From 1649-1660 England was ruled by a standing army for the only time in its history. In The Army in Cromwellian England Henry Reece describes the nature of that experience for the first time, both for officers and soldiers, and for civilian society. The volume is structured in three parts. The first section seeks to capture the experience of being a member of a peacetime standing army: its varying size, the reasons why men joined and remained in service, how long they served for, what officers and their men spent their time doing in peacetime, the criteria governing promotion, and the way in which officers and soldiers engaged with political issues as the army's role changed from the pressure-group politics of the late 1640s to the institutionalization of its power after 1653. The second part explores the impact of the military presence on civilian society by establishing where soldiers were quartered and garrisoned, how effectively and regularly they were paid, the material burden that they represented, the divisive effects on some major towns of the army's patronage of religious radicals, and the extensive involvement of army officers in the government of the localities, both before and after the brief appearance of Cromwell's Major-Generals. The final section pulls together the themes from the earlier parts of the book by re-evaluating the army's role in political events from Cromwell's death to the restoration of the Stuart monarchy; it describes how the issues of the rapidly-increasing size of the army, shortage of pay, civil-military clashes, and the exercise of military authority at local level contributed to the climate of disorder and uncertainty in 1659-1660; and delineates how and why the army that had occupied London, purged parliament, and executed Charles I in the late 1640s could acquiesce so passively in the restoration of the monarchy in 1659-1600.

This work is a study of military leadership and resulting effectiveness in battlefield victory focusing on the parliamentary and royalist regional commanders in the north of England and Scotland in the three civil wars between 1642 and 1651.

First published as part of the best-selling The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain, John Morrill's Very Short Introduction to Stuart Britain sets the Revolution into its political, religious, social, economic, intellectual, and cultural contexts. It thus seeks to integrate what most other surveys pull apart. It gives a graphic account of the effects of a century-long period during which population was growing inexorably and faster than both the food supply and the employment market. It looks at the failed attempts of successive governments to make all those under their authority obedient members of a unified national church; it looks at how Charles I blundered into a civil war which then took on a terrifying momentum of its own. The result was his trial and execution, the abolition of the monarchy, the house of lords, the bishops, the prayer book and the celebration of Christmas. As a result everything else that people took for granted came up for challenge, and this book shows how painfully and with what difficulty order and obedience was restored. Vividly illustrated and full of startling detail, this is an ideal introduction to those interested in getting into the period, and also contains much to challenge and stimulate those who already feel at home in Stuart England. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

A historian of the English Civil Wars shares a fascinating study of the seventeenth century New Model Army, examining its formation, tactics, and significance. The New Model Army was one of the best-known and most effective armies ever raised in England. Oliver Cromwell was both its greatest battlefield commander and the political leader whose position depended on its support. In this meticulously researched and accessible new study, Keith Roberts describes how Cromwell's army was recruited, inspired, organized, trained, and equipped. He also sets its strategic and tactical operation in the context of the theory and practice of warfare in seventeenth-century Europe.

A brilliant appraisal of the Civil War and its long-term consequences, by an acclaimed historian. The political upheaval of the mid-seventeenth century has no parallel in English history. Other events have changed the occupancy and the powers of the throne, but the conflict of 1640-60 was more dramatic: the monarchy and the House of Lords were abolished, to be replaced by a republic and military rule. In this wonderfully readable account, Blair Worden explores the events of this period and their origins - the war between King and Parliament, the execution of Charles I, Cromwell's rule and the Restoration - while aiming to reveal something more elusive: the motivations of contemporaries on both sides and the concerns of later generations.