Significantly, the phrase "the protection of his Majesty's person" was not included in the description of the task of this army, although "the defence of the King and Parliament" remained.
Even though the new Model Army was a major factor in the Civil War, it was not the only reason Parliament were victorious.
By the summer of 1643 power was in the favour of the royalists, Charles already had many followers and found it easier than Parliament to sign up new soldiers. Charles had the loyalty of the gentry from the start of the war, along with most of the countries skilled horsemen and fighters, so Charles had a much stronger army than Parliament. Charles had the upper hand as he took Bristol. But the King eventually had to surrender. There were many reasons for this. The Royalist did not capitalise on their earlier advances, after the Battle of Edgehill, the royalists failed to siege London, leaving Parliament still holding England’s capital city. Although the Royalists were skilled soldiers, they lacked discipline, they pillaged villages and were reckless and rude, and as a result of this many neutrals in the war were more inclined to support Parliament as they were so disciplined. While Charles had many of the skilled soldiers at the start of the war, he was less effective as conscripting new people into his army than Parliament were, he also failed to control the conflicting aids and ambitions of his commanders and advisers. He had too many chiefs and not enough troops. In 1643 the northern and western alliances were supposed to meet in Oxford but all the leaders started arguing, their self interests were more important, they didn’t focus on the greater good and the whole picture of events.
The King was also a poor leader and many royalist troops argued over what their objectives were, they didn’t know what they were really fighting for and didn’t know what they wanted out of the war. Charles was also poor at collecting tax, at the start of the war he relied on handouts from aristocrats, an as their money ran out, he asked for more, he did not have a steady supply of money causing troops to be poorly looked after and malnourished. As a result of this he lost troops. As Charles also had links with the Irish. The rumours of the Irish rebellion had reached England and many people feared the Irish ‘mobs’. This gave parliament a huge propaganda victory and their clean image was kept.
Although the failures of the Royalists were a factor for Parliaments victory, it has to be Parliaments assets off the battlefield that were also a major factor.
The military negotiations of Parliament were very effective. They had enlisted the help of the Scottish and held a larger area of the country than the Royalists. As Parliament also had Scotland, they had the upper hand in numbers of soldiers too.
Parliament had control of the Navy so they also had control of the seas, no Royalist support would be able to come into the country and very few people could leave. They also had the cities and towns with biggest ports, until Bristol was taken of course.
There were also divisions within Parliament, these could be seen as a disadvantage, but with the Peace Party, led by Denzil Holles, and the War Party led by Arthur Hasselrig being brought together by the ‘middle’ party, with the most powerful of all Parliaments MP’s, including Pym, Cromwell and Hampden, Parliament could focus on how they could win the war.
With John Pym in control of the middle party, his mediating skills could be shown to there greatest effect. Pym could bring together the two opposing parties, he learned from Parliaments mistakes and utilised them for greatest effect. He also persuaded other MP’s to use compulsory taxation on a weekly basis meaning Parliament had a regular financial structure and didn’t have to worry about where there money would be coming from, like the Royalists did, Parliament introduced Weekly Assessment and Excise tax which were put into effect all over the country.
Parliament also had a good use of time. They spent time negotiating for allies with the Scottish Covenanters. And Pym brought in the Solemn League and Covenant, compromising on the Religious settlement with the Scots.
So was it purely the New Model Army that gave victory to Parliament? Considering all factors of both the Royalists and the Parliamentarians, and their negotiations and tactics, the New Model Army may have won the Battles, but they didn’t win the War.
