Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-t6hkb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-10T08:32:41.977Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

England turned Germany? The Aftermath of the Civil War in its European Context*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Extract

Many voices prophesied a destructive war for England on the eve of the Civil War. The miseries of the conflicts in Germany had been closely followed in the earliest newspapers published in England. With the outbreak of the Irish rebellion in 1641, and the consequent bloodshed, the wars were only a step away. In 1642 newsbooks and sermons vied with each other to paint the blackest picture possible of the evils in store for England, once it seemed that, at last, the nation was to be swallowed up in the general European conflagration.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1978

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.)

References

1 The Manifold Miseries of Civil Warre and Discord in a Kingdome: By The Examples of Germany, France, Ireland, and other places, by , H. P. (London, 1642)Google Scholar.

2 Sir Benjamin Rudyerd His Speech… (London, 1643)Google Scholar.

3 SirSalusbury's, Thomas view, cited Tucker, N., Denbighshire Officers in the Civil War (Denbigh, [1947]), p. 97Google Scholar.

4 The Grand Plunderer… ([London], 1643)Google Scholar; The English Irish Souldier, who had rather eate than fight (London, 1642)Google Scholar.

5 Marleborowes Miseries, Or, England turned Ireland, by , T. B. et al. ([London], 1643)Google Scholar.

6 The most recent biographer of Rupert treats this incident at length: seMorrah, P., Prince Rupert of the Rhine (London, 1976), pp. 76–8Google Scholar.

7 Waller's celebrated letter to Hopton, containing this phrase, is often quoted: e.g., Coate, M., Cornwall in the Great Civil War (London, 2nd edn, 1963), p. 77Google Scholar.

8 Ergang, R., The Myth of the All-destructive Fury of the Thirty Tears War (Pocono Pines, Pa., 1956)Google Scholar.

9 The raw material of the debate was first presented in Franz, G., Der Dreissige Jahrige Krieg und das Deutsche Volk (Stuttgart, 3rd edn, 1961)Google Scholar. See also Rabb, T. K., ‘The Effects of the Thirty Years War on the German Economy’, Journal of Modern History, xxxiv (1962)Google Scholar, and The Thirty Tears War: Problems of Motive, Extent and Effect (Boston, Mass., 1964)Google Scholar; H. Kamen, ‘The Economic and Social Consequences of the Thirty Years War’, and Polisensky, J. V., ‘The Thirty Years War and the Crises and Revolutions of Seventeenth Century Europe’, Past & Present, 39 (1968)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Polisensky, J. V., The Thirty Tears War (London, 1974)Google Scholar, is a study of devastation in Bohemia and Moravia.

10 James, M., Social Problems and Policy during the Puritan Revolution, 1640–1660 (London, 1930), pp. 3566Google Scholar; Morrill, J. S., ‘Mutiny and Discontent in English Provincial Armies, 1645–1647’, Past & Present, 56 (1972)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Roy, I., ‘The English Civil War and English Society’, War and Society. A Tearbook of Military History, ed. Bond, B. and Roy, I. (London, 1975)Google Scholar.

11 Walker, C., The History of Independency, I (London, 1648), p. 117Google Scholar.

12 D[ictionaty of] N[ational] B[iography] for King and Wagstaffe; for Woodhouse see J, and Webb, T. W., Memorials of the Civil War … as it affected Herefordshire (London, 1879), I, pp. 387–91, II, pp. 359–60Google Scholar.

13 Clarendon, , The History of the Rebellion, ed. Macray, W. D. (Oxford, 1888), I, p. 150Google Scholar; Adair, J., Roundhead General. A Military Biography of Sir William Waller (London, 1969), p. 106Google Scholar. Massey, though very young, had probably some Dutch as well as Scots Wars service before 1642; Sydenham Poyntz had served in the Imperial army in Germany (D.N.B.).

14 Lewis, D. E., ‘The Parliamentarian Office of Ordnance, 1642–1648’, Lough-borough University Ph.D. thesis, 1976Google Scholar.

15 The Royalist Ordnance Papers, 1642–1646, ed. Roy, I., I (Oxfordshire Rec. Soc., xlii, 1964), pp. 40–1Google Scholar, 106–08, II (O.R.S., xlix, 1975), pp. 446–7.

16 Redlich, F., The German Military Enterpriser and his Workforce, I (Wiesbaden, 1964), p. 256Google Scholar.

17 Adair, , Roundhead General, p. 125Google Scholar.

18 The Army Lists of the Roundheads and Cavaliers, ed. Peacock, E. (London, 1863), p. 22Google Scholar.

19 Royalist Ordnance Papers, I, pp. 27, 32–3.

20 Young, P., Edgehill 164s. The Campaign and the Battle (Kineton, 1967), pp. 82–4, 289 and pl. 9Google Scholar.

21 Charles Lloyd, for whose career see D.N.B., D, Welsh B., Royalist Ordnance Papers, I. p. 187, II, pp. 469, 480, and Hexham, H. and Lloyd, C., A Journal of the taking in of Venlo, Roermont, Strale, the Memorable Siege of Mastricht (Delft, 1633)Google Scholar.

