Hostname: page-component-54dcc4c588-rz4zl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-10-01T16:50:50.336Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

All the king's men: the impact of the crown's Irish soldiers on the English civil war*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 July 2017

Joyce Lee Malcolm
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In the second year of the English civil war both king and parliament sought and received substantial military assistance from outside the kingdom: Charles concluded a truce with the Irish rebels and began the importation of troops from Ireland; parliament negotiated the introduction of an army from Scotland. Historians of the period are agreed that these parallel steps had quite opposite results. While the Scots army is invariably viewed as a ‘big factor in turning the scales against the king’, Charles's importation of Irish soldiers is regarded as having an insignificant impact on his military situation and a disastrous effect upon his popular standing. Parliament's alliance with the Scots has therefore been acclaimed necessary and prudent, Charles's acquisition of Irish help a terrible blunder. Samuel R. Gardiner, in his classic history of the English civil war, singled out the king's importation of Irish troops to England as the act which did most to weaken his authority.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 21 , Issue 83 , March 1979 , pp. 239 - 264
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 1979

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

*

A version of this article was presented to the Rocky Mountain British Studies Conference, October 1977.

References

1 Burne, A. H. and Young, Peter, The great civil war: a military history of the first civil war, 1642-46 (London, 1959), p. 15 Google Scholar.

2 Gardiner, Samuel R., History of the great civil war, 1642-1649 (London, 1893), i, 245–6Google Scholar; Burne, and Young, , Great civil war, p. 15 Google Scholar.

3 For a thorough discussion of the impact of the Irish rebellion of 1641 on the English civil war see Keith Lindley, ‘The impact of the 1641 rebellion upon England and Wales, 1641-5’ in I.H.S., xviii, no.70 (Sept. 1972), pp 143-76.

4 Spenser, Edmund, ‘A view of the state of Ireland’ in Ware, James (ed.), Collected tracts and treatises (Dublin, 1809), i, 427 Google Scholar.

5 Ibid., pp 427-8.

6 Clifton, Robin, ‘The popular fear of catholics during the English revolution’ in Past & Present, lii (Aug. 1971), p. 25 Google Scholar.

7 Wallington, Nehemiah, Historical notices of the reign of Charles I, ed. Webb, R. (London, 1869), i, 248 Google Scholar; Rushworth, John, Historical collections, 1618-1649 (London, 1682-1701), iv, 188 Google Scholar.

8 Hyde, Edward, earl of Clarendon, History of the rebellion and civil wars in England ed. Macray, W. Dunn (Oxford, 1888), i, 397 Google Scholar; Thomas, J. M. Lloyd (ed.), The autobiograhpy of Richard Baxter: being the reliquiae baxterianae (London, 1925), p. 33 Google Scholar; Hutchinson, Lucy, Memoirs of the life of Colonel Hutchinson ed. Hutchinson, Julius (London, 1968), p. 75 Google Scholar; Lindley, , ‘Impact 1641 rebellion’, p. 146 Google Scholar

9 Nicholas to Pennington, 4 November 1641 (Cal. S. P. dom., 1641-3, p. 156). Also see Cal. S. P. dom., 1641-3, pp 140, 157.

10 Clarke, , Old English, p. 228.Google Scholar

11 Rushworth, , Historical collections, iv, 385-6, 400, 415, 529Google Scholar; H.M.C. rep. II, Earl of Rosse MS, p. 218; Wedgwood, C. V., The king's peace, 1637-1641 (New York, 1969), pp 480-1Google Scholar.

12 Clarendon, , History, i, 399–400 Google Scholar; Baxter, , Reliquiae baxterianae, p. 29 Google Scholar.

13 Rushworth, , Historical collections, iv, 625 Google Scholar; ‘Orders and institutions of war, made and ordained by his majesty, and by him delivered to his general his excellence the earl of Newcastle’ (York, 1642), Cambridge University Library, Syn. 7. 64. 236; ‘A declaration by the king’, Aug. 25, 1642 (Bodleian Library, Clarendon state papers 21/124); Malcolm, Joyce, ‘A king in search of soldiers: Charles I in 1642’ in The Historical Journal xxi, no. 2 (1978), P. 255 Google Scholar.

14 ‘His majesty's protestation made in the head of his army on Monday, September the 19th’ (Bodleian Library, Clarendon state papers 21/134).

15 Gardiner, , History, i, 35-6Google Scholar; Beamont, William (ed.), ‘A discourse of the war in Lancashire’ in Chetham Society lxii (1864), pp 12–14 Google Scholar; Ormerod, George (ed.) Tracts relating to the military proceedings in Lancashire during the great civil war, Chetham Society ii (1844), pp 38–40 Google Scholar.

