The Irish and British Wars, 1637-1654: Triumph, Tragedy, and Failure by James Scott Wheeler

Author:James Scott Wheeler [Wheeler, James Scott]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Humanities
Published: 2012-08-26T06:50:51+00:00

THE IRISH AND BRITISH WARS, 1637–1654

had accomplished much, the Roundheads captured Shrewsbury by surprise, on 22

February, forcing the king to send Rupert north with the bulk of his army to redress the situation. The two brothers united on 15 March and marched to Chester with over 5,000 men. Brereton retreated, allowing the Princes to enter the city with reinforcements and supplies. Following this triumph, Rupert led his army to the western Midlands to face Club-men threatening the royalists in the area. After his departure, David Leslie joined Brereton with 4,000 Scottish soldiers, allowing the anti-royalists to again lay siege to Chester.55

While Rupert and Maurice operated in the north, the king reorganized his war effort in the southwest by creating an association of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, and Somerset. Charles appointed his son Charles, the Prince of Wales, as the titular commander of this Western Association. He provided his son with a council in Bristol to oversee the operations in the region. The western army was to consist of Goring’s cavalry and the remaining infantry from Hopton’s force. This army was expected to capture Taunton, in Somerset, and then take Plymouth.56

Things did not go smoothly for the royalists. Rupert found his hands full dealing with a massive uprising of country folk who had grown weary of the depredations and exactions of both sides. These Club-men were concentrated in Herefordshire, Worcestershire, and Shropshire. Few gentry joined the Club-men’s efforts to end free quarter and crush the depredations of ill-disciplined soldiers in their regions.

The royalists corrected some of the worst abuses of their garrisons and used military force to overawe many of the Club-men. Later in the year the populist movement spread to other parts of England, a sign of war weariness and the steady erosion of traditional social and political discipline.57

In Westminster, the Committee of Both Kingdoms did not wait for Fairfax to organize his army before taking action to protect the parliamentary garrisons in the west. In late February 1645, they ordered Sir William Waller to march to the relief of Taunton. Waller quickly found that many soldiers of Essex’s and Manchester’s armies would not march until they had received two weeks’ pay. Even then, the cavalrymen of the Eastern Association’s army refused to join Waller until the Committee ordered Cromwell to lead them. Once that was done, Waller and Cromwell moved west with nearly 5,000 men.58

Waller and Cromwell relieved the pressure on Colonel Robert Blake’s garrison in Taunton. Then, on 22 March, they surprised a force of royalist cavalry at Devizes, alarming the Prince of Wales’s council in Bristol. George Goring’s western royalist army dueled with them during this period, with both sides suffering small defeats and winning a few insignificant victories. These operations bought time for the organization of the New Model Army and prevented the royalists from completely clearing the southwest. By 27 March, however, Waller’s army was exhausted, short of supplies, and mutinous, forcing him to put his soldiers in garrisons before resigning his command in frustration. Parliament

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