The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians ("Roundheads") and Royalists ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of religious freedom. It was part of the wider Wars of the Three Kingdoms. The first (1642–1646) and second (1648–1649) wars pitted the supporters of King Charles I against the supporters of the Long Parliament, while the third (1649–1651) saw fighting between supporters of King Charles II and supporters of the Rump Parliament. The wars also involved the Scottish Covenanters and Irish Confederates. The war ended with Parliamentarian victory at the Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651.
The Long Parliament was an English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened for only three weeks during the spring of 1640 after an 11-year parliamentary absence. In September 1640, King Charles I issued writs summoning a parliament to convene on 3 November 1640. He intended it to pass financial bills, a step made necessary by the costs of the Bishops' Wars in Scotland. The Long Parliament received its name from the fact that, by Act of Parliament, it stipulated it could be dissolved only with agreement of the members; and those members did not agree to its dissolution until 16 March 1660, after the English Civil War and near the close of the Interregnum.
Henry Rich, 1st Earl of Holland, was an English courtier and politician. He was executed by Parliament after being captured fighting for the Royalists during the Second English Civil War.
George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle JP KG PC was an English soldier, who fought on both sides during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. A prominent military figure under the Commonwealth, his support was crucial to the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, who rewarded him with the title Duke of Albemarle and other senior positions.
Denzil Holles, 1st Baron Holles PC was an English statesman, best remembered as one of the Five Members whose attempted arrest by Charles I in January 1642 sparked the First English Civil War.
Pride's Purge is the name commonly given to an event that took place on 6 December 1648, when soldiers prevented members of Parliament considered hostile to the New Model Army from entering the House of Commons of England.
Sir William Waller was an English soldier and politician, who commanded Parliamentarian armies during the First English Civil War, before relinquishing his commission under the 1645 Self-denying Ordinance.
Sir Hardress Waller, was an English Protestant who settled in Ireland and fought for Parliament in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. A leading member of the radical element within the New Model Army, he signed the death warrant for the Execution of Charles I in 1649; after the Stuart Restoration in 1660, he was condemned to death as a regicide, a sentence commuted to life imprisonment.
The 1648 Second English Civil War was part of a series of connected conflicts in the kingdoms of England, incorporating Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. Known collectively as the 1638 to 1651 Wars of the Three Kingdoms, others include the Irish Confederate Wars, the 1638 to 1640 Bishops' Wars, and the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland.
The First English Civil War was fought in England and Wales from approximately August 1642 to June 1646. One of the conflicts known collectively as the 1638 to 1651 Wars of the Three Kingdoms, others include the Bishops' Wars, the Irish Confederate Wars, the Second English Civil War, the Anglo-Scottish war (1650–1652) and the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. Modern estimates suggest that 15% to 20% of all adult males in England and Wales served in the military at some point between 1638 to 1651, while around 4% of the total population died from war-related causes, compared to 2.23% in World War I. These figures demonstrate the impact of the conflict on society in general and the bitterness it engendered.
Thomas Horton was an English soldier in the Parliamentarian army during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, and Regicide.
Colonel Sir Edward Rossiter, 1 January 1618 to 9 January 1669, was an English landowner, soldier and politician from Lincolnshire. He fought for the Parliamentarians in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms and was an MP at various times between 1646 and 1660.
The Army Council was a body established in 1647 to represent the views of all levels of the New Model Army. It originally consisted of senior commanders, like Sir Thomas Fairfax, and representatives elected by their regiments, known as Agitators.
Sir Michael Livesey, 1st Baronet, also spelt Livesay, was a Puritan activist and Member of Parliament who served in the Parliamentarian army during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. He was one of the regicides who approved the Execution of Charles I in January 1649.
The Committee of Both Kingdoms,, was a committee set up during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms by the Parliamentarian faction in association with representatives from the Scottish Covenanters, after they made an alliance in late 1643.
The Treaty of Newport was a failed treaty between Parliament and King Charles I of England, intended to bring an end to the hostilities of the English Civil War. Negotiations were conducted between 15 September 1648 and 27 November 1648, at Newport, Isle of Wight, on the initial proviso that they would not take longer than forty days. Charles was released on parole from his confinement at Carisbrooke Castle and lodged in Newport.
Sir Theophilus Jones, was an Irish soldier and government official of Welsh descent. One of five sons born to Lewis Jones, Bishop of Killaloe in the Church of Ireland, he formed part of a close-knit and powerful Protestant family.
Sir Humphrey Bennet (1605–1667) was a Hampshire landowner who fought for the Royalists in the First English Civil War, in which he rose to the command of a cavalry brigade. He went into exile in 1645, returned home in 1646 and was active in a number of Royalist conspiracies during The Protectorate.
The Siege of Arundel took place during the First English Civil War, from 19 December 1643 to 6 January 1644, when a Royalist garrison surrendered to a Parliamentarian army under Sir William Waller.
The Battle of St Neots on 10 July 1648 was a skirmish during the Second English Civil War at St Neots in Cambridgeshire. A Royalist force led by the Earl of Holland and Colonel John Dalbier was defeated by 100 veteran troops from the New Model Army, commanded by Colonel Adrian Scrope.
