Free Essay: The English Civil War
The English civil war was fought between 1642 and 1651. This war was a series of political machinations and armed conflicts between the Royalists and the Parliamentarians in the UK. It was mainly fought over the manner in which the United Kingdom was governed. The war started after Charles I raised Nottingham’s royal standards. This caused a split between him and the parliament.
This split was serious because none of the sides was ready to step down its principles. This made war inevitable and eventually it became the only way of solving the problem. The United Kingdom was split into two sides with one supporting the Parliament and the other supporting the King. These sides were the main ingredients of the English civil war.
Just like most wars of the C17th, this war was not fought continuously. During that time, mobility of the armies was limited and since the armies spent long periods collecting basic equipment little time was left for fighting. Whether the armies were to fight or not was also determined by the weather. This is because roads were just tracks which could be cut up by the winter. This made moving armies and fighting equipment difficult.
During the English civil war, three main battles were fought. These were the Edge Hill fought in 1942, the Marston Moor fought in 1644 and the Naseby fought in 1645. Although it is not easy to determine who was supporting the other, regional variations existed. Charles I was supported by the nobility, Anglicans and the landowners. People in the cities and towns supported the Parliament. Nevertheless, this is just a generalization because some noblemen supported the Parliament. Charles also had support in some towns including Newark.
The first battle during the English civil war was fought at Edge Hill. Both sides involved in the war claimed success but decisive result was not achieved. Smaller battles were fought in series in the following year. All of them were indecisive because no side suffered a fatal blow.
In 1644, Charles suffered major defeats during the Marston Moor battle and he lost control over the northern part of England. The loyalists were defeated severely by the combined efforts of the Scots and the Parliament forces.
The New Model Army of Cromwell inflicted a major blow to the army of the king in 1645 during the battle of Naseby. This defeat was a major one because Charles was unable to recover from the blow and he therefore lost his cause. Charles surrendered in 1646 to the Scots instead of surrendering to the Parliament. His move was motivated by the fact that the Parliamentary and Scottish had a fragile alliance that could collapse any time.
On the other hand, the Scots benefited from the move by Charles to surrender to them because they sold him to the Parliament in 1947 for £400,000. He was tried in 1649 at Westminster Hall and found guilty of maliciously and traitorously levying war against the Parliament as well as the people represented in it.
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Sources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Civil_War
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/187936/English-Civil-Wars
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/civil_war_england.htm
http://www.history.com/topics/british-history/english-civil-wars