Parliament also had control of not only the richer areas of the country, but also the more heavily populated. The south and east regions of Britain have always been heavily populated as the land there is rich and fertile. These regions benefited Parliament in several ways. These included the wealth it had, which could be taxed to provide for the army, the population which could be used to increase the size of the Army, and control of the ports, which, along with the Naval Alliance, enabled troops to be transported around the country easier.
The structure of the armies was hugely significant. At the start of the war, sides were structured in a similar way, however at the failure of the Uxbridge peace negotiations, the New Modal Army was formed, and this played a significant role in the Parliamentarian win. The emphasis on ability rather than your role in society meant that the Parliamentarians had more disciplined, experienced fighters, who could strike quickly and then regroup for another hit, while the royalists were much more haphazard in their fighting. This superior fighting ability is clearly demonstrated at the Battles of Longport and Naseby.
The loyalty of the New Modal Army was also important. The royalist troops were fighting for their King, and this help at the start of the war. As one soldier described, a common parliamentarian view was that either way they would lose:
“If we beat the King ninety-nine times he is still the King. If
he beats us, we are hanged.”
However as the war continued and rumours spread, belief in the king decreased and soldiers had to find new reasons to fight. Cromwell believed that God was on Parliament’s side, and he made many of the New Modal Army troops convert to Puritanism. This way, the troops not only had a strong belief in their cause, but also a firm connection to each other. This strengthening of the troops increased moral and was one of the reasons they were nicknamed ‘Ironsides’.
As with finance, the Royalists and Parliamentarians were fairly equal when it came to leadership. The Royalists had the slight advantage, with King Charles being the Commander-in-chief and Prince Rupert of the Rhine another key commander who’d had many years of experience in the 30 years war. However many of Charles other commanders couldn’t inspire the troops. This gave Parliament a slight advantage. And with the self-denying ordinance of 1644, the best skilled parliamentary commanders were pushed to the front, while the others had to take a back seat.
Parliament did not win, just through skill and resources alone, however. It is possible that the royalists might have won the war, had they not made such bad decisions in the first few months. After the battle of Edgehill in 1642, Charles had a clear route to London, which if taken would have ended the war. However by choosing to secure other places along the route, which may have been a sensible cautionary measure, it allowed the Parliamentarians to recuperate and maneuver their troops to counter attack any strike against the capital city.
Another example of bad decision making on the Royalist side is the battle of Marston Moor, where Cromwell decided to take advantage of the Royalist’s bad decision and took a majority of the north of England as a result.
However the main decision that Parliament took advantage of was Charles’s decision to flee to Scotland when the Parliamentarians took Oxford. Due to his previous relations with the Scots, this decision planted Charles in Parliament control and effectively ended the war.
To conclude, it was a number of things that enabled Parliament to win the civil war. The stable finances provided by their merchant supporters, the dedicated troops of the New Modal Army, and the poor decision making of the Royalist commanders all aided Parliament in their triumph to win the war. However it was Charles’s decision to head to Scotland that gave Parliament their triumph.