16 See Lindley, Keith, ‘The part played by the catholics’ in Manning, Brian (ed.), Politics, religion and the English civil war (London, 1973), pp 127-78Google Scholar; Newman, P. R., ‘Catholic royalist activists in the north, 1642-46’ in Recusant History xiv, no. 1 (1977), pp 26–38 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

17 Oliver, George, The history of the city of Exeter (London, 1861), p. 112 Google Scholar; Gillow, Joseph, Dictionary of English catholics (London, 1885-1902)Google Scholar, preface, p. x.

18 Clarendon, , History, ii, 479 Google Scholar; H.M.C. Ormonde MS, n.s. ii (1903), p. 379; H.M.C. 12th rep., appdx 9, p. 60; Bund, J. W. Willis, The civil war in Worcestershire, 1642-1646; And the Scotch invasion of 1651 (Birmingham, 1905), p. 4 Google Scholar; Young, Peter, Edgehill 1642 (Kineton, 1967), p. 54 Google Scholar.

19 See Joyce L. Malcolm, ‘The English people and the crown's cause, 1642-1646’ (Brandeis University Ph.D. thesis, 1977), chap. 6.

20 Hill, Christopher, God's Englishman: Oliver Cromwell and the English revolution (New York, 1972), p. 60 Google Scholar

21 Digby to Ormond, 8 February 1644 in Carte, Ormond, vi, 30-1.

22 Clarendon, , History, iii, 316.Google Scholar

23 King to Ormond, 12 January 1643 in Carte, Ormond, v, 1.

24 King to Ormond, 23 March 1643 in Carte, Ormond, v, 5.

25 King to Ormond, 31 March 1643 in Carte, Ormond, v, 5.

26 Carte, , Ormond, v, 445.Google Scholar

27 Long, C. E. (ed.), Diary of the marches of the royal army during the great civil war kept by Richard Symonds, Camden ser. lxxiv (1859), p. 255 Google Scholar.

28 Gilbert, , Contemp. hist., 1641-52, i, 76 Google Scholar.

29 ‘A truce and exact relation of the most sad condition of Ireland since the cessation, expressed in a letter from Dublin’ (London, 17 November 1643), Wing T2455, P. 3; Gilbert, , Contemp. hist., 1641-52, i, 76 Google Scholar; Lowe, John, ‘Charles I and the Confederation of Kilkenny, 1643-9’ in I.H.S., xiv (1965), p. 3 Google Scholar.

30 Byron to Ormond, 31 January 1644 in Carte, Thomas (ed.), A collection of original letters and papers, concerning the affairs of England from the year 1641 to 1660 (London, 1739), i, 39 Google Scholar.

31 Madan, , Oxford books (Oxford, 1893-1931), ii, 1475 Google Scholar.

32 Robert Baillie to William Spang, 18 February 1644 in Laing, David (ed.), The letters and journals of Robert Baillie (Edinburgh, 1841), ii, 137 Google Scholar; Hallam, Henry, The constitutional history of England: from the accession of Henry VII to the death of George II (8th ed., London, 1867), i, 412 note 2, 429Google Scholar.

33 ‘ The humble petition of the lords and commons of parliament assembled at Oxford, according to your majesty's proclamation’, April, 1644 in Rushworth, , Historical collections, v, 597–8.Google Scholar

34 Clarendon, , History, iii, 448-9Google Scholar.

35 Cal.S.P.Ven., 1643-47, p. 64.

36 See Lindley, ‘Impact 1641 rebellion’, pp 169-75.

37 For information on the long-standing Welsh prejudice against the Irish see Dodd, A. H., ‘The pattern of politics in Stuart Wales’, Trans. of the honourable society of Cymmrodorion (London, 1949), pp 14 note 3, 23-4Google Scholar.

38 ‘The true copie of a letter sent from an inhabitant of Bridgwater in the county of Somerset … wherein is set forth the certainty of the landing of 1,000 Irish rebels at Minehead … and of divers others landed at Bristol’ (London, November 1643), Wing D442, pp 3, 5 ; ‘The true informer, no. 7 (London, November 1643), Thomason Tracts E. 74, pp 51-2.

39 ‘ The complete intelligencer and resolver’ no. 3 (London, November 1643), Thomason Tracts E. 75; ‘ The complete intelligencer and resolver’ no. 2 (London, November 1643), Thomason Tracts E. 74, p . 20; ‘ The kingdom's weekly intelligencer’ no. 32 (London, November 1643), Thomason Tracts E. 76, p. 244; Whitelock, Bulstrode, Memorials of the affairs from the beginning of the reign of Charles the First to the happy restoration of King Charles the Second (Oxford, 1853), i, 226 Google Scholar; ‘The kingdom's weekly intelligencer’ no. 31, p. 241. But see Lindley, , ‘Impact of 1641 rebellion’, pp 172-3.Google Scholar

40 See Lowe, John, ‘ The campaign of the Irish royalist army in Cheshire, November 1643-January 1644’ in Trans. Historic Society Lanes & Ches. iii (1959), pp 47–76 Google Scholar; Tucker, Norman, North Wales in the civil war (Denbigh, 1958)Google Scholar.