22 Among the better known examples of side-changers during the war are Sir Richard Grenville and Sir John Urry.

23 Warburton, E., Memoirs of Prince Rupert and the Cavaliers (London, 1849), III, pp. 236–7Google Scholar; Adair, , Roundhead General, pp. 189–90Google Scholar; Gardiner, S. R., History of the Great Civil War, 1649–1643 (London, 1893), III, pp. 222–3Google Scholar.

24 Toynbee, M. and Young, P., Strangers in Oxford. A Side Light on the First Civil War, 1642–1646 (London, 1973), pp. 47–8Google Scholar.

25 Willan, T. S., ‘The River Navigation and Trade of the Severn Valley, 1600–1750’, Economic History Review, viii (1937)Google Scholar; Farr, G., ‘Severn Navigation and the Trow’, Mariner's Mirror, 32 (1946)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Cour, W.t, The Rise of the Midland Industries (London, 1953)Google Scholar.

26 Mendenhall, T. C., The Shrewsbury Drapers and the Welsh Wool Trade in the XVI and XVII Centuries (London, 1953)Google Scholar; Mann, J. de L., The Cloth Industry in the West of England from 1640 to 1880 (Oxford, 1971)Google Scholar. Ramsay, G. D., The Wiltshire Woollen Industry in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (London, 2nd edn, 1965)Google Scholar.

27 C., H. M., 7th Report, Appendix, p. 68Google Scholar.

28 The Chamber Order Book of Worcester, 1602–1650, ed. Bond, S. (Worcestershire Hist. Soc. n.s., 8, 1974), p. 73Google Scholar.

29 Lords' Journal, vi, p. 69.

30 Warburton, , Prince Rupert, III, p. 525Google Scholar.

31 Samuel Sandys led the attack on Sir William Russell, a previous governor, but being himself made governor ‘he fell off from his good friends and Commissioners with him; he forgot his supporters, loved so much the soldier and his ranting ways’ that he neglected his duty, according to a local Royalist (Diary of Henry Townshend of Elmley Lovett, 1640–1663, ed. Bund, J. W. Willis (Worcs. Hist. Soc., 1915), I, pp. 134–5)Google Scholar.

32 Clarendon, , History, IV, pp. 37–8Google Scholar. For Bard, later Viscount Bellamont, see D.N.B., and additional notes deposited in the Institute of Historical Research, London. Clarendon claimed that Camden House, burned down by Rupert and Bard in 1645, had cost £30,000 to build some years before.

33 Angliae Ruina… (London, 1647), p. 28Google Scholar. The word ‘plunder’ was first used in England in November 1642 (O.E.D.). On the German Kontribution, see Redlich, F., ‘Contributions in the Thirty Years War’, Earn. Hist. Rev., xii (19591960)Google Scholar, and ‘Military Entrepreneurship and the Credit System’, Kyklos, x (Berne, 1957)Google Scholar.

34 Guildhall, Worcester, City Accounts, vol. 3 (16401669)Google Scholar, unpaged: £40 given to Colonel Thomas Essex.

35 Chamber Order Book of Worcester, pp. 580–1.

36 Ferguson, R. T., ‘Blood and Fire: Contribution Policies of the French Armies in Germany, 1668–1715’, University of Minnesota Ph.D. thesis, 1970Google Scholar.

37 Bibliotheca Gloucestrensis: A Collection of Scarce and Curious Tracts, relating to the County and City of Gloucester …, ed. Washbourn, J. (Gloucester, 1825), pp. 184–5Google Scholar.

38 Petition of Royalist commissioners for Gloucestershire [March 1643] (British Library, Harl. MS. 6804, fo. 128).

39 Ibid., fo. 140.

40 Bibliotheca Gloucestrensis, pp. 147, 329.

41 Warburton, Prince Rupert, III, p. 69.

42 Rushworth, J., Historical Collections, vi, pp. 193202Google Scholar; Calendar of State Papers Domestic, 1641–43, p. 440.

43 Proclamation, 17 July 1643, Tudor and Stuart Proclamations, ed. Steele, R. (Oxford, 1910), I, no. 2455Google Scholar; Clarendon, , History, III, pp. 290–2Google Scholar.

44 Proclamations, 21 November 1643 and 9 April 1644, (Steele, , Proclamations, I, nos. 2510, 2557)Google Scholar; Commission of Excise and the Schedule, May 1644, Oxford Books, ed. Madan, F. (Oxford, 1912), II, nos. 1638, 1639Google Scholar; Privy Council, 4 May 1644, Public Record Office, P.C. 2.53, fo. 226.

