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The Problem of Popular Allegiance in the English Civil War* (The Prothero Lecture)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

David Underdown
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Extract

The belief that the common people of England had little real sympathy for either side in the civil war—that they were mere cannon-fodder, targets for plunder, at best deferential pawns—has a long and respectable ancestry. Many of the combatants believed it, noting the automatic changes of local attitudes when news came of distant vic-tories or defeats. In postwar politics too they knew it was ‘safest to be in favour with the strongest side’. When they fought, it was because they had no alternative. How often, Anthony Ascham lamented, ‘ambitious or angry men forme subtilties and pretences, and afterwards the poore people (who understand them not) are taken out of their houses … to fight and maintaine them at the peril of one anothers lives’. Survival on the margin of subsistence was the universal motive. ‘The people,’ Sir Arthur Haselrig declared, ‘care not what Government they live under, so as they may plough and go to market.’ Looking back after 1660, men as various as Hobbes and Baxter took the same line. ‘There were very few of the common people that cared much for either of the causes, but would have taken any side for pay or plunder,’ Hobbes tells us. Baxter has been as often quoted: ‘The poor plowman understood but little of these Matters; but a little would stir up their Discontent when Money was demanded.’

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Research Article
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Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , Volume 31 , December 1981 , pp. 69 - 94
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1981

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References

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26 The following summary is based mainly on Bayley, Civil War in Dorset; D. Under-down, Somerset in the Civil War and Interregnum (Newton Abbot, 1973); Memoirs of Edmund Ludlow, ed. Firth, C. H. (2 vols., Oxford, 1894), I, pp. 439–81 (Appendix of documents); andGoogle ScholarHarrison, G. A., ‘Royalist Organization in Wiltshire, 1642–1646’, London University Ph.D. thesis, 1963Google Scholar.

27 Underdown, ‘Chalk and Cheese’, 37–9. The behaviour of south Gloucestershire was very similar (I. Roy, ‘The English Civil War and English Society’, War and Society, A Tearbook of Military History, ed. Bond, B. and Roy, I. (London, 1975), pp. 35–41)Google Scholar.

28 Ludlow, I, p. 450.

29 Harrison, , ‘Royalist Organization‘, pp. 243–7.Google ScholarWhitelock, Bulstrode, Memorials of the English Affairs … (4 vols., Oxford, 1853), I, p. 179Google Scholar. Barrett, W. B., ‘Weymouth and Melcombe Regis in the Time of the Great Civil War’, Proc. Dorset Nat. Hist, and Antiq. Field Club, xxxi (1910), 212–13Google Scholar.

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32 14 Car. II, c. 9 (Statutes of the Realm, V (1819), pp. 389–90). Pensions had also been awarded to parliamentarian soldiers in the 1650s, but the surviving records for Somerset and Wiltshire contain too few names to make analysis worthwhile. Dorset has no extant Quarter Sessions records between 1638 and 1663.

33 Pensions awards continued in Somerset after 1666: Q[uarter] S[essions] R[ecordsfor the County of] Somerset, IV: Charles II1666–1677, ed. [M. C. B. Dawes] (Somerset Rec. Soc, XXXIV, 1919), passim. But it would be unsafe to draw conclusions from them, given that so many from 1662–6 are missing. The Wiltshire and Dorset awards have been extracted from Wilts. R.O., Q.S. Order Book, 1654–68; and Dorset R.O., Q.S. Order Book, 1663–74. Some of the Dorset pensions are tabulated in B[artelot], R. G., ‘Dorset Royalist Roll of Honour, 1662’, Somerset and Dorset N[otes and] Q\uenes], xviii (1924–1926), 89–93, 165–7, 200–3; xix (1927–9), 43–6, 139–42. However, Bartelot lists only 712 names, compared with 815 in the original order book. The awards used in this analysis date from 1661 for Wiltshire, from 1663 for Dorset, and include all those made down to the end of 1667 in each case. Awards continued after 1667, but too sporadically for the effort of extracting them to be worth whileGoogle Scholar.

34 The Dorset J.P.s began by making these £1 awards as a temporary measure, while they considered further ‘how to settle pensions on them’ (Bfartelot], ‘Dorset Royalist Roll of Honour’, 90). But these temporary orders were often annually repeated, effectively becoming annual pensions: at the July 1665 sessions, for example, many awards went to men who had been granted the same sums a year earlier.

35 Wilts. R.O., Q.S. Great Rolls, Michaelmas 1662 (Presentment of Grand Inquest). The Wiltshire J.P.s often refused or revoked pensions on unspecified grounds. In a case at Michaelmas 1661 they did so because the applicant had been in the service of Parliament.

