![]() ![]() Its main aim was to rout the opponents' cavalry, then turn and overpower their infantry. Positioned on each side of the infantry were cavalry, with a right wing led by the lieutenant-general and left by the commissary general. Among the musketeers were pike men, carrying pikes of 12 feet (4 m) to 18 feet (5 m) long, whose main purpose was to protect the musketeers from cavalry charges. At times, troops divided into two groups, allowing one to reload while the other fired. Musketeers would assemble three rows deep, the first kneeling, second crouching, and third standing. These carried matchlock muskets, an inaccurate weapon which nevertheless could be lethal at a range of up to 300 yards. ![]() The two sides would line up opposite one another, with infantry brigades of musketeers in the centre. The main battle tactic came to be known as pike and shot infantry. During the campaign seasons, 120,000 to 150,000 soldiers would be in the field, a higher proportion of the population than were fighting in Germany in the Thirty Years' War. The war was of unprecedented scale for the English. Many officers and veteran soldiers had fought in European wars, notably the Eighty Years' War between the Spanish and the Dutch, which began in 1568, as well as earlier phases of the Thirty Years' War which began in 1618 and concluded in 1648. Lacey Baldwin Smith says, "the words populous, rich, and rebellious seemed to go hand in hand". Parliament's strengths spanned the industrial centres, ports, and economically advanced regions of southern and eastern England, including the remaining cathedral cities (except York, Chester, Worcester). The Royalist areas included the countryside, the shires, the cathedral city of Oxford, and the less economically developed areas of northern and western England. Geography Įach side had a geographical stronghold, such that minority elements were silenced or fled. Some historians, notably Marxists such as Christopher Hill (1912–2003), favoured the term " English Revolution". The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica called the series of conflicts the "Great Rebellion". In the early 19th century, Sir Walter Scott referred to it as "the Great Civil War". The wars spanning all four countries are known as the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. From the Restoration to the 19th century, the common phrase for the civil wars was "the rebellion" or "the great rebellion". Some historians have favoured the term "the British Civil Wars". The conflicts also involved wars with Scotland and Ireland and civil wars within them. They were not restricted to England alone, as Wales (having been annexed into the Kingdom of England) was affected by the same political instabilities. The term "English Civil War" appears most often in the singular, but historians often divide the conflict into two or three separate wars. Both Ireland and Scotland were incorporated into the Commonwealth, and Britain became a unitary state until the Stuart Restoration in 1660. The subsequent Anglo-Scottish war ended with Parliamentarian victory at the Worcester on 3 September 1651. In 1650, Charles II was crowned king of Scotland, in return for agreeing to create a Presbyterian church in both England and Scotland. Royalist defeat in the 1648 Second English Civil War resulted in the execution of Charles I in January 1649, and establishment of the Commonwealth of England. Concern over the political influence of radicals within the New Model Army like Oliver Cromwell led to an alliance between moderate Parliamentarians and Royalists, supported by the Covenanters. The vast majority went to war in 1642 to assert Parliament's right to participate in government, not abolish the monarchy, which meant Charles' refusal to make concessions led to a stalemate. However, victory exposed Parliamentarian divisions over the nature of the political settlement. It ended in June 1646 with Royalist defeat and the king in custody. The First English Civil War was fought primarily over the correct balance of power between Parliament and Charles I. While the conflicts in the three kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland had similarities, each had their own specific issues and objectives. The latter is also known as the Anglo-Scottish war, since most of the fighting took place in Scotland. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms, the struggle consisted of the First English Civil War, the Second English Civil War and the Third English Civil War. The English Civil War refers to a series of civil wars and political machinations between Royalists and Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. ![]()
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