Royalists vs. Parliament: The Civil Wars That Changed England

The English Civil Wars were more than just a series of battles; they were a seismic shift in British history. Beginning in 1642, these conflicts between King Charles I and Parliament plunged the nation into turmoil, questioning the very essence of power and governance. Ideologies clashed as royalists and parliamentarians fought over who should rule and how. The wars didn’t just play out on battlefields—they also stirred deep social and political changes that would echo through the centuries. As swords clashed and cannons roared, the foundations of modern Britain were being forged in this tumultuous period. 

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The English Civil Wars- Roundheads vs. Cavaliers 

While commonly referred to as the English Civil War, one of the most important wars in English history is generally acknowledged by historians as three distinct civil wars that all happened in a short span of time. The causes for them varied and changed as the war progressed and things got worse. Generally speaking, however, the problems can be traced back to the first year of Charles I’s reign and the fact that he could be pretty insufferable. 

Charles refused to compromise on anything, especially his belief in his divine right to rule. This brought him into constant conflict with the parliament of the time, which believed the monarchy was already too powerful and that parliament should have more say in ruling the country. 

The members of Parliament also took huge issue with the advisors with whom Charles had surrounded himself. These nobles, interested only in furthering their own goals by acting as yes-men to an already arrogant king, were referred to as the “king’s evil counselors” by many of England’s MPs. Charles had repeatedly followed the advice of these men over that of his MPs by doing things like hiking taxes and then spending the money on building warships that the MPs had voted against. 

There were also issues with the church. Many of England’s MPs were puritans, and they feared Charles was turning the Anglican Church back to more Catholic practices. Under William Laud, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the bishops had gained increasing amounts of power, and the church had become increasingly less inclusive. It was a worrying step backward. The MPs wanted to change this, allowing for more freedom of worship and for people to be able to make their own interpretations of the Bible. Charles disagreed.  

These grievances led England’s MPs to present Parliament with the Petition of Rights in 1628. This wasn’t an attempt to abolish the monarchy; it simply sought to rein in the king and unseat his advisors. It was basically an airing of grievances. Charles responded by rejecting the petition and refusing to call Parliament for the next 11 years, in a period now referred to as his “personal rule.” 

The king’s petty decision came back to bite him in 1639, when a Scottish army marched into northern England. Charles had upset the Scots by trying to force changes upon their church, including a new book of common prayer in 1637. This had riled them up to the extent that a group of warriors called the Covenanters had decided to invade England in order to protect the Scottish Presbyterian Church and its leader, Kirk. 

The only way Charles could call an army big enough to fight off these warriors was to recall Parliament. The MPs used this as a chance to re-air their grievances, and Charles responded by quickly dismissing Parliament again. The Parliament had only lasted from April to May of 1640, in a period now known as the Short Parliament. Charles didn’t get the money he needed. 

However, the Scottish problem didn’t just disappear. Charles was forced to go back to Parliament with his tail between his legs in November 1640. He got the money he needed to repel the invasion, and Parliament got to stick around for a spell.  

This doesn’t mean that Charles and his MPs were getting along any better. In May 1641, Parliament had one of Charles’s closest friends and allies, Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Stafford, arrested, tried, and executed. He was accused of attempting to bring in an army from Ireland to help the king. The MPs hadn’t been too concerned by the fact that there wasn’t much evidence that he was guilty. 

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Archbishop Laud gives his blessing to Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, from the picture by Paul Delaroche, in More Pictures of British History by E.L.Hoskyn, A & C Black. (Public Domain)

When a major rebellion in Ireland against English rule blew up, Charles was once again forced to ask Parliament for yet more money. The MPs wished to make the king sing for his supper and delivered the Grand Remonstrance in November 1641. Charles hadn’t gotten over his friend’s execution and rejected Parliament's complaints. He then went on to escalate the feud exponentially.  

In January 1641, Charles marched into parliament with a group of armed men in order to arrest the five MPs he believed had come up with the Grand Remonstrance. These five, including the king’s biggest critic, John Pym, had been forewarned and wisely decided to make themselves scarce. Still, by choosing to march armed thugs into Parliament, Charles had chosen the nuclear option. 