36 Particularly at Sherborne: see below p. 82.

37 See Appendix.

38 For the main Wiltshire agricultural regions, see Kerridge, , ‘Agriculture c. 1500–c. • 793 > P. 43. I have adapted this classification to my own purposes, making use of information on parishes in V.C.H., Wills. ‘Towns’ are those listed as such in+P.+43.+I+have+adapted+this+classification+to+my+own+purposes,+making+use+of+information+on+parishes+in+V.C.H.,+Wills.+‘Towns’+are+those+listed+as+such+in>Google ScholarAdams, [John], Index Villaris… (London, 1680)Google Scholar.

39 See Table I.

40 Highworth: 12.73 Per thousand. Wootton Bassett: 7.82. Hindon: 15.44. Ludger-shall: 14.19. Amesbury: 1.18. Heytesbury: 1.43.

41 For poverty in the clothing towns, see Ramsay, , Wiltshire Woollen Industry, pp. 72–84Google Scholar; Slack, P., ‘Poverty and Politics in Salisbury 1597–1666’, Crisis and Order in English Towns, ed. Clark, P. and Slack, P. (London, 1972), pp. 168–73Google Scholar; Ingram, M. J., ‘Communities and Courts: Law and Disorder in Early Seventeenth-Century Wiltshire’, Crime in England 1550–1800, ed. Cockburn, J. S. (Princeton, 1977), pp. 133–4Google Scholar.

42 Devizes: 3.27 Royalists per thousand. Chippenham: 3 Roundheads, 2 Royalists. Melksham: 3 Roundheads, o Royalists.

43 Downton: 8.67 per thousand. Mere: 11.90. Warminster: 2.80. Westbury: 4.39.

44 V.C.H., Wilts., VIII, pp. 110–11, 115–16, 168–9, 175. In n o n e of these cases is it possible to determine how many of the pensioners were from the town and how many from the out-parish. In a very few cases occupational descriptions are given: the thirteen pensioners from Westbury include two weavers, a fuller, a tiler and a husbandman, as well as a man from the hamlet of Chapmanslade.

45 Eight. Several were granted to widows of me n hanged by Sir Francis Dodington at Woodhouse in 1644. See Underdown, Somerset in the Civil War, p. 75.

46 See Table II.

47 Shaftesbury: 30.86 per thousand. Blandford: 29.10. Dorchester (including Fordington): 2.94. Cranborne: 0.87. Weymouth and Melcombe Regis: 4.74. Bridport: 16.00. Beaminster: 14.29. Netherbury: 13.42. Bere Regis: 19.59. Corfe Castle: 21.07. Milton Abbas: 22.08.

48 Gillingham: 22.00 per thousand. Sturminster Newton, with 25.00, is still higher.

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50 B.L., T.T., E. 240 (12): England's Memorable Accidents, no. 17 (19–26 Sept. 1642). See also Underdown, Somerset in the Civil War, pp. 116–17; Underdown, ‘Chalk and Cheese', 45–6. The manorial influence of the Berkeleys is evident in Collinson, J., History and Antiquities of the County of Somerset (3 vols., Bath, 1791), I, pp. 215, 221, 229; that of the Digbys inGoogle ScholarHutchins, J., History and Antiquities of the County of Dorset, 3rd edn. with additions by Shipp, W. and Hodson, J. W. (4 vols., Westminster, 1861–1973), IV, pp. 136–7, 200–1, 303, 444–5, 450Google Scholar.

51 Malcolm, , ‘The English People', pp. 274–5.Google ScholarGough, Richard, AntiquityesandMemoyres of the Parish of Myddle, ed. Hoskins, W. G. (Fontwell, 1968), pp. 39–40, 67, 80–1, 147, 151, 162.Google ScholarHey, D. G., An English Rural Community: Myddh under the Tudors and Stuarts (Leicester, 1974), pp. 195–7Google Scholar.

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53 B.L., Egerton MS. 2,533, fo. 3 8 8 (W. Woolfe to T. Fry, 1 Dec. 1644).

54 Such at least was the prevailing belief (Exceeding jqyfull newts from the Earl of Bedford (1642), quoted in Ashton, R., The English Civil War: Conservatism and Revolution 1603–1649 (London, 1978), p. 175). However, Malcolm argues that west-Somerset landlords were more benevolent than those of the east (‘The English People’, p. 151)Google Scholar.

55 Cal. S. Papers Dom., 1644, p. 97. For counterproductive behaviour by a landlord, see Blackwood, B. G., ‘The Lancashire Cavaliers and their Tenants’, Trans. Hist. Soc. Lanes, and Cheshire, cxvii (1965) 23Google Scholar.

56 Bodleian Library, Oxfordshire V.C.H. Office: Glympton Papers, 7 July 1645 (J. W[heate] to William Wheate).

57 B.L., Add. MS. 4,159, fo. 236V (R.B. to —, [1654]). For the Cranborne episode, see , H.M.C., Salisbury, XXII, p. 375Google Scholar; and Stone, L., Family and Fortune: Studies in Aristocratic Finance in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (Oxford, 1973), pp. 148–9Google Scholar.

