Considering the nature and importance of the English Civil War, surprisingly little attention has been paid by historians to the politics. This new book looks at the five most famous and effective Generals leading troops on the side of Parliament in respect of the politics involved. – Highly Recommended
NAME: Parliament's Generals, Supreme Command & Politics During The British Wars 1642-51 FILE: R2841 AUTHOR: Malcolm Wanklyn PUBLISHER: Pen & Sword BINDING: hard back PAGES: 212 PRICE: £25.00 GENRE: Non Fiction SUBJECT: English Civil War, Roundheads, Cavaliers, Parliament, Charles I, battles, strategy, tactics, organization, training, Puritans, Levellers, New Model Army, politics
ISBN: 1-47389-836-6
IMAGE: B2841.jpg BUYNOW: tinyurl.com/y5gcmvha LINKS: DESCRIPTION: Considering the nature and importance of the English Civil War, surprisingly little attention has been paid by historians to the politics. This new book looks at the five most famous and effective Generals leading troops on the side of Parliament in respect of the politics involved. – Highly Recommended There are many books providing histories of the English Civil War. Of these a large number are long out of print, and few have paid any real attention to the politics involved in the command of troops, having a focus on the battles themselves and the factors leading up to the outbreak of civil war. There was no clear neat division of soldiers into two opposing groups. As with most civil wars it was brother against brother, father against son. As a result, both sides overlapped in backgrounds, with former comrades taking opposing sides. The King had no monopoly on trained soldiers and neither did Parliament. The Puritan element of the Parliamentary forces was strong but it covered a range of non-conformist beliefs from those who were comfortable with the Low Church, within the Church of England, to the extreme puritans and Levellers who were as much a political belief as a religious group. Similarly, the Kings forces ranged from Roman Catholics to Protestants to those bordering on the puritan view of religious belief. In the same way that religious groups covered a wide range of beliefs on both sides, there was a similar broad range of social backgrounds, with Parliament including land owners, nobility, middle classes of merchants and craftsmen, to the poorest elements of society. The King may have had a stronger following of nobility and land owners, but his troops also came from the middle classes and the poorest workers. That created a very complex set of cultures and politics running up from the foot soldiers to the most powerful generals. As much effort frequently went into political manoeuvring as into moving troops around the battle fields. On the Parliament side, their generals, below the most senior, were part of a changing fraternity with new commanders coming forward to replace those who started the first battles. There was dissatisfaction amongst the army and the Civil War went through several stages to the point that some refer to the later stages as the Third Civil War. The author has examined the strengths and weaknesses of the senior commanders and of the new men emerging to command. There are many fresh insights and the author has looked carefully at the relative man-management skills of the initial command and the new figures coming forward and steering a course to the top through political skill as well as controlling troops in battle. This makes an absorbing study that covers much new ground. Readers with a special interest in the military history of the English Civil War will find this an indispensable source of information and insight. It is also a very good point to start a study of the period. The English Civil War should be studied carefully by anyone with an interest in politics, military practice and social history because this period shaped not only the development of Britain, and its expanding colonies, but it has shaped the history of the World since that time. It was a critical stage in the development of modern democracy and it changed the nature of the colonies into the development of a powerful Empire that dominated the World in a generally benevolent and productive manner, a process not however without pain.