45 Royalist Ordnance Papers, II, pp. 393–4, 413–14.

46 Ibid., I, pp. 42–3, II, pp. 416–18; Stephens, W. B., Seventeenth-Century Exeter (Exeter, 1958), pp. 60–4Google Scholar; Mann, J. de L., Cloth Industry, p. 3Google Scholar. In the summer of 1644 the excise revenue of Bristol was only £200 per week (B. L., Harl. MS. 6802, fo. 250).

47 Calendar of Wynn Papers (Aberystwyth, 1926), no. 1724Google Scholar. The original of this undated (but 1643) petition shows that it represented the case of the clothiers as well as drovers of the North Wales counties (National Library of Wales, MS. 467 E); Oxford Books, ed. Madan, , II, no. 1438Google Scholar; The Weekly Account…, No. 44 (London, 0708 1644)Google Scholar.

48 Clarendon, , History, III, p. 292Google Scholar.

49 The Weekly Account…, No. 44.

50 Mercuriits Belgicus…. (London, 1646)Google Scholar; Bibliotheca Gloucestrensis, p. 138; Mann, J. de L., Cloth Industry, p. 3Google Scholar. The Royalist commander involved, the Earl of Northampton, was pursued through the courts later by twenty or more owners, Cal. S. Papers Dom., 1652–53, pp. 385–6, ibid., 1653–54, P. 62.

51 Afercurius Veridicus…, No. 5 (London, 06 1645)Google Scholar. This very circumstantial account by one of the clothiers involved, given immediately on his arrival in London, agrees with what we know of the character of all three governors, and may be accepted as accurate.

52 Order to Parliamentarian governors, December 1645, Cal. S. Papers Dom., 1645–47, p. 258; complaints about the King's general in South Wales, August 1645, in B. L., Harl. MS. 6804, fos. 210–11.

53 Calendar of Wynn Papers, no. 1724.

54 Ibid., no. 1748.

55 ‘The Civil Wars … were truly catastrophic’ (Mendenhall, Shrewsbury Drapers, p. 206)Google Scholar; Beaumont, H., ‘Arthur, Lord Capel, The King's Lieutenant-General for Shropshire, 1643’, Trans. Shropshire Arch, and Nat. Hist. Soc., L (19391940), 80Google Scholar.

56 Gloucestershire petition of August 1643 (Oxford Books, ed. Madan, , II, no. 1438)Google Scholar.

57 Ramsay, , Wiltshire Woollen Industry, p. 112Google Scholar.

58 J. Broad, ‘Gentry Finances and the Civil War–the case of the Buckingham-shire Verneys’, Economic History Review, forthcoming. I am grateful to Dr Broad for allowing me to read his article in advance of publication.

59 Gloucestershire Record Office, Stephens Collection: rent paid to Nathaniel Stephens, M.P., by Eastington and Frampton property; Hopkins, E.. ‘The Bridgewater Estates in North Shropshire in the Civil War’, Trans. Shropshire Arch. Soc., lvi (19571960)Google Scholar.

60 Nat. Lib. Wales, Dolfriog MS. 64 (letter of Kathrin Wynne, 3 February 1644).

61 G. Manley to his brother, July 1646 (Cal. S Papers Dom., 1645–47, P. 454).

62 I am grateful to Mr Stephen Porter for allowing me to consult his index of town fires for the early modern period.

63 Sprigge, J., Anglia Rediviva;…. (London, 1647), p. 60Google Scholar.

64 Beaminster was granted £2000 by Parliament in December 1646 (Hine, R., The History of Beaminster (Taunton, 1914), p. 120)Google Scholar.

65 Shrewsbury, J., A History of Bubonic Plague in the British Isles (London, 1970), pp. 408–10Google Scholar.

66 Estimates based upon examination of five parish registers at Worcester, five at Gloucester, and six at Bristol.

67 Bristol Record Office, St Nicholas burial register, 1634–53, note at end of 1645 (o.s.).

68 C., H. M., Portland, I, pp. 283–6, 309Google Scholar.

69 See in addition to the articles referred to in n. 10, above, Morrill, J. S., Cheshire, 1630–1660. County Government and Society during the ‘English Revolution’ (London, 1974) pp. 194, 196Google Scholar; Firth, C. H., Cromwell's Army (London, 4th edn, 1962), pp. 270–1Google Scholar.

70 Gloucestershire Record Office, GBR 1458, 1458a; Mendenhall, , Shrewsbury Drapers, p. 234Google Scholar; Worcestershire Record Office, BA 5955/4.

71 Stephens, , Seventeenth-Century Exeter, pp. 64–9Google Scholar.

72 Public Record Office, E 190.1248.14.

73 Hopkins, , ‘The Bridgewater Estates’, pp. 311–12Google Scholar.

74 Clarendon, , History, III, p. 291Google Scholar.