58 Oldmixon, John, History of England, During the Reigns of the Royal House of Stuart (London, 1730–1735), I, p. 208Google Scholar.

59 Aubrey, John, The Natural History of Wiltshire, ed. Britton, J. (London, 1847), pp. 11–12. See alsoGoogle ScholarWiltshire: The Topographical Collections of John Aubrey, ed. Jackson, J. E. (Devizes, 1862), p. 266Google Scholar.

60 See, for example, Topographical Collections of Aubrey, pp. 128, 139, 146, 185, 198, 272–4; and Aubrey, ‘Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme', in Aubrey, John, Three Prose Works, ed. Buchanan-Brown, J. (Fontwell, 1972), pp. 137–8, 143, 192–4, 212Google Scholar.

61 The relevant orders for Somerset are listed by Barnes, T. G., ‘County Politics and a Puritan Cause Celebre: Somerset Church-ales, 1633’, T.R. Hist. S., 5th ser., ix (1959), 109 and nGoogle Scholar.

62 Barnes, , ‘County Polities', p. 116, n. For references to other early seventeenth-century church-ales in north Somerset and north-west Wiltshire, seeGoogle ScholarQS.R. Somerset, I: James I, 1607–1625, ed. Bates, E. H. (Somerset Rec. Soc, XXIII, 1907), p. xlix (Cameley)Google Scholar;Records of the County of Wilts… Extracts from the Quarter Sessions Great Rolls of the Seventeenth Century, ed. Cunnington, B. H. (Devizes, 1932), p. 91 (N. Bradley). Dorset's lack of Sessions records before 1625 should again be notedGoogle Scholar.

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64 LettersofSir Francis Hastings 1574–1609, ed. Cross, C. (Somerset Rec. Soc., LXIX, 1969), pp. 117–18; Stieg, ‘Church and Community’, ch. 10Google Scholar.

65 Q. S. R. Somerset, I: James I, pp. 5–6. Barnes, , ‘County Polities', p. 107, n.Google ScholarQuaife, G. R., Wanton Wenches and Wayward Wives: Peasants and Illicit Sex in Early Seventeenth Century England (New Brunswick, N.J., 1979), p. 86. For the fortunes of church-ales in south Somerset, see Q.S.R. Somerset, I: James I, p. xlvii (Yeovilton); V.C.H., Somerset, III, ed. R. W. Dunning (1974), pp. 119 (Kingsdon), 264 (Tintinhull); IV, ed. R. W. Dunning (1978), p. 60 and n. (Merriott)Google Scholar;Barnes, , ‘County Polities', p. 108, n.Google Scholar(Coker, E.); and Prynne, William, Canterburies Doome… (London, 1646), p. 378 (Beer Crowcombe, Montacute)Google Scholar.

66 B.L., T.T., E. 441 (22): Perfect Weekly Account, no. 9 (3–10 May 1648); Cal. S. Papers Dom., 1652–3, p. 301; Q.S.R. Somerset, III: Commonwealth, 1646–1660, ed. Harbin, E. H. Bates (Somerset Rec. Soc, XXVIII, 1912), pp. 285, 302, 324Google Scholar.

67 McDermott, M. B., ‘Church House at Langford Budville’, Somerset and Dorset N.Q, xxix (1968–1973), 129–30. Q.S.R. Somerset, III: Commonwealth, pp. xxxv-xxxvi (Kingweston), xlix–1 (Langford Budville), 303–4 (Staple Fitzpaine); Somerset R.O., C.Q.3, 1/82Google Scholar (2), no. 20: Sessions Rolls, 1650 (Hillfarrance); Records of Wilts., ed. Cunnington, pp. 221 (Woodborough), 222 (apparently Marden).

68 Davis, Natalie Z., ‘The Reasons of Misrule’, in Davis, Society and Culture in Early Modern France (Stanford, 1975), pp. 97–123Google Scholar; Burke, P., Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe London, 1978), pp. 198–204Google Scholar; Thompson, E. P., ’ “Rough Music”: Le Charivari Anglais’, Annales E.S.C., xxvii (1972), 285–312Google Scholar; Alford, Violet, ‘Rough Music or Charivari’, Folklore, lxx (1959), 505–18Google Scholar.