Even at this juncture, not all the MPs wished to get rid of the king. While Parliament argued with itself over what to do next, Charles began preparing for war. When Parliament caught wind of what the king was doing, it too began making its preparations. England was about to be torn in two. 

The First English Civil War: The Bloodshed Begins 

By August 1642, Charles had established a loyalist royal army based in Nottingham. He and his royalists controlled the southwest and north of England. He had the advantage of holding the port of Newcastle and the region’s coal mines. 

Parliament, on the other hand, had London, the Navy, and the southeast of England. Whereas the Royalists became known as the Cavaliers, the Parliamentarians were known as the less impressive-sounding Roundheads, owing to the shape of the helmets their troops wore. 

The English Civil War was made up of far more battles and sieges than we can name or list here. Most of these battles were small skirmishes, but some of the battles were incredibly bloody. 

One of the worst, and first, was the Battle of Edgehill in October 1642. The battle saw the king’s nephew, Prince Rupert, gain an early lead when he led the Royalist cavalry against the Parliamentarians. He ultimately lost his advantage by wasting time looting rather than pressing the attack. This error was punished by the Parliamentarians, who had kept some of their forces in reserve, meaning they were able to launch a counterattack. The battle ended with at least 1500 men dead and a draw. Draws would become something of a theme. 

Following the battle, Charles should have marched straight on London but dragged his feet instead. This gave the Roundheads time to regroup and raise London’s militia, a group called the London Trained Bands. With no hope of marching on London now, Charles was forced to found a new royalist capital in Oxford. 

The first half of 1643 saw ten more major battles, most of which ended in draws. The biggest battle so far came in July 1643, when Prince Rupert led the first big royalist success during the Storming of Bristol. Next came September’s First Battle of Newbury, where 15,000 men on either side fought the longest battle so far. Despite all the lives lost it once again ended in a draw. 

Prince Rupert at the Battle of Edgehill (Public Domain)

The Tide Turns 

The tide began to turn in December 1643, when the parliamentarians signed an alliance with the king’s old enemies, the Scottish Covenanters. When the next big battle came in July 1644, the Roundheads and their new friends were more than prepared.  

The Battle of Marston Moor saw 45,000 soldiers duke it out. It was the war’s biggest battle yet and a massive Roundhead victory. Notably, it was during this battle that Oliver Cromwell, who had led the Parliamentarian cavalry, started making a name for himself. Following this battle, the Roundheads had control of pretty much all of England outside a handful of Royalist castles. It wasn’t quite over for the king just yet, however.  

The statue of Oliver Cromwell that stands outside the Palace of Westminster in London. (Steve Punter/CC BY-SA 2.0)

At the Second Battle of Newbury, the Roundheads lost where they should have won. After some soul-searching, it was decided that their inexperienced, less professional army was to blame. Their army was quickly reorganized and became the New Model Army. Around the same time as this, both sides at least pretended to consider peace with the Uxbridge Propositions of 1645. Whether or not this was a genuine attempt or just a way of buying time until both sides’ armies had rebuilt is unknown. Either way, Parliament's extensive list of requirements was rejected by the king. 

The new and improved Roundhead army clashed with the Royalists at the Battle of Naseby in 1645. Led by Sir Thomas Fairfax, with Cromwell on cavalry again, the New Model Army smashed the royalist forces. Charles first fled to Wales and then to Northern England. The First English Civil War ended with a handful more parliamentarian victories. The king may have lost, but it was clear he had no plans to surrender. 

Battle of Naseby, by an unknown artist. The victory of the Parliamentarian New Model Army, under Sir Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell, over the Royalist army, commanded by Prince Rupert, at the Battle of Naseby (June 14, 1645) marked the decisive turning point in the English Civil War. (Public domain)

The Second Civil War 

By February of 1648, the Roundheads had come to the realization that their stubborn king would never relinquish his position, no matter how many times he lost. The Civil War was officially back on. 

