King Charles marched from shrewsbury to london with his new army, Essex the parliamentary general went out to meet them. Essex were determined to make sure that the king did not reach the capital, they met at Edgehill, a few miles from Banbury.
The 2 armies were about the same size-around 14,500. The royal calvary under prince Rupert and lord Wilmot pushed back the wings of the parlianmentry army.
After only 3 hours of fighting neither side was able to make headway, and they broke off as night fell. Essex considered that his army was too badly damaged to carry on the fight the next day, so he retreated with his men back to warwick. Leaving the road clear for charles' soldiers to march on to london
Although neither side at edgehill could claim a decisive victory, the result was that charles 'won' because the road to london was open for him, but charles falied to take advantage of this opportunity. By the time his troops reached Reading, Essex had regained London and charles' troops never again had a chance to capture the capital.
The last battle (naseby) only lasted for 3 hours and in that time most of the cavalier foot soldiers were killed or taken prisoner. The cavaliers also lost all of their artillery and most of their baggage. Charles fled the battlefield as soon as it became clear that he had lost
5. causes of civil war :
relationships :Charles I came to the throne in 1625 after the death of his father, James I. In the first year of his reign, charles married princess Henrientta Maria of France, Parliament disliked this because she was a catholic, in addition, instead of listening to parliament, Charles chose the Duke of Buckingham as his main adviser. Parliament wasnt so keen on Buckingham because they resented his power over the king. In 1623 he had been responsible for taking England to a unsuccessful war with Spain and parliament used this to indite Buckingham with treason
However charles fired parliament to save Buckingham, in 1627 then Buckingham lead a campagne into France where the english army were badly deafeated, in 1628, while preparing for a invasion of france, Buckingham was assansainted.
Ship money: in 1634 charles introduced ship money, -it was a custom to pay extra taxes for the defence of the coastline by naval ships, but charles decided ship money was to be paid even in times of peace, one year later, charles decided people living inland should pay the same taxes as well. The people were not happy and a man called John Hampden refused to pay the tax until it had been agreed by parliament. The case was referred to parliament and they found Charles' actions to be legal, so people had no choice but to pay ship money tax.
But in 1639, Charles needed an army to force the Scots use the English Prayer Book, so he introduced a new tax to help fund the army. People now had to pay 2 taxes and many refused. And some were jailed for not paying, but were released by kind jailors, by 1639 almost everyone was against ship money. In 1641 ship money was made illegal
Religion: protestants were upset that charles and married a catholic, they were even more upset when Charles and Archbishop Laud, began making catholic-type changes to the Church Of England littergy. Churches were ordered to be decorated again and sermons shouldn't be limited to just the bible. A new English Prayer Book was introduced in 1637.
Scotland :Charles also demanded that Scots would have to use the English Prayer Book, but most of the scots were Puritans and didnt want to use what they considered to be catholic books. There were many riots in Scotland and Charles had to raise a army to put them down. The Army was defeated and Charles stupidly agreed to pay the Scots £850 a day until matters concerning the litergy were settled, but unfortunately he didnt have the money to pay them.
Ireland :The Irish Catholics were also fed up with English Protestants who had been given land by James I. in 1641, news arrived in London suggesting that the catholics were revolting, but as the news traveled, it it became exagarrated and the people in london learned that 20,000 protestants had been killed. Rumours spread that Charles was behind this so that he might make the whole of United Kingdom Catholic again. And yet another army had to be sent to Ireland to put down yet another rebellion.
parliament: one of charles' big mistakes was he couldnt get the cooperation of his parliaments, his determeined beliefs in the Divine Rights Of Kings led to his disagreements with all of his Parliaments. In 1629 he began ruling without Parliaments. But he needed paliament to raise taxes, so when charles needed a army to fight in scotland he had to recall parliament in 1640. This parliament had remained dissmissed for so long it was called the long parliement.
6. : weapons and tatics used:
weapons:
mortar: this weapon is easy to use and can be used by one man alone, a explosive shell is fired in the air and explodes. Although its hard to aim propaly, this is was the most destrution weapon used in the civil war
The Cannon: The cannons used in the civil war was very heavy and difficult to use, the biggest needed 16 horses to move it. Smaller cannons were used but they still required 4 men to move them, so they had to be put in position before the battle began. The missiles were usually balls of iron but sometimes they used stones, after it fired the soldiers had to go through a strict proceture of cleaning it, loading the weapon and gunpowder before it could be fired again. Aiming was difficult but the cannon was more effective at scaring the enemy than actually causing damage.
The Musket:
there were two kinds of muskeets: the matchlock and the flintlock, it could be up to 5 feet long and could be fired from 300 yards. They were both loaded the same way; gunpowder was poured into the barrel and stuffed in tight with a stick, then the lead ball would be put in followed by wadding to hold the ball in place.
To fire the matchlock (most common type of musket), the soldier would empty a little gunpowder in to a pan and to protect it he would cover it. He would then press a lighted bit of flax into the metal trigger called the serpent, when the gun was fired the flax in the serpent would run down to the pan and light the gunpowder. The flame would then enter the barrel of the gun and light the gunpowder there and then the lead ball would be fired.
To fire the flintlock was easier but more expensive. it would be filled the same way but the serpent will contain a piece of flint so, when it hit the pan, it would produce a spark which would light the gunpowder.
Both weapons were diffcult and dangerous to use. Longer muskets needed a tripod thing to balance on because they were too heavy to hold. They were impossible to load quickly and were most effective when a group of musketeers who fired a volley of shots at once.
The Pike: The pike was the most commonly used weapon on the battlefield. It was a long wooden stick with a metal point at the end, they were cheap and easy to make and didn't require a lot of training, they were very effective when used in a group, Foot soldiers often had pikes at the front line of an army. Pikes were supposed to
be 16 feet in length but some soldiers sawed a few feet off the end to make them easier to carry.
Operating together they had to lower their pikes to pervent a calvary charge from breaking through. The rider's horse would be injured from the pike and would fall down shaking off its rider, he would then be a easy target for the enemy muskets or swords. If the army was surrounded then the pikemen would lower their pikes to make a
'hedgehog' cover
reflections:
After all the bloodshed and fighting, and the king's excution, Cromwell took over. Ruling without a parliament and having power that was so great that even king Charles' could never have thought he could have so much power,
basically:
the king is excuted, the war has been won, so that parliament can now rule the country. Cromwell sacks parliament and rules like the most autocraftic kings, so all the parliamentry were fighting to stop the king doing exactly as he pleased, to only end up with someone (who is more ruthless than charles) else who sacked parliament and did exactly what exactly the king would have done.=)=)=)
