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43
The battles of the Civil War, fought as three military campaigns took place not in London, but in the
counties. The King's standard was first raised at Nottingham in 1642 and, when he could not get to London,
Oxford became his temporary capital, with 70 peers and 170 Members of Parliament close at hand. Oxford fell
in 1646, by which time Charles had already surrendered; he passed into the hands of the victorious New Model
Army (22,000 strong after 1645), which went on to take possession of London and install their commander Sir
Thomas Fairfax as Governor of the Tower. His second-in-command was Oliver Cromwell, a farmer in the past
and a great military leader who had organized the New Model Army. Charles I was captured by the Scots who
handed him over to the Parliamentarians. He escaped and made agreements with the Scots who were later
defeated by the Parliamentarian Army (1648). The English Army demanded the death of the King.
Charles I was brought to trial for High Treason, his supporters were not allowed to be present. He was
sentenced to death, "and in a hushed silence on a cold January morning the King of England met his death with
a courage and dignity that commanded respect." He was beheaded in Whitehall on the 30 of January 1649.
The House of Lords was abolished, some famous Royalists were captured and beheaded.
A Council of State was created to govern the country, which consisted of forty one members. The House of
Commons reshuffled its members, and expelled those who had opposed the King's death.
But the troubles were not easy to stop. There was mutiny in the Army, a rebellion in Ireland, the Scots
declared the son of the executed King – their King (1651) Charles II.
Oliver Cromwell ruthlessly crushed the Irish, checked the Scots, and established his authority in the Army
and in the country. Admiral Blake defeated the Dutch and made England again the mistress of the seas.
In 1653 Oliver Cromwell together with the New Model officers expelled the Rump (the Remnants of the
Parliament) and established a military dictatorship. On December 16th in Westminster Oliver Cromwell
publicly accepted the title of Lord Protector of a United Commonwealth of England, Scotland, Ireland and
the colonies.
He didn't dare to take up the title of King, as there was opposition to that in the Army.
All in all, in four years of struggle, around 100,000 Englishmen were killed. Feelings ran high and
extraordinary radical opinions were expressed both during and after the Civil War. There was a confrontation of
political and religious views within the ranks of the revolutionary forces. Presbyterians had become con-
servative and royalist. Independents, who were represented in the New Model Army, were split.
The more extreme republicans in the New Model Army, the Levellers, as they were called, had a Manifest
of their own, called the Agreement of the People, and they rallied together to defend the right of common
people, they demanded the abolition of titles, and legal, political, etc.; equality in everything but property
(John Lilbern).
The Diggers, a far smaller and still more radical group, opposed the private ownership of Property