41 Ormond to Byron, 16 January 1644 in Carte, Ormond, vi, 10-11; Ormond to Digby, 13 January 1644 in Carte, Ormond, vi, 9.

42 Digby to Ormond, 17 November 1643 in Carte, Ormond, v, 511.

43 Ormond to Bridgman, 11 November 1643 in Carte, Ormond, v, 505-6. Only two officers refused to take the oath, one of whom was George Monck,

44 Ibid.

45 See for example Ormond to Bridgman, 11 November 1643 in Carte, Ormond, v, 505; Ormond to Bridgman, 19 January 1644 in Carte, Ormond, vi, 16-17; Digby to Ormond, 1 February 1644 in Carte, Ormond, vi, 29; Ormond to Digby, 8 March 1644 in Carte, Ormond, vi, 53; Digby to Ormond, 8 March 1644 in Carte, Ormond, vi, 55 ; Ormond to Rupert, 18 April 1644 in Carte, Ormond, vi, 90-91.

46 Ormond to Digby, 29 April 1644 in Carte, Ormond, vi, 102-103.

47 Cal.S.P.Ven., 1643-47, p. 37.

48 The statistics used in compiling the accompanying list were derived from the following sources. In the few instances where the only reference is to numbers of regiments rather than total numbers of men I have taken a conservative view of regiment size, estimating a regiment of foot at 400 men whereas a full regiment would have totalled 1,200 men: Ormond correspondence from October 1643 through June 1644 in Carte, Ormond, v and vi; Symonds, , Diary, pp 254-6Google Scholar; Chadwyck-Healey, C. H. (ed.), Bellum civile: Hopton's narrative of his campaign in the west, 1642-1644, and other papers, Somerset Record Society xviii (1902), p. 63 Google Scholar; Cal.S.P.Ven., 1643-47, PP 39, 49, 52, 58, 63, 71, 75, 81, 85, 101, 138, 167; Clarendon, , History, iii, 311 Google Scholar note 1; Latimer, John, Annals of Bristol in the seventeenth century, (Bristol, 1900), p. 191 Google Scholar; Philip, I. G. (ed.), Journal of Sir Samuel Luke, 1642-1644, Oxfordshire Record Society (Oxford, 1950-53)Google Scholar especially pp 190–269; Lowe, ‘Irish royalist army’ especially pp 47. 52-5, 59, 72; Tucker, , North Wales, pp 43, 49Google Scholar; Gardiner, , History, i, 247, 251 and ii, 401Google Scholar.

49 See for example Cal.S.P.Ven., 1643-47, pp 138, 164-5.

50 ‘Mercurius Britanicus’ no. 11, November 1643 (Cal.S.P.dom., 1641-3), p. 566.

51 Clarendon does not seem to have been privy to the king's plans to bring over an army of Irish troops. Clarendon, , History, iii, 315 Google Scholar; Wedgwood, C. V., The king's war, 1641-1647 (London, 1973), p. 273 Google Scholar.

52 Burne, and Young, , Great civil war, p. 15 Google Scholar. In his history of the siege of York Peter Wenham is of the opinion that ‘the great majority’ of the troops brought from Ireland after the cessation were English. See Wenham, Peter, The great and close siege of York, 1644 (Kineton, 1970), p. 47.Google Scholar Wenham provides no figures to support his assumption.

53 Tucker, North Wales, p. 23. Given the continual pleas for more aid for the protestant Irish and the difficulty of getting volunteers this figure may be high. See Clarendon, , History, i, 438 Google Scholar. A contemporary history from Ireland claims that parliament sent 70,000 men to Ireland but had only 500 left at the time of the cessation; both figures are wildly improbable. See Gilbert, , Contemp. hist., 1641-52, i, 73 Google Scholar.

54 Hazlett, Hugh, ‘The financing of the British armies in Ireland, 1641-9’ in I.H.S. i (1939), p. 24 Google Scholar.

55 Digby to Ormond, 10 November 1643 in Carte, Ormond, v, 504.

56 Digby to Ormond, 29 November 1643 in Carte, Ormond, v, 530

57 Digby to Ormond, 10 November 1643 in Carte, Ormond, v, 50 Digby to Ormond, 8 February 1644 in Carte , Ormond, vi, 33.

58 Byron to Ormond, 6 February 1644 cited by Gardiner, Hist i, 296.

59 Ormond to Digby, 8 March 1644 in Carte, Ormond, vi, 53 ; Ormond to Digby, 13 January 1644 in Carte, Ormond, vi, 8 ; Extract of letter O'Neill's, 2 March 1644 in letter Digby to Ormond, 14 March 1644 Carte, Ormond, vi, 43-6.