69 See Kerridge, ‘The Revolts in Wiltshire’; Allan, ‘The Rising in the West’.

70 The best description is in the depositions for the incident at Quemerford in 1618 (Cunnington, B. H., ‘” A Skimmington” in 1618’, Folklore, xli (1930), 287–90; also inGoogle ScholarRecords of Wilts., ed. Cunnington, , pp. 65–6)Google Scholar. For other cases around this time, see Records of Wilts., pp. 79–80 (Marden); Q.S.R. Somerset, I: James I, p. xlix (Cameley); III: Commonwealth, p. 1 (Leigh-on-Mendip); Quaife, Wanton Wenches, p. 200. Urban examples include a threatened ‘skimmington’ at Dorchester, 1630 (Municipal Records of the Borough of Dorchester, ed.Mayo, C. H. (Exeter, 1908), p. 655) and one at Greenwich described by MarvellGoogle Scholar(Poems and Letters of Andrew Marvell, ed. Margoliouth, H. M. (Oxford, 3rd edn. 1971), I, pp. 156–7). See alsoGoogle ScholarThe Diary of Samuel Pepys, ed. Latham, R. and Matthews, W. (London, 1970), VIII, p. 257. That both the custom and the term ‘skimmington’ were originally associated with north Wiltshire is made clear inGoogle ScholarDartnell, G. E. and Goddard, E. H., A Glossary of Words used in the County of Wiltshire (London, 1893), pp. 145–6Google Scholar.

71 Chambers, E. K., The Mediaeval Stage (Oxford, 1903), I, p. 154Google Scholar. Barrett, C. R. B., ‘Riding Skimmington and Riding the Stang’, Journal of British Arch. Assoc, new ser., i (1895), 58–68. The ‘Skymmety’ panel at Montacute House involves the same target as the cheese country ‘skimmington', but with a more primitive ritualGoogle Scholar.

72 A possible explanation may be that in this area women as dairy producers had more direct access to the market than women in traditional communities, and hence greater independence which men found threatening.

73 Somerset R.O., Q.S. 164: Petitions (Petition of Edward Curie [1648–9?], with supporting petition from the Batcombe area).

74 Q.S.R. Somerset, III: Commonwealth, p. 239. Cal. S. Papers Dom., 1648–9, pp. 31–2. Sheppard had a bad record as a plunderer and was said to have served both sides in the civil war.

75 Among many other possible examples of tavern sedition, see Q.S.R. Somerset, III: Commonwealth, pp. xxxii-xxxviii, 298–9, 347, 370–1. Clark, P. (‘The Alehouse and the Alternative Society’, Puritans and Revolutionaries: Essays in Seventeenth-Century History presented to Christopher Hill, ed. Pennington, D. and Thomas, K. (Oxford, 1978), pp. 66–7) minimizes the importance of the alehouse as a centre of seditionGoogle Scholar.

76 Somerset R.O., C.Q.3, 1/82 (2), no. 91: Sessions Rolls, 1650. Q.S.R. Somerset, III: Commonwealth, pp. xxxv–xxxvi.

77 Somerset R.O., C.Q.3, 1/82 (2), nos. 103–5: Sessions Rolls, 1650. A later case similarly combining enmity to neighbours with political (in this case anti-royalist) feeling is in C.Q.3, 1/102, no. 23: Sessions Rolls, 1665.

78 ‘The Falstone Day-Book’, ed. Waylen, J., Wilts. Arch. Mag., xxvi (1892), 365Google Scholar.

79 Somerset R.O., Q.S. 164: Petitions, ‘N’.

80 Somerset R.O., Q.S. 164: Petitions, T.

81 P.R.O., S.P. 46/83: Warner MSS., 1636–44, fo. 51 (N. Tovey to G. Warner, 28 Jan. [1642]).

82 Corbet, , ‘True and Impartial History’, Sotners Tracts, V, p. 358Google Scholar.

83 Documents Relating to the History of the Cathedral Church of Winchester in the Seventeenth Century, ed. Stephens, W. R. W. and Madge, F. T. (Hants. Rec. Soc, 1897), p. 57Google Scholar.

84 Defenders of preaching soldiers tended to discount the interruptions as being instigated by Royalists or papists, as at Wookey, Somerset, in 1652 (Q.S.R. Somerset, III: Commonwealth, p. xxxix). Royalists naturally regarded them as spontaneous expressions of popular feeling. See the case at Wimborne 1646 (J, M. J. Fletcher, ‘A Dorset Worthy: Stone, William, Royalist and Divine (1615–1685)’, Proc. Dorset Mat. Hist, and Anliq. Field Club, xxxvi (1915), 18–19)Google Scholar.

85 Q.S.R. Somerset, III: Commonwealth, p. xxxvii.

86 B.L., T.T., E. 374 (10): Hum. Willis, Times Whirligig, or The Blew-new-made-Gentleman mounted [9 Feb. 1646–7], title page (reproduced in Underdown, Somerset in the Civil War, p. 134). The image was common in popular royalist literature. See, for example, B.L., T.T., 669 f. 10 (47): The World is Turned Upside Down [8 April 1646]. The ballad was to be sung to the tune of ‘When the King enjoys his own again'.