of several thousands, constantly attended; some hundreds of them were said to be armed for the purpose of rescuing him, if he were condemned; and papers were circulated that, if Lilburne perished, twenty thousand individuals would perish with him."

As Oliver Cromwell lay dying of fever, his absolute confidence in his own spiritual election was reflected in the fervent declarations of his household:

"Hence his chaplain Goodwin exclaimed, 'O Lord, we pray not for his recovery; that thou hast granted already; what we now beg is his speedy recovery.'"

What It's Really About

Underneath the shifting map of sieges, treaties, and parliamentary votes, this volume is an investigation into the collapse of constitutional legitimacy and the terrifying ease with which political idealism degenerates into military despotism. The text demonstrates how moderate factions, seeking reasonable legal redress against royal overreach, consistently unleash ideological forces they can neither control nor direct. Once the traditional machinery of state is dismantled, power inevitably migrates away from elected assemblies and into the hands of disciplined, ideologically driven soldiers who rule by force of arms.

The argument explores the fatal dynamic of religious fanaticism in politics. For both the Presbyterian covenanters and the Independent grandees of the New Model Army, political compromise is viewed not as a practical necessity, but as a sinful betrayal of divine truth. This uncompromising posture makes peaceful settlement impossible. Every attempt at a negotiated peace collapses because each party insists that its own system of church government must be imposed on the entire nation. The book shows that when political disputes are framed as spiritual battles, law, custom, and mercy are systematically set aside in favor of total subjugation and autocratic rule.

Why Read It Today

This work offers a bracing, unvarnished look at a pivotal epoch, written with a rare blend of narrative force and rigorous archival precision. For a contemporary reader, it provides a masterclass in how political institutions disintegrate when mutual trust vanishes. The text avoids the trap of romanticizing either side: the Royalists are shown in all their indecision, intrigue, and unrealistic reliance on foreign interference, while the Parliamentary and Republican leaders are stripped of their heroic mythologies to expose their autocratic tendencies, heavy-handed oppressions, and religious intolerance.

Reading this book feels like examining a dense, complex tapestry of statecraft and human passion. The narrative prose moves with a steady, measured momentum, punctuated by sharp observations of character and vivid reconstructions of critical moments—from the chaotic nocturnal escape of Charles I from Oxford to the tense, secretive atmosphere of the Council of State under Cromwell.

The primary difficulty for the modern reader lies in the book's absolute uncompromising density and its assumption of historical familiarity. The text makes heavy use of contemporary legal terminology, intricate ecclesiastical debates, and detailed accounts of parliamentary maneuvers, all documented with extensive footnotes, latin diplomatic terms, and precise references to state papers. It demands concentration, requiring the reader to navigate complex networks of seventeenth-century political factions, localized risings, and regional military commands. Yet what stays with you is the haunting picture of a nation caught in a relentless cycle of revolution, where every attempt to secure liberty through violence merely birthed a more intrusive and despotic form of state power, until order could only be restored by returning to the traditional institutions it had sought to destroy.