60 Cal.S.P.Ven., 1643-7, p. 75. If true then the 11,000 men who transported from Ireland after this date must have been Irish. The agrees with the estimate, based on the size of the English army in Irela that at least half of these troops sent to England, Scotland and were Irishmen.

61 Ormond to Digby, 13 January 1644 in Carte, Ormond, vi, 8.

62 Digby to Ormond, 8 February 1644 in Carte, Ormond, vi, 33.

63 O'Neill to Ormond, 24 February 1644 in Carte, Ormond, vi, 42.

64 Ormond to Digby, 8 March 1644 in Carte, Ormond, vi, 53.

65 Lindley, , ‘Impact of 1641 rebellion’, pp 169-70, 176Google Scholar; Clarendon, , History, iii, 268 Google Scholar; Gardiner, , History, i, 245-6Google Scholar.

66 Clarendon, History, iii, 311 note 1, 313.

67 Cited by Tucker, North Wales, pp 45-6.

68 Williams to Ormond, 18 November 1643 in Carte, Ormond, v, 514-16.

69 Tucker, North Wales, p. 49; Lowe, ‘Irish royalist army’, p. 55.

70 Lowe, ‘Irish royalist army’, p. 55.

71 O'Neill to Ormond, 24 February 1644 in Carte, Ormond, vi, 42.

72 Digby to Ormond, 20 January 1644 in Carte, Ormond, vi, 22.

73 Trevor to Ormond, 21 November 1643 in Carte, Ormond, v, 521.

74 Lowe, ‘Irish royalist army’, p. 74.

75 Ibid., pp 71-2.

76 Trevor to Ormond, 13 April 1644 in Carte, Ormond, vi.

77 Adair, John, Cheriton 1644: the campaign and the battle (Kineton, 1973), p. 94.Google Scholar

78 Ibid.

79 Luke, Journal, p. 258; Tibbutt, H. G. (ed.), The letter books, 1644-45, of Sir Samuel Luke: parliamentary governor of Newport Pagnell, Bedfordshire Hist. Rec. Soc. xlii (1963), p. 645 Google Scholar.

80 Whitelock, , Memorials, i, 226 Google Scholar.

81 ‘ The Kingdom's Weekly Intelligencer’ no. 31 (London, November 1643), Thomason Tracts E. 75, p . 241.

82 Margaret Cavendish, duchess of Newcastle, The life of William Cavendish, duke of Newcastle ed. C. H. Firth (2nd ed., London, 1907), p. 33.

83 Webb, John, Memorials of the civil war between King Charles I and the parliament of England as it affected Herefordshire and the adjacent counties ed. Webb, T. W. (London, 1879), i, 371.Google Scholar

84 Firth, Life of Newcastle, p. 198.

85 Ibid., p. 199.

86 Moore, Joshua, ‘A brief relation of the life … of John Lord Belasyse’, Ormonde MS, ii, p. 384 Google Scholar.

87 Wenham, Siege of York, p. 2.

88 Ibid.

89 Ibid., p. xi.

90 Roy, Ian, ‘The royalist army in the first civil war, 1642-1646’ (Oxford University D.Phil., 1963), p. 189.Google Scholar

91 Malcolm, ‘English people and crown's cause’, chap. 6.

92 Chadwyck-Healey, , Bellum civile, p. 61 Google Scholar.

93 Clarendon, , History, iii, 328-9Google Scholar.

94 Luke, , Journal, p. 191 Google Scholar.

95 Chadwyck-Healey, , Bellum civile, pp 72-3Google Scholar.

96 Luke, Journal, pp 75, 217, 220; Adair, Cheriton, pp 103-4.

97 Walker, Edward, Historical discourses upon several occasions ed. Clopton, H (London, 1705), p. 8.Google Scholar

98 Ibid.

99 See Rushworth, Historical collections, v, 671. Burne and Young have suggested that at this time the king had 5,500 foot and 4,000 horse but Symonds, who was present at Woodstock where the rendezvous took place, reported 6,000 foot including officers and nearly 5,000 horse. See Burne, and Young, , Great civil war, p. 149 Google Scholar; Symonds, , Diary, p. 18 Google Scholar.

100 Symonds, , Diary, p. 45 Google Scholar; Walker, , Historical discourses, p. 42.Google Scholar

101 Walker, , Historical discourses; p. 82.Google Scholar