Several more defeats eventually landed Charles in the custody of the Roundheads, but the crafty king escaped and ran away to the Isle of Wight. He then made peace with the Scots by convincing them that the Puritanical Parliamentarians were a bigger threat to them than he was. Considering the atrocities Oliver Cromwell would later be responsible for, he wasn’t really wrong. Willing to betray his ideals for reinforcements, in December 1647, Charles signed a treaty promising to promote the Presbyterian Church in England.

This plan turned out to be ill-advised. Many of his few remaining supporters disliked the idea of an English king encouraging a Scottish invasion just to save his own neck. His arrogance and unwillingness to compromise on the matter won him no friends. People were tired of war, and his refusal to bring it to an end made Charles look like a warmonger. 

The Royalists attempted to spark more uprisings, but the Roundheads crushed them all. Under the command of Cromwell, the New Model Army once again defeated the Royalists at the Battle of Preston in 1648, bringing the second English Civil War to an end. 

Battle of Preston 1648 (Jlorenz1/CC BY-SA 3.0)

Charles was brought from the Isle of Wight and put on trial in January 1649. He was found guilty of treason and executed on the 30th. England officially (if briefly) became a republic, and both the monarchy and the House of Lords were abolished. Yet the war wasn’t over. Scotland still had Charles II, the dead king’s eldest son up its sleeve. 

The Third Civil War 

The Royalists sparked the third phase of the English Civil War by causing trouble in Ireland. In the summer of 1649, Cromwell was given 12,000 men and sent to crush the new rebellion. He did just that. 

Following the Battle of Dunbar in September 1650, Cromwell returned to England and headed straight to Scotland, where he aimed to take Edinburgh. Using Dunbar as his base of operations, Cromwell tried several times but was unsuccessful. It was a rare defeat for him, and it looked like his Scottish expedition was over. 

Then the Scottish army made a mistake. Rather than let Cromwell skulk back to England, they pursued the New Model Army and launched a massive but rushed attack on Cromwell’s forces. The poor positioning of the Scottish forces allowed Cromwell to snatch victory from the claws of defeat. At least 3,000 Scots were killed and 6,000 captured.  

With the Scottish forces in disarray, Cromwell was then able to march to Edinburgh, taking it on Christmas Eve, 1650. What was left of Scotland’s forces was then soundly defeated not long after at the Battle of Worcester in 1651.  

With this final Roundhead victory, the English Civil Wars were officially over. Charles II ran off to France, and Cromwell became “Lord Protector.” It stayed this way until 1660 when Charles II returned to England to reinstate the monarchy and crown himself king.  

Battle of Worcester, print by James Caldwall. (Public Domain)

Aftermath 

The English Civil Wars had taken their toll on England. Around 1 in 4 men had been directly involved in the fighting, and a good many of them had been killed or left maimed for life. Those civilians who hadn't fought had still been forced to suffer through high taxes, confiscation of their land, destruction of their crops, and the spread of deadly pandemics. It was so bad that 1 in 10 people in urban areas were left homeless, 100,000 soldiers lost their lives, and at least 100,000 civilians died.  

All that death and suffering just for the Restoration to come along nine years later and reinstate the monarchy. Yet England had changed forever. Parliament now welded real power and from now on the monarchy had to share its rule with both Parliament and the House of Lords.

Conclusion 

The English Civil Wars left a deep scar on the nation, with countless lives lost and communities torn apart. The suffering was immense, as families were divided, towns ravaged, and the social fabric frayed. Yet, out of this chaos, emerged the foundations of modern England.  

The struggles and sacrifices of this period paved the way for a new balance of power between the monarchy and Parliament, setting the stage for the constitutional monarchy that exists today. Though the cost was high, the legacy of the wars helped shape a more stable and democratic future for the country. 

Top image: The Battle of Marston Moor painting. The English Civil War (1642-52) between Royalists and Parliamentarians. By John Barker. Source: Public Domain

By Robbie Mitchell